Kindergarten Prep: November 2018

This week, we learned all about our community, members within our community, and being community helpers ourselves.

We learned about being doctors...

dentists...

firefighters...

and police officers.

Going back to the beginning of the unit, we first learned about emergencies and 9-1-1. Practicing with several types of phones, we got used to accessing the right screen (using the emergency bypass for a locked phone), finding the right numbers, and explaining what our emergency was.

We also definitely learned that 9-1-1 was for emergencies only and even had a song about
"9-1-1...it's not for fun."

Then we met our first emergency worker and our first guest of the unit, Police Officer Dan.

Throughout this unit, we also created our town Sacred Heart...

with special A-G parking spots.

We played community helper BINGO...

and got really excited when we won.

Then, we got to meet with our next emergency worker, Firefighter Corey!

He showed us that, even though a fully dressed firefighter might look scary and have alarms that are loud, there's no reason to be frightened.

Afterwards, we all played in our firefighter helmets.

Later that morning, we had our next visit from Chef Michael. He came this day just to help us cook our first Stand Up For Kids meal; three trays of gourmet macaroni and cheese to feed 25 homeless adolescents.

As the macaroni boiled, the kids watched in anticipation.

Finally, they got to help prepare the trays.

On these Thursdays, we'll prepare the meal in class. Then, in the evening, my children and I will deliver it to the Stand Up For Kids shelter downtown. Thank you so much for everyone who donated ingredients for the macaroni and cheese! It was devoured this night!

This unit, we built green Gg's...

played with Gg's on the interactive whiteboard...

practiced writing green Gg's...

and wrote them in pencil.

We also painted what we want to be when we grow up.

Our next guest was retired Master Sergeant Strum who talked about the Marine Corps and the importance of Veteran's Day.

Then we got to talk with Nurse Amy about how she helps patients.

Hanging out with Engineer Maria was next where we learned that engineers help solve problems.

Finally, we had our last classroom visit for the Community Helpers unit with Dr. Evelyn.

Closing out the unit, we took a walking field trip to see the community in action.

We first stopped at The Lazy Hummingbird for some hot chocolate and hang out with Coffee Shop Danielle.

Then, we went to the library where Librarian Matt read us a few stories.

Next, we stopped at OB Elementary to say hi to Kindergarten Teacher, Ms. Stewart, and a few Sacred Heart alumni.

Afterwards, we had snack and a break at the park.

We ended the field trip with a tour the OB People's Co-Op with Grocer Jamie
(which was SO much fun)!

It was a good, good month! From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to Police Officer Dan, Firefighter Corey, Master Sergeant Strum, Nurse Amy, Engineer Maria, Doctor Evelyn, Coffee Shop Danielle, Librarian Matt, Kindergarten Teacher Ms. Stewart, and Grocer Jamie. We couldn't have had community helper month without our strong Sacred Heart community and we are so very grateful for your time!

Happy Halloween!

¡y Día de los muertos!

These last two weeks have been all about spooky celebrations! Our first order of business was to decorate the classroom.

and fill up our library of awesomeness.

Then, beginning with spiders, we learned all about spider parts and their webs.

We counted 8 legs...

we learned La araña pequeñita (The itsy bitsy spider)...

and we searched for spider webs outside.

We finger painted in black...

to make our classroom website.

Finger painting also offered us a good opportunity to start learning the letter "e". While the capital E is easy to learn, the lower case e is one of the most difficult letters of the alphabet (second only to the letter K).