We Are Growing So Fast...

It seems like just last week we were focusing on the basics of being in school: walking in line, finding the restroom, managing the cafeteria lines and lunches and now we are reading, writing, and working together beautifully! We are very proud of our Explorers!

Here are pictures to recap the last 2 weeks:

 We used "magic" paper and paint to write our Chinese numbers.

We sure had a lot of reflections about our field trip to the North Chagrin Nature Center.  

A big THANK YOU to Vision First for coming to check our eyes!  Going on this special van and seeing the doctor was very exciting.

We have been using the iPad to help us with a lot of different skills.  Here we are building words...

We participated in Read for the Record.  Children all over the United States read Llama Llama Red Pajama on October 6. 

Click here for more information: Read for the Record Information

 While on our field trip we saw a Wooly Bear Caterpillar.  The Explorers' excitement prompted a lesson on life cycles and a fun snack (crackers, cream cheese, raisins and carrots).

Basketball Jones came to visit and provided great fun along with a lesson about doing your best and never giving up!

Last week we started our next Unit of Inquiry-How We Express Ourselves.  This unit will look at the various ways expression occurs (talking, singing, dancing, painting clothing, food facial expressions,…), adaptations of people with various disabilities and how our expressions help people understand us.

Picture day was a nice day to see how our young Explorers express themselves with their choice of clothing.  Everyone looked beautiful!

We will be introducing Wonder Journals this week.  This journal is a special place for your child to record something he/she is questioning.  Recording their wonders is a great opportunity for the children to express their thoughts and have a fun record for years to come. *Did you think your child would be this far into writing by October? Kindergarten is so exciting!

                                                                                       Teacher: "I wonder what this could be?" 

Student Response, "It is a pumpkin watermelon.  Just look at it."

Special Note:  Early Dismissal will be this Wednesday at 1:30.

Thinkers

We are Thinkers!

We apply thinking skills to solve problems.

We use creativity to solve complex issues.

We make reasoned, ethical decisions.

This tree sparked great conversation among our inquiring, thinking Explorers.  After observing the tree for a bit, the questions and student posed answers provided a fantastic conversation!  Ask your child what they think about this fascinating tree.  We will continue our conversations next week.  Truly a unique piece of nature!

 Mountain

In Mandarin we were introduced to the characters that are used for writing and how they evolved over the years.  It was really neat to learn that the Chinese do not use letters like we do (making connections), but use characters that represent a picture.  We sure used our thinking skills to figure out their meanings!

Fire                                                     Child

We began wrapping up our First Unit of Inquiry, Who We Are.  The students evaluated a variety of pictures depicting people doing common things around the world.  Although we do similar things, we have realized that we do it in our unique way (different materials used, clothing, buildings, etc).

Kindergarten began an extra class Friday…Karate!  It is something we all do as a class (yes, their teachers too).  We learn about stranger danger, being kind to friends, self-control and basic moves. 

This Thursday, we will be going to the North Chagrin Nature Center for a Who Am I? nature class.  It will be interesting to see the characteristics and habitats of the various animals and make connections to what we learned in our Unit of Inquiry (Who We Are). 

Also, this week Vision First will be coming to conduct vision screenings.  THANK YOU for taking the time to complete the permission slip.  It is a fabulous program and one our kindergarteners really do enjoy.

SPECIAL NOTE- Book Character/Learner Profile Celebration will be on October 28^th

All students are invited to choose a character from a favorite book and dress as that character on October 28^th. Students will come ready to share which Learner Profile best represents the character they chose.  

A lot of creativity and cooperation went into creating this masterpiece.  The explorers actually asked that I take a picture.  We love their pride!

Making All Kinds of Connections!

Cooperation at its finest!!!

Inquirer am I,

Inquirer am I,

I like to learn about the world

I learn by asking why.

We are so excited about the great questions our Explorers have been asking.  Inquiry, our Learner Profile this week, is something kindergarten students are naturally good at, but seeing them to ask questions about how things are connected, formed, and their beliefs is amazing! Our key concepts for this unit were Form, Perspective and Connection.  It’s nice to see our students apply and share their skills.

Aside from our UOI, we are still working on letter identification, formation/sounds and rhyming.  Keep practicing at home…it’s working!

In math we are counting by 1’s and 10’s to 100 as we are also focusing on understanding the relationship between numbers and quantities.

Case Western Dental came by for a visit this week.  We talked about the Rule of 2.  Be sure to ask your child what that means (brush 2 times, for 2 minutes, 2 times a day).

What's the Rule of 2?  Why is it important?

We need your help!  Untied shoes are getting the best of us and are a certain hazard as we go about our day.  If your child cannot tie his/her own shoes yet, please work on this skill at home.  We are practicing everyday, but the more help the better.

Our fabulous Art teacher, Ms. Lipka has a blog now, please take a look and follow along.  So many wonderful things are happening!!!

ART BLOG (click here)

Picture Day

Picture day-October 12

More information will be coming home soon.

Lego KidsFest

Lego KidsFest

I was just told about the Lego KidsFest that is coming to Cleveland's IX Center this November and thought I'd pass the information along.  I can only imagine what fun our Explorer's would have there!

**Click on the link above to find out all the details.

Open-minded Explorers

Our Grandparents’ Day Celebration was such a nice event.  Our Explorers were very excited to see their families and we even had a few “grandparents” from the university that came to see us as well.  Thank you for supporting us either in conversation at home, in attendance, or both.

In addition to Grandparents’ Day we also learned about the Moon Festival that is celebrated in China.  Zhao Lao Shi even brought us various moon cakes to try.  As Open-minded (Learner Profile) Explorers we were eager to try this special treat and showed appreciation (Attitude) for a tradition in another culture.

 Moon cakes 

                                

This week, we also explored the idea of time around the world.  It was exciting to see everyones’ faces as they realized that as we were reading the book some people were eating breakfast, for some it was the middle of the night, and so on.  We used a special application called World Clock on the iPad to introduce this concept and read a wonderful book titled Somewhere in the World Right Now by Stacey Schuett.  It sure has been fun to peek back at the iPad and wonder what other countries are doing at any particular moment.

We also looked at activities children do all around the world and found out that kids are kids no matter where we live.  We may have unique appearances and dress, use different materials in our play, but from country to country we are all linked by lots of similarities and activities.  To Be a Kid by Maya Ajmera and John D. Ivanko is a book filled with beautiful photographs that we used to explore this topic.

CURRICULUM NIGHT TUESDAY

We are very excited to share our curriculum with everyone on Tuesday night from 6:00-8:00.  We ask that adults only attend this event since teachers will be doing presentations about IB, and expectations for the year. This is a great opportunity for parents to understand the curriculum better and ask questions. With that said, your presence is important to us so if you absolutely need to bring your child, we understand. We just ask that your child follow the essential agreements during the presentations and listen respectively. 

Remember Tuesday is an Early Release Day.  All students will be dismissed at 11:30.  After-care through the Y is available for those children already enrolled in the program.

A lot in 4 days!

Prin, Prin, Principled

I am Principled.

I always like to do the right thing.

I am Principled!

How is it a 4 day week often feels busier than a 5 day? That is certainly an inquiry worth exploring!  Our kindergarteners were busier than ever.  A few things we worked on were our Unit of Inquiry, our Learner Profile Principled, counting to 100 and forming the tricky number 2, measuring our bodies and reporting our findings, the letters M, T, R, and S, tackled the new sight words (can, me, I and red) and introduced our daily journal.  Whew!

Our Unit of Inquiry continued to investigate our personal uniqueness and how special we all are.  We also took a look at the world and imagined if everything was exactly the same and what that would be like.  Appreciating the uniqueness in the world helps us see how special our planet is and everything it holds. 

In this project, we decorated a poster board with no directions (always fun!).  Then we began wondering how this decorated poster board is like the earth.  We will add to this special wonder board in the days to come but here are some of our responses:

1.   The hearts are like being caring.

2.  It looks like the rainbow here on earth.

3.  People are doing things.

4.  There are different colors.

Making these connections are an integral part of our learning!

Another connection we made is how we are growing just like other things on the earth.  We really enjoyed looking at our baby pictures and seeing how big we are now.  One child asked, “How did that even happen?”  So cute, such wonder!

We want to send a BIG thank you out to all our caring Explorers for helping us feel so appreciated for the Chinese Teacher Appreciation Day.  They learned all about this special holiday in Mandarin class and created beautiful flowers for each teacher in the school.  Thank you!

Reminders:

1-Grandparents Day celebration on Monday (2:00-3:00).

2-No school for kindergarten on Friday.