Kinderhaven - Red Class

Kinderhaven Preschool Academy

Classes for children
2½ through 5½ years of age

Compassion Projects
Human beings need to feel that they are essential to the well-being of the world. This is a basic human need for mental and emotional health. Children, from an early age, enjoy knowing that they have “helped” others in some fashion. We believe in a world where compassion and giving back are at the very heart; therefore, “compassion projects” are interwoven throughout our students’ lives while attending KPA. Read about our projects!

This last years projects!
Erase Hate Project (8k - 1 page)
Giving Tree Project (9k - 1 page)

Why do we do it?

Explanation (12k-2 pgs)

Read about compassion with your child!

Books List (8k-1 pg)

As the study of electricity and sewers continued, the children were excited to watch a short movie about Ben Franklin and his inventions and electricity experiment. TJ wondered, “Did he really invent glasses like the ones you are wearing, Dr. Robbins?” Learning all about Ben Franklin was a lot of fun for all of us!

Worms were of interested for a couple of weeks as well. Lukacs, Audrey, Lindsey, and Abby were finding lots of worms outside on the playground. Audrey wanted to know, “Are there baby worms or just big worms?” Abby asked, “If the worms are small are they babies?” These questions fueled a lot of discussion among the children, so soon we were exploring the world of the earth worm. They learned about the worm’s physicality, including how it moved and made tunnels. The children measured worms using a ruler, and they enjoyed recording their results on the dry erase board. They learned about the “segments” of the worm, and they created worms out of clay.

Putting on plays (we are trying to decide on a short play for graduation) led the children to “personification.” This is our current area of study, and they have absolutely loved this. Ms. Sindt’s fascination with “food with faces” has definitely been an inspiration for this project as well. After learning about the literary term “personification,” the children began finding examples of it in many of their books. Huston proudly showed his classmates a picture of a talking window pane with a human face. He stated, “Look! This window has human characteristics.” This was followed quickly by Lucas discovering a pear riding a bike. “Can a pear really ride a bike? No!” he laughed. The children made a “scene” with fruit and vegetables interacting. This was fun, and the children spent a lot of time developing their scenes and making their fruits and vegetables have human characteristics. They have also learned to write “personification” by practicing on a story board.

Journals have been completed, so the children are now practicing writing words and phrases every day. Usually the words or phrases have something to do with the class projects (the children wrote “Dale Chihuly” and drew a picture of him, for example). “We are just like the bigger kids,” Lukacs said about writing without the journal. “I like this better,” Audrey said, “because it is something that people do like mommy.” Every day the children are working on simple math problems, writing letters, and numbers, and tracing and cutting.

The children are also working on creating art like Eric Carle. After reading a couple of Eric Carle’s books, the children liked the art. Ms. Sindt explained how he painted papers and then collaged them. Aidan asked, “Could we do that? We did Chihuly pretty good.” So, they are currently painting papers to create an Eric Carle-like collage.

Between practicing for graduation, creating a play, working on literary devices and creating art like Eric Carle, the Red Class should be very busy over the next couple of weeks.

PLEASE KEEP SAVING DRYER LINT, SCRAPS OF YARN OR RIBBON, SHINY GUM WRAPPERS, MILK CARTONS, AND PAPER TOWEL ROLLS!

The teachers have been discussing the “Benny Watters’ Kindness Award” that will be given out to two students during graduation by the Watters’ family. The two children who will receive this award will have compiled the most “kindness points” throughout the year. These “points” were given to them by their fellow students for acts of kindness in the classroom and playground. We have discussed that everyone in the class has been kind, but as with many activities in the classroom, not everyone gets to be number one every time. Every student will receive a “special golden spoon” for his or her effort as well. Good sportsmanship is something that we have stressed throughout the school year, so the children understand the importance of being happy for their classmates.

·       April 28th is the Giving Tree Event, and May 19th is Kindershop!
·       Don’t forget that Because Why? Summer Camp is for children that are Blue and Red Class aged. Sign up is still going on!
·       Thank you to everyone that helped us set up the Art Show, and thank you to all of the parents for making it so successful. Thank you for putting up with the paint on clothes as well…we really appreciate it.

As the children were getting ready for the art show by helping choose the pictures for the brochure and making pictures for the donation boxes, the teachers recorded their conversations.
Here are some snippets:

Dilara: Well, I think we should have pictures where we are drawing first then painting.
Lindsey: Yeah, then everybody can see how we did it.
Abby: I can tell people, too. I remember when we painted our canvases. I can tell them.
Stephen: I liked this picture. I look like I’m working hard, right?
Lucas: We did work hard! The spray painting was really cool.
Chloe J.: I just like doing the art. The shiny balls was fun.
Aidan: Let’s watch the Chihuly video while we make our pictures for the box. He inspires me!
Ford: I love that video! I could watch it all the time.