Woods Exploring

Hello Families,
     On Monday we took a short walking trip into the woods right behind school to look for ways that  the woods environment had changed from October.  We were lucky to still have snow on the ground at that point and found tracks right away.  Then we were very lucky to discover that beavers had been busy in the stream and on land in the woods.  We investigated a tree that had been chewed on, a beginning of a lodge being built and spots where the beavers had climbed out of the stream and moved around on land.  We were so excited!  Then we went up into the fields and rolled some gigantic snowballs and formed a caterpillar.  As we were walking back towards Mary Hogan to get ready for dismissal, a Kindergartner spoke up and said, "Hey Mrs. Schondube, we can change the environment, too, with all our snowballs we made in the field!"  Connections are so awesome!

Welcome December!

Hello Families,
     I know that December is going to fly by so I wanted to let you know some important dates coming up for our students.  This Thursday the 5th is the Readathon Closing Celebration at 8:45 in the gym.  Parents are welcome to join us and the children are invited to wear their Mary Hogan t-shirts.  There is an all school meeting on December 12th so students can wear their t-shirts that day, too!  Spirit wear...I love it!  The Mary Hogan Winter Sing Along is on December 19th at 1:30 in the gym.  Parents are welcome to attend this event, as well.
     During the next few weeks, we will be finishing up our learning of all the lower case letters of the alphabet and ending our unit, How the World Works.  Our focus in this unit has been how living things can change the environment.  We just watched a video of a man building a cabin in the woods by himself and discussed what he would need to survive.  The Kindergartners asked some thoughtful questions and really showed curiosity about this idea!  Next we will be watching a video about beavers and thinking about how they change the environment and why.  Finally, the students will work together to brainstorm some ideas about how other living things change their environment.  They are being inquirers!
     Our December calendar has us thinking about positional words (behind, under, beside, etc) and how to know if a number is a double.  Finally, I am going to share a picture of a world map that I posted in the classroom to follow the travels of a Middlebury College student named Thi.  She was interested in sharing her story with us as she embarked on a semester at sea.  She sent us postcards and we posted red stars on the map to show where she was in the world.  The students really enjoyed receiving postcards in the mail!  I hope to have Thi come visit our classroom when she returns.