Henri Matisse is known both for the paintings he made in his early years and the cut out paper art later in life, particularly the well known piece “Le Garbe.” We read The Iridescence of Birds and Henri’s Scissors, about his youth and early love of art inspired by his mother, and the end of his life when he began to create paper cut outs. The students then got busy cutting and pasting to create their own paper cut out art pieces.

Rose began sign language with the alphabet song while a student pointed to each letter as we sang it. She read the Piggy and Gerald book There’s a Bird on My Head, which was quite hilarious. Rose then introduced signs for parts of the body, including head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, neck, shoulders, heart, legs, knees, and toes. We then sang and signed “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.”

Students have been particularly creative in their fort, castle, and hide-out block constructions this week. We brought a large piece of cardboard in for a roof, as they really needed some protection from the elements and spying eyes.

We sang, read, and acted out several animal stories before refreshing our memories about which characteristics make different animals a reptile, bird, or mammal, then the children took turns selecting animals and sorting them by which class they belong to.

Makenna brought Ukelarry to school and the children had so much fun listening and singing along to “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree,” “In the Jungle,” “Five Green and Speckled Frogs,” “You Are My Sunshine,” “If You’re Happy and You Know It,” and “Banana Fanna.”

The weather was pretty crazy with ups and downs, from single digits then into the fifties and back to a frozen ice land, we had quite the weather ride this week!

Kindergarten students did some reading, sight word roll to the top, hundred board building and writing, and other literacy and math work of their choosing. They were introduced to adjectives and created some silly sentences before drawing a picture and writing a descriptive sentence about it. To wrap up the week they invited younger students to join them for a pirate treasure hunt. Each team had a tracking sheet where they would document their loot, adding up the gems and coins in their treasure boxes. Each team also had a map to mark where their treasures were hidden. They took turns plundering the big treasure box, placing the treasure in their own treasure chests, hiding them, and marking where they were hidden on their map. Their partners then used the map to find the treasure, bring it back, and add up and document their plundered loot.

jubba