Palio and Dinosaurs

 Happy Palio to our Kindergarten Class!  They did a great job showing their gym skills, and I was so proud of how much they learned.  They will honor and defend this flag for the next twelve years until they graduate from the Upper School in 2023!

We finished up our dinosaur reports this week by going to the Roycemore Computer Lab.  The Kindergartners loved being in the"big kid" room and each having a computer.  Each K-kid drew a picture of his/her dinosaur that he/she researched.  It is not easy to draw a picture using KidPix using the computer mouse, but the kids did a great job!  They also learned how to Google an image and found pictures of their dinosaurs to print.  We put the pictures together with their research done at home, and the informational and wonderful research reports are on display in the Kindergarten hallway!

The K-kids continued to learn about dinosaurs this week.  They learned about theories of why the dinosaurs are extinct and then wrote their own theories.  The K-kids also learned about the different types of fossils and made a "fossil" in salt dough.  They learned about paleontologists and dug for bones (pretzels) in the dirt (cookie).  They also created their own pretend dinosaur by giving it a name, deciding on what the dinosaur ate and what color it was, and adding special features to the dinosaurs (sharp teeth and claws, long tail, plates, etc.).  It was a fun and creative way to end the dinosaur unit!


We also had fun with Itouches in math class.  In pairs, the kids used the Itouches to "roll" up to five dice.  The child who had the higher sum won a chip, and the first child to win 10 chips won the game.  We were able to differentiate the game through the number of dice used and varying what won a chip (addition, subtraction, highest number or lowest number).  Each child also took a survey of the class using his own survey question that he created.  They walked around with clipboards and asked everyone the same question and wrote down the names in either the yes or no column.  Some of the Kindergartners then used that information to create a bar graph of the results.


In Writer's Workshop, the K-kids wrote fictional stories about dinosaurs.  They had to include a setting, at least two characters, and a problem and solution in the story.  They did a great job of creating a three page story that included a beginning, middle, and end.  I am excited to share your child's library with you at the end of the school year!

Have a wonderful and safe Spring Break!