Plants and Trees with Mme Deanna

This week we looked more at trees and seasons.  Mme Deanna took us outside to observe and draw winter trees (no leaves or buds).  The next day she taught us about how trees transform in the spring.  Next, we used oil pastels to transform our own drawings into spring trees.

We've also been keeping a close eye on our celery and lettuce buds. We run to the window every day to check on them!

Colour Mixing and a Mystery Reader!

We had our first MYSTERY READER in today and it was Jacob's mom!!!  The kids had lots of wild guesses about who it might be and they were very excited when it was Mme Jean.  As usual, they were great little listeners and loved talking about the book that was read to them.

We welcomed Spring with some colour-mixing using coffee filters and crayola markers that will become beautiful flowers.

Mme Deanna, our student teacher, taught us about the parts of a tree.  We played BINGO and learned a new song and dance!

Spring Baskets and Spring Sprouts!

We are waiting for the warm weather but still love all things SPRING!  We started new activity baskets on Tuesday.  Here they are in action:

 
 
 
Bunny Pick-Up: The kids rolled the dice and had to use their tweezers to take the rabbits out of the bunny ears without dropping them.




Ring Toss: Each ring is worth a different amount of points. The kids had to add up their points and keep score.




Tic-Tac-Toe: The kids had to play this game of strategy and keep score.




Chick Estimation: The kids had to put a secret amount of baby chicks into the container and then ask each of their classmates to guess the quantity.  The kids had to read names and record answers.





Button Search: The kids had to search through the putty (GREAT FINE MOTOR WORK!) to find the flower buttons.  They then graphed them and recorded their totals.
 






 

Mme Deanna showed us how to re-grow celery and lettuce by immersing the 'stump' in water.  We're hoping to feed the new sprouts to our guineas pigs!

WE ARE BUCKET FILLERS!

Your child may have come home from school last week talking about buckets.  In class, we read two very good books (How Full is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath & Mary Reckmeyer and Have You Filled a Bucket Today?  by Carol McCloud) which explain a simple concept using a bucket as an analogy for empathy.  The idea is that everyone walks around carrying an invisible bucket (yes, even animals - the kindergartners were adamant about this point!) and "it's purpose is to hold your good thoughts and good feelings about yourself."  The books explain that you feel happy and good when your bucket is full, and you feel very sad and lonely when your bucket is empty.  The kids are learning to be BUCKET FILLERS by showing love to others, by saying or doing kind things, helping others, or even by simply smiling at someone. We have realized that by filling others' buckets, we also fill our own, because it feels good to make others feel special.  We have also learned that BUCKET DIPPERS are people who empty other people's buckets by making fun, saying or doing mean things to others, or ignoring others.  They try to fill their own buckets by dipping into others' buckets but this never works - they are always left with an empty bucket.  In class, we will talk often about what we are doing to fill our own buckets and others' buckets.  If someone is being a bucket dipper, we call it that, and discuss how we can help fill up that person's bucket.  

In all my teaching years, I have never found an analogy that explains these concepts as well as the bucket.  It really appeals to children of this age and makes sense to them.  You can support these ideas by asking your child each day if they did anything to fill up someone's bucket.  Ask them how full their bucket is and how it got that way.  It is also important to ask if they were a bucket dipper.  I have found that students who were previously unable to recognize their own negative behaviour are more able to, when given this context.  You can also remind them that Mme Katie has a bucket that gets filled or emptied each day by her kindergarten students.  I sometimes use bucket-filling to highlight specific behaviours, like being helpful, listening to others, and using 'inside voices'.  My bucket gets filled when children are respecting rules and respecting each other.