Art Adventure

We had a special guest in our class room today.  Mrs. Sherry Landrud was here to teach us about three very beautiful pieces of art on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.  The Northview PTO pays for volunteers to attend training at the Institute so they can come back to our school and teach us about the artwork there.  It is a wonderful program and we are so grateful to our PTO for providing this for our children!

Mrs. Landrud taught us about a beautiful painting called "Rainy Evening on Hennepin Avenue" painted by Robert Koehler in 1902.  She also taught us about cradleboards and some beautiful Japanese helmets.  All of these items are on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.  Mrs. Landrud will be back in April to teach us about three more beautiful pieces of art.  We can't wait!!

   

   

   

   

Mrs. Landrud is a former teacher of deaf and hard of hearing students.  She taught us some sign language, too.  We are excited for her to come teach us more.  Thank you, Mrs. Landrud and the Northview PTO for providing this awesome program!

The Story of Ruby Bridges

We read a wonderful autobiography this week titled Ruby Bridges Goes to School.  One thing that was really cool about reading this book was that the author wrote the book about herself!  Ruby Bridges is an American activist known for being the first black child to desegregate the all white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana in 1960.  Although it was a very scary time for Ruby, we learned that she never gave up on her will to learn and was a very brave little girl.  We wrote about the message of her book and shared it during Writer's Workshop.

   

I am so proud of these kindergartners for being able to understand and share the message from Ruby Bridges!

   

   

Materials in our World

We are off to a great start with our new unit of study…Materials in our World.  We have learned that materials are anything that things are made of…wood, plastic, glass, rubber, and so many more.  We are learning lots about being scientists.  Scientists have to observe, which means to look closely at something.  Sometimes we need to use our other senses to observe things.  Scientists also notice and compare things.  Scientists also record their findings.

We have been observing and recording on fire different types of wood…basswood, cedar, pine, particleboard and plywood.

   

   

We have also set up a Research Station set up in our classroom that we used during Managed Independent Learning.  Here we get to examine the different types of wood samples, saw dust and wood shavings.  We record our observations, too.  As you can see, we actually look like scientists when we are in the Research Station!

   

   

   

Watch for more exciting posts on Materials in our World!

Dental Health Presentation

On Friday afternoon, the kindergarten classes were invited to Ms. Venezia's classroom for a presentation on dental health.  Our visitors were Miss Amanda, Ms. Venezia's mom and Miss Nancy.  Miss Amanda and Miss Nancy work at the Woodbury Dental Center and took some time out of their very busy day to come talk to us about the importance of taking good care of our teeth.  They gave each of us a new toothbrush and a timer so we can remember to brush our teeth for two minutes!

   

They had lots of good advice for us and we were good listeners.  We asked a few questions and really enjoyed having them visit us!

   

   

Many thanks to Miss Amanda, Miss Nancy and the Woodbury Dental Center for their time and our new toothbrushes and timers.  We can't wait to use them!!

Hmong Art Exhibit

This past week, we had the opportunity to visit the district owned Hmong Art Exhibit.  It was set up in our school library.  The exhibit highlights the beauty of Hmong needlework, from embroidery and cross stitch to appliqué  and reverse appliqué.  Each of the pieces we viewed are authentic Hmong.  Some were created in Laos, some in refugee camps in Thailand and some in the United States.  With the help of our two fourth grade guides, Paige and Sophia, we were able to view the display and learn lots about this beautiful artwork!

Many thanks to our Northview All Star Art Teacher, Mrs. Katie Collins, for arranging this wonderful experience for us.  Enjoy the photos!

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

100th Day of Kindergarten

Today was the 100th Day of Kindergarten.  Can you even believe it?  We are 100 days smarter, 100 days more confident and 100 days closer to becoming first graders. We started the day reading a fun story called Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for the 100th Day of Kindergarten by Joseph Slate.  We noticed a lot of similarities between the story and what was happening in our classroom today!

We checked out our Morning Message and added our part to it!

   

For Writer's Workshop today, we wrote about what we would do if we had one hundred dollars and then we shared our writing with the whole class.

   

   

   

   

We decorated some pretty awesome 100 day headbands while we helped Mrs. Radermacher put up our 100 Acts of Kindness for the 100th Day of School in the hallway.

   

   

   

   

 In the afternoon, each table had to work together like a team.  Each table was given 100 cups and they had to build a structure together using all 100 cups.  You would be so amazed at their creativity.  You would also be proud of how well the kindergartners  worked together to do this project!

   

   

   

  

   

   

We made a bulletin board display of all the things we brought in to show what 100 looks like.

All in all, we had a fabulous 100th Day of Kindergarten.