We All Sing the Same Song

The book We All Sing with the Same Voice by J. Philip Miller prompted me to look for the old Sesame Street song online. When I found the video I remembered immediately singing along with this song on Sesame Street when I was five or six years old. I'm hoping the kids will enjoy it just as much. We're going to read and sing it tomorrow. Take a look at the video and sing along!

Being a global citizen is not an easy job

Our study of the ocean has been woven together with the BP oil leak, how could it not be? The children have showed great interest and concern about the leak and also a immense empathy for the animals that are suffering.

We have also spent time wondering how long this will last. We know the greatest minds in the world are trying to find a solution. I encouraged the children to think about solving the problem as well and their interest in thinking deeply about the topic has been inspiring. J had the idea of using super strong "muscle" cement that can be put in water. M recommended using special, strong glue. K had the idea of fitting a log in the leak to stop it. And you'll see D and S have a similar idea of using really large buckets to scoop out the oil, which they represented through their artwork.


"The oil leak was coming 60 million days. And the people couldn't fix the oil leak because the oil leak is dying the animals; the jellyfish, octopus, fish, sharks, dolphins. They are all dying. All of the animals are dying in the ocean. We will take the animals out of the water. We take a really big cup, then we take all of the oil leak in the cup. And the people take the animals to the doctor and the doctor clean and check up the animals. Then the animals get really good. The oil leak gets gone. Then the animals can live in the water now. And they are safe now." By D


"This is the water and the oil leak, killing all the animals. And the oil leak is going higher and higher. And when i was going in the beach, my sister said "no" because there's an oil leak and we have to find another beach. And we see some jellyfish and they died. And we went to another beach and there was still an oil leak and my sister said "it keeps on spreading out" and I agree. We went to another beach and it was all safe. I like my sister." By I


"This is the oil spill and this is the clean water in the bottom. More oil is coming out. The animals are coming out to the beach. And the oil spill is going all the way to the beach. So the people got a big bucket, so all the oil spill will get out of the water so it can be safe." By S

On our way to K

We have been spending quite a bit of time discussing our feelings about moving up to kindergarten. Some of us feel very excited and others feel nervous. To help us learn more about what to expect we decided it would be a good idea to visit a kindergarten classroom. So we wrote a letter, as a class, to Ms. To and we let her know we wanted to visit her classroom and learn more about kindergarten. Mrs. Chin and A delivered the letter and the very next day we got a letter back from Ms. Tu, letting us know she really wanted us to visit her classroom. She even knew about our classroom "oink" joke and used the word oink in her letter! You can see it below...




Wednesday afternoon we went upstairs to visit Ms. Tu and it was great! We saw the big, colorful K room and spent time talking with Ms. Tu. We even peeked in the other K classrooms as we were leaving. By the time we made it back to our room everyone agreed that moving up to kindergarten was indeed exciting.

Beach Expedition Ideas

As summer nears take a look at this great article before heading to the beach, just click on the "beach expedition" link below. It will give you some great ideas for maximizing your day of sandy exploration.

Beach Expedition

Enjoy!

little global citizens

Thanks to the children's enthusiasm and the help from parents and families, we were able to raise $90 as a class for Heifer International! After much discussion and a vote (between buying a goat, sheep, or pig) we chose to donate a sheep. Somewhere in the developing world our efforts will help to provide a sustainable source of food (milk, cheese, and meat) as well as a means for making clothes thanks to sheep wool. Thank you families for helping our Heifer project to be a success!

silly billy stories

Aside from two mornings where I completely forgot our new storytelling routine, the stories have been flowing. Silly stories seem to be a favorite, and the children seem very aware of their audience when telling their stories.

Take T for example in his tale Silly Duck...
A duck was sleeping in a bed with a kid. It was sleeping and snoring like a lobster. And he opened his eyes and go to the zoo and see all the snowy animals. And it was snowing everywhere and the neighborhood was empty. The duck was so silly making a silly dance. The End.

D seems influenced by the Dick and Jane book she has been reading at home in her story Big Family Work...
One day there was Dick, Dick said "look father Jim plays and plays." Then the Sallie says "look, he make a oqn club house." Then Dick and the father were telling her to never play. Then he and his mother - mother said "Dick is a boy and whole family work together." The family works and works. The family eat food every single day. And the Sallie says "oh my ball is not here. Who can found my ball? My ball is yellow and pretty." Then Sallie found her ball. The End.

The Three Crayon and the Box by J
He just dancing. He dancing all by himself. And the big girl. And he color on the crayon, and he just draw it. And draw the sun and the sky. And the chicken live and the egg, his nest. Like the color. He not coming now, he just color his head. The End.

This one is amazing when I think about X, she entered the pre-k with no English as many of the children did and when she was telling this story I had to ask her to shorten the story because it was so long. Truly amazing.
Three Little Butterflies by X
The three little butterflies three color is one yellow color, one is the red color, and one is white color. The three little butterflies in the garden play. The rain is down. The three little butterflies is fly. One red butterfly said red flower "I want to go to the leaf dance there." The red flower said "come here." The red butterfly "me too." Then the white butterfly and yellow butterfly come fly. The three little butterfly said "no is friend." The three little butterflies fly to yellow flower say "yellow flower I want to fly to leaf there." The yellow flower say "yellow butterfly, me too come there.' And yellow, white, red butterfly fly. The three little butterfly fly to white flower said "white flower, I want to go to that leaf there." White flower said butterfly, butterfly me too."

A Silly One by Annie
Mrs. Chin and Ms. Merril come from Xin Yue. And Ms. Merril drink cow milk, Ms. Chin too. The End

Silly Goose by Brian
Butterfly drink the flower. Ms. Merril and me see the butterfly. K see the fish. D see the bird. F see the fish. X see the eye. Mrs. Chin see the cow. Me see the playground, see T. Me see the big mommy house. My see Ms. Merril house. Oink! The End.