February is one of my favorite months in kindergarten – spring is just around the corner and everyone is bubbling over with excitement about new skills, growth spurts and loose teeth; Black History Month brings a celebration of Black joy and excellence; Stone Soup is made and enjoyed, then delivered and shared with The Women’s Daytime Drop in Center for their clients to enjoy; sweetness bubbles over on Valentine’s Day with all the fuss and fun that it brings; the 100th Day and all the creative math activities and projects (a ‘snowball’ fight with 100 snowballs that we then turned into a snowperson) make oneof our favorite subject even better; we relish the excitement of the wildly windy and rainy days; and look forward to February Break (I love teaching kindergarten and I love the respite of a break!).
We’ve finished the month strong – we welcomed in a new teammate (we’re a team of 12 now!); took a trip to The Women’s Daytime Drop-in Center; we loved working with and learning from visiting artist, Yasushi Matsui; learned a little a bit about Ramadan, tried a second go at growing crystal snowflakes (we think we figured out the problem – we’ll give it one more try next week), took a trip down memory lane on the 100th day as we thought back over the last (6?!?!) months together, we noted the official end of Black History Month and watched some clips from the a few of the latest changemakers that we’d read about. We cheered as Wilma Rudolph beat the odds to win 3 gold medals at the Rome Olympics, and we counted up in delight as we watched Serena Williams’ 23 Grand Slams. ‘All that and reading, writing, science, math, and lots of kindergarten good times, too.
Enjoy this visual romp through early Jan and February:
The wooden sculptures were one of our favorite 100 Days projects. Choosing and counting out 100 interesting bits and bobs of wood, was no easy feat.
Getting our fingers ready to write by ‘gem chasing.’
Lunar New Year Dragons
(After creating these beauties, we learned that Chinese dragons are not fire breathing dragons.)
Our trip to the Daytime Drop-in Center (and the cute dogs we met along the way).
Stone soup – made, tasted, and shared with the clients of the Daytime Drop-in Center. Our bowls of soup even had our own stone in them!
Valentine’s Day (if only we could feel as happy as Maya enjoying her ‘first even ever cream puff!’). Hope your day was as sweet as ours
A little of this, a little of that – rainy days and sunny days, National Puzzle Day, New News binder covers, HUMPHREY IS HOME, new games, a hidden picture puzzle, a Brazilian presentation and bracelet souvenirs, and more.
Action items/Nuts and Bolts:
- We’re looking for a small trampoline with the safety handle, something like this. Please keep your eyes open and let me know if you find something!
- We’ll take any mismatched forks or spoons that you have knocking around. I have just discovered that utensils were being tossed into the trash or going home in lunches. We’re back on track now, but need to replenish.
- I’m working on updating the schedule and will get it to you next week. The subjects are still pretty much the same (though, as you can imagine, it’s never as cut and dried as, ‘Ok, it’s 8:50, stop thinking about math and now start thinking about Cultural Studies!’ There is a lot of flux and flow with all of it.
I’ve got so much more to tell you, but this is so much longer than I had anticipated – so, I’ll stop here and add the rest to the next installment.
Have a happy weekend and I’ll see you all next week.