School Projects

I can't believe that I'm almost done with Kindergarten! It's been such a fun year and I've learned so much. We gone on lots of field trips, adopted a class tree in Prospect Park, grew vegetables (pea shoots, radishes, lettuce), learned new songs, and wrote books and poems. I always seem to come home with stack of drawings and worksheets. 

However, this was the most elaborate project I made in Kindergarden - a bridge made out of toothpicks and marshmallows! I did have a little help from my learning buddy who is a 5th grader.



While it was fun to make, Everett and I had other plans for it...



Should I be an architect or civil engineer when I grow up?

Self portrait

As some of you may know,  I really love art, including drawing, painting, making collages, and really any other art medium that I can try out. And one of my favorite things to do, and something that we do relatively often in school, is self-portraits.

This is what my self-portraits looked like two years ago. And this is what they looked like last year. And as recently as September, they looked like this. Personally, I thought that was pretty good, but then we started taking art class in kindergarten, where I learned some new skills, and my most recent self-portrait looks like this:

What do you think?

More Kindergarten Activities - With Mommy and Daddy!

While Everett and I loved Disneyworld and want to go back, the best part of coming back from our trip was returning to my kindergarten class and all of my friends. I've always loved school and kindergarten, but especially during the few weeks before Thanksgiving and our Disneyworld trip - because just about every week, either Mommy or Daddy came to my classroom at least one day a week as volunteers to help out my teacher, Anna.

Like he did back in October,  Daddy once again chaperoned my class on a trip to Prospect Park to visit our class tree. He took lots of pictures and helped us with our drawing project.

And when it came time for our run up the hill from the tree, Daddy once again stood guard at the top of the hill to make sure everyone knew where to turn around.

Except it looks like at least a coulpe of my classmates are getting a little too attached to Daddy...

Daddy also came to my class five days in a row to run "cooking center." Here we are making one of the cooking projects Daddy planned for us... 

It was called "tortilla art" -

Mommy was in our classroom just as often as Daddy, first to chaperone our book fair, and then to help with "art center." How do you like my recreation of my bunny?

Or my abstract sculpture?

I just love it when Mommy and Daddy come to my classroom!

Hansel and Gretel

Now that I'm in my second year of preschool, and me and my friends are all a bit older, we're venturing out of our classroom more often, sometimes for neighborhood walks, sometimes to "the big yard" to see demonstrations by visitors (like the farmers who brought an apple press for us to try out), and most recently, to see our first puppet show - in this case, Hansel and Gretel.

Though I have to admit that I don't think I was quite ready to see a show about a "young brother and sister threatened by a cannibalistic witch living deep in the forest in a house constructed of cake and confectionery"...

Yes, that's me, snuggled into one of my teacher's lap, facing away from the stage, while the other kids enjoyed the show... it was definitely more than a bit scary!

But my teacher did assure Mommy and Daddy that by about half-way through the show, I warmed up to the action, and faced the stage to watch (though still from the safety of her lap), and when I came home, I even told Mommy and Daddy that I loved the puppet show and want to see more. Though maybe next time, something not involving a "cannibalistic witch"...

Our class tree

We went on a special class trip with my Kindergarten class the other day. The trip was just to Prospect Park up the hill from school, but it was the purpose of the trip that was special. That, and the fact that for the first time since I started Kindergarten, several parents came along as chaperones - including Daddy!

And the purpose of the trip? It was to adopt our very own class tree. Here is Ms. Anna, our teacher, showing us a picture of the majestic Oak we adopted, and telling us all about it - with the actual Oak behind her in the distance.

And here we are examining and adopting the tree for our class -

We also spent time sketching the tree in our new sketchbooks that Ms. Anna brought for us, and then collecting specimens from around the tree - like acorns, leaves and fallen branches - to examine in our classroom later.

The plan is for us to come visit the tree several times during the year, to see how it changes with the seasons.

But before we get to our scientific studies back in the classroom, Ms. Anna wanted to make sure we had a chance to get some exercise in the fresh air and warm sunshine. So, we raced up a hill... 

All the way to where Daddy was standing guard...

Where he turned us all around and back down the hill...

And back to the classroom we went!

Images from Kindergarten

Scenes from Preschool

Me and my friends...

Activity time...

Music time with Greg...

I was very used to Kevin, and it's taking me a bit of time to get used to Greg, so I sometimes spend music class with Joanna, one of my teachers...

Outside time - with Stella, my girlfriend...

Pressing apples, enjoying the apple cider and meeting some farm animals...

And, just because, here's what stroller parking looks like around here...

Officially a Kindergartener

OK, I know that we owe you lots of posts on our vacation in Montauk. It's just that we've been really busy preparing for the first day of school!! You see, it's a big day for me because I started big kid school today - I'm officially a Kindergartener!!

I've been very excited the last couple of weeks and have been anxious to meet my new teacher. She was even nice enough to send me a postcard over the summer from her vacation. Since she was so thoughtful, I decided that I should draw her some pictures and make her a card too. There are lots of new things and new routines for me this year like being on-time for school, bringing a backpack to class everyday and learning to do more and more things on my own. As I told Mommy this morning, "I'm excited and nervous."

I had a great first (half) day of school. I loved it. Luckily, I also have a few of my friends in my class with me. Mommy dropped me off this morning and we learned about my classroom, put my things away and got to know my new friends (all 24 of them!!). Before I knew it, it was time to go home. 

Everett also started school today too! He appears less than excited.

No, really. He had a good day too. He has a new teacher but one of his old teachers is also in his classroom and lots of his old friends. Daddy dropped him off and he ran right to the different activity tables without looking back.

Overall, it was a great first day of school for both of us!!