Thursday, March 15, 2012

And preschool too....


ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN
(a guide for Global Leadership)
All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.
These are the things I learned:
  • Share everything.
  • Play fair.
  • Don't hit people.
  • Put things back where you found them.
  • Clean up your own mess.
  • Don't take things that aren't yours.
  • Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
  • Wash your hands before you eat.
  • Flush.
  • Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
  • Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
  • Take a nap every afternoon.
  • When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
  • Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
  • Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
  • And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.
Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.
And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
[Source: "ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN" by Robert Fulghum.  See his web site at http://www.robertfulghum.com/  ]

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Oh! And just 1 more thing (well maybe 2)

I apparently was more behind then I realized :) Here are some things we have been working on this week!

My Many Colored Days!
"Look what color I made!"


Beautiful Finished Product!


"The Teacher Shrunk the Kids!"
Our "Minis"... we have all sorts of plans for these little friends!

Theodore Seuss Geisel


“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”


We have been reading more and more and more Dr.Seuss. We have been writing book reviews and studying the illustrations in detail. We have noticed that he loved to draw things crooked. He drew a lot of feathers, fish and stairs. OH! and all those silly creatures! He liked to rhyme and create tongue twisters. I'm hearing kids use words around the classroom like "schlopp" and "wocket" and I LOVE IT! Our librarian, Cassie, has brought us in all sorts of books that even I have never heard of before! Did you know Dr.Seuss has over 44 books? This goes so far beyond Green Eggs and Ham! 


The book review we complete as a class. (like my drawings?)
Sample of the individual book reviews completed by the children. 
Hop on Pop (the above reviewers favorite part)
We have been studying the rhyming and the illustrations with great detail.
We always check to find the books with the label, which means they are "easy to read."
However this label doesn't mean that Dr. Seuss wrote it!

The Nose book is not Dr.Seuss at all. The middle book is written by Theo. Lesieg (another name Dr.Seuss published under).
My Many Colored Days was written by Dr.Seuss but illustrated by someone else (after his death).

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss (March 2nd)




This is the 14th year that the 
National Education Assoc. 
celebrated Dr.Seuss’ birthday with its Read Across America Project. 

Every year around March 2nd
over 3 million students and teachers all read the same book all across the country! This years book was The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss.


Truffula Tree CupCakes!


Eating our Truffula Tree Cupcakes!
I DO like GREEN EGGS!
Silly Seussical Stripes

Baked Cotton Balls

Here are the kids making "baked cotton balls." We found the recipe first through pinterest and then at "4herreras" blog. Honestly they were more fun to make then they were to play with after, but the kids had a lot of fun. I was amazed by the vibrant colors from the food coloring!