Our Thanksgiving Feast

Fostering independence can be scary. Nevertheless, not a single figure was injured when our students accepted the responsibility for preparing our Thanksgiving soup.


Kindergarteners worked in pairs to cut, count and label their vegetable.
We ended up with 25 bags with 25 different numbers. When the class was asked what we should do with our ingredients, Isaac answered, "We should add them!" A quick lesson in double digit addition was given, just far exposure, and we ended up with a soup made up of 1139 pieces of produce. We wondered, which vegetable would we be most likely to bite into during our feast? with 286 pieces or carrot and 187 pieces of broccoli it was a close call. No body wanted to admit that the 381 pieces of onion were a possibility.


If you have more pictures of our celebration please email Mrs. K!

The End of the Pumpkin

You can't estimate seeds, predict and write about pumpkins without getting to taste one!
Kindergarten gets a chance to eat the squash in all its glory, no sugar added.

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's Family Culture

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.

Turkey Day Math

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.
By gluing seeds in groups of two, the students also work on thier multiples.

Jonas' Family Culture

Jonas explains how people in his family can come from different countries. Many hands go up when it is assumed that Jonas' parents live outside of the country of Portland, Oregon. Luckily, Jonas clarifies the situation.

A World of Patterns

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.

Patterns, Patterns, Patterns

Kindergarten's second math unit is all about patterning. Patterning images, colors, shapes, sizes, directionally, in growth is all we do all day without even realizing it!

After many of these terms have been learned we can being to experiment with our knowlegde. Above Leo and his teammates work to make as many patterns are possible with only two colors.
AB, ABB, ABBB, ABBBBB, ABBA, ABBBA are soon discovered and pattern for patterning begins to take shape.
Jonas works on a growth pattern, adding one cube as the rule, soon kindergartners will be patterning with digits and numerical values without the help of their colored cubed friends!

Aidan is working on his boarder pattern, but he does not want us to see until he knows his "box car" will fit all the way around. The building blocks of a pattern are known as 'box cars' do to the fact that they must all be the same (Blueredyellow, blueredyellow) and you can't make a train without box cars!
Suresh shows the class how patterns are displayed in nature... and with that.... we are out of the classroom and ready to collect data!