Student-Led Conferences - Thank You!!

Thank you all for your amazing support during Student-Led Conferences. It was so fun to be in the background listening to your children proudly share their learning. I hope you were as impressed as I am with all their progress this year! That includes not just academic progress, but progress in confidence and courageousness as well.  I tried to get at least one photo of each of you. Enjoy!

Created with flickr slideshow.

**Reminder!! Don't forget our Music Showcase, which is happening this Friday, June 2 at 12:15 in the music room.

KG Music Showcase - Mark Your Calendars!

You should have already received an invitation to this in your child's green bag, but as a reminder:

Community Events Unit of Inquiry

We have been so busy in KG-B that it's getting hard to keep up! Last week you all received a newsletter that provided some detailed information regarding our last units of study. In case you missed that, you can find it here:

As part of this unit and to celebrate our wonderful teaching assistant, Winta, we planned a surprise birthday party for this past Monday morning. Last Friday afternoon, Winta was out of our classroom, which provided the perfect opportunity for us to work as a community to organize this event. We worked together to determine our roles and responsibilities, and then we got to work. Small groups of children made decorations, signs, gifts, and even planned a massage station! They felt that Winta needed a place to relax and put her feet up. Some children were so excited that they even worked over the weekend on hand-made gifts and treats. Andrew was especially motivated and took action at home that resulted in a whole backpack full of surprises!

As community event organizers, we knew that we needed to make it a true surprise, and you would be proud that it was kept just that. Winta was sent off to fetch some things from the supply room on Monday morning, and meanwhile we quickly set up the room. When she returned she was astounded to see balloons, decorations, treats, and a table full of paper gifts (including a small paper cup and several paper airplanes. 😀)

We were also so lucky to have another birthday to celebrate on Monday! Jude had his special celebration in the afternoon, and this offered us an opportunity to reflect on how the roles and responsibilities of this party may have differed from Winta's party.

Both last week and this week we have also had the opportunity to hear from Mr. Nathan, one of our P.E. teachers, about how Play Day is organized,

and then from Ms. Marcel in the Communications Office about creating signs to advertise and invite people to events.

We are looking forward to continuing exploring this unit of inquiry. 

We also recently began a new writing unit, which we will continue learning about throughout the rest of the year. This unit is on persuasive writing. The past week and a half we have been looking at how it's not just enough to wish our problems away, but that we can also try to write them away. We have made signs, written letters, created songs, and designed lists to address different problems we have seen at home and at school. Please be prepared to see letters coming home that may address something your child views as a problem, and also be prepared to receive letters in a bit of time that may try to persuade you to do something. Even if you aren't persuaded enough to act on what your child is asking, commend him/her for the writing coming home and for taking action!

In addition to all the above learning, we have continued to extend our learning and make decisions about areas in which we'd like to grow. One opportunity we have to do this throughout the day is during I/E (Intervention/Extension) time. On a couple days of the week we have some volunteers that come to our classroom and offer a listening center. Ms. A. (an ICS parent reader volunteer) comes every Monday, and the past several Wednesdays we have had the pleasure of welcoming Ms. Nicole, Andrew's mom. Yesterday her read-aloud center was a big hit and most of the class chose to listen to her stories. Many thanks to Nicole for volunteering!

Finally, a reminder that Student Led Conferences are fast approaching (next Tuesday and Wednesday). Information on how to sign up for a conference time has been sent via email. Please sign up as soon as you are able so we can adequately prepare for your visit. We can't wait to share our growth!

Fabric Expo & Fashion Show

Thank you all for attending our KG Fabric Expo and Fashion Show! What a great demonstration of learning. It is always wonderful to see students so excited to share their knowledge, and we were honored that you could come and support us. We hope you had as much fun as we did.

We have lots of photos to share. Please click on the slideshow below if you want to access any to save. The ICS Communications department took photos of the fashion show as well, so once I have access to those I will be sure to share.

Created with flickr slideshow.

Reminder: Fabric Expo & Fashion Show Tomorrow!

Kindergarten Fabric Expo & Fashion Show

Tomorrow, Friday, April 28 at 8:30 am

We will begin with the Expo in our classroom, during which time students will teach all about fabric in relation to our unit of inquiry. This will be followed by our Kindergarten Fashion Show in the Community Commons. The whole celebration should wrap up around 9:30 or 9:45. This is certainly an event you won't want to miss! We look forward to sharing and celebrating our learning with you.

**We ask that your child comes to school dressed in his/her fashion show outfit. 

Please email me if an exception needs to be made for your child to change just before the show.

We've Been Busy!

We have had so many great learning engagements lately, that it's hard to keep up! Here are a few highlights:

Visiting Author David Greenberg 

We had the amazing opportunity to learn from author David Greenberg last week. Mr. Greenberg has written many books, mostly consisting of poetry. We had our own special kindergarten session full of giggles and smiles.

Some of us also attended a special after school session that Mr. Greenberg offered for families. Once again, smiles and laughter filled the room.

Mr. Greenberg inspired us to become published authors ourselves and we are motivated to continue writing and sharing our ideas.

Unit of Inquiry:

We have also had many special guests visit kindergarten to address various aspects of our unit of inquiry on fabric.

Amira's mom taught us all the ins and outs of making clothes: 

Ricky's mom taught us about Chinese clothing:

Chinonso's mom and friend introduced us to Nigerian clothes:

Ms. Monday talked all about Tanzanian clothing:

Aimee's mother showed us what Dutch clothing looks like:

Eliab's mother came and share Ethiopian clothing with us:

Ms. Sonja from EC3 taught us all about knitting:

And Morgan's mother introduced us to the sewing machine:

Through all this wonderful sharing we have been exposed to so many ideas regarding fabric and its various uses. We have learned a lot about cultural and environmental influences on fabric. Additionally, we have done a number of experiments in class to explore the properties and design of fabric. With the information we discovered, we have been able to predict different places fabrics are used.

We explored the words "waterproof" and "absorb":

'Breathability':

'Woven' & 'Knitted' Fabrics:

'Transparency':

'Dying':

.... and so many others that it's too many to post!!

Lastly, one of the best parts of this exploration has been the action individual students have taken to discover and expand their understanding even more. Our classroom has been a flurry of activity each afternoon involving sewing, learning to knit, and making clothes for babies and toys. 

We can't wait to show off our learning during Friday's Expo and Fashion Show!

Sabahar

We have had some really engaging learning experiences pertaining to our current unit of inquiry lately. I will talk about more of them in a later post, but first I want to highlight one that was a bit hit.

We had the wonderful opportunity of going to Sabahar this week. Sabahar is a company that makes handmade Ethiopian textiles. These textiles are handmade with natural fibers, including cotton and silk. You can learn more about Sabahar by clicking here.

Our field trip began with a great presentation focused on different fabrics. Sophie, from Sabahar, showed us examples of clothing made from cotton, wool, leather, silk, and polymers (oil & plastic). This gave us a bit more background on the variety of sources from which fabrics are made, and helped us to think a bit more about what makes each fabric source unique. 

We then had the opportunity to help weavers in their work to produce scarves, rugs and table runners. In class we had learned about the warp and woof involved in weaving, and we even tried weaving ourselves on small cardboard squares, but our field trip provided the opportunity to help make a real product! We also helped spin thread and learned that traditionally in Ethiopia, woman do the spinning while men do the weaving.

After spending some time in the weaving and spinning room, we were taken outside where we learned more about the dying process. It was amazing to find out that the colors on our clothes come from natural sources such as coffee, cactus buds, flowers, and even onion skins.

We were each given a square of fabric and had the opportunity to dye our fabric.

  

Next, we learned how silk is made. We learned about the life cycle of a silk worm, beginning with the egg:

Giggles and squeals then filled the air as we had the opportunity to hold silkworms (which we learned are actually caterpillars). Many of us were a bit scared, but we decided to be courageous and of course were so glad we were! We found the silkworms to be sticky and learned that they stick to the bottom of leaves to protect themselves from predators.

Sophie told us how the silkworms eat leaves for nearly 45 days, getting bigger and bigger until they are ready to metamorphoses. To do so, they produce silk that comes out from their bottom lip, which they then spin around themselves until they are completely covered. They stay in their cocoons for two weeks before emerging as moths.

The silk we use to make fabric comes from the cocoons, which are boiled and then unwound. It was interesting to learn that while silk seems like it would be very delicate, silk threads are actually very strong! 

We ended our visit by comparing silk to cotton, and even had a chance to examine the two together. 

We have already taken so much of what we have learned from our field trip to Sabahar and applied it to our classroom learning. I captured some wonderful photos of this experience, so please do take the time to click on this link and view more of our photos.