a holistic pre-school and kindergarten

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

News of the Day 1/31/2012

The King Cobra and the Cobra Temple
Today we...
- drew at the big table
- completed a United States puzzle
- played Mastermind
- played cobras and coyotes
- played wizard family- had Piano with Britta (see piano blog for homework)
Outside we...
- played dragon warriors
- played broccolis (a hard to define game!)
This afternoon we...
- had Math Workshop - We estimated the number of cubes used in objects we made out of snap cubes- continued reading "Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things"
***Sorry I haven't done this in a while but here are some prompting question to ask you child about the book:
1) What is Alvin's problem at school? (he can't talk!)
2) What are Alvin's brother and sister's names? (Calvin and Anibelly)

3) Who is Alvin's desk buddy? (Flea) What is her real name? (Sophie)

4) What is a PDK? (Personal Disaster Kit)

***Reading Conferences Today: Nina and Otis

"Little Books" are a favorite after lunch activity

Monday, January 30, 2012

News of the Day 1/30/2012

This morning we...
- made a house out of snap cubes for a little bear family
- drew pictures at the big table
- had Español con Teal (duro=hard / blando=soft)
- played lava princesses
- opened up the water table and experimented with water and air pressure
Outside we...
- played magic makers and helper owl
- played space martians
- played mommy, baby, and babysitter
This afternoon we...
- practiced sitting meditation
- continued on with "Alvin Ho"

***Reading Conferences Today- Jonah and Lily

Friday, January 27, 2012

News of the Day 1/27/2012

Today we...
- worked with play dough
- read "Where's Tumpy"
- ate space fish, apples, and cheesers
- played babies
- played doggies
- built a rocket ship (including fire!)
- built a space station that went up to space
- had a band and played a concert

Thursday, January 26, 2012

News of the Day 1/26/2012

Today we...
- made a big line across the big table with multilink snap cubes
- read "On the Day You Were Born"
- celebrated Felix's birthday
- ate apples, cheesers, and space fish
- built a rocket ship, and Pluto, and searched for space treasure
- played doggies
Outside we...
- tried to make water by chopping ice
- were garbage collectors

Monday, January 23, 2012

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Vampire Weekend - A-Punk



I told the kindergarteners that I would post this. We've been listening to it during clean up the past couple of weeks. "Real" rock n' roll has been a frequent request.

Friday, January 13, 2012

News of the Day 1/13/2012


Today we...
- drew with thick markers at the big table. We cut and punched holes as well
- completed all of the body puzzles
- read "The Emperor of Absurdia"
- ate popcorn and apples
- built a giant Cookiebot out of unit block, small hollow blocks, big hollow blocks, tubes, cubes, pictures and lots of other things. The Panda Family controlled Cookiebot
- played babies, doggies, and kitties. The babies had to go to the doctor for shots!
Outside we...
- were snowplows for the fresh falling snow.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

A Snowy Day

News of the Day 1/12/2011

Today we...
- made tickets for the Panda Express
- had water bottle greeting. This has quickly become our favorite Morning Meeting greeeting!
- read "The Golden Snail"
- ate popcorn and apples
- built the Panda Express out of unit, small hollow, and large hollow blocks. We all went for a ride
- played babies
- read "In the Night Kitchen"
Outside we...
- were road and sidewalk plows
- played snow shop
- are snow!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Space Cadet Topo (Take 2: You Gotta Ask Computron!)

Space Cadet Topo (Take 1: Blair Witch re-mix)

News of the Day 1/11/2011

Today we...
- copied pictures from Rowan's Ed Emberley drawing book
- read "Space Cadet Topo"
- spent ALL morning acting out the Topo story. We all took part, playing one of the characters. We then made up our own Topo story to act out. We had a GREAT(!) morning building the sets, figuring out who would play what character, and then acting out the story.
Outside we...
- played dragons
This afternoon we...
- had Math Workshop. We explored with interlocking cubes, and used the cubes as a jumpstart to talk about number, geometric design, and symmetry

Reading Conferences Today: Rowan and Zora

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

News of the Day 1/10/2011

Today we...
- drew and wrote at the big table
- played Number Dice
- had Morning Meeting with Arlo! We attempted our first spider web greeting in quite some time
- played sisters and school
- had Piano with Britta (check the Piano with Britta blog for lesson)
Outside we...
- Zambonied the ice and then skates and slid
- played babies
- played with the rainbow ribbon wands
This afternoon we...
- had afternoon Explore Time
- practiced sitting meditation
- continued "Polar the Titanic Bear"

Reading Conferences Today: Nina and Otis

Monday, January 9, 2012

Funga Practice


Our practice went so well I thought people should get a chance to see it!

News of the Day 1/9/2011

This morning we...
- drew at the big table
- had Español con Teal (praticed hard= duro/ soft= blando/ big= grande/ small= pequeño)
- played school (interestingly enough!)
- played The Enchanted Forest board game
- played stop light
Outside we...
- practiced skating on the driveway ice
- had a skating show
This afternoon we...
- looked through "My Big Backyard
- tried sitting meditation for our 1st time (we say for 2 minutes and concentrated on our breathing and counted our last ten breaths to ourselves)
- continued "Polar the Titanic Bear"

Reading Conferences Today: Jonah and Lily

Friday, January 6, 2012

News of the Day 1/6/2011

Today we...
- drew, cut, and punched holes in and on paper
- read "A Night at the Museum" twice
- sang songs and danced
- ate pretzels and carrots
- played penguin and doggy neighbors
- played supers
- figured out how the supers, penguins, and doggies could all get along!
Outside we...
- dug more snow and played Team Powder again

Thursday, January 5, 2012

News of the Day 1/5/2011

Today we...
-drew pictures and wrote notes at the big table
- had water bottle greeting at Hello Meeting.
We have Hello Meeting with different greetings as a way to make connections as we begin our day. During water bottle greeting, everyone puts their water bottle into the middle of our circle. The snack bringer (meeting leader) then starts the greeting by picking a water bottle out and saying "good morning ____" to its owner. The greeting then continues on until we get back to the snack bringer.
- read "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble"
- ate crackers and clementines
- played Pandas. We built a house AND a trap for the pandas
- played babies
- played Super Fox!
Outside we...
- played in the SNOW!!!
- were the Powder Team








Powder Team!






Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Roll Call

Who's reading?

News Of The Day 1/4/2012

Otis demonstrates the disappearing cloth magic trick

Today we...
- had a "soft opening"
- practiced and performed a magic trick
- built a boat out of blocks
- listened to Nina share a special book and then questioned and commented
- played doggy and kitty
- worked on more musical instruments
- illustrated scenes for the boat play
Outside we...
- bounced on the big plank
- played hospital
This afternoon we...
- continued reading "Polar"

Reading Conferences Today: Rowan and Zora










Tuesday, January 3, 2012

News of the Day 1/3/2011

Today we...
- worked on homemade musical instruments and performed a rock n' roll show
- created designs with the small peg board
- played rescue ship
- had Piano with Britta (we were introduced to the D note and practiced our fingerings)
-Outside we...
- turned the long plank into a bouncy "diving" board
- found ice crystals
This afternoon we...
- created alphabet guessing games
- had Writing Workshop
- continued reading "Polar the Titanic Bear"

Reading Conferences Today: Nina and Otis

Monday, January 2, 2012

The Cat Came Back

News of the Day 1/2/2011

Today we...
- were so happy to see each other
- made maps and used to stencils to create designs
- read "Rapunzel"
- built a fortress and town out of blocks
- played Rapunzel
- looked at "Your Big Backyard" magazine and worked on some activities that we found within
- added 10's and counted to 100 by 10
Outside we...
- played babies
- captured hail
This afternoon we...
- played card games
- started reading "Polar the Titanic Bear"

Reading Conferences Today: Jonah and Lily