The Kindergarten Connection: SVS Team!

This week in kindergarten, we continued learning about Animals in Winter. We created snowy landscapes showing animals living over and under the snow and explored how animals move, behave, and leave tracks in winter.

We read The Three Little Mittens, a funny and heartwarming story about mittens who learn that you don’t have to match to belong. Inspired by the story, we designed mixed-up mittens that celebrate being unique and inclusive.

The story, Winter's Gifts is about an Indigenous girl who celebrates the gifts of winter with her family and friends. The gifts of resting, remembrance, and gratitude can transform the way we see the world.

After reading our story, we asked the children what are the winter gifts that the earth gives us.
Here are some responses:

"Mother Earth gave us dark. The sun and the moon gave light."
"The world gives us snow."
"The earth gives us trees and grass to live."
"The Earth gives us night to rest our bodies."
"The sun because it gives us food."
"Mother Earth gives us the world."

We also selected a part in the story that was special to us or drew something that we thought was special in winter.

We are animal track detectives in-training. Our winter walk this week made us curious about some bunny tracks on the hill and paw prints of a dog or 4-legged mammal by the school front doors. This led us to the stories Whose Tracks in the Snow? and Big Tracks, Little Tracks.

We even looked at our tracks in the snow.

Try this at home with your family making boot prints in the snow.

Back in class, we combined science and math by comparing bear, wolf, and fox paw prints, measuring them with nonstandard measurements like hands and cubes, and using words like bigger than and smaller than. We finished by creating animal track art for our classroom walls! ❄️🐾