nicholls kindergarten blog: Mouse Houses, Open Houses, and more

learning about how mice prepare for the winter

We had a full week which began with ECO and ended with ECO! Students had a wonderful time learning, exploring, and playing in our outdoor classroom. On Monday we had our introduction to ECO where students had an abbreviated lesson. We enjoyed a snack and story outside, learned about using our senses (deer ears, dear nose, owl eyes, and raccoon hands) to observe the world around us. Students have learned the expectations for listening (hay-hoe call and response), and gathering (when you hear the sound of the drum), we played predator and prey tag game, an enjoyed forest choice where students practiced using sticks safely. On Friday we spent our morning outdoors where students enjoyed a snack and story, setting the theme (Mouse Houses) of the day. We had fun singing and playing a game (Mouse House) together, students learned how a mouse would construct a nest for the winter and then had time to work on constructing their own mouse houses. We ended with forest choice where students played in the outdoor kitchen, played a math game called "Fire", continued builded mouse houses and, and exploring.

In literacy we learned about our first two vowels, i and u. We learned the sight word "the" and read a new sight word book titled Setting the Table. Students also developed their Hopes and Dreams for learning in Kindergarten. During Writers workshop, we worked on adding details to our writing through our illustrations.

In Math we learned about counting in vertical and horizontal arrays and matching numbers to quantities. Students are learning there are many ways to represent a number / quantity

We began preparing for our Fire Safety field trip, learning about fire safety. This week students learned: 1) Have two safe ways out of every room or building. 2) Get down low to crawl under the smock to find the exit. 3) Stop, Drop and Roll if you clothes catch on fire (never run). 4) call 911 in the event of an emergency. We practice on tractional phones, however I am aware many homes no longer have a land line. It might be worth going over how to dial on your cell phone (without actually doing it). As part of this discussion we talked about what constitutes and emergency and that we only dial 911 in the event of REAL emergency. It is recommended that students learn their address and phone numbers, so I encourage you to work on this at home with your child.

Our field trip is Monday morning. If you indicated you would like to chaperone (Rebecca, Terry, Mark, and Angela), please plan to be at the school at 8:00 am as we will be leaving at 8:10 to walk to the fire station. As of now, it is supposed to rain pretty heavily on Monday. It is possible we will be taking a bus, rather than walking. In the even rain, we will not be playing at the playground. As a chaperone, you will be asked to not only help with your own child, but may be asked to help with other children as well.

We had a great turn out for Open House Thursday evening. The children were so excited to have you visit their classroom and school! Many thanks for taking time out of your busy lives to support your children and their education.

Students painting leaves to decorate our windows before Open House.

Many have signed up for Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences on October 18th. If you have not signed up, please call the office at 888-3101 to schedule and appointment.

There will be a Community Dinner will be on Thursday, October 17th at 5:30 in the MES cafeteria. This is free dinner for all MES families, and is being hosted by the PUPS parent/teacher organization. There will be a brief presentation about PBIS and the book fair will be open for shopping.

Reminder: School is closed this Wednesday, October 9th.