We took out some clay on Monday and created some 3D art by shaping, molding, pinching, and cutting. Some children made dishes or containers. Some made animals or characters. Some just got creative and made some art. We will paint them when we return to school after break.
During Sign Language with Rose we practiced our alphabet, some animals, and colors. Rose then introduced signs for members of a family, including sister, mother, aunt, grandmother, girl cousin, brother, father, uncle, grandfather, boy cousin and family. All these signs are made around the face. The female signs are formed around the chin, as this is where bonnet strings would meet, and male signs are formed around the forehead, where a cap brim would be. She then taught us a song about grandfathers farm and we described the animals and the sounds they make. It was a really fun song and we look forward to singing it again.
We discussed what fish do in winter and where they live. The children discussed how the ice only freezes down so far, leaving a layer of water down below where the fish are free to swim about. We froze a large jug of water to observe how this works, and noticed that an oval pocket of water remained inside, while it froze all around where the cold air touched. We also learned a silly song about fishing and fish wearing pants.
With our outside focus we have been rather negligent with our social emotional work, and we have recognized the need for getting back to this. We began with a perspective taking story called The Tale of Two Beasts and a game using thought bubbles and talking bubbles. We discussed how we might have very different thoughts about a situation than someone else and there is no way for us to know what others are thinking unless they speak out loud and tell us, nor can others know what we are thinking unless we tell them. Children took turns whispering what they were thinking about, then calling on children to guess their thoughts before flipping their talking bubble and saying what they were thinking about.
Kindergarten students worked hard on their 9 addition sentences with their Cuisinaire rods and their letter J work. They took the first half of their alphabet books and their Cuisinaire rod addition work books home this week to share with you. The second half of the alphabet book will likely come at the end of the year.
We celebrated a fifth birthday with the newest birthday girl. She very quickly orbited the sun while we tried to keep up naming the seasons and counting birthdays after she told us she was born in winter in the month of February. She donated a beautiful book about a cat that we will share with the entire class after break. Happy birthday 5 year old!
Friday students explored the final method of rock formation. While igneous rocks are formed by heat, and sedimentary rocks are formed by pressure, metamorphic rocks are formed by both heat and pressure. Metamorphic rock is formed when either sedimentary, igneous, or other metamorphic rock is heated and put under pressure. The children took three colors of clay, rolled them into balls then flattened them then stacked them to create a sedimentary rock. They then used their hands to apply heat and pressure by twisting and turning and pushing to create a new metamorphic rock.
