Kindergarten Chronicle

This Week's "Kindergarten Chronicle"

Last week the whole school started the Gates literacy testing. This is Kindergarten’s first standardized test and they have been doing great! Our Egypt unit is in full effect and the students have been exploring pyramids, camels, mythology and The Great Sphinx. We read a poem called The Camel’s Lament. The camel is sad because he is tired and thirsty while the other animals are pampered and prized. We made lamenting faces and acted sorrowful.

For our phonics program we studied the sounds ai (like in aim and rain), j, oa (like in oak and boat) and ie (like in tie and pie).

Last Week's "Kindergarten Chronicle"

We will be finishing up our unit on pumpkins this week and soon moving on to our next theme, Egypt! We all know that a pumpkin is an oval shape and has a stem. When asked this question, some of our kindergarten students described the pumpkin as bumpy on the outside. Our sides feel bumpy because we have ribs. Pumpkins have ribs as well and its ribs also make the pumpkin feel bumpy. The outside of the pumpkin is called the skin and we have skin outside our bodies too. We first examined the pumpkin. Some students remembered carving pumpkins and used good words like squishy, mushy and gooey. We drew pictures of what we thought the inside would look like. Mrs. Flores cut out a small pumpkin, examined the different parts and then drew the inside of the pumpkin with all the real parts represented.

We read a Native American tale called The Sun’s Daughter, which is inspired by Iroquois tales of the Corn Maiden and her sisters Pumpkin and Red Bean. The story explains how the harvest goddesses caused Autumn to happen. The people beg the trees to weep and a feast of corn keeps the villagers from starving.

CPS was honored to welcome our special guest Mr. Piszek! Mr. Piszek gave all Kindergartners a copy of Duck for President. This book is a great tool to learn about the election.