Arnold, the Smartboard, and Bones

At snack time, sometimes we get visitors from the first grade who come and read to us. Today Taiya and Ethan came and read to each snack table. Thanks Taiya and Ethan!

The kindergartners have had lots of time with the Smartboard this week. Kids have gotten a chance to plug in the parts of the nervous system and the digestive system, and even trace the journey that the food makes through the body! The favorite Smartboard activity was "Arnold", who was missing parts of his body! First kids plugged in parts of the digestive system, like the esophagus, stomach, and intestines. Then, Arnold felt like there was nothing holding him up! So the kids found his bones and put them in. Then Arnold felt "breathless" and "heartless" so the kids found the parts of his circulatory and respiratory systems. Finally, Arnold felt like he "lost his senses". So the kids found the brain, nerves, spinal cord and parts of the face that help him hear, smell and see. We also "read" an online book made by a class in Vermont called The Body Book. On one page was a clue about a body part and kids used the clue the guess which one it was. On the next page the body part was revealed, as well as some more facts about it.

Today our 6th grade buddies came to help kindergartners put in their bones and muscles. Thank you buddies!!! And thank you to Kristen, Jack's mom, and Aron, Sylvia's dad, and Tanya, Gwen's mom, for helping too! Ask your child why your bones and muscles are important!

Have a great weekend.

New Additions to our Bodies

We have been learning about elimination and reproduction in our bodies this week . As you can guess, lots of children are giggling about this. We keep the language and the concepts simple, but who can help laughing as you punch out yellow dots of pee!

We are working on beginning sounds in language arts. We sort pictures, stamp sounds that match and fill in words that are missing the first letter

Build a Block

Today's math activity was Build a Block, in which the children take a Geoblock and try to replicate its dimensions using other blocks. We saw many clever ways to "re-build" the blocks!

In Language Arts, kindergartners worked very hard on starting sound activities, including a stamp chart and their ABC books.

No school tomorrow! Have a great weekend!

Digestive System, Forest Mural, and Hi Pema!

Greetings! We are very excited to begin our Kindergarten blog. This will be a way for parents and families to read about and see photos of what we've been up to in Kindergarten. Also, it will be a way to keep Pema updated during her time in India!

Perhaps our biggest undertaking lately is the body project. We've enlisted the help of our 6th grade buddies and parent volunteers to get through those tricky parts!

Did you know your intestines are more than 20 feet long? The sixth graders helped the kindergartners measure out the right length of intestines and tape them into their bodies. Ask your kindergartner about the journey your food makes through your body! This week Timmy's mom, Tani, helped us put our lungs, trachea, and alveoli in. Thank you Tani! The kindergartners were very excited that the lungs actually inflate.

In math we've been learning about two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes. We've recently put together a mural of the forest made entirely of shapes! Coming soon: some videos of mural-making in action!

In addition to making our bodies, we are writing about them. So far we have written about the nervous system, the digestive system, and the respiratory system. To help us write, we use the sounds on the Jolly Phonics board (below) and the words on the Word Wall.