Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Families:
Thank you to all of you who came with the class last week to Prospect Park to pick up leaves, rocks and acorns for our Scientific Unit of Study. It was such a nice day – one of the few that we may have left – and the kids just loved picking out unusual objects to write about. Believe me…they do love to write and love Writing Workshop.

When working in Kindergarten classrooms, it is easy to buy into the idea that little children cannot really articulate what they are trying to do as writers, and that they cannot really make plans and have intentions as writers. But that simply is not true! Five and six year old children absolutely want the chance to think about what they have already done, to imagine what they want to do, and to make deliberate choices and plans for how they will proceed. A good way to teach writing is to have the children think about their writing. This means, teaching kids how they can answer questions such as, "What are you working on as a writer?" and "What have you tried so far?" "How did it go?' "What were you thinking of doing next?" I love the scientific writing unit. We look at objects very very closely – even with magnifying glasses – and describe in detail what the object looks like and feels like. It is very distinct. I think it is important to show children how to go from KNOWING ABOUT to USING letters to communicate their stories. From their writing pieces so far, I know that they are ready to do this. After all, the only reason to learn about letters in the first place is because you have something to say. You know as well as I do how much they have to say!!!

I know that you can help them with this unit by looking at objects – such a leaves, shells, rocks and asking the children what they notice about the object. Is the rock bumpy? Is the shell swirly? What does the leaf look like? How big is the rock? Talk to the children so that they can really look and notice the various attributes of the objects and have something to write about when they are in Writing Workshop. By doing this it will make the children comfortable in knowing what to write about when the time comes for them to write. They will have several new adjectives in their repertoire.

I want to thank the parents who came into our class last Wednesday and participated in our Cooking with Our Buddies Project. The children made pumpkin cake with our Fourth Grade Buddies and absolutely loved it. They loved making the pumpkin cake (?), talking to their buddies and eating the pumpkin cake. It did not look appetizing at the time but when I tasted it, it was actually very good. The Fourth Graders were wonderful teachers and really helped the kids learn about measuring, cleaning up, etc. The kids really didn’t need us at all – RIGHT? Yet, it was so fun to watch them.

I also want to thank everyone for joining us to the trip to Prospect Park Zoo. We really had a ball. I am trying to upload the pictures that we took on our website and hopefully the pictures will be on soon. Even though the weather was a little daunting….I know the children loved the trip and looking at all the animals - as did all the parents who came with us. We have been really busy in Class K-207!!!

On Friday, one of our classmates – Sasha – left for a month long trip to Russia to pick up her new brother – Misha. We are sad that Sasha is not going to be with us for a month but we will be so excited to see Sasha and Misha when they return on December 22nd. I am sure that she will have many stories to tell us!

This week is our long Thanksgiving weekend. Our last day of school is Wednesday. We all have so much to be thankful for so I would like to celebrate Wednesday afternoon in Class K-207. The children and I have been discussing what we are thankful for. Some of our comments are "I am thankful for my mom," "I am thankful for my dad." "I am thankful for love," "I am thankful for my teachers.” Each child has something unique to say. I just love listening to each one. So I am making a Thanksgiving tree and will have each child put their own leaf (their handprint) on the tree and tell the class what they are thankful for. If you would like to come to our class at 1:30 on Wednesday afternoon to help us celebrate, you are more than welcome.

I am listing some of the things that we need to make this a wonderful celebration. Please send me a comment on this blog or e-mail - www.kindergarten.k207@gmail.com to let me know if you are able to come and participate in our celebration. If you notice that someone is not on the e-mail list, please make sure to spread the word.

I am taking this opportunity to thank all of you for the wonderful support you have given to me and to Class K-207. I want to thank you especially for the books purchased for our class from the Book Fair. It has been a wonderful three months. Happy Thanksgiving!
Fondly,
Ms. Graham

List of things needed:
cups and plates
forks
sliced turkey
cranberry sauce
juice
stuffing (?)
fruit
pies
any dessert

PS: The kindergarten teachers have a couple of theatre trips scheduled for December. More on this later.