We had another beautiful ECO day on Wednesday.  We worked in teams to create leaf art.  Before we began we talked about the importance of listening to everyone's idea, working as a team,  and compromising to make one creation as a group.  Back at school we read the book Leaf Man by Lois Elhert and  everyone had an opportunity to make an individual leaf picture as well.

At various times throughout the last several weeks we have had the opportunity to work with Eddie Merma and Palo Coleman as part of our artist residency.  The focus of this years residency was building and design.  With Eddie we helped in the construction of a play hive that will eventually be placed on the Mad River Path.  With Palo we used bamboo to help create a balancing bridge and climbing structure.  Children enjoyed being part of the building process and the opportunity to explore using tools, and they especially seemed to enjoy playing on and in the new creations!  This was a perfect segue into our first Project Lead the Way science unit which is Structure and Function:  Exploring Design.

Several weeks ago we began Writers Workshop.  We read the book Library Mouse, by Daniel Kirk, about a young mouse who lives in a hole in the wall of a library.  At night he comes out to read all of the wonderful books.  He decides to try writing himself and discovers that writing is quite fun and not all that hard, especially when you write about what you know.

On Mondays we always write about our weekends.   This is a consistent routine that children come to love and I find gives me a wonderful lens into children's writing growth over time.  On other days children have been writing about any topic they choose, but if they feel stuck for ideas I encourage them to write about what they know.  At this point most children are using pictures to convey a story, dictating words to me when they are ready.   We have worked on adding details to our writing, either in the pictures or by adding more words or new related pages.  As we begin to learn more and more letters and some sight words, children will begin attempting their own words.  Generally this begins with writing first sounds in words, but I encourage children to write any sounds they hear or any letters they think belong.  A few of us are already eagerly beginning this process.  We have been writing for about 20 minutes and then sharing the work of a few children each day, which is a wonderful way to inspire each other and spread ideas and strategies.

On Wednesday we had a fantastic day for ECO.  After reading The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer, children were invited to create their own red eft houses.  In past years we have made mouse houses, but noticed that at this time of year there are lots of red efts in the forest, so we decided red eft houses was more fitting.  Children were encouraged to be creative and let their imaginations lead the way.  As they were building several noticed red efts already moving in!

Each day after morning meeting we move into math.  Typically students are in small groups moving through two stations each day.  Our focus thus far has been on exploring math materials that we will be using throughout the year as well as counting quantities up to 10 and writing the corresponding numeral.  We have also played some partner games, something we will do lots of this year.  We always practice a game a couple of times as a whole group, with me on one team and the rest of the class on the other team.  Children know that the games are intended to be a fun way to practice essential math skills and the  most important thing when they play a game is to be a good sport.  We have talked about what this looks like for both the person who loses and the person who wins the game, and we always end our games by shaking hands and saying "good game!"

On Tuesday morning we were extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to vote on the town dog tag shape and color for the coming year.  Jen Peterson, our town clerk, and Kellee Mazer, very graciously came to school and talked us through the voting process.  The ballot box was locked and children went up one at a time to cast their votes.  After everyone had voted Jen unlocked the box and we counted the votes.  Purple was the color choice, but there was a tie for shape between flower and hexagon, so we had to have a run off vote.  In the end hexagon won by one vote.  So next year look for purple hexagon dog tags as voted on by the kindergarten class!  Thank you to Jen and Kellee for taking the time to give kindergarteners this hands on civics experience.

Reviewing the voting process.

Making a choice.

Adding ballots to the locked box.

Counting the votes.

We had an exciting morning on Monday as all of our butterflies emerged from their chrysalises. Before we released them we talked about things they (and all living things) would need to survive. We noted that while we could provide them with water and air, eventually it would be hard to supply them with nectar (food), and certainly the space we had for them as caterpillars is no longer adequate once they are butterflies.  We wished them well and set them free on a beautiful morning to begin their journey south.