Monday, December 23, 2013

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Shares, Exhibition, and Songs and Poems, and MORE!

Happy Winter!!

In class, we have been counting down the days until the season changed from Fall to Winter, and this weekend, it finally happened!  I hope you all are enjoying this extra time together and have tons of adventures!  

Here is a recap of our adventures in Kindergarten:

This week in Gardening, students reviewed their fall term garden experiences under 3 categories.  What we learned about compost, What a garden needs, and How to make a garden fresh kale salad. They broke up into small groups and created pages for each of topic.








A friend came in with a share of a craft she made in her old school, from when she and her family lived in Washington.  We were able to use our globe to find where this state was in our own country, in relation to where we live.


Another friend brought in some artifacts from a trip to South Africa that her parents took.  We had an interesting discussion around the elephant mask which had a bird perched on it's head.  Friends shared their thoughts on the symbiotic relationship that they share.  Check out our Discussion Notes Binder for more information!



We also had a share about an exciting personal experience of winning a trophy at a Karate Competition.  We were able to see a bit of this friends routine and forms!




















This week, we also had the Book Fair!  Friends went in to write a Wish List of books that they wished to have and planned to discuss the possibility with their parents.














Thank you to everyone who gifted our class a book from our Class Wish Lists!  We appreciate it and can't wait to read them!


Thank you to Edgar for being our Family Reader this week!


After months of gaining skills in oral, written, and visual presentations, Exhibition Night was finally here!  Here are a few snapshots from the exciting night we had sharing our work with families, friends, and visiting community members. 

As you entered our classroom, you were invited to try out various dishes from our Food Sampling Table from different families from around the world!





Sambusa, Erteran food from Africa.


Cuban Rice and Beans, Thai/Laos Fried Chicken and Sweet Sticky Rice, German Bacon and Potato Salad.

Potato Cakes from Israel (not pictured),  Pao de queijo (in portuguese), which means bread of cheese, from the state of Minas Gerais in Brasil, Melomakarona from Greece, and Falafels, a traditional Egyption food but common throughout the Middle East.


Dutch Apple Pie and Dutch Apple Cranberry Pie from the Nederlands, and Lumpia from the Philippines (not pictured).


As you moved further into our class, you were then presented with our News Room, where you would be able to see how we have taken on the challenge of conducting interviews, surveys, collected data, and presenting information on our News Broadcasting Show.













The next section of our room was the Artifact Museum.  Friends have been bringing in artifacts from home to share where their family came from or where they have traveled to.  As a class, we have covered every continent on Earth, except for Antarctica! 








Clothes and Elephant Charms from India.


The Canadian Flag.


The Flag of Denmark, and a coin from Denmark.


Artifacts from Eritrea/Ethiopia.


Artifacts from South Africa.



Artifacts from Costa Rica.


Artifacts from Germany.


Artifacts and money from Hong Kong.


Artifacts from Russia.


Artifacts from Ensenada, Mexico.


Artifacts from Cuba.



Artifacts from Laos/Thailand/


Artifacts from Greece.


Artifacts from Israel.


Artifacts from Greece, and Britain (not pictured).



Artifacts from Utah, USA.


Artifacts from the Phillipines.


The last part of our Exhibit was our Video Recording Station.  Here, students invited friends and families to participate in a brief interview where we found out more information where our guests' families came from, what language they spoke there, and how they say hello and goodbye in their language.






To say the least, we had an amazing night thanks to all of our friends' hard work and for all of our families' support and participation!  I cannot tell you how appreciative I am for all that you do for our community.  And an endless thank you to our CoTeacher, Clara, for being amazing and caring so much about each and every student in our class.

We ended our week with this month's recital of our December Songs and Poems.


We ended our week with doing some of our favorite things for Open Choice Time, including: painting, drawing, messages, tic-tac-toe, hangman, and construction.  We also played Steal the Bacon and had a special fruit salad treat together, courtesy of Mirriam's family.

Thank you so much to everyone for all of the warm holiday wishes and special gifts.  The greatest gift is of course, is spending time with all of these wonderful friends. I will be thinking of you all over these home days!  Be safe, warm, and cozy!

Love, Gaby