Mrs. Crook's Classroom: February 2018

We have had an extremely festive week in our classroom. On Wednesday we had a great Valentine's Party! I want to give a huge thank you to the parents that were able to donate either food items or their time in our classroom to help us have a successful class party. The kids had such a good time and it was a very happy and friendly day four our classroom. During our party we played Valentine Bingo with pink, red, and white M&Ms and identified our numbers all the way up to 24! We also did some work with Conversation Hearts where the students were given a number and had to count out that many hearts. The energy in the room was incredibly high and everyone managed to go home with many special valentines. Also, the class did great on their Valentine's Day Performance with all of kindergarten. Thank you to the parents and family members that were able to be there and support us in our performance that morning.

Thursday wasn't a special occasion but it was a very nice day so we went outside and enjoyed some time with the parachute and the zip balls.

On Friday in class we learned about Chinese culture by celebrating Chinese (Lunar) New Year! Gung Hay Fat Choy is the new phrase for today. We welcomed the Year of the Dog today and discovered most of our class was born in the Year of the Dragon and some were born in the Year of the Rabbit. The students traced Chinese numbers and characters and also made some gorgeous dragon puppets.

In the afternoon we tasted and enjoyed some rice and pot stickers. While we were enjoying our food, we watched an interesting story of the order of the Zodiac animals for the Lunar Calendar. We also enjoyed seeing the Chinese New Year Parade that was held last year in San Francisco. What an exciting way to celebrate!

Our delicious Pot stickers

Holding the Chinese lanterns we made earlier this week during our Jobs and Choices time.

We definitely had a very festive week. This next week we have Monday as President's Day with no school. On Tuesday we are celebrating the 100th day of school and will be doing many fun things! Originally, I had said we would be having a dress-up day on that day BUT that is NOT HAPPENING at this point. Our activities on Tuesday will start first thing, so try to be on time.

Have a great three-day weekend!

It seems this week that the class has spent a lot of our learning time outside thanks to the wonderful sunny California weather we are having in the beginning of the 2018 year.
Last week, we harvested carrots from our school garden. On Monday, the class was able to enjoy a taste-testing session using the harvested Rainbow carrots. We discussed our 5 senses and tried an orange carrot, a purple carrot, a yellow carrot, and a white carrot. It was very interesting to taste the different colors because they each had their own flavor. The orange carrots were incredibly sweet, as opposed to the white carrots that tasted bitter. By the way, I learned this week that orange carrots were not the original ones, but that they were cross-bred with the yellow and red carrots in order to create the orange carrots that we purchase in the store today. Some of the expressions on the kids might tell you which carrot was being eaten as I took the pictures.

Carrots from top to bottom: Yellow, Orange, White, and Purple (which actually is orange underneath the purple skin)

We created a class graph to show our favorite colored carrots based on the flavor.... Orange is definitely the winner on this one!

In our new Jobs and Choices time we have been doing a lot of exploring and discovering. This week we looked at shells, made shapes on the geoboards, and put our engineering skills to the test with the Notch'ems.

On Wednesday of this week, we went back to the carrots. This time we tasted carrots inside of carrot cake muffins. We shared these with the fourth graders who helped us harvest and wash all of the carrots. Each kindergarten student was partnered up with a fourth grade student who helped them put their own frosting onto their cupcake. Then of course.... we ate our cupcakes in the beautiful sunshine!

Friday was extremely busy. Between our regular Friday things like library and ice cream day at lunch, and the extra things like a school assembly and Groundhog's Day, we were constantly going up until the very end of the day.

The character trait for the month of February is Trustworthy. All 4 kindergarten classes were the ones to introduce the trait to the whole school. We sang a fun little song that Ms. Brown and I wrote together. It goes to the tune of "B-I-N-G-O." Encourage your child to sing this song to you and talk about how they can be trustworthy at home and at school.

T-R-U-S-T

To the tune of "BINGO"

There is a girl who tells the truth

when teachers ask her questions

T-R-U-S-T

Her answers are so truthful.

There is a boy who tells the truth

to all his friends and neighbors

T-R-U-S-T

And everyone believes him.

We also had two students in our class receive certificates for being responsible, which was our character trait for the month of January. Congratulations! Keep up the great work!

Groundhog's Day 2018 Report --- Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow. That means 6 more weeks of winter! The class was very excited to watch Phil come out of his little burrow and then we made some hats to celebrate the day.

To end the day, we enjoyed some more of that wonderful sunshine and found our own shadows. We talked about how when we change direction that our shadow has a different location, depending on where we are in relation to the sun. The class also had the chance to trace each others shadows and it was a great way to end the week.