3 D Gingerbread Houses

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Thanks so much everyone for coming into Kindergarten to help us create our 3 D houses!  All of our creations are on an oval plate.  We had fun designing our new houses.

Snowshoeing Fun!

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This afternoon we blazed through a new trail!  We had fun walking up a steep hill with our snowshoes and we noticed how if our bodies lean into the hill it is easier to walk.  We checked on our tree.  It is the same size, but it has lots of snow on it.  We noticed that you can see a lot from the top of a hill.

We made a connection with the Global Goals.  We were getting lots of exercise this afternoon which helps our heart and our muscles become strong.  That matches Global Goal #3 Health and Well Being

A Celebration of Learning

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Today we had another celebration of learning.  We were celebrating the forest.  Thanks so much to everyone for visiting Kindergarten today and for your generous donations of food.  We are grateful for you!

Hour of Code

This morning Mrs. Birdsall visited Kindergarten.  This month is when we recognize The Hour of Code!  This is a time when students globally can explore code and think about why it is important and how it helps us with our learning.

Today we explored with Daisy the Dinosaur!  

Look here to get the app.

The children shared that coding helps us...

think mathematically

problem solve

collaborate

learn something new

laugh and have fun

learn how to give directions and program

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Kindness Challenge!

This month we are participating in the Kindness/Empathy Challenge sponsored by @Empatico0.  Look for our Tweets tagged with #sparkempathy.

Through this experience we are observing and thinking that empathy is.....
1. It's important to help everyone be happy.
2. It can help people believe in themselves.
3. It is contagious...  others will be inspired to be kind.
4. We feel good inside when we show empathy.
5. Everyone in the world can collaborate together in showing empathy.

Snowshoeing Fun!

Snow in Vermont!

Snowshoeing

This afternoon we were able to snowshoe this afternoon.  It was a great experience.  We learned how to put our snowshoes on and off.  We also learned how to take care of them.  

We have our snowshoes because of a grant from the Vermont NEA.

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Thanks Vermont NEA!

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Today our new literacy materials arrived.  We have all kinds of new literacy games because of a grant we received from the VT NEA.  Thanks so much!
Our new games will help us.....
become strong readers
strengthen our phonological awareness
reinforce letter recognition and sounds
explore rhyming
think about sounds at the beginning and end of words
books that we can read

Gingerbread Engineering Challenge!

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This afternoon we explored how to get our gingerbread person down the river without getting wet.  We tried different boat designs.  
We noticed....
1. The more we blew at our boats, the more waves we created so some of our people got wet from the waves.
2. Tin foil is light and easy to create with.  It also floats.
3. Clay is heavier and our boats made of clay sank.
4. Plastic floats.
5.  We collaborated and shared ideas with each other.
6. We had fun.  Everyone was able to share their idea.
7. We liked reflecting in our new journals about what we did.

Global Goal #2 Zero Hunger

Zero Hunger: Gloabl Goal #2

This afternoon we walked to our local food shelf to drop off 3 wagons full of food.  We are exploring how to help people get food who are hungry.  As we explore this goal over the next 2 months we look forward to learning about food, where it comes from and what others in our community do to help people who are hungry.

Please add to our padlet.  What is in your lunch?

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Monday in the Woods

Monday in the Woods

In the afternoon we walked up the hill to look at our class tree.  We noticed the following things;

1. The tree has roots above the ground.

2. It has lots of branches.

3. We saw a bird's nest in the tree.

4. Our tree has no leaves.

5. The tree has bark that is different colors.

6. You can see the town from our tree.

We wonder.....

1. What happens to the birds?

2. We wonder how far the tree roots grow?

3. We wonder if the tree roots are part of other trees.

4. We are thinking about if the tree gets cold in winter.

5. What animals live in our tree?

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Using @skypeclassroom to connect!

This morning we had an opportunity to have a conversation with a forest ranger in Yellowstone National Park.  We used @Skypeclassroom as a way to connect.

We learned about what we can do to help the forests.

We can:

spend time in the forest

learn about the forest and what lives there

care about the forest

learn about trees

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Creating Forest Animals!

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Ms. SThis morning we painted our rabbits.  We are also creating non fiction pages for our books about rabbits.  Our books are called:"All About Rabbits".  All About books tell about 1 topic that we know a lot about. Ms. Sylvan also visited Kindergarten today and sang with us.

Kindergarten Life

Today we enjoyed a wonderful story about the life cycle of a tree.  We were able to create paper mache rabbits for our non fiction writing too! We are becoming keen observers also.  We notice letters and words everywhere!

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World Kindness Day!

World Kindness Day!

Today we celebrated World Kindness Day!  We decided that kindness is important because....

1. When you are kind you feel great and other people do too!

2. Kindness means everyone is happy.

3. You want to collaborate and learn things when you are happy.

4. You are kind to the forest.

5. If we are kind then others in the world will be kind.

6. When we learn about the forest we are being kind because we care about the forest.

7. We love the world.

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Scientific Drawings of Seeds!

We have been exploring seeds and where they are from.  On our padlet we noticed a pomegranate seed.  We learned that they grow on trees like apples in Portugal.  One of our students brought a pomegranate in for us to explore.  
We noticed they have...
1. a hard seed coat
2. inside they have lots of seeds
3. the seeds are red and juicy.
4. We think they need warm soil to grow.

A Visit To Shelburne Farms

What a beautiful day we had today at Shelburne Farms.  The children enjoyed exploring the forest, collaborating and finding patterns. Today we noticed seasonal changes and made predictions about what the trees might look like through the seasons.. 

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Global Goal #15 Life On Land

This morning we spent lots of time creating informational pages for our tree books.  Informational pages give real information about something real.  We are exploring non fiction writing in Kindergarten.  As we explore the life of a tree we are learning about the different types, what they need and how important it is to find ways to sustain the forests for the world so everyone can enjoy them.

During our writing time we are learning how to sound out words and stretch words out.  We are trying to leave spaces in between words too.  This helps us read what we wrote.  Our illustrations are labeled like scientists and we have lots of detail and color in our pictures.  This helps make our meaning clear.

Creating A Forest......

Today we began our new unit of writing... non-fiction.  
We think that non-fiction writing is writing that: is about real things, the words tell a true story, you can have real photographs or drawings, some drawings might be scientific, you can learn something new.

Our forest is beginning to develop as well.  We have different types of trees and are exploring tree features and what animals live in a tree.

HuggAPlanet Visits Kindergarten!

Today Robert from Hugg A Planet visited Kindergarten.  He share virtue cards with us and talked about what virtue is.  We learned that a virtue is something specific abut you as a person.  Some of our virtues are happy, positive, collaborative and we also persevere.

Robert has also spoke at the United Nations about taking care of the world.  We were super proud to share the things we are doing in Kindergarten!

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Outdoor Exploration

Monday in the Woods

On Monday we enjoyed the beautiful weather.  We noticed the seasonal changes of Fall.  The children enjoyed noticings of Fall and signs of Fall.  We also noticed that things in nature have lots of patterns.

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Creating Our Pledges For The Global Goals

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This morning we created a pledge to help the world.  We are exploring the Global Goals For Sustainability.  Even in Kindergarten young children care and want to collaborate together to solve problems.