Friday, March 26th

"ROCKIN' ROBIN"

He rocks in the tree tops all day long

Hoppin' and a-boppin' and singing his song

All the little birdies on Jaybird Street

Love to hear the robin go tweet tweet tweet

Rockin' robin, tweet tweet tweet

Rockin' robin' tweet tweetly-tweet

Blow rockin' robin

'Cause we're really gonna rock tonight

 

Every little swallow, every chick-a-dee

Every little bird in the tall oak tree

The wise old owl, the big black crow

Flappin' their wings singing go bird go

Rockin' robin, tweet tweet tweet

Rockin' robin' tweet tweetly-tweet

Go rockin' robin

'Cause we're really gonna rock tonight

Yeah, yeahhhh!

Wednesday, March 24th

Pointillism painting like Seurat!

Get Well cards for Damon's mom

(Forgot to rotate - sorry!)

Tuesday, March 23rd

Yes, I know I'm posting in "the past". At least I'm not pretending I'm not behind on posting! I'm putting the photos with the correct day they were taken! :-)

Shape Art

...Some very hard working puzzlers...

Tuesday, March 23rd

At the end of Phy. Ed. yesterday, when I picked the kids up, I saw the most amazing thing. Mrs. Lokken, the Phy. Ed. teacher is one of the master teachers I get to work with. She was explaining how to fold up the tumbling mats, "into an 'M'," before sliding them to her to put away. Here's how it looked! Your kindergartener is capable of amazing things like this! If you ever run into Mrs. Lokken, commend her for her awesome teaching skills!

A Need

Hi everyone,

In case you haven't yet heard from your child, the mother of one of the students in our class (Damon) was in a car accident last week. She is still in the hospital and will have a long recovery from a brain injury. If you are wondering about details, look at her CaringBridge website. 

www.caringbridge.com/visit/samanthamundahl

My purpose in sharing this is an update to kindergarten families of course, but also a request, if you are able to think about helping his family out. Right now, the best way to do so would be to volunteer to bring a meal to them. I just heard from Damon's grandma and she said, "I know all my guys here have been suffering as far as meals go but everyone is eating." 

Healthful meals are a necessity when stress levels and emotions are high. It's also a way to take one thing off the family's mind in this uncertain time. Please check out the following website that I am using to coordinate this and be in touch if you have questions.

www.takethemameal.com

Last name: Mundahl

Password: 1234

Monday, March 22nd

We had an active, healthful day today. Oh, and we learned a lot too! Ask your kindergartener about the Tiny Tumblers that live on Math Mountains...

We got to eat clementines, or "Little Cuties" as several kids called them (successful marketing on that one!) for snack.

We got to do tumbling on the mats in Phy. Ed.!

Enjoy the sunshine! 

March 15th - 19th

This has been ART WEEK, all with the goal of hanging our Kindergarten Art Gallery for next week's visiting families as they come to Kindergarten Orientation. We wanted them to be able to see some cool stuff we're doing!

Mission accomplished. Jill Topliff just left after making about 4,689 tape loops to hang the art work. THANK YOU JILL!

Check out why I've been too busy to post!

PICASSO PORTRAITS

PRIMARY COLOR PAINTINGS

THE FINISHED PRODUCT WITH PRINT-MAKING AT THE BOTTOM...

Monday, March 15th

Today was a big science day! We investigated staining fabric with different foods and then washing them out. Your kindergartener may be a little more interested in laundry from this day forward...


The stains were made from ketchup, chocolate syrup, grape jelly and toothpaste. Thanks to Mrs. Morris (Kieran's mom) for helping out!

Cleaning up a minor flood -

a good opportunity to teach responsibility!

We also created our Weekend News, being it is Monday. I know you've seen it come home but here it is in process...

Thursday, March 11th

Yesterday, in addition to Art Adventure, with volunteer help from Mrs. Whitcher (David's mom) and Mrs. Adhikari (Jay's mom), we dove into our new science unit on fabric. The kids got to pull apart the threads making up burlap, and look at them under magnifying glasses. They learned that the vertical threads are called the "warp" and the horizontal threads are called the "woof."

...Taking fabric apart...

Today brought Mrs. Adhikari back for a chance to finish the weaving we also started yesterday and a brand new investigation into the world of sewing. Many thanks to her as we tried these very new and very difficult tasks!

...WEAVING: putting fabric together...

SEWING is HARD!

VERY impressive, Vivian!

Fabric Collages

Wednesday, March 10th

Today we had  a special guest visit our classroom from the Minneapolis Institute of Art. This was courtesy of a program called "Art Adventure," and is a GREAT way for kids to gain some exposure to "real" art! The pictures below show Barbara, the guest presenter along with the three different paintings she presented. Along with each painting, she had prepared a line of questioning to draw out various art elements such as light and dark colors, different brush strokes, and artist style!

Tuesday, March 9

RAD Zoo day!

There was a presentation at school today from a zoo keeper at the new RAD Zoo in Minnesota. RAD stands for Reptiles and Amphibians. And that's just what we saw! The program was in the cafeteria and we went with Mrs. Swanson's class as well as 3rd graders. With all the excitement, I am so proud of the kids for their group behavior. You try sitting cross legged as a man up front pulls out a baby alligator or a giant, yellow python! They were absolutely captivated by all of the different creatures, though the highlight was definitely that snake! (By a vote 11-8 back in the classroom, sorry tree frog.)

Back in the classroom, after our FULL day of RAD Zoo and Music!