Sometimes we act as though we are taking this class for college credit, but not to worry, we are still five-year-olds! One must finger paint in kindergarten. Nothing is better for textural analysis.
Luca allowed the class to ask him questions about his house featured in Metropolitan Home this month. He brought a copy of the magazine to show the class. Kindergarten discussed why people live in different types of homes and how people decorate them to suit their needs. A major topic up for questioning was, "do you eat on that table or a different one?" Our answers to that question were very telling. Each kindergartner had a different reason for eating in a specific place.
Now that we know how to edit our work, add more detail and ask meaning questions, kindergarten gets the chance to share our writing and respond to literary questions from the class.
Mrs. Kurkinen writes with a different student group everyday. These students get to share their best work with the class. Everyone gets to share once a week.
Kindergarten celebrates each winter festival that is represented in our class community. Hanukkah is out first celebration of the season.
Kindergarten met with our third grade reading buddies for latkes, dreidels and lots of chocolate!
Quinn get some help from his buddy in order to create his dreidel.
Mrs. Thurston volunteers frying our latkes!
Once modeled, the kindergartners get a chance to teach the teacher. Everyday Mrs. K chooses one or two students to help direct the class in a reading of our weekly song or poem. This is a great way to assess one to one matching, a skill vital for reading fluency.
Kindergarten listened while Claire explained many of the destinations and activities the McElroy family enjoys. She also brought a book and CD for kindergarten to experience. Kindergarten had an in depth discussion on the book chosen, why it might be Claire's favorite and why they themselves might chose such a text. The general consensus: it was calming.
Fostering independence can be scary. Nevertheless, not a single figure was injured when our students accepted the responsibility for preparing our Thanksgiving soup.
You can't estimate seeds, predict and write about pumpkins without getting to taste one!
Before we eat we must prepare. Kindergarten takes turns turns smells the fresh fruit and cleaning out the seeds.
At lunch we met in the cafeteria to ask Genean to bake the whole thing.
After being reminded that we needed to have pictures of our pumpkin on our class website, Mrs. K lets a soon-to-be-six-year-old take photographic evidence of our pumpkin experience.
The photographer really likes the pumpkin. No faces necessary.
Believe it! You can get 21 school age kids to eat their fruits and veggies; without bribing them. Just let them in on the preparation.
Carson brought pictures, projects and pastries to tell kindergarten about what it is like to live in the Nitta household. 
Isaac balances his Japanese snack while displaying his family's similarities with the Nittas. When we talk about rules and responsibilities in the home kindergartens show how they are similar or different. During Carson's presentation we had a wonderful discussion concerning violence in video games. When Carson was asked why he is not allowed to play fighting games he asked, "Why can't you?" the child responeded, "mom's don't want kids to play hitting games because they think if we do we will grow up and hit and then go to jail." Another child spoke up, "you can play a hitting game and not hit in real life." "What you do in real life is your choice," said a peer. "but playing killing games is moms' choice!" said another. This is a perfect example of the value of our cultural discussions.
Carson introduces his family.
Sophie models Carson's favorite snack.
A coloring sheet is more than an assessment of color theory. Fine motor skills are toned. But in Room Thirty-One a colored turkey can easily become a patterning exercise. Thematic work engages students in the ever present mathematical foundation of patterns.
Chris and Soren work diligently to label and pattern turkeys in groups of ten. Most kindergartners took the challenge seriously, taking two or three days to complete their personal bests.
Suresh and Quinn work hard to prove who's estimation of green pumpkin seeds is the closest.
Can you find all the patterns we did? Ask your kindergartner if they can name the type of patterns we saw on our pattern hunt.
Don't forget to write your report!
Sophie is hard at work to find her own patterned world.
