Here comes December!

We are back into the swing of things after our first full week back after Thanksgiving break.  Read on to find out what we're up to!

Revisiting Community Helpers - Kinders have been revisiting their learning about community helpers by thinking about tools they use in their helping job.  We will continue to weave this learning into literacy and math in order to solidify their understanding of our community and the people who make it wonderful!

Shapes Study - Team 111 has been learning all about shapes!  This week we learned about triangles, rectangles, and a special kind of rectangle called a square.  Kinders learned some important information about each shape:

• how many sides
• how many corners/angles
• how many points/vertices
• is it flat?

We will continue to learn about both 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional shapes in the weeks to come before our holiday break.

What can you make on a geoboard using only triangles, rectangles, and squares?

The Season on Gingerbread - Our season of gingerbread learning kicked off last week as we had a Team 111 parent join us as a guest reader.  Miss Loren also showed us how to make a fun gingergread craft!  Kinders loved decorating their hot cocoa mugs and gingerbread people to dunk in their "cocoa."  We just love crafts!  Look how cute our gingerbread people came out!  Thank you, Miss Loren, for joining us!  We look forward to a few other guest readers and/or crafters who will be joining us too.  :)

Learning About Preferences with Mr. B - Mr. B joined us for another guidance lesson last week during which we learned about the word preference.  He introduced us to his friend, Jack, pictured below.  :)  Jack helps us to think about feelings and interactions as he models different stituations and behaviors for us.  We also read the book One of Us to see what happens when kids welcome differences in others.  

Afternoon Choice Time Continues - Rich learning through play happens every time we open the door to the choice time options.  I caught a few kinders challening themselves to building they tallest marble works tower they could!  

Ask your kinder:

• What are some shapes you are learning about at school?
• What are vertices on a shape?
• Why is a square a special kind of rectangle?
• How many sides/corners/vertices does a triangle/rectangle/square have?
• What happens in the story of the Gingerbread Man?  (They should include the WHO, WHERE, what happened FIRST, THEN, and LAST.)
• What are you working on drawing and writing in your narrative during writer's workshop?

Reminders:

• SURPRISE (please keep it a secret) Gingerbread Party on Thursday, December 21st - Stay tuned for an email looking for donations of needed items if you would like to contribute.  All families are welcome!!
• December 8th - Family Movie Night, 5:00PM, BES Gym
• December 25th - January 1st - Holiday Break
• Please label winter clothing/jackets! I am already compiling a collection of misplaced hats, mittens, etc. that are unclaimed in the classroom. It is super helpful if you are able to put your child's name or initials on the tags of such items using permanent marker. Thank you!