Hello Lovely Kinder Families! This week we continued with our "All About Me!" mini project and began an exploration of names. We know that names are not only comprised of letters, but of hopes and dreams as well. For read aloud, we read two books centered around name origins: Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes and The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi. Both books explore the stories behind names, the feelings associated with our names, and what names represent (connection, family history, etc.). Both stories explored the sense of pride we can have when we truly love our names. We were inspired! We wanted to know more about our own name stories. We learned that Molly was born on a snowy day which is why her name is Molly Snow. Dylan shared that all of his siblings (himself included) have a middle name that begins with "S." We also learned that Leonidas was named after a King! We look forward to hearing more name stories in the next week. We continued our name exploration by singing name recognition songs (ask your child about "5 Little Muffins in the Bakery Shop") and by representing our names in a beautiful and unique way--beans!! By manipulating small objects, our Kinders develop their fine motor skills which in turn helps them with their handwriting! This week we also continued our "Learning with Nature" work. We took another trip to the Butterfly Garden where we used our "Eagle Eye" to find objects to observe and document. I noticed children taking field notes on the beautiful flowers, butterflies, and the many insects scurrying about By using the Butterfly Garden as our outdoor classroom, children learn the art of slowing down and looking closely. By finding details in the natural world, they begin to notice patterns and make connections. For instance, one child wondered and then hypothesized, "Why aren't there any butterflies out? Maybe because it isn't hot?" Later when Xavier found a monarch caterpillar all curled up and possibly dead, we decided to bring it back to our Curiosity Corner for further investigation. But by the time we made it back to our room, the caterpillar had stretched out and we realized quickly that it was alive! It was definitely weak and hurt, but it was alive. The children had many theories: "I think it was sleeping!" "I think it was playing dead. Possums do that!" "I think it was pretending when it saw us!" We are already engaging in rich conversations about the natural world and I am looking forward to what our next adventure will bring. And lastly, our Kinders have been working hard on developing our own special alphabet. Every year, the students in my class create their own classroom alphabet and this year is is a bit different from years prior. It has definitely been the most fun! Here's a little sneak peek: To another week of magic, exploration, and discovery!
With Love, Mrs. Rosemarie
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September 2017
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