We're Going on a Bear Hunt...

Yesterday was bear day in kindergarten! Everyone brought in their favorite bear or stuffed friend for a day full of fun. Whatever we did, our bears did with us. Here are some highlights:

They helped us with our morning jobs:

They joined in for free choice centers. Favorite activities included building beds and homes for our bears in the block center, drawing pictures of our bears, and playing Goldilocks and the Three Bears in our housekeeping center:

They participated in morning meeting:

We played a game of Simon Says with our bears, using the positional words we’ve been learning during math:

We read with our bears during Daily 5:

Mysteriously after rest, our bears went missing! Luckily, they left us a note:

We followed the directions in the clues, and found our bears hiding in the Lower School office! We immediately took them downstairs for a Teddy Graham picnic. We had a great time making patterns with our snacks, in addition to eating them!

We had a great time, and we think our bears did too :)

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ICE CREAM!

Kindergarten visited Mr. Thomas' house for an ice cream social this afternoon! It was a perfect day to be outside and enjoy the garden. All three kindergarten classes explored a little, and Mr. Thomas shared Klondike bars and popsicles with everyone. Thanks for having us, Mr. Thomas!

Tech Tidbit

KA got acquainted with iPads this week! Mrs. Scott visited us on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday to help us get started. The Monkeys were very eager to use this exciting classroom tool, and learned a lot!

We reviewed procedures for using and taking care the iPads, and practiced through interactive modeling and guided discoveries. So far, we have learned how to take pictures with the camera, write our names using Magnabet, draw pictures with Chalkboard and Scribble Press, extend patterns using Caboose, and sort pictures according to their beginning sounds with Beginning Sounds Interactive Game.

We also worked on a set of rules for using the iPads safely, respectfully, and responsibly. Stay tuned for those!

Zero the Hero

Today was the 10th day of school! Kindergarten had a SUPER visitor to help us celebrate - Zero the Hero! Zero swooped in just as we were finishing morning meeting and read us a story called Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews.

Zero the Hero also brought us some zero-shaped treats for snack - Apple Jacks! The Monkeys have predicted that Zero will visit us on school days that have a zero in them... they have already figured out that day 20 will be the next time that happens! Stay tuned to see if Zero the Hero returns ;)

In math, we created our own pictures with ten black dots, just like the story Zero read. Pictures ranged from gumball machines, to balloons, to pirate ships, to flower gardens:

We also sent home some ideas for number games, as well as cards with numbers 1-10. Have fun trying these out at home!

Thank You, Heroes!

We had some special visitors in KA today! As the nation remembered 9/11, the KA Monkeys honored some of the heroes that keep us safe every day. Yesterday, we talked about community helpers and some of the things that police officers and firefighters do for our Flint Hill School community. We then made thank you cards for these local heroes. (Credit to Erica Bohrer for the lovely paper for our cards!)

Today after lunch, we had a surprise visit from Mr. Doug and some Fairfax County police officers and firefighters! We were able to give them our cards and ask them LOTS of questions. We learned some new facts as well... ask your kindergartner why dalmatians are fire dogs or why lots of firemen have mustaches :)

It was such a special day celebrating these heroes and remembering all that they do for us. THANK YOU!

New Name News

Today we named our class pet fish! The Monkeys had been looking forward to this since visitation last week and had lots of great ideas. We made a list of possible names, then voted for our favorites. The students tried to think of names that "fit" our fish, who is a red Beta. Some of our very creative ideas included Strawberry, Rojo, Mr. Red Fish, Agent R and Rainbow. Here we are casting our votes:

Here is the ballot, after voting:

Rainbow was the favorite name, and the Monkeys chose it because our fish is red and red is the first color in the rainbow! We have decided his nickname will be "Bow" :) Here's our friend, Rainbow the red Beta!