This week Kindergarten has been celebrating shapes.  So far we’ve focused on stars, hearts, diamonds, squares, triangles, rectangles, circles, moons, and ovals. The children have made some fun collages, used shape stamps, and used shape cookie cutters with our play dough. We’ve enjoyed shape snacks of heart-shaped cheese slices, apple slices with stars in the middle, and circle-shaped apple oatmeal cookies that the children made to take with us on our Thursday hike.
         
During yoga time we have been exploring closing our eyes and using our ears to locate the direction and duration of sounds; beginning to work on concentration by sensing our breath; using our bodies and then just our minds to move our attention; and practicing relaxation with some short visualizations.     
   
During songs this week, we have been using rhythm instruments to accompany our singing and to begin echoing rhythms. On Thursday morning we had our first music time with Dennis (our year-long music teacher-in-residence), who began a review of orchestral instruments with us. We heard all of the string and woodwind instruments and several from the brass family. The violin was a favorite of several Kindergartners.
 
Before we left the school for our walk on Thursday, we decided to pick the pumpkins in the garden. Some of the children wanted to make a pie.  Because several of the children had become attached to the harvested pumpkin serving as the centerpiece of our table, we would need another pumpkin to make into a pie. The children filled the little wheel barrow and the wagon with all the pumpkins from the garden—they almost didn’t fit! These pumpkins grew from six seeds that last year’s Kindergartners saved from one pie pumpkin, which had been picked at Peifer Orchard’s last fall.

Thursday was a beautiful day for a walk in the Glen!  Despite our late start from the pumpkin harvesting, we completed a long hike. We started by going back to the rock area that the children wanted to re-visit from last week. Along the way, Hazel found an interesting caterpillar. The children speculated that it would turn into a butterfly but we were unable to identify it in the field guides from Brian’s backpack. This week Brian brought sketch books and the children spread out among the rocks to draw. From there we took the path past a cave and a rock (that the children decided looked like a whale with a mouth and eye), through the “lemon squeeze” (a place where the path goes through a narrow space between two rock cliffs), and up to the giant rock near the Trailside Museum. There we stopped to eat our cookies. A few children attempted to climb the rock, before we started back to school.
       
Next week we will continue with our explorations of shapes and begin planning our Color Days’ activities.  The children have also expressed interest in building an additional play house for the playground. We have been reading a story about a group of nursery children, who build a climber for their school playground. As we complete shape days with solid shapes, we will begin to explore design ideas for the house. So far, they have talked about wanting a big window. This is an exciting and long-term project!  

Lindie