2nd graders, The Storytellers

The 2^nd graders have been exploring the ancient tradition of oral storytelling. Each student has been assigned a short story that she or he would learn to tell. As they became more familiar with narrating their story, the 2^nd graders were encouraged to add gestures, voices and actions to the telling of their story. In preparation for their Storytelling Night, a few 2^nd graders stopped by to practice their art of storytelling.

Jabril's story, "The Little House"

Isabella's story, "Like Meat Loves Salt"

Al's story, "The Argument Between the Sea and the Sky"

Samantha's story, "The Rat Princess"

Sarah's story, "Sneezy"

The Kindergarteners were mesmerized. Some eagerly shared their thoughts.

Hayden: “I liked them.”

Saniya: “The stories were nice.”

Jason: “They were funny.”

Matthias: “I liked the “Sneezy” one!”

Sania: “I like the princess story.”

Neil: “I really liked that story where the kid sneezed and blew everything around.”

Luc: “I liked the story about the mouse in the house and the bear sitting on him.”

Building community

One of the most enjoyable things we do at this school is get kids of different ages together.  Lately the 11th graders have been coming on Tuesdays to develop closer relationships with our kindergarteners.  For the older children, they get to take on the role of caretaker and nurturer, and they get to play in ways that challenge their sense of "being cool."  It is a delight to see them loosen up and play like they used to when they were younger.  For our younger children, they are star struck!!  They think the older kids are about the coolest thing since the iPad!  It is truly joyous to behold these precious interactions!

Dominoes and Ten Frames and Unifix cubes

We have been continuing our work with numbers 11-20.  We recently played a game where the children flipped over 2 dominoes and counted up the total.  Then they wrote the numeral on a slate and proceeded to arrange the corresponding number of unifix cubes onto multiple ten frames.  The work we are doing with ten frames will dovetail nicely into our work with pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.  We will begin a mathematical study of money when we return from spring break!

Library and our theme of study

During Library, Gwen has made a connection with our Human Body study. She read various books on the topic and then invited the Kindergarteners to an activity. Gwen asked them to partner up and take turns tracing each other’s body on a big piece of paper. Afterwards, she asked them to fill in some of the internal body parts which make our human body so amazing. As they drew, each Kindergartener was encouraged to share what they were illustrating. She was astonished to see how much knowledge the Kindergarteners had.

Maura: "I'm doing the wind-pipe"

Sania: "I am doing the heart and then the blood cells"

Cara: "I'm going to add the arteries."

Neil: "I added the blue veins and the brain."

Oliver: "I did the veins and arteries and the heart."

Matthias: "I added the kidney and I'm finishing making the bladder. I added the cells,the heart, the platelets, knee joints and elbow joints and then this, red and blue veins."

Jade: "I added the red and blue veins."

Sameerah: "I'm doing the esophagus."

Sophie: "I'm drawing the veins, red veins."

Saniya: "The stomach."

Shelby: "The blood."

G.K.: "Look. I added the veins and the arteries."

Luc: "I did the feet, the heart, and the lungs."

Jason: "I did the lungs, the phalanges, the brain, the spinal cord ... that's it!"

Thanks Gwen for this great activity to reinforce our learning!

  

Our favorite gooey substance

The Kindergarteners have once again taken part in the making of their favorite gooey substance around our classroom, flubber. They just can’t get enough of this malleable substance.

Talk about interrelating literacy skills, math and science concepts! As the Kindergarteners read the instructions to get the precise amount of each ingredient, the children are practicing their literacy competence. The math concept comes into play as they use a measuring tool to quantify the amount of the ingredients. Then, as the Kindergarteners observe, communicate, infer, hypothesize, and define and control the variables, they are engaging in the scientific method and honing their scientific processing skills.

Once we had a finished product, not only did we play with it but we also added two new colors to our wonderful "Flubber Falls". Please do stop by and take a look.