This week we had a lot of fun admiring our kindergarten friends presentation of their storybooks! They were filled with original stories and illustrations and we were so proud of all our kiddos for standing up in front of their friends to share each page! We had some friends that were a little nervous, but with some encouragement and some guidance from teachers everyone did such a fabulous job! 

The last couple weeks we were so excited to explore the ocean! We had a great time learning about sea creatures by diving into the ocean and creating colorful jellyfish, starfish, mystical mermaids and hand print fish! We have decorated our boards with all of our wonderful artwork, creating our own oasis of undersea fun!

With Mother Nature sending cold winds and snow our way, we've spent some time in the gym. In addition to practicing yoga poses, we played games like Red Light, Green Light and Fishy, Fishy Cross My Ocean. 

Overall the Kindergartners were  engaged and having lots of fun!

We are just adding another reminder to please send your kiddos with the proper winter attire (i.e coats, hats, gloves, boots, snow pants). We will do our best to make it outside when we can. It would also be ideal to send in an extra pair of clothes for friends to keep in their LEDP cubbies. Thank you in advance and we look forward to an amazing month of February!

Happy New Year to all out Kindergarten families!

We hope everyone had add an amazing winter break, celebrating the holidays with lots of fun, relaxation and quality time with friends and family!

The kindergarteners were very excited to be back and share their adventures during their break. They wrote and drew about the places they visited and the time they spent with their friends and families.

With the winter season in full affect, what better way to celebrate than with some winter animal friends? In the last couple weeks we read and painted pictures of deer, snowy owls, deer and polar bears!  We read and paint pictures of Deer, Snowy owl, Hare and Polar Bears.

Some fascinating facts we learned about the polar bears revolved a lot on how they can keep warm in such cold weather! We learned that polar bears have two layers- a very thick layer of fur and an oily outer layer of guard hair; the guard hair is special as it reflects light and the thick layer of fur helps insult heat, keeping our furry friends nice and toasty from the frigid weather! Did you know that an adult polar bear can walk up to 50 miles a days and can swim up to 60 miles?

We are excited to be back in the swings of things and jumping head first into the New Year! Another quick reminder for families to please send their little ones with the proper winter attire, as we learned from our polar bear friends, layers are ideal! :-)

In the last leg of November we learned a lot about snakes, alligators and lizards!

Some art highlights the last few weeks were making paper plate snakes, cutting a spiral along the paper, coloring in there colorful scales and adding googley eyes! Another fun fact we learned about snakes is that they only eat about 30 meals a year!

We also created a paper bag alligator. Did you know that an alligator has three eye lids and one  is clear so they can see underwater? Well….. the K children were definitely impressed to learn this cool fact about alligators!

We transitioned our reptile week with highlighting one of our favorite books, " The Rainbow Fish," by Marcus Pfister. Our wonderful artists created their own rainbow fish and because they were all so beautiful and unique we wanted to display them in our LEDP classroom! There beautiful scales reflect and catch our eye every time we walk by our K fish bowl!

We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and can't wait to see our kiddos back in action some fun filled family time!

As we say goodbye to spooky October, we are thankful to welcome autumn's November! Although we loved hearing of our friends' Halloween festivities and their amazing costumes, we had a wonderful time exploring this week's theme, Harvest!

We spent a lot of time discussing and learning about how pumpkins and vegetables grow! We added more entries into our journals which is something we will do throughout the year- with all of themes represented in their entries. Our goal is to fill the pages with all we've learned together and reflect on these pages at the end of the year! One writing prompt this week was: If you were a farmer what kind of veggies would you harvest? Most of our farmers chose pumpkin patches and corn fields!

We kicked off Harvest's theme with a Fall picnic, with comfy blankets strewn about under the sun, sipping on apple cider and listening to music. We had so much fun talking about our favorite fall activities and some of our families Thanksgiving traditions! 

One of our favorite science projects this year was the dancing popcorn! We filled a mason jar with vinegar and a few tablespoons of baking soda and observed how the popcorn kernels began to dance about! We learned that when the baking soda and the vinegar are combined they make a gas called carbon dioxide which is what makes the those little guys put on a show in the mason jar!

We loved exploring harvest and the work it takes behind this special time of year when farmers gather up their crops, and year after year we get to celebrate autumns gifts, like corn and pumpkins! We had a wonderful two weeks and we look forward to giving thanks in the following weeks!

Fall has definitely arrived with the crisp air and falling leaves sprinkling the ground with hues of red, yellow, green and brown! Our kindergartners have been excited to celebrate the new season as the last few weeks we explored how and why the leaves change color!

Through science we collected some fallen leaves, crumpled them into pieces and put them in a Mason jar with rubbing alcohol and a coffee filter. We wanted to demonstrate how leaves loose chlorophyl and change color. We also painted beautiful Fall trees with finger paint and made beautiful leaf collages!

We also read , "A Log's Life," by Wendy Pfeffer which is a creative tale of a fallen oak in the forest and describes the importance a log and its leaves contributes to it's ecosystem.  We chatted and observed what the Lawrence ecosystem looks like and our friends found that next to all the fallen leaves were an abundance of acorns! So we made made rainbow acorns with bright beautiful colors to celebrate our unique ecosystem!

We'd also like to thank all the families that joined us on our first Parent Night! The kiddos were so excited to have their grownups in our K/1 room for an evening, walking around to admire their wonderful artwork and to learn of their afternoons in LEDP! We also loved to see our families work on their clay creations with some notable projects being a cute hedgehog, a sweet little pig, a ode to a bunch of grapes (like our display in the LEDP hallway) and many additions our friends hope to add to their kitchens with clay bowls and drinkware!  

Looking ahead we'd also like to remind all our families that with the time change it is especially important that we are receiving the most accurate pick up times, as our days will be ending inside and teachers will only be at the pickup doors for five minutes before returning to the group. We thank you in advance for your cooperation. We look forward to the next couple of weeks celebrating the month of November!

We have officially said goodbye to summer’s warmth and said hello to the cool breeze of autumn! We welcomed the first couple weeks of October with three new and exciting themes- manners, the spread of germs and the life cycle of an apple! 

Each child created and decorated a kindness collage; we talked about what words can be used to be kind, like using “please,” and “thank you,” or ways you can show respect to your friends. Then we used different materials like feathers and glitter to display how being kind makes us feel on the inside! 

Following the kindness collage, we did a germy experiment! We used hand sanitizer with glitter representing all the different germs we can’t normally see and observed how fast germs can spread and the importance of washing our hands! Although we discussed yucky germs, our K friends sure loved seeing their glittery hands!

This past week we explored the life cycle of an apple! We learned that the seeds from an apple core are planted or replanted to then sprout and blossom, and with time become a whole new apple! We cut out different apples, made a life cycle chart and created a big beautiful apple tree that we proudly displayed in the K/1 LEDP room! Lastly, for science we did an apple tasting experiment- we had so much fun eating the yummy snack and rated our least favorite to our favorites! 

We’ve had so much fun in the K room the last few weeks and looking forward to more exciting activities ahead! We’d also like to invite you to our first of four Open Houses this year- on October 24 from 5:00-5:45 in the small LEDP room. Please, be on the lookout via email for more information! 

It has been an amazing start of the new school year! The children are adjusting wonderfully to their new routines and schedule! They are  interacting with their teachers, their friends from preschool and exploring new friendships! 

The first week we made an "All About Me," book. We played hot potato and getting to know you game with a beach ball. Together as a whole group we made up some inside and outside safety rules.  

A few themes that we had fun working on are: 

Transportation: We talked about the different ways we go to school. Do we travel on bikes, scooters, the bus, walking, train or car? 

Community Service: We discussed what it means to be a community helper and the importance of their job. We made hats and read books about police officers, firefighters, doctors and asked each child what they wanted to be when they grow up!  

We started journal writing and we gave each child a prompt in accordance to our theme, then they would creating a drawing and write about it. 

It's been an amazing start to the school year and we can't wait to see what spooky October will bring!