UPCOMING DATES & ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS
- September 22 – October 3 – Parent/Teacher Partnership Meetings: Click Below to Sign up!
- Tuesday, September 23 – Preschool – 1st – School Pictures
- Mark your calendars for Van-toberfest, October 18th!
- Before care is available starting at 7:30 am in the gym. Dismissal begins at 3:00 pm, with After Care available until 5:00 pm.
Hello SK Families!
Curiosity is at the heart of everything we do in SK, and this week it led us down an interesting path. In fact, a new shared interest has started to bubble up, and we’re excited to see where it will take us next week as we begin to explore it together!
This week, we wrapped up our identity circles, pieces the children have been working on slowly and thoughtfully over the past few weeks. These will soon be displayed in the classroom, and they really are something special. On Monday, we read That’s Not My Name, a beautiful story about a little girl named Mira who feels upset when people mispronounce her name. She doesn’t feel confident enough to correct them, until her mom reminds her that her name is a gift, something to be proud of, something that tells the world who she is. The story sparked a lovely conversation in our class about our own names, where they come from, how they’re pronounced, and why they matter. Each child then used loose parts to create their name on mini license plates.
On Tuesday, we read One Word for Kids, a story about a boy starting Kindergarten who’s encouraged by his teacher to choose one word to guide his year. This led us into a conversation about words of affirmation, words we say to ourselves to build confidence, stay kind, and remind ourselves of who we want to be. We listened to a children’s song by none other than Snoop Dogg (yes, really!) that’s all about positive self-talk, and the kids absolutely loved it. Lots of dancing, laughter, and singing filled the room. Afterwards, each child carefully chose their own “one word” for the year. The meaning behind each word was personal and powerful. They then turned their words into word bubbles to add to their self-portraits and identity circles!
Bradford – “Kindness”
Lucas- “Positive”
Mylah – “Helping”
Kipton – “Better”
Evelyn – “Love”
Sophia – “Confident”
Bodhi – “Learning”
Wendell – “Giving”
Daxton – “Helpful”
Lola- “Respectful”
Alyx – “Kind”
Henry – “Space”
Moxley – “Strong”
Noah – “Tidy”
Izaak -”Sharing”
Rory -”Patient”
Scarlett -”Smile”
Hailey – “Caring”
Emma – “Brave”
Stylee – “Sunshine”
Addison – “Responsible”
Ollie -”Love”
Leonardo – “Grow
In SEL this week, we followed along with our two favorite (and very silly) bunny friends, Munchy and Jumpy, who are learning how to navigate the ups and downs of friendship, just like us! This week’s story focused on understanding that we don’t have to look the same or agree on everything to build a beautiful friendship. The children really connected with this message and shared thoughtful ideas during our discussion. Afterwards, they were paired up and asked to draw portraits of one another. The room was full of laughter and quiet concentration as they carefully studied their partners’ faces, noticing small details with care and curiosity. They then shared their drawings and we reflected on what we noticed as similarities and differences. We all agreed that each of us is beautiful and great in our own special way!
In Phonics the children are working on building that automaticity of letter recognition and sounds. Some are taking those skills to paper and we are beginning to build and blend words, the excitement is contagious! In the words of Bodhi “I can’t believe it… I’m really reading!”
In math, we’ve been focusing on number recognition and representation. The children practiced identifying numbers, building them in ten frames, and using math cubes to make them visible and tangible. Some students challenged themselves by flipping two cards and practicing simple addition, carefully building those sums on their ten frames. We also introduced dominoes to support subitizing and recognizing small quantities without counting, and really honed in on writing our numbers correctly. One of our favorites this week involved our double-sided math counters. The kids loved dumping them out of course and counting how many landed red vs. white, then comparing to see which had more and which had less
We wrapped up our week with the story The Curious Why A story about a young boy who is just have one of those days where he feels bored and stuck, but have no fear, the Curious Why shows him that there’s always something new to discover about the world around you! We had a beautiful discussion about what curiosity is:
Daxton – “It’s when you want to know everything about something”
Wendell – “When we want to learn about something new”
Lola -“When you want to know about something you like”
We talked to the students about while the teachers still have a job to do, we want to teach in a way that excites them, about things they are interested in … so … we asked the question “What are you curious about” We thought we were onto something by listening and observing them through play and it turns out those spidey senses just might have been on the right track.
Ollie – “Cocoons”
Mylah – “Crickets”
Leonardo -“Creeks and what is in them”
Alyx – “lady bugs”
Noah – “butterflies”
Lola – “How volcanos work”
Wendell- “bugs”
Sophia -“How are things built”
Rory – “How does fire go out”
Hailey – “How do animals grow”
Lucas – “Snakes”
Kipton – “building”
Bradford – “Rainbows”
Emma – “How crayons are made and where do bugs live”
Henry – “Water”
Addison -“How rainbows are made”
Stylee – “What is coal built from”
Evelyn & Daxton – “How did dinosaurs become extinct”
Scarlett – “How are balls made”
Izaak -“How did the ocean get so salty”
Moxley – “How do you feed bugs”
Bodhi – “habitats”
Stay tuned friends, we’re excited for this!
We hope you take time to look up, look down, or look all around this weekend, you might just find something you never thought you would be curious about!
Miss Arden & Miss Hanna
SEL LESSON:
LOOSE PART NAMES:
WORD FOR THE YEAR:
PHONICS:
MATH FUN:
BUG EXPLORATIONS:
DAILY DISCOVERY & FUN:
