And I wonder…..
The chorus of a great song by that great, Chicago based, punk band Naked Raygun. Do you “wonder” about really really random stuff like me? For instance, I have asked myself the question how many tons of paper clips are produced in the world each year? To go along with that, is how many tons of staples are produced? Is it even tons? I don’t know , although I bet I could google it! My favorite daughter, (or as she would reply “I’m your only daughter”) wonders about things as well. She wonders if horses would be happy jumping in a bouncy house or where do railroad tracks begin and end. Although, she also has more profound inquiries. She wonders why the universe wasn’t created one year, one month, one day or one millisecond earlier or later than it was created. I asked my oldest son if he wonders and he just stared at me with a blank look and left the room. My youngest son wonders how much gum he can shove and chew in his mouth at one time or how long can he go without wearing socks or not taking a shower. (Sometimes I wonder what goes on in that boy’s brain! Then I realize I really don’t want to know). Then I go back wondering how many tons of BB’s are produced each year…
Line Time Lessons
Our students “wonder” too! We want to give them every opportunity to explore in the classroom and learn how they can answer all of their “wonders”.
The month started off by going back in time and studying the Ancient Romans. The Ancient Romans had similar Gods as the Ancient Greeks. The king of all Gods in Rome was Jupiter and his wife Juno who was the Goddess of Marriage and childbirth. Pluto was the God of the Underworld, Neptune was the God of the Seas, and finally we came across the God of War, Mars. Did you notice that a lot of these Gods had planets named after them?
Geometry at it’s finest!!!
(Inspecting rocks with a magnifying glass. Both wet and dry rocks)
Plug your noses we are entering the pollution zone. Pollution is TOXIC! We all agree that pollution is a bad thing. All pollution including air , water, land, and noise pollution. We learned how we could help our environment by using the 3 R’s.. Reduce, reuse, and recycle.
I spy with my little eye Friends working together
Writing rhyming words
Hold your breath (not because it stinks) but we are jumping into the ocean. The salty, deep, vast oceans. We learned about the several amazing animals that live in the ocean. We do not want to mess with a shark or get too close to a jellyfish. But clown fish are cool and the grouper has two eyes on one side of its face. We got reacquainted with the mammals of the oceans, dolphins, whales, and the orca.
(Sisters working on the 100 board) (Working with the continents)
(Bro power!)
We ended the month by learning about our own state of Ohio. The students were first taught how to spell Ohio. OH-IO ! We learned that the flag of Ohio is the only flag that is not the shape of a rectangle. The official nickname of Ohio is the Buckeye State and the Buckeye Tree is the official tree of Ohio. The white tailed deer and trilobite are the mammal and fossil of Ohio. We found a theme of the color “red/scarlet” for the rest of the official things of Ohio. The flower is the scarlet carnation, bird is the cardinal, insect is the lady bug and the official drink is tomato juice. The official rock and roll song is “Hang On Sloopy”
We had a field placement student, Lyndsey, from Stark State visit us. She said Absorbent Minds was one of the best field experiences she has had! Good luck in your studies Lyndsey!
(Lyndsey, our field placement student having fun working with our students!)
Cultural Subjects
We had a very cheeky visitor on St. Patrick’s Day. It is that same leprechaun named Shane O’Keefe that has been messing my classroom for the past several years. He flipped tables and chairs, threw materials throughout the classroom, but left chocolate eggs for the students and the teachers. Until next year Shane O’Keefe!
We now can count to 10 in twenty six languages… English (that is our native language), Spanish, Sign Language, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic w/Lebanese dialect, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Hebrew, Swedish, Korean, Polish, and Tagalog, Hungarian, Polish, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemish, Serbo-Croatian, Cebuano, Malay, Hindi
(2 Cents A Meal donation)
(Pastor Kirk reading to the children)
Kindergarten Lesson
We capped off our lessons in geometry by learning our geometric solids (Cube, sphere, cone, rectangular and triangular prisms, ovoid, ellipsoid, cylinder, square and triangular based pyramids.
…”Don’t know much about Geometry…” but our Kindergartners do!!!!
The kindergartners started their section in Language. We will be learning about the parts of speech until the end of the year. We went over vowels/consonants, and nouns and verbs. A noun is a person , place, or thing. A verb is an action word or something you do. We the leaerned there are three articles. They are A, An, The. We learned rules when we use those articles. A hooks up with consonants, an hooks up with vowels, and the hooks up with anything.
We now can count to 10 in twenty six languages… English (that is our native language), Spanish, Sign Language, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic w/Lebanese dialect, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Hebrew, Swedish, Korean, Polish, and Tagalog, Hungarian, Polish, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemish, Serbo-Croatian, Cebuano, Malay, Hindi
Music
In Music the children learned a new activity called Cat and Mouse. It sharpened their listening skills, both high and low. They also learned different sounds. The children played the keyboard, as well as learned to listen well for different sounds. They also learned movement songs.
Art
In Art the children made Henna on Hands sculpture and Weaving. Do talk to the children about these awesome classes?
Science
Magic Milk Rainbow (Surface Tension) and Bubbles in a Bottle (Density) were their Science experiments. They were so much fun!!
Swirling food coloring in milk-surface tension A closer look at a “lava lamp”
Science! If it ain’t messy, It ain’t fun!!!!