Kindergarten News
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Important Dates:
May 24 – In-Service Day School Closed, Extended Day Open
May 27 – Memorial Day School Closed, Extended Day Closed
May 30 and 31 – Maria Coryell-Martin, Artist in residence comes for her final visit
June 10 - Music Portfolio Share from 8:20 – 9:00 (Head straight to the Music room)
June 11 – Kindergarten Portfolio Share in the classroom right before the picnic from 5:00 – 5:45
All School Picnic 5:30 – 7:30
June 12 – Butterfly Ceremony (Kindergarten Graduation) 2:00 – 3:00
Read to the end to see what is happening in P.E. and Computers
Magical Musical Moments!
After much practice, patience, and perseverance, the Kindergarteners put on a most magnificent show. We are so glad so many of you were able to come and see their hard work. While many Kindergarteners felt nervous and excited before the show by the end they were extremely proud of their accomplishments.
Wired for Reading
If your child is making some very strange fishy faces in the mirror, it could be because we recently learned about the pucker tip stop in Wired for Reading. This being translated into parent language means the “ch” and “j” sounds. Ask your student to tell you all about it. In Kindergarten, we have been making many discoveries through their reading and writing about blends th, ch, and sh.
At home activity – Go on a word hunt with your student to try and find words around your house, in magazines, books, newspaper, signs, etc. with these blends. Or play around with these blends to think of words and nonsense words with these sounds.
NEW SCIENCE UNIT!
Over the course of the next month and half, the kindergarteners will be learning about wood as part of our new science unit, Wood. We will observe the properties of wood and paper using our senses and conduct “fair tests” (investigations) to find out more about them. Each lesson begins with focus questions such as: What do your senses tell you about different kinds of wood? What do you look for when you match different kinds of wood? What happens when you put drops of water on different kinds of wood? The five main types of wood we will be investigating throughout the unit are basswood, pine, cedar, plywood, and particleboard. We have been taking a close look at the grain, layers, and properties of these different types of wood.
We know that children do better in school when their families are actively involved in their learning. Here is one activity that you can do with your child at home to strengthen your child’s understanding of wood.
Family Activity:
Have your child go on a “Wood Hunt” and find things around your home that are made of wood. Ask your child what they observe about the wood. What does it look like? Is it painted? Stained? Can you see the grain? How does it feel (smooth, rough, bumpy, etc.)? Have them compare two different types of wood. How are they the same? How are they different? Ask your child if any of the types of wood they found at home are similar to the wood samples that they have looked at in the classroom.
Butterfly Life Cycle
In addition to our science work with wood, we continue on with our life cycle focus. This spring we are studying the life cycle of a butterfly. Both classes were introduced to the butterfly life cycle and reinforced their knowledge by sequencing the different life stages. The kindergartners have read The Very Hungry Caterpillar. In the story, Eric Carle calls the chrysalis a cocoon, the students talked about that this stage is now called the chrysalis or pupa stage. Of course, the grand finale of our studies is the butterfly ceremony where the students (sniff, sniff) flutter off to their new adventures.
Math Nest and Frog Pond!
This spring students are beginning to revisit and extend some of the concepts that they learned earlier in the year. Through the workplaces students will be practicing their skills with estimation, mathematical organization, and counting quantities to 30 and beyond using cubes, pictures, and coins. They are beginning to solve and create story problems that involve addition, subtraction, and multiplication (3 whales, how many flippers?), and division (8 eyes, how many frogs?). They generate and share their thinking both orally and in the form of pictures and numbers. The spring time is very busy in kindergarten and is interwoven with problem solving and skills development!
Meridian School- Health and Fitness News- May 2013
Dear Parents and Guardians,
A Look Back on April:
April was a review month for the lower school students (K-1-2).
We enjoyed playing some of our favorite games (one of which,
“Artery Avengers” relates directly to maintaining a healthy heart).
In April, all grades also were involved in our new tennis unit. Equipment has been provided to us by the USTA and I have been following their tennis curriculum: “Physical educators guide for teaching tennis in school”. The goal for the students was simple: to build early confidence in the game of tennis - one of the very few sports individuals can play for a lifetime.
May’s Plan:
During the month of May, the Kindergarteners will be involved
in a variety of “two minute drills” focusing on: balance, speed,
coordination, agility, and strength activities. Some of the track events such as the 50 and 100 meter dash, soft-ball throw and standing long jump will also be introduced. We will continue to work on these skills during our June classes.
All grades will be involved in a pedometer unit. They will learn that in order to maintain their health and be considered “active”, a person needs to take at least 10,000 steps per day! Can you think of different ways to increase the number of steps you take every day?
KINDERGARTEN TECHNOLOGY—PIXELS & POINTILLISM
Kindergarten has had a wonderful year in the computer lab! As a specialist, I feel very fortunate to work with the students from the time they start at Meridian until they leave in fifth grade. I watch them grow and develop through the years, and I’ve never had a group of incoming students pick up skills and understand abstract ideas as fast as this year’s group, and I’m very excited about what they will prove capable of in the coming years!
In computer class this spring, students are completing a project called “Pixels & Pointillism”. We learned that a pixel is a “picture element”; a small dot of color used to make up images on the computer screen. We used several graphics programs to zoom in on photos to see the pixels that form them. We compared the pixels of a computer image to the paintings of Pointillist painters such as Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. Using pixels on the computer screen, we explored how painters used dots of color, closely grouped, to create new colors and patterns. Finally, each student chose a subject (examples include dragons, octopus, butterflies, jaguars, and princesses). They were given a black-line master of the image and then used MS Paint to fill in colors and apply dots in multiple sizes and color variations to create their own Pointillism style images. While working on these projects, we are learning more about communicating with the computer, especially learning to recognize how the computer tells us things in the form of pictures and words (for instance, icons and buttons). We’ve learned more about saving work on the computer, and some beginning project management skills as we think about our project from beginning to end and consider the best order to do the steps in.
Their finished images will be printed and come home before the end of the school year.
Ecuador. Martha and Jonathan were showing some soccer spirit in their fabulous Ecuador jerseys. Many of the students were excited about this commonality between Ecuador and Seattle. Martha also shared with the children a delicious traditional treat made of corn and cane sugar. Thank you so much Martha for sharing about your home and culture!
Did you realize that your Kindergartener has been in Brazil for the past week and half? Meridian Airlines flight 4649 took off at 9:15 am to Manaus, Brazil. The passengers boarded with a buzz of excitement and their suitcases in hand. Luckily everyone remembered their passports and listened as the captain described our route. During the flight, the passengers enjoyed educational entertainment about South America and the Amazon Rainforest. It was a smooth flight all way to Manaus. Once in Brazil, we were greeted with delicious snacks provided by our very gracious Brazilian ambassadors.
about temperate and tropical rainforests. Come check out their bulletin board comparing the two different types of forests. 
Since November, Kindergarten students learned words related to family members, body parts, clothing, classroom objects, feelings, food and fruits. Numbers up to 30, days, months and colors are reviewed often in our lessons. We also review greetings, weather and seasons in the introduction to each class. Students were exposed to total Spanish immersion by playing games, following commands with actions, listening to books and following stories. Storytelling is very popular in kindergarten. I used felt characters with familiar tales like “Goldie Locks and the Three Bears” and “Teasing Mr. Crocodile.” Sometimes I made up stories using the target vocabulary. Students practiced expressions like Me gusta or No me gusta (I like or I don’t like), tengo hambre, frío o calor (I am hungry, cold or hot), or their typical question: ¿Dónde está Rosco y dónde está el sombrero? (Where is Rosco and where is the hat?)
The Valentine’s Day was a huge success all around. After much preparation of making signs, finding a 
recipe, and getting parent help, the Valentine’s Day Bake Sale raised over $300.00 to help buy around 5 acres of the rainforest in South America. Valentine’s Day started off with bang and kept going. Both Kindergarten classes spent time with their third grade buddies, exchanging valentines and playing some fun games. It was a day full of community, friendship, yummy treats, and love!
We had the pleasure of having Maria Coryell-Martin, our artist in residence, visit us last Thursday and
Friday. Last Thursday morning, Maria introduced the idea of positive and negative space when looking at the world around them. They learned that positive space is those shapes that you can physically touch, while negative space are those shapes that you cannot touch. For example, a tree branch is positive and the space between the branches is negative. Maria connected this concept of positive and negative space to that of a winter scene. The children learned the term silhouette and practiced drawing a winter scene using only silhouettes with a sharpie. On Friday, we ventured outside briefly through the wind and the rain to observe the world around us with this new concept of positive and negative space. After being outside for a bit, we came back inside to the warmth to finish our silhouette drawings by water coloring the negative space/background. We will have one more visit with Maria this spring before the year is out, but we will be in correspondence with her until then while she is in Greenland documenting research on narwhals and polar bears!! To follow her adventures in Greenland you can follow her blog on her website (
cing them slowly. Each baby vowel sound or short vowel sound has a picture and visual cue that connects with the sound. See if your student can tell you any of the baby vowel sounds and their clues.
Theo Chocolate is the SWEETEST field trip we have ever been on (pun intended). Kindergarteners had a great time touring the factory, wearing hairnets, tasting different chocolates, learning about the theobroma cacao tree, and watching how each delicious chocolate is handmade and wrapped. Visiting Theo Chocolate was a nice way to tie in many themes happening in Kindergarten. Now that we are visiting South America, we will take a closer look at the theobroma cacao tree and other trees in South America. Theo chocolate is also inspiring us for our Valentine’s Day Bake Sale to help raise money for the South American Rain Forests. Come pick up a yummy treat for someone special on Valentine’s Day in the Kindergarten rooms. 
In Kindergarten, we are beginning a new unit that will take us all the way into the spring time. The primary focuses of this unit are counting, comparing, sorting, measuring, and early computation. This winter we will primarily be dealing with reading, writin
g, and understanding numbers to 20. Many sessions involve Work Place games and activities in which the Kindergarteners will race to see who can be first to collect a given number of cubes or pennies, or count how many objects or pictures there are in a particular collection. We will be expanding the students’ knowledge on ten frames by using and working with double ten-frames or pictures of Unifix cubes in stacks of 10. By having these pictures and objects organized by groups of 5 or 10, students will learn new counting strategies. We are beginning to notice that students have different approaches to working with the tens frame. At this point, some students are beginning to notice addition and subtraction problems within the tens frame. This is not a Kindergarten standard, but we continue to support students at their various levels.
As Kindergarten ventures farther and farther into the world of “best guess” spelling, we are working on stretching out our words. We are focusing on finding the beginning, middle, and end sounds within CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words and blending those sounds together to create a word. Along with this stretching out of words, students learn the tricky work of learning baby vowel sounds. We will just begin to introduce these vowel sounds. We continue to work with our best guess spelling in our writings, such as Weekend Reports and Journals. Please remember that reading and writing is like rocket science and takes much patience and perseverance! 
The last week of school before winter break was a fun filled week. Kindergarten had a blast wearing mustaches and whiskers, being the color red, spending time with their buddies, sporting pajamas, and showing Meridian Spirit. Here are some fun photos from that spirited week….
In preparation for Book-it Theater’s presentation, all students learned during discussion of Thank You, Mr. Falker about disabilities that may not be readily visible and revisited bullying behaviors and what they can do to address it or be allies. 
Kindergarten 
ur calendar has a new pattern and voabulary to build upon. November's calendar focused on butterflies and begining to use the vocabularly up, down, to the right, and to the left. This month’s calendar pattern is all about a bear and his box. Each day the bear appears in a different location, and the students make predictions about where the bear will be until the pattern is determined. We are building upon locational vocabulary such as below, to the left of, to the right o,f behind, in front of, above, inside, and outside. Also last week, the Kindergarten team had the opportunity to meet with our math couch, Cindy Neace, and discuss the curriculum with her. On the parent board outside the Kindergarten classrooms, there are some new Math Home Connections if you would like to do a little extra practice at home. 
Ask your student to help explain.
Thank you everyone for coming to the Family Celebration and making it so special. The students were very excited and proud to share their posters with you all. Here are some pictures from the big day.
