A Rainbow of Colors

Hello Kinder Parents! The students and I had a fun wintry week together. I had to share this pretty winter picture I took after school earlier this week.

Our school is in such a beautiful location; we are so fortunate to be located SO CLOSE to the pond and walking trails. 

Yesterday was an extremely fun, but also meaningful day of teaching. The class learned about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and how he changed the world for the better. The kids couldn't believe that people long ago treated each other differently based on their appearance. 

I started the day by reading the children's book The Land of Many Colors. It's about these fictional characters who don't get along with one another based on their color. Purple people think they are the best; green people think they're the best, etc. Each color lives in their own separate land, but soon each color group starts to run out of supplies. The different colors end up getting in a huge fight and all their lands, homes, and supplies are ruined. Then someone stands up to all the groups and says that they should all get along no matter what color they are. Soon, the different colors start to cooperate and get along with one another, and help restore their land. At the end, they learned to live in a land of many colors (ok ok, so it's a bit cheesy to adults, but hey it gets the message across to my kindergarteners!).

After reading that story, we did an experiment with 2 eggs, 1 white 1 tan. I posed the question: "Do you think the eggs will look different or the same on the inside?" When I cracked the 2 eggs open, the students thought it was crazy how both eggs looked the same on the inside even though their appearance looked different on the outside. This experiment lead to the discussion that people are in a way, like the eggs we just opened. We may all look different on the outside, but on the inside, we all have feelings: sad, happy, angry, excited, hurt. Our actions can affect others for good (or not so good) and that we need to treat everyone with respect and kindness regardless of how similar or different we are. 

Passing the inside of our eggs around.

Outside of work, I saw a news clip that was forwarded to me from a friend. It featured a first grader who was getting bullied in Massachusetts because of the clothes he wore and the way he talked (he has a speech impediment). He's a water boy for the 5th grade football team, and when the 5th graders found out that this boy was getting bullied, they wanted to help him stand up to the bullying. Check it out! It's very empowering (and may have made me tear up not once...but a couple times). 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq7ZgXz_YLc&list=PLqNR2ICbItr8y7u1f3zXGVp5_TEi50gUo&index=12

I shared this video with the class Thursday morning after we did our egg experiment. Itwas very relatable and helped them realize that anyone can stand up to bullying and help one another when they see someone is being treating unfairly. 

We discussed appearance beyond just skin color, such as clothing, eyes, hair, and shoes, and how everyone looks unique. It would be such a dull, boring world if we all were carbon copies of one another. In a way, our classroom is like a rainbow of people. We drew self portraits of ourselves and glued them on different colored crayons. 

A few years ago, my mom sent me these multicultural crayons from Crayola. What a perfect time to use them!

A couple other exciting things we did this week:
In math, we learned about the balance scale and how we use it to measure how heavy or light something is. For that lesson, I took the class upstairs to the fifth grade pod and we used the balance scales in the Environmental Education room (where science and math supplies are stored). It was fun changing up the scenery and learning in a new setting. I will make sure we do that again!

We reviewed 2D shapes and learned about each shape's attributes. 

Here we are sorting them different ways.

A few math stations we did (a continuation of last week's)...

Some exciting news on my end...
Through my 25 years of existence thus far, I have never gone to a MN Wild game... until now! I was able to go Tuesday night. Why it took me so long to go to a gane is beyond me?! I will definitely be going again. 

And one last thing to share: I am going to be a ZUMBA INSTRUCTOR! I am beyond thrilled to be teaching dance. I signed up to receive my training and instructor license next month, and can hardly wait to get in the studio. I have a vast dance background and used to dance competitively since I was in elementary school. Zumba is more for fun of course, but dancing is a huge hobby of mine and I can't wait to teach adults (it'll be a nice change of pace from my little kindergarteners!). Yay for new exciting things in 2014! 

Hope the kids enjoy the nice 4 day weekend! I am finally finished with report cards. :) Stay warm.