Popsicles

We filled our button jar and celebrated with popsicles! 

Happy Mother's Day!

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=CO6dNtec7oc



Click on the link above to view the class singing our Mother's Day song. Super cute and heart warming. We love our mommies!

Happy Mother's Day!

The Fine Arts Festival

We had a great time today at the Fine Arts Festival. We began our day by visiting the planetarium. It was a highlight for sure! We learned about stars, planets and constellations.

After that, we went to the auditorium for a personal workshop with the performers from Poetry Live! We got to be on stage and perform. What fun!

Here are links to videos of our performances.

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=dOl8lG4TA_E


https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=ty0DTXtVTiI

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=WE41aq42Smg


https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=zfi6XKxG-cg


We also enjoyed our picnic lunch and walking through the art gallery.

Pulley, inclined planes and twin day!

We are continuing our study about forces and movement by learning about the six simple machines. On Monday we explored pulleys. We were very excited to lift things up to the ceiling  - we tried our stuffed animals, water bottles, markers and basically everything we could fit in the pail. We were very excited when Andrew set up a pulley system with two pulleys, then three pulleys, then four pulleys!

On Tuesday we did some explorations using inclined planes. We built our own using a piece of cardboard and two pieces of tape. I loved seeing the different ways kids chose to make their ramps. They were very creative and kept trying new arrangements. We tested them out with ping pong balls and toy cars.

It was twin day too! We made matching t-shirts on Monday to wear. We had to write our names 15 times!

Green Up Day - Kindergarten style

Today we experienced our first Green Up day at school. We cleaned up the :big kids" playground. It was quite messy and we found a lot of trash. Then, we played outside for a few minutes - on the big playground  - what a treat!

The Force Olympics

Yesterday and today, we have worked on the force Olympics. This has given us a great introduction to forces and their interactions. Our objective was to conduct an investigation to compare the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object. We did this by learning about work words such as scrub, lift, mix, drill,dig, shove and move We learned that machines make our work easier. Then we got to pretend we were digging machines.

Today we learned about the Berlin wall and tried to think about how they could knock it down without damaging the apartment buildings that were very close to it. We talked about using a hammer or a wrecking ball. Then we got to play a game called Don't crush that house! It was super fun! Many kids were really focused on the amount of force they could use without knocking the houses down.

Oh, and my son Andrew came for a visit during Science and Choice time today. It was a highlight for sure!

Pushes and Pulls

We are continuing our study of pushes and pulls. We are discovering that  friction and gravity have an an affect on how easy it is to push or pull objects. In the pictures you will see us trying some things out. We decided that wheels make it easier to push things. We also decided that the rug had more friction that the linoleum floor.

Field trip to the Echo Center

Despite the cloudy and windy weather, we had a wonderful trip to the Echo Center on the Burlington waterfront. We truly enjoyed the Butterflies Live! exhibit. There were so many different kinds of butterflies and many of us had some new friends land on us. We spent a lot of time exploring Champ Lane which is an interactive science discovery center for kids that are our age. What fun!
Again, thanks to all of the chaperones.

Our Publishing Party

Wow! We had so many visitors in our room to read our how-to books. We really enjoyed sharing our work and hearing what was written on our compliments page. Thanks to all of the parents that joined us and listened to many books.

Pinwheels with Mrs. Haddock

Mrs. Haddock brought us a surprise this week! After she read us the book When the Wind Stops, she told us to close our eyes. When we opened them, there was a pinwheel for each of us. We talked about trying out different ways to get the pinwheel to move - we tried blowing upside down, from the side, the top, dancing and waving our arms.

Rats!

On Friday afternoon, we enjoyed the play Rats! that was put on by some very talented 4th, 5th and 6th graders. We were so excited to see some of our big partners on stage!

Rechenka's Eggs

Mrs. Haddock visited us on Wednesday. She read a favorie book called Rechenka's Eggs by Patricia Pollacco. Mrs. Haddock brought in some sample eggs for us to see - real goose and emu eggs that were hollowed out and painted.

After the story, we set up a science experiment to see what would happen to an egg that sits overnight in vinegar? We checked in on Thursday and the egg was covered with bubbles and was floating. We let it sit one more day and then noticed that the shell was gone! we all enjoyed feeling the egg - it was slimy and bounced a little bit. It also grew in size!

Four Winds - wind and clouds

On Wednesday, we had Four Winds with Mrs. Corrigan and Ms. Maura.  This month's topic was wind and clouds. We watched a puppet show and then made a cloud chart so we can remember three types of clouds - stratus, cumulus and cirrus. Then we got to go outside to figure out which way the wind as blowing using compass directions and bubbles! Our next activity was a highlight - Ms. Maura used a hair dryer and a pinwheel to move a caribiner clip up and down.

Cookie celebration

We filled our button jar again and voted to make some chocolate chip cookies. This activity tied right in to our studies this week. We are learning about the ch digraph, such as in chocolate, and chip. We are also learning about tools used for measuring capacity such as measuring spoons and cups.
The cookies were delicious!