Eating Dirt

For cooking club on Friday we got to learn all about composting and recycling to get ready for Earth Day. We learned that when you mix the ingredients in your compost pile (food scraps, egg shells, and sometimes even worms) you get a really nutrient rich soil that is good for the garden. We got to make out own dirt, complete with worms to eat out of flower pots. I don't know if it was as healthy for us as compost is for the garden, but it sure did taste good! Our favorite part was beating on the Oreo cookies with a rolling pen to make the dirt!

Vegetable Party

What a great vegetable party we had! We had all different veggies so we were able to eat roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and seeds. Also, everyone in our class except 2 kids tried a brussels sprout and most of the kids liked them! We then got to call my brother Russell and tell him that we ate "Russell Sprouts"!! We also ate a lot of beets which was fun and different for most kids. Each kid got to invite someone from the school to come to our party. Ms. Chapman and Mr. Dennis came by for a plate so it was fun to be able to give them so veggies too! I also tried something new...rhubarb...and I actually liked it!

Fruit Kebabs

We had so much fun making fruit kebabs in cooking club on Friday! It was the perfect thing to make while we are learning about seeds, plants, fruits, and veggies!

Pennies for Peace

In kindergarten, we read the book Three Cups of Tea in which a man named Dr. Greg is building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He also has a program called Pennies for Peace (www.penniesforpeace.org) where you can collect money to help kids go to school in Pakistan. Our class collected pennies for a month, then counted and rolled them. We raised $55 which the kids figured out was 5500 pennies (what a smart group of kindergartners) which can buy 5500 pencils for kids to go to school. I am so proud by how hard everyone worked in collecting and counting the pennies. We have also been listening to Dr. Greg's daughter sing the song Three Cups of Tea. If you would like to listen to it, you can go to www.youtube.com, type in Three Cups of Tea song, and click in it. It brings tears to my eyes every time I hear the kids sing it!

Measurement

In math, we have been learning how to measure things. This week, we measured things in our classroom using linking cubes. On Thursday, our 3rd grade buddies came over and measured us to see how many linking cubes tall we were. Next week our buddies will make a sheet of things we can measure and we will measure with rulers!

Helping Japan

Well, we finished our marble collecting! On Friday we estimated how many marbles we thought we had earned in 2 weeks. Then, with a couple of parents in to watch (and armed with check books), we counted 81 marbles! That means that I wrote a check for $81 as did 2 other parents so our class was able to donate $243 to Feed the Hungry (http://www.feedthehungry.org/) to help Japan. Audrey (my sister who lives in Japan) was also there and she taught the kids how to write their names in Japanese! She was so excited to see the Japanese flags,

Carp, and cheery blossoms, that we made to decorate the class for her! Way to go, kindergarteners!