A Tour of the Future

Kindergarten has been touring the one/two blends to get a feel for what lays in store. Mrs. Brent and Ms. Pruitt have opened their doors in the last two weeks. We will be visiting Mrs. Erikson next week as we prepare for the jump into deeper waters.

First, we are eased into the situation with a little peer reading. The six year olds eyes widen as they see just how far they will grow in the next two years. 

Mrs. Brent goes over some of the common rules and regulations between kindergarten and first grade. 

And, of course, there are still class pets! Here some of the older students show off their class gerbil, which, try as we might, is still known as "the first grade guinea pig".

The blessing of blends shown true as the first and second graders took it upon themselves to make friends and teach our students about what it really means to be in first grade. Make Sure You Hold Hands!

The Measure of a Man

Kindergarten is problem solving measurement. After measuring with a variety of tools, each group follows a map and hidden clues to measure distances. At their disposal, one yard stick, five to six kindergarteners, and an unending supply of yarn. Though their final figures differ, most students decide to use bodies to help mark the yards between points on the map. 

Experimenting with Nature

After art class we get ready to hunt for science, this week we are looking for worms in their natural habitat.
Sara is aided in her quest to prepare a happy home for our guests.

We work in teams to find the best places to look for our treasures. Night worms... Where do you think they'll be? A bright place or a dark place? Emma is the first one to find a worm. She also proves to a couple of gentlemen that girls can, and will, pick up crawlers. As if we didn't prove that with the gastropods!

Well... some of us would rather wear protection!

Students create experiments following the scientific method. Hypothesis: Slugs will win a race because they don't have a shell to carry. Theory: After racing more than thirty gastropods, we think small skinny slugs are faster than big slugs because they have less weight to move, and much faster than snails for the same reason. They also might be a little younger: as Johnmorgan stated, "kindergartener's can ran faster than Mrs. Kurkinen", thankfully they didn't comment of my weight!

The students also constructed tracks to see which gastropod could maneuver through various obstacles.  Some of us were very frustrated on the snails refusal to stay on the track. 

And so, what did we learn? Harper pretty much sums it up: 

"This is a small snail. [And it] is slow!" 

Life as a: Gastropod, or Amphibian, or Coelacanth

As summer approaches and the weather finally lets us emerge from our dwellings, kindergarten has embarked on our final science unit. As seen during the arts fair, we have completed our marine education with some rather impressive underwater scenes. After a half an hour in the green space we successfully introduced the current guests into our classroom, if any of you like to touch the "foot-stomachs" or mollusks, now abiding in our terrarium, please come by around 1pm each day so I don't have to! Soon we will have worms and pill bugs in our room as well!

We have also had the chance to watch the life cycle of tadpoles unfold. Near the bottom of this photograph you can clearly see the eggsac. The tadpole are now over a half inch in length. 

La Fiesta del Fin

To end the momentous week on May 5th Room Thirty -One is endebted to many parents who made it possible to learn how to make: salsa, hot chocolate and tortillas! Thank you Heidi, John, Courtney, Shashi and Pammie for giving us this chance!

Proof that five and six-year-old eat their vegetables! Our salsa was a favorite...

As were our tortillas...

And, of course, the hot chocolate!

The Performance

All of our steady work pied off on May 6th when we traveled to Rigler Elementary to perform in front of eight kindergarten classes and many many parents from both schools.



We had the pleasure of spending the morning with a host kindergarten class at Rigler. We played, we learned, we ate, we grew to see another world.



Thanks to the volunteers who made this day possible.

Cinco de Mayo

On May 5th Kindergarten set off on an extraordinary week. After the kids donned their festive ponchos and checked their food supplies, kindergarten journeyed to the waterfront where a tent shaded the Mexican Folkloric Ballet.  Our kindergarteners did a great job of keeping their chaperones busy while they patiently waited over on hour for the performance to begin!

They were not disappointed when the dancers took the stage with knifes and machetes! We noticed how all of the dancers moved in unison, something we had been practicing for our own performance.

The astonishment continued when they returned with vasos de agua balancing on their cabasas!

Only a little water was spilled.

The mariachis were a favorite among the ladies. 

The Rope Tricks were the favorite as well!