2009 Superstars

Last post of the year

2010-06-09T20:59:00.000-07:00

This is the last Superstar blog of the year. This is always the hardest one to write. We have watched these children grow, blossom and learn. They started out sort of nervous and unsure in September. Now they are confident and excited about the year ahead whether they are moving to the Sharks or going to be the leaders of next year's class. We have enjoyed getting to know you and your children. We wish you and your families all the best. We look forward to seeing your children back at Seabury in the Fall.

Check out the pictures, one was taken in September and one was taken this week. These are my favorite pictures to look back on. The children look so happy to be here!

We hope you have enjoyed viewing the blog and watching these children grow!

2010-06-07T13:27:00.000-07:00

We're finishing things up in the Superstars! We're wrapping up our reading groups and visiting the Sharks' class to check things out for next year. We wrote our last collection of poems. Enjoy!

Butterfly fly away.

Butterfly fly away again.

T.V.

Butterfly, butterfly fly in the sky.

Butterfly, butterfly so, so high.

M.P.

Butterfly, butterfly in the sky.

Butterfly, butterfly fly, fly, fly.

J.W.

Butterfly, butterfly very rare.

How did you get here, butterfly, butterfly?

D.S.

Let it fly.

My butterfly.

N.B.

Butterfly here

Butterfly there

Butterflies everywhere.

C.H.

Butterfly flap, flap, flap.

Butterfly tap, tap, tap.

C.S

Beach Day

2010-06-05T20:43:00.000-07:00

The Superstars were really looking forward to our day at the beach. Unreliable weather changed our plans so we had beach day at school. We spent the day doing beach art projects, playing games and watching "Finding Nemo". We even took Beach Day pictures!

This week we also tried our hand at double digit addition and beginning multiplication! It was so exciting.

2010-05-31T19:54:00.000-07:00

Seabury celebrated spring this week with our Spring Music Program. It was a wonderful event with happy children singing and dancing. We were so proud of our Superstars! Another ritual of spring took place in our class this week. Several weeks ago we ordered Painted Lady caterpillars. Since then we have been watching them grow and change. This week we released 5 adult butterflies in the Seabury garden. They seemed reluctant to leave us!

Poetry Superstar Style!

2010-05-24T16:10:00.000-07:00

The Superstars tried their hands at poetry this week. It was very impressive! I love the creativity and imagination and the beautiful pictures they drew to go with their poems. I'm including a small sample of the poems the kids wrote.

There was a field of flowers.

They were the colors of the rainbow.

They were so beautiful that no one picked them.

M.P.

I like cookies.

I like pie.

I like pizza.

Do you?

D.S.

Stars, stars, stars.

Wars, wars, wars.

I like Star Wars.

N.B.

Aliens are coming.

Should we sail a boat

or should we stay and

make a moat?

E.J.

There was a knight.

He ran into a mirror.

He scared himself in the mirror.

He froze in fright.

G.H.

Freckles

Freckles big.

Freckle small.

Freckles everywhere.

C.H.

There is nothing like a CD about counting by 2's, 5's and 10's to make you want to dance!

Grandparents' and Special Friend Day

2010-05-17T20:24:00.000-07:00

The Superstars worked for several weeks taking pictures, writing their books and doing their illustrations. It was hard work but the rewards were amazing. The children shared their books and the classroom with their invited guests in the morning and with the Beacon class in the afternoon. The kids were so proud of their books and excited about the comments that were added to the back of the books. It was so hard to pick just a few pictures for the blog so I chose many! Look at the faces of the children, they were so excited to share their work. This was a wonderful opportunity to share academic accomplishment and get joy from the experience.

This was the next to last visit from Odin, the reading dog. He has been a wonderful addition to our class and who knew he loved reading as much as we do!

The mosaics for the front of the building are getting their finishing touches put on them and then they will be hung for all to enjoy. The kids enjoyed being part of the process of decorating our school.

Thanks to everyone who joined us on Friday, it was a pleasure having you visit us!

Puyallup Fair School

2010-05-10T19:58:00.000-07:00

The Superstars visited the Puyallup Fair School this week. The fair offers a series of 3 classes about agriculture and farming in Washington State. In one of the classes we learned about dairy farming, cheese-making and dairy cows. It took awhile to convince the kids that the plastic cow would not give milk even if you held a bottle to its mouth. The next class was about farming and crops that grow in Washington. Our final class was a visit to the petting barn. There were ducks, chickens, rabbits, sheep, goats and alpaca to pet and learn about. That was our favorite stop!

We need a mechanic around here!

2010-05-02T20:51:00.000-07:00

The curiosity of a child is a wonderful thing! The children completed their research reports on rainforest animals as we finished our unit of study this week. While the rainforest is very interesting, we found something else to occupy every free moment we had this week. Armed with screwdrivers and wrenches, the children took apart a downdraft system, 2 telephones, a fan, a computer and a pencil sharpener. The room was quiet and peaceful as the children worked together to loosen the screws and pull apart the appliances. Every once in a while you could hear requests for wire cutters (my job), electrical manuals and even a call for a mechanic! Several of the children thought maybe we could make an air hockey game or a flat screen TV out of the bits and pieces we salvaged. By the time we dismissed for the day, many of the pieces went home with the kids. So much for our new TV!

Tropical Rain Forest

2010-04-26T18:36:00.000-07:00

The month of April has been spent learning about the tropical rain forest. We have learned about the 4 layers of the rain forest, deforestation, endangered animals and the many different species of birds, reptiles, insects and animals that live in the rain forest. The children are currently working on their rain forest research projects. Each child has picked a creature from the rain forest and found information on the computer about their subject. This week we will use the research information to decide the important facts we want to share with each other. This has been a really interesting unit to do with the kids. It is amazing how easily they grasp the important issues associated with the loss of the world's rain forests. We have had many discussions about the ways we can save our natural resources like the rain forest.

Welcome Spring!

2010-04-06T12:42:00.000-07:00

We hope everyone is having a restful spring break! We're looking forward to packing the last few weeks of school with interesting learning experiences for your child.

Before break, we started a new activity that teaches active listening. It has been interesting to watch the children listening, relaxing and using their imaginations. These activities teach the kids to focus while they are listening.

At Seabury, we think recess and free choice time in the classroom are important parts of the kindergarten day. These are times when the children can practice their negotiating skills and learn the give and take necessary to get along with their peers. They have the opportunity to explore the science table, read with friends, use their imagination and work together. While most of the day is spent working on academic skills, the social skills they learn during these less structured parts of the day are important to the social and emotional growth of our Superstars.

Alka Seltzer Rockets

2010-03-24T15:09:00.001-07:00

Students enjoyed making their own rockets and blasting them off with various amount of Alka Selzer and water

Apollo Egg Drop

2010-03-24T14:49:00.000-07:00

Ready for the splashdown

Apollo Egg Drop

2010-03-24T14:45:00.000-07:00

His astronaut survived the crash!

2010-03-22T18:48:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how much is happening in the Superstar classroom during the time we like to call "rest time". There is some resting going on, but it is a very valuable part of our schedule. It's the time when we can work one on one with the kids or in small groups. One day last week, I looked around the classroom during rest time. One child was writing and illustrating a story on his mat, another was doing a plant observation and measuring her bean plant. Three other children were quietly reading on their mats and 3 others were involved in a math group. Lots of learning was taking place during the time we call "rest time"! Other highlights included a visit by the Sharks to read us their stories, a visit from Pierce County to teach us about recycling and a visit from our friend Odin, the reading dog. It was a good week!

2010-03-09T18:10:00.000-08:00

What a great week! Dr. Seuss, pajama day, science fair and the Seabury auction! It's hard to say what was the most exciting. Dr. Seuss day was fun, it was filled with activities that involved reading, math and science. The Explorers visited us in the morning to perform a readers' theater version of "The Grinch"; then several classes joined us to watch the short version of "Cat in the Hat"; then later in the day, the Navigators invited us to their class to explore the properties of oobleck. I don't think we could have squeezed another activity into that day.

Then came the science fair. The children had wonderful, thoughtful projects that showcased some of Seabury's best thinking. The children understood their projects and were able to explain them to other students and parents. They were very excited to show us what they had learned.

Finally, we ended the week with the Seabury auction. Thanks to everyone who shared their time, talents and resources. It was wonderful to see so many people supporting Seabury and our students.

Coming soon: Science Fair

2010-03-01T18:49:00.000-08:00

Odin the reading dog was back to listen to our Superstars read this week. Odin loves the children and the children love him. Odin is so patient with the kids and the kids are sure that he loves their stories. I think they are right.

We are getting ready for Science Fair in the Superstars. The children have been learning about molecules and plants and the scientific method. They are excited to share their projects with the school on Thursday. We hope you'll be able to join us.

Remember the school auction on Saturday. We're pretty confident that our project is one of the best!

Go Team Seabury!

2010-02-22T20:48:00.000-08:00

It's been quite the week in the Superstars! We used props to tell each other fairy tales and learned about "beginning, middle, end" when analyzing a story. Learning about these elements, along with main character, setting, and plot make it easier for the kids to comprehend what they are reading and are helpful for writing our own stories. We also had our 100 day celebration this week. Everyone brought in a collection of 100 things. We weighed our collections to see what was the heaviest and the lightest. We counted by 10's to make a "snake" out of different materials to see which was the longest. We made number lines using 10's, 20's and 25's as the units of measure. Finally, we had our own Olympic Games on Friday with the Shark Class. We did lots of measuring while we participated in the "cotton ball shot put", the "straw javelin", the "paper plate discus", the high jump and the leg stretch. At the end of the day, everyone went home with a gold medal.

Busy Children!

2010-02-08T13:19:00.000-08:00

This week we started our new unit on fairy tales and castles. The kids have been writing fairy tales of their own, painted castles, made their own coat of arms, learned about life in a castle and have been solving the dilemma of a king who won't get out of the bathtub. (King Bidgood by Audrey Wood) They have also enjoyed working on The 3 Bears readers theater with Helene. Odin, the dog who loves to listen to readers, was back this week listening to reading groups.

We are so grateful to our volunteers who organize parties, work on our auction project, accompany us on field trips, donate materials and volunteer their time in the classroom. Thank you so much, we appreciate all of you.

Thursday I had a minute after school to check out the after school activities that our Superstars are involved in here at Seabury. One of our kids was having a great time in Mad Science learning about circuits and 3 other kids were patiently waiting for chess to start. We have so many wonderful opportunities after school for the kids in addition to the ones mentioned including watercolor painting and yoga. Outside of school, we hear all about Chinese school, soccer, basketball, ballet, tap dance, piano, violin, and taekwondo. Our children are very busy people!

2010-02-01T20:42:00.000-08:00

Every week is an adventure in the Superstars! This past week we finished our unit on dinosaurs, visited Point Defiance Zoo and learned about sharks, and wrapped up the week with a buddy reading session with the Beacons. Every week that goes by our Superstars are growing and learning new things. Their reading and writing skills are improving and they are finding new ways to learn about things that interest them. They are now proficient with the literature triangle, they can analyze a story for setting, main character, the problem and the solution. These new skills make it easier for the children to comprehend what they are reading and to write their own stories. The children can interpret a bar graph for pertinent information and use it to write their own math problems. It's amazing what you can learn in kindergarten!

If you mix baking soda and vinegar, what happens?

2010-01-25T19:34:00.000-08:00

We have had a great week in the Superstars! We learned about tectonic plates, volcanoes and more dinosaurs. We erupted our own volcanoes and painted a dinosaur mural. We worked together in small groups and we worked on our own. We even had the opportunity to read to a therapy dog who loves to listen to stories!

Learning to work independently and as part of a group are important skills that we learn in kindergarten. We give the children opportunities every day to practice them.

2010-01-18T19:03:00.000-08:00

It has been a very exciting week in the Superstars! Monday, one of our parent's brought in fossils for us to investigate. Every child went home with a fossil that was millions of years old. The children helped reveal the fossils encased in shale using a hammer and screwdriver and then cleaned it off with a soft brush. This was exciting for all of us!

Then we started work on our books. The children dictated stories about their stuffed critters that were sewn by one of our parents. The stories are wonderful and the kids did a great job of illustrating their stories.

Friday we visited the Burke Museum at the University of Washington. We learned more about dinosaurs and fossils there and then had lunch in the HUB. Finally, we invited the parents and other Seabury students to visit our class to read our books. The kids are so proud of their work and so are we! Thanks to everyone to came in and read our books and listened to some of the kids read. It was a great ending to the week!

Kindergartners love dinosaurs!

2010-01-10T20:26:00.000-08:00

It's so good to be back!

We are fully immersed in dinosaurs! This has been a very exciting week! We started the week learning about the water cycle and later in the week we had a presentation on the water web. We are so lucky to have visitors that come into our class to teach us about our environment.

Our other area of study starting this week is dinosaurs. Each child made a wood puzzle of a dinosaur of their choice. Then the Navigators helped us do computer research on our chosen dinosaurs. We wrote short papers about what we had learned and then the Explorers helped us measure the length of our dinosaurs on the playground. Friday, we made a dinosaur habitat. We had lots of opportunities to introduce new vocabulary terms: environment, habitat, sources, research, and territory to name a few. We'll be visiting the Burke Museum on Friday to further our study of dinosaurs and fossils.

(the child sitting by herself on the playground isn't lost, she is sitting on the tail of the Apatosaurus!)

Happy New Year

2009-12-30T20:58:00.000-08:00

Before Winter Break, we had time for some very special activities. One of my favorite times is when we buddy read with the Beacon class. The children are paired with an older child and they take turns reading to each other. This is a valuable activity for all of our readers, the younger children gain confidence reading to the older children and the older kids love being in the role of teacher. You can just feel the excitement and happy energy in the room as the children read as many books as they can in the amount of time we have.

We were also lucky to have several parents join us for a holiday party. The children decorated treats and enjoyed every messy bite! They had a wonderful time! Thanks to our volunteers who either came to the party or who donated treats. We appreciate all of you.

The Superstars as musical stars!

2009-12-14T18:47:00.000-08:00

We had our first public performance as Superstars this past week. The children did an excellent job with the Winter Program. They looked adorable!

We had another interesting teachable moment this past week. One of our kids was out with a cold last week and had missed several days of school. When the kids heard that I was gathering some work to send home for this child, they jumped into action! They drew pictures and used inventive spelling to send good wishes to our friend. It was the perfect opportunity to encourage creativity and working together to make something they thought would make their friend feel better. It was fascinating to watch this in motion. This empathy for one another is one of the reasons we enjoy working with this age group.

2009-12-07T12:16:00.000-08:00

The Superstars are learning how the winter holidays are celebrated in different parts of the world. So far we have traveled to England and France. We have stops planned for Sweden, Mexico, Germany, Italy and the United States. We will also spend some time on Hanukkah. We are learning about the traditional foods and holiday customs. We have made sausage rolls, spiced cider and decorated yule logs. We're looking forward to more treats!

We are so lucky to have the older kids next door, Ms. Head's class has been so helpful with the Superstars. They have joined us in the computer lab, helped us with our unlucky fish tank and now they have been helping us with subtraction. It's a valuable partnership that benefits both classes. The older kids like being helpful and the little ones really benefit from the one on one help.

Don't forget the Winter Program on Tuesday evening, it's going to be fun!

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-25T15:51:00.000-08:00

The Superstars wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! We've been counting our blessings in our class. The children tell us they are thankful for their families and friends and even Seabury. One also mentioned she was thankful for electricity! Helene and I count you and your children among the things we are thankful for. We have been busy preparing for our Thanksgiving feast and learning about the 1st Thanksgiving. We have been enjoying the boxes of Pioneer and NW Indian artifacts that we rented from the Burke Museum at the University of Washington. It was a great opportunity to handle some real tools that had been used in the late 1800's. We appreciate being able to access such great resources.

A couple of weeks ago at our Veterans' Day gathering, we had a Seabury parent talk about his time in Iraq. He talked about missing his family, meeting new people and the ways he and his team were able to help in Iraq. Later that day, his son came to our class and talked about how it felt to have his Dad so far away. The kids could really understand what he was saying and many talked about how they miss their grandparents who live far away. In the Superstars we are grateful for parents who teach us new things, older students who are willing to share with the younger kids and most of all, we are thankful for a room full of loving, empathetic, articulate children.

2009-11-13T21:00:00.000-08:00

For those of you who need some help planning your Thanksgiving dinner, the Superstars are putting together a recipe book. All of the children dictated a recipe for our book. Just to give you a preview of what's coming, here's a recipe for gravy: First you take some brown stuff and mix it with some grayish stuff and then pour it on stuff you like, it's like syrup.

We've been hard at work on our keyboarding skills, the kids are getting pretty good!

Bonus Photos!

2009-11-09T15:13:00.000-08:00

I hadn't planned to put these on the blog but when I was looking for something else, these just made me smile! I thought you might enjoy them too. The kids with the pizza boxes are painting (and dancing) and the other children are doing some scientific exploration. I don't think anything could be better than kindergarten!

2009-11-08T12:15:00.000-08:00

This week has been all about getting ready for Thanksgiving and the meaning and history of Thanksgiving. We have been learning about turkeys, pilgrims and Native Americans. One day this week we ground wheat to make flour and did experiments with yeast. Did you know the gas from the yeast can blow up a balloon? We enjoyed watching that and did it a few times to confirm our results. We baked cinnamon rolls (only 2 balls of dough went on the floor, the 5 second rule did not apply) and ate them for our afternoon snack. We found the best place to make the dough rise was on top of the fish tank. We read "Little Red Hen" and analyzed the story for main character, setting, plot and resolution of the problem. The kids really got into that and we have used the literacy triangle several times this week to talk about other stories we have read.

It's all about recycling and pumpkins this week

2009-11-01T19:57:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all of our families for participating in conferences this past week. Helene and I enjoyed the opportunity of talking with each of our families and learning more about our Superstars.

Pierce County Public works visited the classroom last week and taught the children more about recycling. We are so lucky to have these resources available to us. We also spend some time studying pumpkins. We weighed them and measured them. We took out all the seeds and counted them with the help of the Navigator class. It was amazing how many seeds were in those pumpkins and how many different ways there are to count them. Some people counted by groups of ten and some used groups of five and some counted them one by one. Hard to believe this was hands on math--it seemed just like fun!

Community helpers

2009-10-18T19:37:00.000-07:00

The Superstars had several opportunities in the past week to interact with some of our important community helpers. We had a State Patrol trooper come to the class and talk about stranger danger and personal safety. One of our local firefighters came to class and talked about fire safety in the home and stop, drop and roll. On Thursday, the fire truck rolled into the parking lot to show us what firefighters do when they are on a call. We even got to sit in the driver's seat! And then on Friday we had a Seabury family come to gathering to introduce us to the puppy they are socializing to become a guide dog for the blind. Another of our Seabury parents came in one afternoon this week to talk about taking care of our teeth and yet another parent (one of our Superstar parents) came to class to talk about germs and staying healthy! We are so lucky to have some many resources at our disposal. All of this excitement was in addition to our regularly scheduled activities and lessons. Did I mention one of our dads came in on Friday to paint the kids' feet?

Superstars visit Seattle Art Museum

2009-10-12T20:21:00.000-07:00

The Superstars had a great visit to the Seattle Art Museum this week. We learned how families differed around the world. In Japan, families entertain with a tea ceremony. In France during the 1800's, family portraits didn't include smiling, it was a very serious business! Pacific NW Indians use storytelling to entertain and pass down their history. We enjoyed the bus ride to Seattle and the tour of the museum. After the tour we created our own scrolls to describe a feast the same way families in China have done in the past. Check out our pictures, I especially like the one where the children pretended to be part of an old French portrait. It was hard for them not to smile. Fieldtrips are exhausting business, the two girls curled in a ball together on the bus are sound asleep! It was a good day.

Snake Lake and other adventures

2009-10-05T10:04:00.000-07:00

We've had a lot of fun this week in the Superstars. Our visit to Snake Lake was great. We are so lucky to have these resources so close by. For some of us, it was our first ride on a school bus and we enjoyed every minute of it. The educator at Snake Lake was wonderful as she introduced us to the wildlife there and took us on a hike where we used our "fox ears" to listen for animal and bird sounds. Later in the week we had our first introduction to "speed kindergarten". We divided into groups and rotated through 5 different stations. One station for science, 2 for math, one for art and one for critical thinking. You could feel the excitement in the room as they waited for the triangle to ring to indicate time to change stations. Amazing what you can accomplish in a 7 minute station!

Thanks to everyone who came to curriculum night, it was great to have you with us. We're looking forward to another busy week in the Superstars.

Superstar celebrations

2009-09-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

We are settling into our routine in the Superstar room. Our days are filled with exploration, celebration and creation. We celebrate the milestones in our children's lives such as the birthday celebrated in these pictures. (The children lined up on the wall are our singers.) When you are in kindergarten there are many things to celebrate: teeth (falling out and coming in!), birthdays, pets (the arrival of our 5 baby fish in the tank), painting with salad spinners and the impact of centrifugal force on your painting, and finally Jakob playing happy music on his violin as the children learn about the elements of music. Kindergarten is a place of possibilities where there are many happy voices! Come visit us sometime. (Where else would you have a worm named Beauty?)

Enjoying the sunshine!

2009-09-21T19:23:00.000-07:00

This week the Superstars spent some time learning about patterns. We found patterns on the calendar, in our phonics work, in our reading books and in our math work. The best way to learn about patterns is to make some for yourself so we used pattern blocks to make our own patterns. We added different colored blocks until we had some very complex patterns. We've also been enjoying the wonderful weather we've been having. Two days a week we walk to the field for lunch recess. Our children are paired up with an older student for the walk. The older kids take really good care of the younger ones. It's been another good week in the Superstars!

There's more than one way to write your name!

2009-09-14T17:50:00.000-07:00

As the children discovered this past week, there is more than one use for fingerpaint. It's fun to play with and it's a great way to practice writing your name! We used the fingerpaint for writing, designing, printing on apple shapes and color mixing. And the children thought they were just having fun.

We started technology this past week. With the help of the Explorers and Ms. Head, we learned how to turn on the computer and to find the website we needed. Each Explorer helped 2 Superstars get started on the keyboarding program we use. The younger kids like having the older kids help them and the older kids are willing teachers. It's a positive experience for both classes. Enjoy our pictures.

Worms, worms, worms

2009-09-09T14:36:00.000-07:00

We had a great time viewing worms and other compost critters today with Pierce County Public Works-Mrs.V

We're off to a great start!

2009-09-07T19:21:00.000-07:00

It's going to be a great year! We have a wonderful class full of different personalities and abilities. One thing they all share is their excitement for kindergarten! We have already started working on phonics, (we're exploring the sounds and formation of the letter "i") and beginning math concepts. We've made playdough with a parent volunteer, had French, PE and Library. It was a very full first week! Enjoy our first set of class pictures.

Welcome to the Superstars!

2009-08-31T19:05:00.000-07:00

Helene and I are just as excited as your children are about starting school. We have lots of fun and interesting lessons planned to engage your child. The plan is to update the blog on Mondays, so check back every week! The children will bring home a written (paper) newsletter in their folders every other Friday. The newsletter will contain up to date curriculum information and the blog will be mostly pictures of all the fun we are having.

We're looking forward to seeing all of you on Wednesday!

2009-08-31T19:04:00.000-07:00