We were so excited to be together at school, reconnecting with friends and making new ones! We are all adjusting to the new normal of life in the times of COVID. We are learning our new routines and becoming familiar with our outdoor work environment. Being outdoors most of the day has been an adjustment for some of us, and a welcome opportunity for others.

Our focus this week was becoming familiar with the routines and work space and getting to know each other. We reviewed our daily schedule, introduced the different work areas, practiced placing our name tags in our selected work areas, and discussed the expectations for our days at school. We read books about toileting, hand washing, and why everyone is wearing masks all the time these days. We had fun singing songs and reading silly stories, including “Hickey, Pickety Bumble Bee,” “The Hokey Pokey,” A Hunting We Will Go, Big Chickens, and Hello, Hello!

The kindergarten students have been enjoying their work time with Susan, beginning with creating a number line by recording the number for each day of school on a fence picket – 1 for the first day, 2 for the second, etc. They have also been finding and collecting things from nature that begin with particular letter sounds. They discovered tiny crab apples all over the ground and declared that they begin with A /a/, so made upper and lower case A’s out of apples.

Friday students began to discuss what a scientist is. We learned that scientists ask questions about things, do experiments to find answers to their questions, and observe and record their observations. We read Over in the Meadow and began the book What is a Scientist? The scientist in the story wondered if all pea pods have the same number of peas inside. The students determined that they could find out by opening up lots of pea pods (anywhere from 2-100) and counting the peas inside, then recording their findings with drawings, numbers, and words. Each student scientist took a collection container to find things from nature around the playground then document what they found by drawing and writing about them.

We are looking forward to a great year together and getting to know each other!