Happy Chinese New Year!

Sorting, measuring, drawing, painting, parading, dog mushing, slurping, exercising... lots of action going on this week!

In math we are learning about sorting by different characteristics: size, shape, count, weight, capacity, etc.  Here the kids are sorting and organizing our school supply bins in different ways!

Measuring and comparing capacity of containers was so much fun!  Try this experiment at home.  Get a skinny tall container and a larger, wide, short container, and ask your kinder which has the greater capacity.  They will pick the tall one almost every time.  Then have them do the experiment to see which can hold more water.  It is fun to watch them be amazed!

Our school participated in Alaska's PLAAY Day ... a synchronized physical activity event for schools around Alaska.  We had fun learning exercises and working out in the gym while we watched other classes online doing the exact same thing all over Alaska!

Our class got our first introduction to the new STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) room this week!  Mrs. Lee did a lesson on drawing aliens to go along with our space unit!

You can see our final projects up in the hallway by the lunchroom!

As we are finishing up our science unit on space we did some other fun space projects this week as well... including chalk rubbing planets, constellation viewer cans, and learning about constellations and writing our own constellation stories!  Make sure to remind your kinder to look up at the stars! (We won't see them for much longer this year!!!).  Also, Moon Journals are due this week...  I have special Moon Pies for kids who turn them in!  They don't have to be completed every day... just so that your child spent some time observing how the moon has changed this month!

The Idita-Read contest continues!  Remember to log all of your kinder's reading minutes, including the ones you do for their blue slip every night, on their reading log.  Every minute counts!  As a part of our contest, we had an event with Mrs. Sara Richards, our new librarian.  She taught the kids about dog sleds and they got a chance to be a dog team, pulling their teachers!  

And finally, the big event of the week was celebrating Chinese New Year!  We had so much fun learning about some traditions related to this holiday, and sharing them with the whole school in our dragon parade! Thanks to Alexa Peet for creating our amazing dragon head and letting the kids help paint it!  Check out the video on the Tok School FB page!

We paraded with noisemakers all around the school scaring away the bad luck and bringing in the good!  We also enjoyed a traditional meal for Chinese New Year, of LOOOONG noodles for a LOOOONG life, and SWEET oranges for a SWEET life!  We got some chopstick lessons from Alexa, and had a hilarious time trying to eat our noodles!

The kids each made their own fire breathing dragons to celebrate as well!

This week we are celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday!  Here are the dress up days for the week.  We also have some other events planned, including a birthday party and reader's theater on Friday at 1:00 that you are invited to attend.  You may also join us for green eggs and ham lunch in the cafeteria before the party, beginning at 12:10.  Stay tuned for an invitation coming home soon!!!