Classroom

We kicked off January by talking about all the different polar animals. The children made a bar graph based on their favorite polar animal to see which was the most popular. The children also enjoyed waddling around the classroom like penguins.

  

The second week in January we learned all about ocean animals. We learned about things that exist in an ocean habitat like sand, small shells, smooth stones, seaweed, coral etc.

  

After having Martin Luther King Jr. Day off we talked about how he was a hero because he was brave and honest. We shared who are heroes are and who we’d like to be like someday with the most popular answers being either Mom or Dad. We discussed how MLK made a speech and worked hard toward peace because back then people were treated badly if they did not have the same color skin. Each child made a picture of what their dream was and wrote about it.

  

The last week in January we talked about tigers, lions, chimpanzees, kangaroos, elephants etc. Some of our friends even invited their favorite zoo stuffed animals to school to spend the day with them during work time, line time, recess, lunch and snack.

Kindergarten

The kindergartners worked hard on learning both static and dynamic addition and multiplication using the golden beads. They have even started working on more abstract materials like the stamp game and dot board to solve problems.

Science

We made waves in the bottle and discovered that on our planet waves happen when our earth spins on its axis and water is pulled by gravity across the geological formations of the ocean floor. When we moved the bottle we got to see the energy move through the water to make waves, just like out in the deep blue sea!

During the week of MLK we took two eggs one white the other brown that have not been cooked and compared their similarities and differences on the outside and took a guess as to whether they will be the same or different on the inside. We determined even though different on the outside, they were the same on the inside, just like people!

We also did a humpty dumpty experiment where we tested if we could protect a hardboiled egg from cracking. We placed six boiled eggs into Ziploc bags filled with different items to cushion the fall to see which protected the egg the best.

Music (Ms. Faith)

During the past month, the students have enjoyed the story of Peter and the Wolf with Ms. Lisa. Peter and the Wolf is a musical symphony composed by Sergei Prokofiev, a Russian composer in 1936. During the symphony a narrator, in our case Ms. Lisa, tells the story while the orchestra plays the music. Before the class heard the full story, they were introduced to the characters. Each character has a song and instruments to represent them throughout the symphony. The characters are, Peter (string instruments), Bird (flute), Duck (oboe), Cat (clarinet), Grandpa (bassoon), Hunters (tympani drums and woodwind instruments), and Wolf (French horn). The students learned what the instruments sounded like well enough to be able to identify which character was being portrayed in the symphony. It was amazing to see how well the children remembered week to week which instrument belonged to the characters. Ms. Lisa always does an amazing job bringing the story to life and engaging the students in learning this musical masterpiece. Last year she commissioned Ms. Michele, our art teacher to paint pictures for Peter and the Wolf to give a wonderful visual aspect. Thank you Ms. Lisa for sharing another piece of the world of music with our young learners!

  

Art (Ms. Faith)

It was time again for one of my favorite art projects with Ms. Michele, imaginary creatures! To inspire the students, Ms. Michele shows the class pictures of mythical creatures such as a Griffin and a Centaur. The young artists got to pick two different animals to combine into a new creature and draw their ideas. Some of the combinations the group made were a squirrel/fish/flamingo, a panda/butterfly, a zebra/fish, and many more. After drawing, Ms. Michele instructed the students on how to make a foil armature, which is a base to mold clay around. Once the armatures were formed, clay was used to start making their creatures come to life. The next week, after Ms. Michele baked the creations, students painted the imaginary creatures. When the creatures dried, the children sat in a circle and were able to share what their creatures’ names were, what they eat, and where they live. I love how much effort and creativity each student puts in to this project. Thank you Ms. Michele for bringing some fun and whimsy into our lives through art!