Wonderful Worms

  

      Since it was Earth Day yesterday, this seemed like a good time to read our Wonderful Worms book.  I stopped at Walmart on the way to school and bought some big fat night crawlers. The kids questioned me about why they had a plate at their seat, since it was not snack day.  I read the book and showed a great video about the wonder of worms, then I gave each of them a night crawler on their plate to examine.  Some were eager to pick them up, but a few-- not so much.  We made charts to describe worms, they compared sizes, and gave them a name. It was great fun, and I got several hugs for being the best teacher ever -- and here are a few pictures.  Can you guess which ones were not worm lovers?

   

   

   

   

   

   Now they are writing "Worms are cool." 

   But also crawling around on the floor instead of sitting -- oh, well!

   

I Want to be an Astronaut (NOT!)

     

     Today at Valmead we had the privilege of having a real live astronaut at our school.  Not only was it cool having a celebrity, but he really knew how to keep an audience of little kids interested. Our astronaut, Duane Carey, flew on the Space Shuttle Columbia.

    He showed a video he made during his flight demonstrating how they ate and slept and used the bathroom in space -- all things the kids were interested in.
 

    

    He answered their questions, and when one little boy asked what it was like to blast off into space, he brought him up front and showed what it was like with vibrations and pressure. He told how the astronauts have to wear a diaper -- ew -- while they are waiting for the launch because they can't get up and go to the bathroom then.

    After the presentation, I took the children to the playground where they pretended to blast off into space and everything on the playground became a rocket ship.

   

   

   

   After playing, the children drew pictures and wrote stories about the astronaut. Some were so enthusiastic that they asked for more paper so they could write a second page!!

    

    On the way to the bus, one of my little boys said,"I want to be an astronaut when I grow up!" We are thankful to Mrs. Mood for arranging this inspiring event.

    

   

Happy Easter Egg

       

          Spring break is finally here!   

          It has been a busy, fun-filled week in kindergarten. We interrupted our insect study to concentrate on Easter for this week.  I read lots of good books -- everything from the Ressurection of Jesus -- the real reason for Easter -- to Easter Bunny and Ukranian egg decorating and egg hunts.

I brought my hand-painted Ukrainian eggs that I got when I went on a mission trip to Ukraine a few years ago. I read the Patricia Polacco book, "Rechenka's Eggs" 

   

        One of the highlights was coloring the eggs.  The children are always amazed to see the eggs dyed into beautiful colors. They all gathered around to table to see the transformation and make me feel like a magician.

   

     Look at all those boys!

      I took the eggs to the lunchroom and let them peel off the colorful shells and eat them. I was surprised that some have never seen a boiled egg before -- one brought the yolk to me to ask what it was.

    

     

      But the BIG EVENT was the egg hunt today.  I had several moms and other volunteers come  to hide hundreds of eggs in the school yard while we were at lunch. And, oh, the excitement!!

   Everyone had a big bag of candy-filled eggs to take back to the classroom. I let them sit down and feast on the candy -- they were all going home in an hour -- then they wrote about the egg hunt in their journals.   I love this one.

      I am looking forward to celebrating the Resurrection with my family, then working on my "to-do" list. I've signed my retirement papers, and I need to start figuring out what I am going to do with the tons of teaching materials I have accumulated over the past 45 years...

       Happy Easter!  He is risen!