Welcome to Teacher Dorothy and Teacher Elli’s kindergarten and first grade class.
We are fifteen 5, 6 and 7 seven olds working, learning and playing together. |
We raised monarch butterflies in our science center and learned about the life cycle of a monarch.
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We began the year with buddy activities that helped the children get to know each other. Each older child had a younger child as a buddy to look out for and befriend.
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We picked the pumpkins from our pumpkin patch and cooked the pumpkins and made them into yummy pumpkin bars.
We planted our fall garden and harvested greens for one of our all school hot lunches. |
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For our Thankful Tuesday presentation for the school community, the children made light collages and sang Raffi’s song, One Light, One Sun.
As part of our half year theme, FIRE, we did experiments with light and heat. |
 
To celebrate the solstice we got together with the 7th and 8th graders and created sun masks and collages. We attended a Saint Lucia celebration at Foxdale Retirement Village. |
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We culminated our fire theme by studying the desert. We were thrilled by a visit from a local man who breeds lizards and we got to see them “up close”. The children also made cactus hotels out of paper that showed the animals that make their home in a saguaro cactus.
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We studied WATER as our theme for the second half of the year. We launched the theme study by brainstorming words that relate to water and then using water colors to illustrate those words. 
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Next we did a series of science experiments in small groups that focused on experimenting with and discovering the properties of water.
As soon as the weather was warm enough for us to explore water outside, we went on a series of water field trips.
First, both of the kindergarten and first grade classes went to the Baltimore Aquarium for a day to learn more about ocean life. Then in May, both of the K-I classes visited three different sites here at home to do hands-on exploration of our local watershed. We studied streams, ponds and wetlands. |
In addition to our theme study, we had fun with crazy hair day, creating and presenting our class play (The Rainbow Fish), finishing our class quilt, and ending the year with our traditional end-of-the-year all school camp out at Camp Blue Diamond.
 
 
 
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In true Friends School tradition, we spent our school year discussing, exploring, experimenting, questioning, creating, laughing and learning together. Both the children and the adults are solidly on the path of lifelong learning. |
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Thematic Study: Earth, Air, Fire, Water |
The four elements are the focus of a two-year theme cycle in our class. Fire and water are half-year themes one year, and air and earth are half year themes the next year. Children in this multi-age classroom experience all four themes. Young children enjoy concrete, hands-on experiences, and the study of the four elements affords many authentic opportunities to explore their natural world.
While the specific content of each theme differs somewhat from year to year depending on the interests of the children, each of the four elements lends itself to a variety of areas of study.
- During the fire study, the children learn about fire, the sun and solar energy, as well as light. The habitat that we focus on during our study of fire is the desert.
- During our study of water we learn about the properties of matter and of water, and we take advantage of our local ponds, lakes and streams for exploration of these habitats. We also learn about our local watershed and water conservation.
- The study of air provides ample opportunities to explore wind and weather and flight, with special attention to the natural history and habitats of birds.
- During our study of earth, we learn about soil, plants, gardening, the web of life, and the ecology of our local woodlands as a habitat.
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