Our Trip to the Post Office

In February, our focus in writing has been on letter writing.   In our classroom,  the kindergartners have been busy writing and delivering letters to their classmates.  On February 10th, we walked to the West Brattleboro Post Office to meet postal clerk, Holly, and to buy stamps to mail letters home. The kindergartners got a chance to see where their letters go after they put them in the mail slot and then they got to cancel the stamps. They even had a chance to help Holly wait on some customers!

Learning about beavers with Joan Carey

As part of our science study about how animals survive in winter, we invited Joan Carey from the Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center, to come teach the kindergartners about beavers. We learned about the different parts of a beaver by pretending to turn me (Ellen) into a beaver! Then we looked at how animals can change their environment to meet their needs; by building dams, beavers create a pond that provides them with a safe shelter from predators. Joan also brought wood chewed by beavers and two beaver belts for the kindergartners to examine first-hand.

Animals in Winter

We began our recent science unit by learning about the difference between living and non-living and what living things need (food, water, air and shelter.)

Next we focused on how animals survive in the winter. The kindergartners learned that animals find different ways to meet their needs - some animals migrate, some stay active, some hibernate and some sleep and wake throughout the winter. Each student choose an animal and created a riddle about how their animal survives the winter.

Here is an example:

I stay active.

I live in a burrow.

I turn white for the winter.

Who am I?

A snow shoe hare!

Please stop by and check out our bulletin board and learn about animals in winter!

The 100th Day of School

We celebrated the 100th day of learning and fun by counting to 100 while doing 100 exercises, sharing collections of 100, and making necklaces with 100 Cheerios!

Celebrating Chinese New Year

The kindergartners learned about the Chinese New Year traditions and made paper lanterns with Ms. W in art class. Here they are getting ready to "scare" away last year's bad luck with the lion and light the way for a happy new year!