Scientists and Engineers

It's been a great start to 2017. Our class has been busy learning all kinds of new things!

Our literacy block has been filled with informational writing, reading and writing new sight words and learning how to "tap out" words in our phonics program. Our focus for our informational writing unit has been on arctic animals.  We have learned about penguins over the past few weeks but will soon move on to other animals. This week our awesome librarians helped us with a STEM experiment in the library. Our kindergartners put their research findings to the test when we experimented with different cold weather adaptations by putting our fingers in ice cold water. As we hypothesized, blubber was the cold weather adaptation that kept us the warmest. We had a great time experimenting with cotton pads, fake fur, foil, plastic bags and Crisco to act as blubber.  A special thanks to our librarians, Mrs. Marino and Mrs. Bolhman!

In math. we've been learning about 3D shapes (cylinder, cube, rectangular prism, cone, pryamid and sphere). Here we used a ramp and a Venn diagram to sort out shapes that stack and shapes that roll. This week we worked in math teams to complete our own stacking and rolling experiments.

The new snow was exactly what our playground needed!  The kindergartners had a blast with the fresh snow.  Please make sure your child has clothes for outdoor recess each day.

As we approach the half-way point of our school year, we are continually adding new activities to our daily routine to increase student learning and independence.  This past week students were introduced to center work boards. Each day students choose two squares on their work board to complete before they get to choose a center of their choice. Everyone did a great job learning our new center time routine and working responsibly.

Wyatt uses a learning game on the iPad to complete
a square on his center work board.

Kindergartners work together to spell and write sight words.

Brylee and Hayden spell sight words with magnetic letters.

Kindergartners "Write the Room" at center time.

Noah and Taylor work on their art projects.