Enjoy some snapshots from this week's adventures in Kindergarten!
We are always having really exciting discussions based on what the students are interested about. This week, a friend brought up the topic about night and day. How does night and day happen? Which parts of our solar system rotate? How long does it take for the Earth to spin on it's axis? These were all questions that the friends were pondering about, so we pulled out some tools to check what it might look like when the earth rotates.
Using our globe and my flashlight app on my phone, we saw what happens as the Earth spins around the sun (the yellow folder on the flow). As one friend shined the light on one side of the globe, the other friend noticed what effect it had on their side.
Friends were noticing that a shadow shrouded the opposite side of the earth when the sun's light shone on one side of the planet. So we checked, if it was daytime here in the United States of America, that meant it was night time on the opposite side of the earth: Asia, and vice versa.
As friends observed the rotation of the earth, the question about why things do not fly off the ground or why we don't get dizzy came up. One friend expressed their knowledge that because of gravity, we are pulled towards the ground, or the center of the earth, just like the earth is pulled towards the sun. They explained that it was almost like there was a giant magnet keeping us on the ground. We pulled out some magnets to check what this looks like.
We discussed the different magnetic forces that were involved (positive and negative forces) and how they react differently to each other, feeling the push and pull of them.
This week with our Buddies, we played two different games: Simon Says, which many families know, and Copy Cat. Copy Cat was a different type of mirroring game, where all the friends sat in a circle and selected one friend to be the guesser. The guesser steps outside of the circle and the rest of the friends secretly select a leader. All the friends follow what the leader does, and the leader secretly changes patterns or movements. When the guesser comes back to the circle, their challenge is to try to figure out who the leader is! The class enjoyed this game very much!
This week, we have also been examining our Kind and Unkind Words Jars. Each afternoon, we have been observing the changes in the rice as friends give them each their special messages throughout the day. We are using a pictorial chart to track the transformations the students notice, as well as make predictions about why these changes are happening.
We practiced some new Language and Math Games this week. Our Language Game was Change the Vowel: Here's a fun way for friends to keep up their practice of sounding out words and working with vowels. What words could you change the vowel to at home?
Our other game is Change the Number. This game is similar to the ritual we do at the end of the day, where we count how many days we have been at school. We use a place value table to help organize our work, and then use different techniques, including counting aloud by tens, using our fingers,or using mental math to decode what the new number is after a friend chooses which number they wish to change! What numbers can you come up with?
And of course, the class has been hard at work getting everything ready for our upcoming New Year's Love Party. They have put out the sign ups, finished the banner, made many decorations, and are still working on the two board games they made. We have also been doing a lot of research about Tea Party Etiquette and challenging themselves to get into the mindset of trying something new. We have had many lovely discussions revolving around what makes friends nervous or shy about coming to a fancy party, and coming up with solutions for those friends to try it out so that they are still having a good time, and remembering that we are all friends and just wish to have a good time together.
Thank you all for all of your support and for helping all of our class' wishes come true!
Love, Gaby
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