Now that you are experts at folding origami dogs and cups, see if you can turn the cup into a hat!
This one is harder! Keep trying!
For more origami directions click here
Can you unfold and trace the creases?
Joe MacGown
Some of the class got together and had the idea to have a Bug Day. They decided a letter needed to be written to the Parents to tell them about the day:
“Bring 2 or 3 or 1 bugs. Puppet show at Play: ‘A Very Buggy Day.’ If not bring bug, then just come to school because the leaders will have some for you to borrow. Go gardening and go on the nature trail with your bug and we go find bugs have a very buggy lunch and gouter all day.”
Joe MacGown
We found ants, spiders, butterflies and some we didn’t know. We got some books from the library. We watched the carpenter bees zoom around the garden.
What kinds of bugs can you see in this video?
What kind of bug is this?
Why are bugs important to people, to animals and to the earth?
What is your favorite kind of bug? Can you draw and label 10 different kinds of bugs?
Joe MacGown
Some grown-ups have jobs that are to just study bugs.
Click here to see more really neat bug drawings!
Click here and here and here and here for links to more bug fun
Every year we have a famous person come to our school for the Visiting Author Program. This year we welcomed Naomi Shihab Nye to our school. Here is one of the big girls reading us the book “Sitti’s Secrets”:
Naomi Shihab Nye also writes poetry. We learned about poetry. Sometimes poems rhyme, sometimes they don’t. Listen to Naomi Shihab Nye read this poem about some of the things her little boy said:
We learned some poetry from a long, long, long, long, long, long time ago. Before there were books, people had to remember poems and stories. We worked hard to capture these poems in our head.
Some of us worked to write our own poems!
Then we made a Poem Shawl for Naomi Shihab Nye. She weaves words into stories and poems so we decided to weave our words into something for her.
The Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grades wrote poems for her on very long paper from the adding machines in the Math Shop. Ms Echternacht sewed the long strips of tape onto gauze to make it more like cloth. We liked watching the sewing machine work.
Then we laid out all the strips:
Then we started weaving! We took turns and worked in teams. Over, under, over, under, over under and “pull the whole way through!”
It took us a whole day to weave! It wasn’t finished when we had to leave to go home so two 3rd graders came from the After-School Program to help finish the shawl:
Here it’s on the easel all finished!
The next morning we made a card and wrapped it up with a ribbon. This was the day she was coming! We were so excited to give it to her.
She loved it!!! She really did!!! She sang a song to the PreSchoolers while wearing it!
We will always remember making the shawl, our poems and meeting Naomi Shihab Nye! We are very thankful for her songs, stories, poems and words and for such a wonderful day together!
Here we are talking to our friends in Plano, Texas. Their teacher’s name is Mr Gomez. They want to know what flag WE are!
Here are our friends in Texas talking to our friends in Abbotsford BC, Canada, the KinderPals
There are many different ways to tell what time it is or how long until something happens.
This is a DIGITAL clock
This is called an ANALOG clock
Stanford study in Nov. J of Ed Psych: guided discovery/invention yields deeper understdg in sci than direct instructn/practice
— Alfie Kohn (@alfiekohn) March 3, 2012
Full paper here shared by Alfie Kohn
What does this look like in Kindergarten? Look right here!
We have a famous person coming to our school. She is a writer. She writes poetry and stories. She wrote a story about visiting her Grandmother in Palestine. Palestine is a land near our Play Partners in Cairo. They speak Arabic. We learned words in Arabic.
There is fighting in some places in the world. Listen to Naomi Shahib Nye read a poem she wrote about the fighting.
Naomi Shahib Nye is imagining the letters the bosses who make the rules could write to people who have been hurt. There are lots of feelings when there’s fighting.
What is a poem?
“A lot of things”
“It sounded like a Prayer to me”
“Sometimes they rhyme”
“A little bit story and a little bit song“
How do you feel when you have a fight with a friend? What does hurt feel like? What are some kind words you can say to help people feel better? Can you write a poem about how it feels when you are hurt or when there is fighting? Can you write a funny poem? Try it!
On the way to lunch today a Kindergartner: “I pray for robbers that they get some money so they don’t have to rob” -Tess, age 5
We have been really busy making things!
Look and see what we have been making!
- We write out directions so if other people want to make these creations they will know how!
Mr Ben’s class in Balikpapan, Indonesia teaches us How to Play Monsters! Enjoy!
Here is Mr Ben’s class playing Monsters:
Mr Ben’s class taught us how to play the game “Statues”! We played after we watched their directions!
Here they are playing:
Mr Ben’s class in Indonesia gave us a tour of their school:
See the Dragon Dance at their school!
DANCE! This is by far our favorite counting song! We have a dance routine and band that sings along with this song!
Mr Fines Kindergarten class sent us this counting song! Mr Fines plays the ukuele and lives in Montana!
See if you can count to 100!
We counted to 100 with this awesome song bit.ly/wOKoe3 – Have fun friends!
— KF Dragons (@kfdragons) February 9, 2012
There are many ways to count! Here are some other counting videos to help you count! Some ways are fast and some are slow. Why do we need lots of different ways to count?
by 1’s:
By 2’s:
by 5’s:
Can you count to ONE TRILLION?
We have been making the land:
making the land
Dear God,
We Pray for the animals that run wild:
for their graceful, daring, desperate
dash to survive.
Help us to be gentle with their fear,
respectful of their fierceness,
and wise enough to leave them a place
to live both wild and free.
-from “A Child’s First Book of Prayers” by Lois Rock and Alison Jay
On this warm winter day I wonder, “Where is the coldest place on earth?” Take a look at the Wonderopolis link Mr Fines from Montana sent us! He played the ukulele for us on our computer phone this week and we sang “Willoughby Wallaby Woo” together!
Antarctica from Josh Newman on Vimeo.
Can you find Antarctica on a map? Can we drive to Antarctica?
We talked to lots of friends in Canada this week. We visited kids in Newfoundland, Canada. Canada is another cold place that has lots of snow. Can we drive there? Can you find Canada on a map?
Can you find Montana on a map? NJ? Australia? North America? South America?
What places are cold? What places are warm? We are making the land.
Look at what these girls saw on a rainy day while canoeing on the lake!
Thank you to Megan and Heather’s (class of ’22,’25) Dad who sent this in! Amazing!!
Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.
The Treehouse 
