A blog dedicated to our kindergarten program in Conway, WA.
Our Hallway
This is the area where our benches were.
You are now approaching the kindergarten classroom.
Our door
This is the view that you see when you walk through the door.
Here are our cubbies. Thankfully, only the two bottom shelves needed to be removed.
This is our sink and art supplies area.
The back of the classroom where the house center and computers were
It may take 4-6 weeks for new shelves.
Our book area
As you can see, the irises are just a vestige of what they used to be.
Exit
Since the beginning of January, students have been wondering who this man is on the January calendar.
So, in order to provide some context for the upcoming holiday that honors Martin Luther King Jr., we began a week-long series of lessons for social studies. Today's Lesson was focused on Fairness and Discrimination. And it was amazing!
We started by passing out snacks to only half of the class. The boys got snacks while the girls were passed by! Understandably, the girls were upset, confused, saddened and/or angry. I told them that only the boys would be getting snack. Some boys were ambivalent, some demonstrated a jocular superiority, and some of the boys fiercely defended the girls' rights to have snack. The girls were united in demanding to be treated fairly. They were united in their refusal to join us for our upcoming story. Finally, I assured them that everyone would get snacks. And that there was a reason for this...
I introduced Martin Luther King Jr. and told our kindergartners that he and Dr. Seuss had something in common. They both wanted all people to be treated fairly. I read The Sneetches, an incredible story about our basic need to be included. Kids understand fairness, especially when they are the ones being left out. 
We are reading The Other Side this week during library time. It is a story about two little girls who live next to each other. One is black and the other white. They are separated by a fence, but find common ground in the middle. The illustrations are fabulous, as is the story.
This week's art project will be based on this book to acknowledge the variety of skin colors that abound.
We met Loretta and Jack - the goldfish that Miss Holly loaned us. We discussed what observation is. We practiced. We observed how the goldfish swam by moving their tails.
We discussed the parts of a goldfish: head, tail, mouth, eyes, and fins.
We talked to each other about what we noticed.
Then we used our magnifying lenses to see so much more. We learned about focusing with a lens.
We were excited!
Then we read color words to color different parts of the fish.
Then we drew was we observed in the tank: the two fish, the marbles on the bottom, and the elodea plants floating in the water.
We made predictions about which items would sink and which would float.
We tested our predictions.
After making careful observations, we cut out and glued pictures of each item into the proper category. We wrote the number of how many things floated and how many things sank.
We each chose a mealworm to study. We put bran and a carrot piece into each tiny habitat. We began our daily observation and drew a picture for day 1 on our mealworm calendars.
We drew a walking stick insect and what we noticed was in the tank.
We watched their behavior. We noticed:
However, with the beauty came freezing pipes...
And 3 inches of water!
Here is our beloved hallway minus benches and books.
There are dozens of these beasts whirring to dry things out!
Here are but a few of our books that were soaking wet!
Furniture, books, posters, and other teaching materials were ruined.
