ECO Survey

You’re invited to complete this survey about the ECO program at Union Elementary School. You can either take the online survey here or fill out a paper form that will come home in your child’s folder. If you choose to complete the paper copy, please return it to your child’s teacher or the front office by Thursday March 14.

The ECO advisory group will hold an open meeting soon with parents, teachers, and North Branch Nature Center staff to evaluate and plan for next year. Stay tuned for more information—we’d love to have your input.

If you have any questions or comments, contact Lesley Allen (229-1547) or Laury Saligman (505-0582).

KinderArt-Tar Beach

We are currently studying Faith Ringgold. She created a story quilt titled, "Tar Beach".We have been looking at her style of art, and have created our own stories of where we would like to fly to, if we could fly.In Tar Beach, Cassie flies over New York City, and dreams of ways she can care for her family.

Enjoy this clip of Faith, describing her story quilt.

Cozy Day

The class has been really working hard to follow the social curriculum, and to remember CARES. We have really been focusing on  C(cooperation) and S(self control). Together, the class has earned over 1500 hoots to recognize these behavioral choices. Screech visited the class(see above) and we also decided tog ether on a celebration day. Cozy Day with cocoa was the request of the class(with a  few requests for hot dog day too.) We celebrated with a very cozy day of stories, painting, and cocoa.  Mrs. Fry came from the library to share a cozy story, and Toni( Chi-Chi and Chen-Chen's mom) volunteered to take some photos. In the afternoon Janna( Russell's mom), and Ada came to help serve the cocoa.It was super easy. The recipe was easy too- 1bag of MILK chocolate chips, and 1 gallon of milk in the crackpot for 2 hours. What a lovely, cozy day before winter break!

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ECO - Tracking Fun

We had a fresh snowfall for our ECO tracking lesson!

Mrs. Timm( Mallory's grandma) documents the learning.

Dan( Amelia's dad) is looking for clues- I think...

Looking for tracks and trails- is that a snowshoe hare?

Beautiful forest

Time to explore

and climb

and look for nature clues.

Looking,

and following trails...

Still smiling, after a busy morning of ECO!- Thanks to Dan, and the Timms for their help.

Thanks for coming all the way from Wisconson, Mr. and Mrs. Timm!

The Valentine Phantom

Look for familiar faces around 4:25!
Keep watching for more surprises.

Friendship and Valentine's Day

Kindergarten friendships are so special. Each child in our learning community has learned how to be a friendly contributor to classroom life. While practicing compassion, assertion, responsibility, empathy and self control: children are learning how to be friends, and how to respond to friends in a variety of situations. On Valentine's day, we focus on ways that we can show kindness and caring.

We also traveled into Montpelier to count hearts and practice our tally marks.

While in town, our class was interviewed by Eva Sollberger for her video blog. "Stuck in Vermont" . 

100 Day- Hooray

We celebrated the 100th day of kindergarten in a variety of ways. We have accomplished so much in just 100 days, and each kindergarten kid had a chance to count to 100 many times.

We counted 100 cheerios for necklaces.

We counted 100 stars for crowns.

We read over 100 books together!

 

  

We went on a hunt all around Union School for 100  dragon footprints, after receiving a letter from Hundred Herman. We found Herman the dragon hiding in Mr. Bradley's office with a surprise bag for our class. 

Each child even got to go home with 100 dollars!

It is hard to believe that we only have about 75 days left in the kindergarten year.

Happy New Year- The Year of the Snake

Each month, Janna is coming in to teach lessons about China, and also some Mandarin. This month, she introduced herself, told of her time living in China, and showed some images of China. Janna explained that Taiwan is an island near China. She also taught some  character writing in Chinese. We made some lanterns to celebrate the Lunar Festival coming on the 15th of February.

Monthly Kindergarten Sing-a-long

This month's Kindergarten sing- a -long song featured a culmination of a snow and ice theme.  

Check out, "My Snowman." 

You will get a chance to hear many of these songs again at the Kindergarten Performance . We have tentatively set the date of  Tuesday April 16th for the show. Please 'save the date."