TCPS Kindergarten

Students took home an optional assignment to make up words that can be spelled with the lower case letters we have learned to form.  Several chose the challenge, and we have used their ideas for some of our handwriting practice!  Today all the children were very excited to get a practice paper with names on it…

Why so excited?  The names were the first names of many of their parents!  “That’s my mom’s name!”  “That’s how my dad spells his name!”  There were some parents’ names missing.  Don’t worry if you were left out.  We have to wait until we learn u, b, and y and a few other letters!

After a practice of counting by twos to one hundred, children were introduced to an “optional” activity yesterday.  It involved folding paper and then skip counting by twos.  The folding created 32 rectangles on their papers.  Each of the three who chose to do the activity – during a free choice time – carefully figured and recorded their “twos” and then went over their numbers with the sharpies of their choice.  What an accomplishment!  One starred the number 44 as it has special meaning for him.  “That’s how old Papa is!”

We have been sewing again and are finishing up our little furry friends, the shy water voles.  They will move into the environment later this week, some onto the grassy banks, some swimming in the river, and some in our underground burrows.  Last week we glued on whiskers (taken from an old broom) and noses (from a tire innertube) and tied on little black eyes (beads).  You will also think their little round ears, flat against their heads, are very cute… and you will notice, of course, that their tails are furry and soft.  That is very different from a rat’s tail, you know.

Three little water voles relaxing on the riverbank!

Zen gardens, compass roses, measurement tools, and lots of reading… December and January have been busy months.

We have also started handwriting lessons on the lower case letters.  Now that we are second semester kindergartners (”halfway to FIRST GRADE!), we are adding some new responsibilities and skills.  The main goal of our handwriting is learning to form our letters the same way every time; this leads to efficiency so it won’t be as hard to write down our ideas when we are first graders!  The letters are organized and taught according to how they are formed.  We have learned the straight letters and are now working on the “c” letters.  Did you know how many letters you form by starting with a “c”?

As we are learning to write, we are also seeing patterns in how we spell.  We do not know why some things are spelled the way they are in English; they make NO phonetic sense, but we have noticed that if we spell one word, then we know how to spell all the other words in the same “word family”.  If you can spell “trick” then you can spell “brick” and “flick” and “Nick” and “wick” and “chick”!

One day in math, we “measured” ourselves in three different ways.  Small groups went to three different stations in the room and recorded their temperature, their weight, and their height (try to tell us why height and weight are spelled the way they are!).

Check back soon!  The Kindergartners.

Remember reading about the music sharing we are doing? Here is what we have been listening to on K2009 Radio-

It does my heart good to know that a child in 2009 even knows who the Monkees are!  Yea, yea, we’re the Monkees…   Then there was major boogieing when we listened to a Michael Jackson song. How could we possibly tell them they had to sit totally still to listen to that!  We boogied on with “Mickey and Minnie on a Moonlit Night”… This is techno-Disney!  Yesterday we delighted in some classic show music- with Julie Andrews featured in “A spoonful of sugar…”  I did know all the words to many of these!

Yesterday each student used the balance scales, putting a 5 gram mass on one side.  Then all combed the classroom to find different items that would balance the scale.  A baby vole weighs about the same as one unifix cube OR one nickel OR one tiny plastic zebra OR one small rectangular lego OR one die OR one small bristle block OR one tiny bivalve shell OR one medium plastic bear !

Since there are usually about 5 baby voles in a litter (each weighing 4-5 grams), you could mail a whole litter of voles in an envelope with one 44 cent stamp… and probably fit in a short note as well!  [NOTE: one ounce = 28+ grams]

There are quite a few differences, and, if you have a Kindergartener at TCPS, I expect he or she can tell you some of them.  We have talked about it, done guided reading about it, and even read about it in “vole voices”!

Today at Quiet time there were many students eager to help and observe as we dyed old toweling that will become our little stuffed water voles.  The announcement that we would soon begin making our next animal was greeted with great excitement.  Now we frequently hear, “When are we starting to make our voles?”  The fabric was cut into 7″ squares along with eleven pairs of tiny round ears. Someone counted to be sure we had enough ears.  When asked how many we needed, she hesitated only a minute before saying, “First I will count out eleven in one pile, and then I will count out eleven more in another pile.”  Great reasoning.

Two students got all the fabric thoroughly wet in a pan in the sink.  Two others then squeezed each piece out. A student stirred salt into warm water, another carefully mixed the dye powder with hot water (gently so it wouldn’t splash), and many stood and watched as the dye mix was poured into the water in the big stainless steel container (slightly dented but a great deal YEARS ago from a restaurant supply store).  “It looks black!”  We watched the dye darken all the water… mixed by the rubber gloved teacher!  They questioned why it didn’t go through the gloves and what would happen if it did.

Are you still there?  This is a process.  Next the vole fabric was added to the dye bath.  “Oooo… it’s brown!”  “It does look like fur now.”  It had to be mixed around for 15 minutes and then stayed in the dye for the whole time the children were in P.E.  During last period our future voles were rinsed with cold water and later taken home by the teacher to be washed in warm water.  We will start our voles on Monday.  …. more sewing coming up!

We are working with the balance scales and triple beam scales from the science lab.  We are measuring in grams.  Students used math counting sets to experiment with the scales. Some used the plastic multicolored dinosaurs; some others chose the dominoes.  Their assignment was to find out how many grams six of their counters would weigh.  After recording that, they then chose their own “experiments” i.e. they “played.”   Because this was a great activity to work in small groups, children worked in one group of three and three groups of two.  This also gave us a chance to share about what we appreciate in a partner… Repeated experience with the scales and the partnering are anticipated with eagerness.

Each morning we say our “pledge” of sorts to state our intentions for the day.  Ask your child to share it.  I don’t think everyone fully knows it yet, but I do know that the class can recite it without teachers helping.  After we sit in a circle and recite the reflection, one of the children gets up and rings the chimes.  They all know how one rings chimes, gently so that we can hear the sound melting away.  We sit quietly for this and then we begin the day.  All thirteen of us in the room enjoy this time.