San Diego Zoo

While we were in San Diego for my brother's wedding, we were able to go to the San Diego zoo. Here are some fun videos to learn about the animals there!

TIGERS

DIKERS

HIPPOS

PANDA

ELEPHANTS

CONDORS

GIRAFFES

POLAR BEARS

Applesauce Day

We made applesauce! Well, actually it was more like warm chunky apples but the kids loved it! We made invitations and sent them out to our specials teachers, administrators, and office staff. Ms. Chapman, Mrs. Zinck, and Mr. DeGonzague all came down and tried some with us. We chopped apples, put them in a crock pot, added cinnamon and let them cook. While we were waiting, we illustrated a book then read it to our group. Eating was the fun part though and come kids had 4 helpings! We then snuck down to our third grade buddies' room and delivered some to them (along with an embossed apple) while they were out! We made applesauce to finish our learning about Johnny Appleseed who would give apple seeds away to people as they moved west in order to have a nation full of apple orchards. He lived in the wilderness and ate "mush" that he would cook from whatever he could find. Sometimes the "mush" was cooked apples...we now call it applesauce!

Videos from the SAINTS game

Last weekend I was able to go to New Orleans to see my SAINTS play. I made some videos for the kids so that they could see where the real Tracy Porter plays.

Flower Power Teacher

One recess the kids decided to give me a crown of flowers! One child called me a "flower power teacher!"

"Bring something from another country" show and tell

We had a viking and an Indian princess show up for our show and tell!

South America

We made a rain forest for South America then we got to make a food from South America...guacamole! The kids poured, mashed, stirred, and ate and it was so good. I tried to negotiate eating all of it but they weren't having it. Even some kids who though they did not like guacamole enjoyed it!

North America and an African Safari

To finish up Africa, we got to go on a safari in our hallways. We sprayed ourselves with bug spray so we would not get malaria and we went out to see the animals. We saw a zebra grazing but were worried when a buffalo was nearby because we did not want it to eat the zebra. We saw a hippo out of water and had to run so it would not charge us. We also saw a crocodile while we were wading in some water. Yikes! Most of the animals we saw though were at a safe distance and since we gave them space they did not try to harm us. When we flew back to North America, we had a snack that is native to our country/continent...peanut butter! We had a sweet peanut butter snack and a savory peanut butter snack!

The Continent Song

Asia

We learned about the biggest continent, Asia! We took a trip to India to see the tea fields, the schools, and the elephants. The elephants played soccer, painted pictures, threw darts, and bathed themsleves. Then we popped over to Thailand to see Tigers! On our trip, we got Henna tattoos! In a couple of weeks we will have a visitor from Japan (well, she is really American just living in Japan) come and teach us how to count in Japanese!

Aux Champs-Elysees

North Pole and Antarctica

On Friday, we learned a little bit about the North Pole. Today we continued our North Pole learnings as well as learned about the coldest continent, Antarctica (also called the South Pole). We read a story about the animals at the North Pole and how they are in danger because of different things. One of the things that it talked about was the Arctic pipeline. We had a wonderful discussion as to what the kids thought about it. If they thought it was good there they had to say what we should do with the animals. If they thought we should not have it there, they had to say how we will get oil for our cars and houses. Here are some of their answers:
James- Keep the pipeline and move all of the animals to a place where there are not already a lot of animals
Luke- Keep the pipeline and move the animals away
Jimmy- Keep the pipeline on one side and the animals on the other
Seth- move the pipeline underwater
Victor- we have to keep the pipeline because we need the oil for our cars and to go on longer trips on airplanes. Maybe we can move the animals underwater!
Miranda- Can't we just move the pipes to Antarctica since there is not much there? Or just send this problem to Santa. He is already up there and he can fix it!
Ari- Let's move the pipeline to Asia but not to Tokyo.
Megan- Keep the pipeline on one side of the North Pole and have the animals go to the other.
Isabel- Move the pipe to Antarctica
Kelsey- Move the pipe away but I am not sure where
Hayden- We don't need the pipeline at all. People can ride horses instead of using cars.
Xander- Take the pipeline away from the North Pole and move it to a different state so I can still get gas because I need it. We could use a gas needle to find gas somewhere in Asia.

What an insightful group we have!

Australia

To learn about Australia, we had a wonderful discussion about the fact that the continent Australia contains the countries of Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. There is a movement (and some places have already done this) to change the name of the continent to Oceania. We wrote a letter to the prime minister of Australia to let her know our thoughts. Here is the letter:

Dear Prime Minister Gillard,
We are learning about Australia right now both the country and the continent. We read a book saying that some people want to change the name of the continent to Oceania. Most of our kindergarten class at Imagine Charter School agrees. We think it would be more fair to the people of Fiji and New Zealand. We think that everyone would be happier because 2 countries want the name to be Oceania. And everyone in the whole world would like to live there much better.
If you don't change it, that is ok too because some of us want the name to stay Australia since it is already like that on the maps and globes. But Ms. Baker says that some maps already say Oceania on them. We have not seen one though. Have you? What do you think the name should be?
We hope you have a great day and a great weekend.
Love,
Ms. Baker's kindergarten class
P.S. We have been listening to Waltzing Matilda and really like it.

Europe

For Europe we got to eat a baguette, make some Greek salad, sing Aux Champs Elysees, and build the Eiffel Tower. I was so impressed by the kids when they all tried (and most of them loved) Greek salad. They also used teamwork to build the Eiffel Tower out of straws. They had to plan how it would look, lay it out, and put it all together. One group even got theirs to stand up by using "feet" and "not making it so tall"!

Fasten your seat belts...

Last week we began our kindergarten "trip around the world!" We made suitcases and passports for our trip and boarded "Ms. Baker airlines" which will conveniently take us to each of the seven continents but have us back at school in time for afternoon pickup!