In Language Arts, the kindergarten group has begun the theme appropriately called Spring Is Here. During the next several weeks we will be meeting many objectives as we read a wonderful collection of stories related to spring. The first grade group’s theme is Special Friends, with a genre focus on folktales. Both the kindergarten and first grade students have been enjoying Poetry Month. We have spent time outdoors observing and writing about the changes that happen with the arrival of spring. Spending beautiful spring afternoons outdoors has inspired wonderful acrostic poems, an alphabet book and a poem in honor of Earth Day.
We have been studying our planet earth since January with a goal of becoming familiar with the physical geography of our planet.
Where in the world is Stanley? Who is Stanley, you ask?
As part of our Reading, Writing, Social Studies, and Mathematics programs, we read Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. This book is about a young boy named Stanley who is accidentally squished “as flat as a pancake” when a bulletin board falls on him. Stanley is very, very flat but otherwise fine. Stanley discovers some real advantages to being flat. He can slide under doors, go down into sidewalk grates and even fold himself up small enough to fit into an envelope and be mailed to California for an exciting vacation.
We created and mailed our own paper Flat Stanleys to host families all over America and the world. We are anxiously awaiting the Stanleys’ arrival back at Pinecroft so we can read all about their many adventures.
We are very proud of our first graders who have been working on various writing projects over the last several weeks and have done an excellent job presenting their projects to our school community. These projects include famous African Americans, important inventors, women in history, and a science report on mammals.
Looking forward to the remaining weeks of school, we will begin preparations for our Spring Program at the Wheaton College chapel. The children will perform a play based on a special children’s book we have read as part of our science/social studies unit this semester. We are all very excited to perform for an audience and hope that you can come see how much fun we have learning at Pinecroft!