My first grandchild, Ella Grace Kent, was born on Wednesday, October 12, 2011 at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.  The little one weighed 7 lb. 13 oz. and measured 20 in.  Mom, Dad and baby are doing fine!

Meet Dr. Kristin Rosler aka "Science Mom"

We had a special visitor in Kindergarten last Thursday... Dr. Kristin Rosler, affectionately known as "Science Mom" will be joining our class on one or two Thursdays a month to enhance our science curriculum with fun hands-on activities and experiments for the children.  She started working with last year's Kindergarten class as her daughter, Zosia, was a member of the class.  

Dr. Rosler received her PhD. from the University of Kentucky in Molecular Biology and Genetics.  She did her post-doctoral residency at the University of Washington, Department of Oncology in Seattle.  She is currently an adjunct faculty member at Johnson & Wales and Roger Williams Universities. 

Our first topic for discussion: solids, liquids, and gases... The kids were more than excited to learn that everything that exists on planet Earth can be defined as one of 3 things.  

Our first experiment showed the chemical reaction between baking soda and vinegar.  After dropping some baking soda into the vinegar jug, a balloon was attached to the spout and then the fun began!!!  Carbon dioxide gas filled the balloon as you can see in the pictures below.

Using half a lemon, 2 sugar cubes, a splash of water and an antacid tablet, the children made a Lemon Fizz.  Not everyone liked the taste but there were plenty of giggles going around when they dropped the antacid tab into the liquid.  Again, gas bubbles... these they could see!   Thank you, Kristin.

Way up high in the apple tree.....

Our field trip to Dame Farm was so much fun! The sky was overcast and it was a bit chilly but it never rained. We got to take a ride around the farm and into the orchard on a wagon drawn by Bob and Bill, 2 twelve year-old Percherons. We sang songs and enjoyed the wide open space around us. We picked apples, saw a really big pumpkin patch and a corn maze. We had our snack and drank some apple cider.  It was a great day for everyone!  I would like to thank the Moms who took time out of their busy schedules to join us.

Happy New Year!

Favorite Apple?

As part of our unit on apples, the children participated in an apple taste-test yesterday. They got to taste a piece of a Red Delicious, a Golden Delicious and a Granny Smith apple. We explored the flavors, textures, colors, and sizes of this familiar fruit. The children enjoyed watching our "Favorite Apple Graph" change after each of children had their turn to taste.  The favorite apple?  YELLOW!!  The children are looking forward to our field trip to Dame Farm and Orchards next week.

Kindergarten fun!!

Dear Parents,

We are off to a great start in Kindergarten!  We have been having so much fun these first few weeks.  The pictures tell the story... smiles all around.  The children are getting to know more and more about their classmates through the fun "getting to know you" activities we have done.  They love playing the "Guess Who" game the best!

I am sure that, for many of you, when you ask your child what they did in school today they don't offer much information... but we have been very busy... 

• Check out our Guess Who paper plate faces the next time you are in the classroom.  Can you guess who is who? 
• We made flower name glyphs that are hanging in the hall outside of our classroom.  The number of petals = the number of letters in their name and the number of leaves = the number of syllables. 
• We have added our first poem to our Poetry binder.  The children highlighted the sight words (I, me, am) and illustrated the poem. 
• We  made our first Word Wheel for the word "I".  The children loved making these and then reading them to each other.  Be sure to keep these in a special place so that the children can refer to them during the year.
• Our Word Wall is growing every day.  We have names, color words, shape words and, of course, our sight words.
• We have been counting candles on cupcakes and adding apples to a grid.
• Our Let's Find Out magazines are always a big hit. 
• The Cutting Center opened!  The children are practicing their cutting skills by cutting on the dotted lines around coupons.  If your child comes home with coupons, now you will know why!
• We have been reading great books. 
• We are beginning our unit on Community Helpers.  We watched a DVD called What is a Community?  We will be walking to the Rochambeau fire station in October.  More information to follow...
• We adopted a tree in the playyard that we will watch all year.
• We have been observing in the garden.
• We are making a class book called Kindergartener, Kindergartener, Who Do You See? which should be completed soon.
• We have started our Rainbow Colors book. 

The list goes on....

I have received one scrapbook page so far!!  Once we have everyone's page, the book will start to go home for sharing with the families.  The children are so excited for their turn to take the book home.

Enjoy the smiles!!

Some light reading for the Night Before Kindergarten...

Thoughts at the Bottom of the Beanstalk

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Jack who was about to climb his very first beanstalk. He had a fresh haircut and a brand-new book bag.

Even though his friends in the neighborhood had climbed this same beanstalk almost every day last year, this was Jack's first day and he was a little nervous. So was his mother.

Early in the morning she brought him to the foot of the beanstalk. She talked encouragingly to Jack about all the fun he would have that day and how nice his giant would be. She reassured him that she would be back to pick him up at the end of the day. For a moment they stood together, silently holding hands, gazing up at the beanstalk. To Jack it seemed much bigger than it had when his mother had pointed it out on the way to the store last week. His mother thought it looked big, too. She swallowed. Maybe she should have held Jack out a year...

Jack's mother straightened his shirt one last time, patted his shoulder and smiled down at him. She promised to stay and wave while he started climbing. Jack didn't say a word.

He walked forward, grabbed a low-growing stem and slowly pulled himself up to the first leaf. He balanced there for a moment and then climbed more eagerly to the second leaf, then to the third and soon he had vanished into a high tangle of leaves and stems with never a backward glance at his mother.

She stood alone at the bottom of the beanstalk, gazing up at the spot where Jack had disappeared. There was no rustle, no movement, no sound to indicate that he was anywhere inside.

"Sometimes," she thought, "it's harder to be the one who waves good-bye than it is to be the one who climbs the beanstalk."

She wondered how Jack would do. Would he miss her? How would he behave? Did his giant understand that little boys sometimes acted silly when they felt unsure?

She fought down an urge to spring up the stalk after Jack and maybe duck behind a bean to take a peek at how he was doing.

"I'd better not. What if he saw me?" She knew Jack was really old enough to handle this on his own. She reminded herself that, after all this was thought to be an excellent beanstalk and that everyone said his giant was not only kind but had outstanding qualifications.

"It's not so much that I'm worried about him," she thought, rubbing the back of her neck. "It's just that he's growing up and I'm going to miss him."

Jack's mother turned to leave. "Jack's going to have lots of bigger beanstalks to climb in his life," she told herself.

"Today's the day he starts practicing for them...

And today's the day I start practicing something too: Cheering him on and waving good-bye."

(Author Unknown)



Dear Parents,
It was so nice to meet so many of you at the Orientation last Friday.  Tomorrow is going to be a great day.  Can't wait to see everyone again!
Mrs. Lyons