Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with family and friends!

Author Visit

 Judith Jango-Cohen came to Steward to tell us about her adventures as a non-fiction author.  Several of our students were called on to help her teach us about some of the animals she has researched.

Happy Halloween

We had a wonderful time at our Halloween celebration.  Thank you all for coming and watching our parade and for sending in supplies for our party.  Special thanks to Mrs. Addonizio and Mrs Soward for organizing our special day and to Mrs. Staley for her help on the day of our party.  We had some very happy trick or treaters at school on Monday!

Exploring Our Sense of Sight and Hearing

We explored the sense of sight in our classroom.

We loved color mixing with playdoh and colored water.  We made some interesting discoveries.

Then we met with Mr. Prazar and talked about our sense of hearing and sight and how animals use these senses.  We enjoyed looking for things that did not belong in nature when we went on a walk.

We worked hard to listen and find the matching sounds in our film cannisters.  We learned that different insects make different sounds, especially at this time of year.  They need a good sense of hearing so they can find each other.  We will continue to explore our senses in the coming weeks.

Spookley, the Square Pumpkin

We read The Legend of Spookley, the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano.  We talked about the setting and the characters.   

                                                                                     

     

We also worked together to retell the story including the problem and the solution.  Small groups illustrated one part of the story retell and shared with the rest of the class.  Story mapping is a skill that we will be working on all year as we develop important comprehension skills.

It took teamwork to illustrate this story map.

If you would like to see a video of the story about Spookley, click on this link.

Spookley the Square Pumpkin

Happy Halloween!

Hero Art

Today we were very lucky to see artist, Rob Surette, create four amazing 6-foot portraits of inspirational leaders.  He inspired us all to think about how we can change the world for the better.  Many thanks to TESPTO's Enrichment committee for bringing Hero Art to our school and to all of you for supporting TESPTO.

What Do Scientists Do?

Scientists make predictions.  "Where will the water go away faster?  In the sun?  In the shade?"

Scientists test their predictions.  They observe what is happening.  Then they discuss their findings and record their results.  We discovered that the water goes away faster in the sun and talked about the effect of heat .  We also discussed the term evaporation, and some children explained the water cycle to their classmates.

We worked on our observation skills by going outside with a clear square frame and observed what we could see within the frame.  This week we talked about how scientists use many different tools in their study of the world around them.  We learned two different techniques for using a magnifying glass and practiced looking at our thumbs and different things around our classroom.  Next week we will go outside with our magnifying glasses to use the skills we have learned.

What a Wonderful Year!

We have had a wonderful  year together.  We enjoyed seeing so many of you at our Portfolio Breakfast on Friday.  Please click on the link below to view our end of year slide show.  Have a safe and happy summer vacation!  See you all in September.

http://safeYouTube.net/w/TNj

There was a problem with uploading the music portion of the slideshow.  I will work on that next week.  For now, enjoy the pictures!

Touch Tank

We enjoyed learning more about Tidepool animals and other sea creatures that live in the North Atlantic Ocean when Ellen Goethel, marine biologist, came to visit us at Steward School.  You can learn more about Ellen Goethel by visiting her website at http://exploretheoceanworld.com.

Sandy Point

We had a wonderful time on our tidepooling field trip to Sandy Point.  Many thanks to Mrs. Podgurski, Mrs. Turosky, and Mr. Mendonca for coming with us as chaperones.

Living and Non-Living Nature Walk with Mr. Prazar

In Science we are studying Living and Non-living things.  We enjoyed a science lesson and nature walk with Mr. Prazar.  We collected living and non-living things and talked about what characteristics make something a living thing.  Living things move and grow.  They need food and water to survive.

We also planted bean seeds and watched them quickly grow in our window.  Even plants move very slowly to get more sunlight!  Our focus will now be on tidepools and the many sea creatures that live there.

Guest Reader

At the end of the day, the children take turns being the "guest reader" and read to the children once they are packed up to go home.  It is a nice way to end our day.  

Transportation

We introduced our unit on transportation by reading Walk Rabbit Walk by Colin McNaughton.

We sorted cards into categories of land, air, and water transportation.

After brainstorming many different forms of transportation, we made a mural of our favorite ways to travel.

The children loved reading Bear on a Bike by Stella Blackstone.

                             

                         

If I Built a Car got us thinking about inventions...

                           

But our most favorite activity of all was to build our own vehicles using all the recyclable materials you sent in from home!  So many creative ideas! 

Amaryllis

Look at our amaryllis!  We can't believe how beautiful it is.  Ask your child how many blossoms we have on our amaryllis.

Skype Visit

What is a Skype?

a software application and online service that enables voice and videophone calls over the Internet

We were very lucky to have a Skype visit with author, Paul Czajak.  Mrs. Klipfel arranged the visit, and we video conferenced with Mr. Czajak using Skype.  All the kindergarten classes met in the library to listen to Mr. Czajak read two of his books.  He told us about being an author and said that he got a lot of his best ideas for books from his own children!

This is Mrs. Klipfel saying hello and making introductions.

Here is Paul Czajak reading one of his books.

We enjoyed listening to a real author read his book to us.

It was fun to ask questions when Mr. Czajak was done reading.

                   

               Monster Needs His Sleep                           Seaver the Weaver

These are the two books that Paul Czajak read to us during our Skype visit.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We had fun learning a Leprechaun song, reading a book about a leprechaun looking for his gold, and making puppets.

How many word wall words can you find in this song?
Ask your child to sing it for you.

During our writing time, we read Clever Tom and the Leprechaun by Linda Chute and wrote about what we would do if we caught a leprechaun.

St. Patrick's Day writing

Sink and Float

What types of shapes can float?

How can you make a boat out of clay?  Out of tin foil?

How many counters can you add before your boat sinks?

We learned that if you make your boat thin and keep the sides up, it floats better.  You have to be very careful to balance the weight you add to your boat.  We also learned how important it is to work slowly and keep trying!

We read Mr. Gumpy's Outing by John Burningham and Who Sank the Boat? by Pamela Allen to inspire our scientific exploration!