Reading Street Fun

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Success at school can be a shared learning experience! As a partner helping your child make the most of learning, Pearson SuccessNet offers the right tools for you and your child. It offers you the opportunity to look inside your child's day-to-day learning.

It all begins with a simple login at the website http://www.pearsonsuccessnet.com/.  User names and passwords were sent home at Open School Night.  I will  resend them in your child's homework folder by weeks end.

The children have been taking turns using our classroom computer to navigate around the site.  You will be amazed at how motivated and excited your child will be to share in the interactive learning experiences.  Watch as your child "teaches" you how to access the resources we utilize in the classroom.  

I wanted to let you know that I have been adding decodable readers and fun activities to the site. Please let me know if you have any problems accessing or using the site. Remember, this is a fun and engaging way for your child to reinforce many skills taught in school.  Have fun! 

Sincerely,

Mrs. Lyons

P.S.  If you ever run into technical difficulties, there is a Pearson SuccessNet online help connection to serve you between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. (CST) 

You can reach them at 1-800-234-5832. 

Da Vinci's secret codes and lemon batteries?

Dr. Rosler (a.k.a. Science Mom) taught the children about Leonardo Da Vinci during our science class last week.  We learned that he lived a long time ago in Italy.  He was an artist and an inventor who loved science and nature.  Did you know that Da Vinci wrote with lemon juice so people wouldn't be able to see what he wrote?  To read the message, the paper would have to be held over a candle.  The heat from the flame would oxidize the lemon juice and turn it brown revealing the message (the first attempts at invisible ink?).

To begin the experiment of making a battery using a lemon, Dr. Rosler cut two small slits in each lemon about 1/2 inch apart. The children were given a penny, a dime and a small piece of sandpaper to clean off the coins. Once cleaned, the penny and dime were pushed halfway into these two slits. The children were then asked to touch both the penny and the dime at the same time with their tongue. Did they feel anything? Maybe a tingling? Not sure if the children felt anything... but they did have fun making lemonade afterwards!

How does this work?  The acid in the lemon reacts differently with each of the two different metals in the coins. One of the coins contains positive electric charges, while the other contains negative electric charges. These charges create current, which will flow if the battery circuit is complete. Your tongue acts like a wire and conducts the charges, making the circuit complete. The complete electric circuit causes a small amount of electricity to flow, which causes the sensation on your tongue.

Thank you Dr. Rosler... we learn so much and have such fun with you on Thursdays!

First author study... Jan Brett

Author studies are a wonderful way to engage students in the joy of reading.  Introducing kindergarteners to authors opens new doors of understanding that "real" people write and illustrate books.  This thought alone inspires students to dream of becoming famous authors and artists.  Most early readers have limited schema for specific authors, types of texts, and different text features.  Conducting author studies introduces these concepts to students in a fun and meaningful way.  Children need to be taught how to activate their prior knowledge when they encounter a book by a favorite author.  In addition to learning about authors and illustrators, students hone their comprehension skills as they compare, analyze, and synthesize information about an author's style.  These skills are demonstrated as students make relevant text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections.
Jan Brett has an awesome website that you should check out.  Have fun!  http://www.janbrett.com/

Congratulations to Emmi's family!

Welcome to your new baby boy!  We are so happy for you all. 

Emmi is so proud to be a big sister again. 

Our Kindergarten family keeps growing and growing!

JCDS Class of 2016

We made a class book entitled Kindergartner, Kindergartner, Who Do You See?  It is modeled after Bill Martin, Jr.'s Brown Bear, Brown Bear...  I needed a group picture for the final page of the book and it was too good not to share.  Ask to see it the next time you are in the classroom. 

Many new words to process...

Our weekly visit from Science Mom really makes us think! We have many new science words to think about: solution, dissolve, catalyst, vacuum and pressure to name a few. 
By dropping sugar cubes into bottles of a solution (water), we watched them dissolve at varying rates depending on the temperature (catalyst) of the water.
How did she get that egg into the bottle?? As the air inside the bottle was being heated, the egg was placed over the opening of the bottle. The flame went out and the air inside the bottle started to cool. As the air cools, it gets smaller, reducing the pressure in the bottle. The egg acts as a cork, sealing the top of the bottle to keep air from coming in to balance the pressure. Instead, the higher outside pressure pushes the egg into the bottle. It was amazing.  We have so much fun learning about science with Zosia's mom.

To my Kindergarten families,
Warm wishes for happiness, love and peace on Hanukkah and always.
Love,
Mrs. Lyons

The ABC's of Thanksgiving

The children had so much fun putting this little play together for you.  They did a fantastic job.  From Abby to Zosia... I am so proud of them.  Thank you to Rachel Venditto for organizing the celebration and to all of the families who sent goodies to school.  If you haven't already, take a peek at the video Dave Rosler posted here.  Thank you Dave!

http://picasaweb.google.com/daverosler/Kindergarten?authkey=Gv1sRgCLCf39Xe7I7uFw#5542600841839235778

Eating the Rainbow...

The field trip to Whole Foods Market was wonderful.  We continue to learn about community helpers and how the work they do helps everyone who lives in the community.  The children were told about many activities and events that Whole Foods participates in as part of their community out-reach.  We learned that much of the produce comes from local growers. The colors of the fruits and vegetables were amazing!  We visited the seafood department and tried to guess what kinds of fish were in the case.  In the Prepared Foods department, the children got to see pizza dough being stretched and thrown high in the air.  The children were treated to a delicious and nutritious snack of fresh fruits. They were invited to "eat the rainbow".  It was a fun experience for the children.  Thank you to our moms and dads who volunteered to come on the field trip to the market.  

Parent-Teacher Conferences

It was wonderful to have the opportunity to meet with you to share information about your child.  Please know that you are always welcome to contact us at any time with any questions or concerns; the "official" parent-teacher conference is merely one vehicle for doing so. Thank you for sharing your amazing children with us!

SAVE THE DATE....

You are invited to a Thanksgiving celebration...

When: Monday, November 22, 2010 at 2:15 p.m.

Where: Kindergarten classroom

More details to follow...

Learning at the grocery store

                                                    

     The children are having fun playing in our "grocery store".  They are making shopping lists and cutting coupons to redeem as they checkout.  We have 2 cash registers and 2 shopping carts on loan.  Some food items and play money have been sent in.  Thank you to those families. If you could send in food items (only cans and boxes please, e.g. brownie mix, macaroni and cheese, etc.) for our store, the children will enjoy playing throughout the month and then we will send all donations to a local food pantry before the Thanksgiving break.

Molecules, penguins, volcanoes....

We had another fantastic science class with Kristin, a.k.a. Science Mom.  This week she did an awesome experiment on equilibrium (great words for "E" week).  She explained how molecules "huddle together like penguins" when they are cold and how they "separate or stretch apart when they are hot like an erupting volcano".  She then demonstrated how heat rises by using different colored solutions.  The red water was hot.  The blue was cold.  By filling these containers to the very top and then inverting bottles with yellow water on the top of each one (quite a feat!), we saw the red water (HOT) move rather quickly up into the yellow turning it orange.  The blue (COLD) took a little more time to move up into the yellow but it eventually did turn the yellow water green.  How lucky are we to have such great learning adventures in science?  Thank you Kristin!

Congratulations to Elana's family!

Welcome to your new baby girl!  We are so happy for you all.  Elana is so proud to be a big sister again!!

"Down the street the firefighters go..."

The Kindergarten class visited the Rochambeau fire station yesterday.  It was a great day!  We would like to thank our Moms and Grandmoms who helped us walk there safely.   Also, we will send along a big thank you to the firefighters who made our field trip so much fun! 

Tree of Seasons

The Kindergarten class has adopted a tree in the upper playground.  We will observe this tree throughout the school year and make a pictorial journal.  We have already sketched it twice and have seen some significant changes!  Isn't our tree beautiful?

Solid, liquid, gas?

We had a special visitor in Kindergarten yesterday... Science Mom!!  Kristin Rosler, Zosia's mom, will be joining our class on Thursdays to enhance our science curriculum.  Wearing a shirt with the periodic table imprinted on it, Kristin proceeded to explain how 114 elements show up in one of three forms in the world around us.  We experimented with gases yesterday.  We watched as a balloon filled up with gas after dropping an antacid tablet into a bottle of water.  The kids were more than excited... I think I heard them chanting "We love science, we love science..."  Thank you, Kristin.