This week Aspen learned all about trees! It was “treely” awesome! Aspen learned all about the importance of trees, the names of each part of a tree, the function of each part of a tree, and began tree classification work. During group lesson we discovered that humans and trees need each other and have a symbiotic relationship! Trees give us oxygen, and we provide carbon dioxide for the trees! During group lessons we looked at the function of each part in detail and then engaged in follow up work labeling our tree puzzle. At the same time, some of the Aspen children traced our tree puzzle and created their own trees! Ms. Lindsey also showed the Aspen children how to make leaf rubbings and invited the Aspen children to bring in leaves that they find on the ground. Aspen children should not pull leaves off a tree! We learned that the leaves are the food factories of the tree. Trees are autrophs (they make their own food) and through photosynthesis they provide nourishment for the tree. If we rip leaves off of trees they will not be able to do their job, and the tree will not grow! We also took a look at the inside of a tree with Mr. John’s science center tree box, and we learned about the rings inside a tree. Ask your child about what they discovered about tree rings!

This week during Kindergarten Workshop the kindergarteners began their North American cultural lessons, learning the locations and names of the countries in North America. They used the North American puzzle map to explore our continent and engaged in a variety of follow-up lessons. In Reading Workshop our Kindergarten students continued their exploration of phonics and our Alphabet. We discussed the science behind reading and how the brain uses phonics to connect sounds. We discovered that you can group sounds together to form words. Some phonic groupings make sense and others are complete nonsense. We then played around with phonics and created our own groupings of sounds! We came up with some fun sound groupings! Parents, encourage your children to engage in word play with phonetic sounds (beginning sounds, ending sounds, rhyming words, and thinking of words with similar sounds). In Writing Workshop the kindergarteners were working on stretching out letters (words) to write them, practicing our fine motor and movements needed to form our letters. Reading Workshop also practiced stretching out sound groupings while reading them by sounding them out slowly and then quickly. Just like in handwriting, we payed attention to the movements needed to form a letter. Reading Group payed attention to the movements of our mouth and tongue when sounding out letters.

Next week our thematic topic is All About Apples! We will have bushels of fun apple themed activities, some taste testing (what kind of apples do we like best), and artistic fun with apples! Have a great weekend!

Labeling and coloring the parts of a tree!

Superimposed Geometric Figures! Exploration of the visual sense and the application of geometric knowledge and the acquisition of geometrical language.

Exploring with the Hexagonal Constructive Triangles activity! Learning the names of triangles while exploring the composition of shape and form.

This week in Aspen it was all about the continents! Aspen has spent the week learning the names and locations of all seven continents. We also used our Geography Envelopes and Geography Cards to explore the culture of each continent! We studied animals, biomes, landforms, and people from each continent. At the same time, we learned all about where we live from largest to smallest; for example, planet, continent, country, state, city, street, house! The children also engaged in a variety of cultural follow up activities involving identifying the names and locations of the continents, countries, and states. It was so much fun learning about the world around us!

The Aspen children also had their very first library time with the very creative and amazing Ms. Lindsey! During library time, we learned how to care for books by handling them respectfully and carefully. We read the book The Children Who Loved Books by Peter Carnavas. Then we sang the song, “I Like to Read” as we danced and traveled to far away places! We learned that through books we can be transported to magical places and be anything we want! We then read Kitty Kat, Kitty Kat, Where Have You Been? as we traveled to Europe and visited Paris! Ask your child about their library experience and their French vocabulary word: gateaux! All of the Aspen children mentioned how much they love to eat gateaux!

Kindergarten students continued their geography lessons with Mr. John as they explored our world in depth and in more detail. During Readers Workshop the kindergarteners reviewed phonics and played some phonics games. We practiced our detective skills and learned that sometimes books and words will try and trick us by changing sounds in the middle or end of a word. A good Sound Detective looks at each sound in a word. In Writers Workshop the kindergarteners practiced proper letter formation and continued to create their booklets where they get to be both the author and illustrator.

Next week the thematic lesson will be trees! We will learn why trees are so important, discuss the names and the functions of each part of a tree, and will be introduced to a variety of follow-up tree themed classification activities!

This week in Aspen it was all about seasons! The Aspen class began our Seasons Lesson by learning about day and night. We discovered that our earth rotates (spins) on its axis, and as a result, we get daytime and nighttime! We were amazed when we found out that when we have day time here, there are children in other parts of the world having night time; therefore, when we are at school, children in other places are having dinner or even sleeping!! Aspen then learned that as our Earth rotates, it tilts. This tilt affects how much direct sunlight different areas receive, and as a result, we get our seasons! The more direct sunlight the Earth receives, the warmer/hotter the weather. On the other hand, the less direct sunlight, the cooler/colder the weather! Finally, we discussed the differences between the seasons in Ohio! Did you know that some places don’t have four seasons? Some places have only two! Or they have mild climate changes!

Throughout our exploration of seasons, we got to experiment with our painted globe and a flashlight! With this activity, we got to observe our key words axis, rotation, and orbit first hand. Our flashlight acted as the sun, and we helped rotate the Earth (painted globe), experiencing day/night and the changing seasons. We also got to take turns being the Earth, orbiting around the sun and rotating and tilting to represent how old we are. It sure was a fun filled week in Aspen!

In Kindergarten lesson, the kindergarten students have been learning about the continents and the concept of direction. They have been learning the names and location of each continent as well as the cardinal directions: North, South, East, and West. During Readers Workshop we discussed that reading is actually a science and as “Sound Detectives,” it is our job to find the clues and experiment putting sounds together. Sometimes, we will create groupings of sounds that make sense when they are put together, and sometimes our groups of sounds will be nonsense or silly! It is up to the Sound Detectives to use their clues! Our Readers Workshop is split into two groups: the Cardinals and the Chickadees. This week the Chickadees read the books Alphabet City and The Alphabet’s Alphabets and practiced their detective skills sounding out letters. The Cardinals also read the book The Alphabet’s Alphabet and focused on the formation of how each sound (letter) is formed. The Cardinals also began combining sounds to form words and were introduced to the concept of phonograms. In Writers Workshop both group began creating their very own book and worked on proper letter formation, becoming writers! What a busy and fun week these kindergarteners had!

Next week the Aspen thematic topic is all about Continents! The Aspen class will be introduced to the Continent Puzzle Map, The Sandpaper Globe, The Painted Globe, The Geography Envelopes, and The Continent Boxes. Aspen will learn the names and location of continents, be introduced to the terms land, water, continent and Ocean, and will begin exploring the world and culture around them with the Geography Envelopes and Continent Boxes! See you next week!

Admiring a completed activity!