For Monday art we read Right Outside My Window by Mary Ann Hoberman, then the children selected frames, measured paper to fit, then drew what they see right outside their windows. There were some exceptionally detailed drawings and they were sure to color the whole page, including the sky and grass, leaving no white space behind.
Zeanny joined us Tuesday morning for our final Spanish group. We sang the como estas song, the family song, and the finger counting song. We closed our eyes while Zeanny hid the cheese behind one of the family members then took turns guessing who ate the cheese. Zeanny then read the story Mortimer by Robert Munsch. We all love the parts where the family members go “bump, bump, bump” up and down the stairs, and when Mortimer loudly sings when he is supposed to be sleeping. To wrap up the morning we used the egg shakers to follow Zeanny’s directions. Thank you Zeanny for another wonderful year of Spanish!
During sign language Rose read and signed Llama Llama Red Pajama then we all sang and signed the “Butterfly, Butterfly, Fly, Fly Away” song. Thank you so much Rose for coming every Wednesday and teaching us sign language! We learned so many signs and had so much fun!
Kindergarteners reflected on their year and all the things they learned – so many things! Some of the things they shared were: how to do math, how to count by tens, listen to the teachers, to share toys, to take my time, to listen to my friends, to write new letters, to freeze on 50, etc. They then each decided what they learned as individuals then drew an illustration to show that and wrote a sentence about what they learned. Some children even asked to do several pages and make a book out of them. On the last day, day 170, they finished painting and counting the fence all the way up to our final day.
We did some art, jumped on the trampoline, cleaned and scrubbed, collected more insects and toads and slugs, took out bubbles for bubble blowing, went on some hunting adventures, and spent time playing with our friends and enjoying our last days.
We had some student photographers use the camera and they took some fun and silly photos of friends that absolutely needed to be shared.
On our last day of school we learned all about bees and the jobs they do! We read Bee then watched several brief videos about bees. We watched a queen bee laying eggs, a time lapse of an egg hatching and metamorphizing from a larva to a pupa to an adult bee, a video describing the 9 different bee jobs, and one about the jobs of the worker bee. We then played the bee game. Everyone chose a job, then got busy feeding the larva, fanning the hive and honey, laying eggs, guarding the hive, taking out the dead bees, cleaning the cells, and forraging for pollen and food, taking pollen from flowers and leaving pollen at other flowers and bringing some back to the hive. We changed jobs and tried doing something else for a while.
For our final goodbye we watched a video of the story Miss Rumphius, by Barbara Cooney, about a young girl who decides she wants to travel to far away places, and when she is old to live by the sea. Her grandfather tells her that is all well and good, but she must do one more thing. She must do something to make the world more beautiful. When she is older and has travelled the world and lives by the sea, she finally finds a way to make the world more beautiful. She spreads lupine seeds all around as she walks each day, and in the spring there are pink, and purple, and white lupines everywhere they go.
Thank you for sharing your children with us. Thank you for your patience and flexibility as we navigated this year. Thank you for all your support and cooperation. We will those who are moving on and are looking forward to return of everyone else. Have an amazing summer!
