Kindergator Update 8.31


We did lots of STEMming this week. That acronym stands for Science Technology Engineering and Math. STEM activities are a way to explore math and science concepts during a task that involves the engineering process: Identifying a problem, brainstorming solutions, creating a design and model, testing the design and then reflecting on how well you did. For the children it is learning through exploration which is always fun but my favorite part is that it teaches children to approach the idea of mistake as something to me learned from not feared and involves perseverance to complete the task. This week we became toy engineers and designed a child’s toy that had to include at least 3 types of materials (wood/paper, metal, plastic, foam/ rubber or rock.) We used our STEM skills to represent our American flag with paper, plastic or ink and had a great time seeing which material would stay afloat as we piled it high with weights. Check out the pictures on the BLOG to see some of what we did.

For Reading: We used our real reading skills to learn about flags and the pledge of allegiance. We continued working on blending sounds.
For Math: We began our unit on shapes by bending lines into closed figures. We threw away the word diamond as a shape word and replaced it with rhombus. We learned about the words angles and sides.
For Writing: We worked hard on stretching our words like slow motion robots with rubber band hands. That means saying the whole word super slowly to hear all the sounds in the word. This is a great technique to help them hear the vowels that glue the other sounds together.
For Leader in Me: We worked on habit #5 “Seek First to Understand and Then Be Understood” by learning how to be active listeners with eyes open and facing the talker to see their feelings, ears to hear their words, mouths closed and body calm and facing the talker. This lesson had a great impact on our students and we noticed them using some of this during their partner activities and group work. We also studied habit 6 “Synergie” and practiced good group working strategies.

Vocabulary: design, synergize, angle, line, side, symbol, pledge

Big Things:
We sent home a Labor Day Coupon Book with your child. Look for it. It has goodies for you inside it.

Thank You To:
Landon, Elle, Sarah Kate Jaliegh, and Olivia for earning STAR behavior!
Mrs. Morales, Mr. Beeman, and everyone else for sending in the solo ups. I am posting pics from the projects this weekend.
Harper J for amazing tenacity as she stayed with her FLAG STEM project through many trials and reflections until it represented all she wanted.
Grant and Gustavo for great partnering and sharing of ideas during the toy building process.
Grant and Gustavo for amazing artwork in art class that Mrs. Stoddard was blown away by.
Elle and Olivia for great problem solving skills in their alligator buddy model.
Dilan for being a great equipment manager on the playground.
All the kids who dressed up as careers to help us learn about Labor Day. I am so excited about how many future doctors we have coming up who said they will absolutely treat all my ailments for free!!
Have a great weekend!

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