As part of our bird exploration, we watched a brief tutorial by an artist demonstrating how to draw a bird. When drawing we made our focus not on imitating the artist so that our birds looked just like hers, but observing the parts she included and how she formed them and connected them together. Our artists created some truly unique and beautiful renditions of birds in all shapes, sizes, and colors.
During sign with Rose we reviewed all the bird signs and parts of birds that we have been learning and we were introduced to the American Sign Language alphabet. We observed and imitated Rose as she signed all the letters from A to Z. We then reviewed how to count from 1-10 and learned and signed the song 5 Little Chickadees.
Wolfgang and Henrietta visited to talk to us about HOW we speak to people, particularly the tone of voice we use and our wording, to make sure we are being kind and respectful, even when voicing our displeasure about something. Wolfgang was in a grouchy mood and he snapped at Henrietta and told her to GO AWAY and LEAVE ME ALONE! That made Henrietta really sad. We talked about ways that Wolfgang could kindly speak to her to let her know that he is grouchy and needs some space. We learned about using “I” messages, so rather than telling the other person what you do or don’t want them to do, you tell what you need. Wolfgang learned that he could say, “I need some space right now,” which was a much kinder and accurate way to communicate his needs. Henrietta and Wolfgang reminded us that we are in charge of managing our feelings, even though it might be hard, and WE own our feelings. No one else is responsible for how we feel, though it does not feel that way when someone does something we really do not like!
We celebrated a 6th birthday with fruit and donut hole kabobs. The birthday boy zoomed around the sun with the earth, so we very, very quickly listed the seasons and counted the years from his birth to his 6th birthday. Happy Birthday, birthday boy!
During Spanish we reviewed colors, parts of the body, and Zeanny introduced emotions with the “Como estas?” (how are you) song. We played a game with a friendly rabbit who greeted all her friends each morning by saying “Beunos dias” each morning and “buenos Noches” each night, and they all greeted her back. We then learned a bit about the artist Frida Kahlo and read a Frida Kahlo counting story.
Katie and AO visited from Believe in Books. AO read us some Dr. Seuss stories; Too Many Daves, and The Zax, then read us a story titled It Came in the Mail about a boy named Liam who loves mail but never gets any, so he decides to send a letter to his mailbox asking for some mail. Everyone really loved seeing what Liam would get from the mailbox every time he wrote a letter. After stories all the children got to pick a book of their very own. Thank you, Believe in Books!
Kindergarten students chose most of their own work – selecting some number writing, addition work, or writing work. Everyone did some birds on a wire addition which introduced counting by 2’s. They each got a page with three sets of telephone poles and they drew birds on them, then wrote 2+ addition problems, including a 2 for each bird, as that is how many feet each bird has on the wire. If there were three birds on the wire, they wrote 2 + 2 + 2 = 6 feet. Some of them drew 8 or 10 birds – that was a lot of feet!
Friday students read some stories about birds. They shared about their experiences flying (from the couch or trampoline) and discussed some of their observations of birds, bird nests, and all things bird related. Everyone then put on some gloves so they could safely hold and examine the three dead birds that were frozen (killed by Lyn’s cats & one found on the front lawn at school). They admired the beautiful feathers, and observed the feet, claws, beaks, and wings.
