Cardinal's Blog 2025-26: Making Play-dough, Voting, Self-Portraits, Outdoor Large Motor Fun and More..

Monday

Johanna began art class by asking the Cardinals, "What is an Artist" some of the responses were "drawing what you want, mixing colors, painting with all the colors, painting with my favorite colors, some time artist hang pictures for people to see, my daddy say am a artist, and you can make arts and crafts." Johanna continued by showing friends a large paper with lots of detailed pictures. She then asked each friend to find an item as she called it out. Followed by Johanna asking friends to look around the art room for large pieces of white paper. Friends found paper on easels, walls, tables and doors. Then choose were to work in a pair of twos to create a masterpiece! Johanna gather friends together. She then asked the Cardinals to go take a look at other friend's creations. Just like how people do in museums or at art shows!! Ask your Cardinal, what did you create in art class?

One of our classroom jobs is the fish feeder and so today we cleaned our fish Betta's tank. The Cardinals were very excited and curious about this task. First, we talked to Betta and said what was going to happen. Then we removed the tank's decoration to be cleaned. We then put Betta into a cup and began cleaning its tank. We added clean water and a few drops of AquaSafe for Bettas into the tank before putting our Betta back in! Soon it was time for this week's fish feeder to feed Betta! Thank You, Evie!

The Cardinal's classroom jobs- which last for a week and are changed every Monday!

Read Aloud

Tuesday

The Cardinals helped to make our first batch of playdough today! Friends took turns measuring, pouring, stirring ingredients, getting water from the sink and deciding what color our play dough should be. We chose the color by voting between the colors green and red. The class met on the front rug. A teacher explained how we were going to vote. The Cardinals were then asked if they wanted our play dough to be green, to go stand on the red rug. The teacher continued, "If you want our play dough to be red go stand in the block area. We then count how many friends were on the red rug (5 ) followed by how many friends were in the block area (7). We as a class then worked to figure out which group had the most friends. We figured out that red had the most and so our play dough is red. The color green will be one of the colors to vote on for our next batch of new play dough!! Ask your Cardinal what they did to help make our play dough?

Voting on our playdough color is another way of visually seeing and beginning to understand the concept of less and more with numbers. Mathematics and literacy is in everything we do and all around us. In making our play dough we used words such as six cups, how many more, one and a half, table spoon, measuring, ingredients, science components and much more. As we worked with this hands on activity, teachers helped friends work through beginning to understand and figuring out concepts.

After a teacher cooked our play-dough and it cooled down - it was time for us to have fun and explore with it. The Cardinals used their fingers as tools to work. This is a great way to help build fine motor skills, finger muscles and strength in our hands! Friends need these skills to hold and use writing materials!

In Spanish class with Alicia, she greeted us by saying each Cardinal's name one at a time saying "Good morning" and asking "How are you feeling?" in Spanish. Example, Buenos días Masai, ¿Cómo estas? - then Masai answered "muy bien" - "very good or okay", or "Asi-asi" - "Not too good". We then had a moment of silence, first Alicia tapped her singing bowl and the Cardinals settled their bodies. It was great seeing how our new Cardinals are already doing a great job, along with our Cardinals from last year!! We are so proud of our Cardinals!! Alicia then read the book Se Contar - (I Can Count) by Bobbie Kalman followed by going over numbers 1-5 in Spanish. The Cardinals then played a game of swatter in which Alicia called a number in Spanish. Friends two at a time tapped on the numbers that were called or got help with identifying the number. Today it was Grant's turn to squeezed la vaca!

Dance Party

Wednesday

Early morning choice time

The Cardinals returned their library books to our lower school library today. Friends then settled and listened to two stories, The Bad Seed by Jory John and Toto by Hyewon Yum read by Ashanti, one of our lower school librarians. The Cardinals were very engaged with these books and had many comments, connections and questions. At the end of each books, Ashanti said, "If you liked this book give two thumbs up or thumbs down if you did not like this book or one thumb up and one thumb down if you're not sure how you feel. Followed by each Cardinal choosing and checking out a book to bring back to our classroom!!

Keisha shared some rules of the music room before class! We began class by dancing with scarves and making big movements with our bodies as we listened to Hop to School by Jazzy Ash! The Cardinals then sang our hello song Jambo as Keisha played her guitar. Followed by fixing our shoes while singing, There is a Cobbler Down the Street Mending Shoes for little feet.

Keisha showed the sign language sign for standing. The Cardinals did an amazing job of remembering and following this directions!! While standing we sang, danced and did the movements to Turn Cinnamon Turn. Friends jumped, clapped, wiggled, bounced, hopped and ran in place as Keisha played her guitar. Keisha gave out eggs and after a few minutes of free play. Keisha played her guitar and sang Washy Washy as friends did the actions that were called out such as washing their toes, knees, tummy, shoulders, hair and then washing all over. Keisha played the guitar loud and quiet and friends matched the tone in which she was playing.

At the end of class, Keisha introduced two of her animal friends and their different tones of voice. For example, Bunny Peter rabbit - has a speaking voice and Betty Butterfly- has a whispering voice. Next class, we will explore more about our voices! Ask your Cardinal to tell you two-three things about music class?

Thursday

We talked about self-portraits with our Cardinals and so today we began to work on them!! What are self-portraits - Each month the Cardinals work in small groups and individually draw their own self-portraits. Friends look in mirrors to take a closer look at the details that make up their features such as hair, lips, ears, eye color and how many of each they have. Friends learned where these details are located on their bodies and how to translate these important details on to paper. As the school year progresses, it is truly amazing to see how these drawings evolve from simple stick drawings to faces and bodies filled with color and many many details. Friends also gain insight as to the beauty of themselves and do not need to rely on a mirror!

In PE class with Josh and Tiffany, they explained that today, we would be working with hula hoops. Josh asked friends to find a hoop and sit in it. He then gave directions such as when the music starts, friends need to move away from the hoop and do the action given. When the music stopped friends needed to find a hoop and sit in it. Friends did actions such as running like a cheetah, hopping like a bunny, galloping like a horse and jumping like a frog. At the end of class friends got a chance to explore any action/s they want to do more of. Ask your Cardinal which movement/s they liked best?

Friday

Choice Time - Friends independently choosing what they want to explore and investigate in our classroom learning centers. They work independently or with a friend or two, sometimes lots of friends work together. Friends are beginning to solve conflicts with their words and gain negotiating skills, listen to each other's ideas and at times work on a compromise.

Self Portraits continues!

Friends continued their work of learning numbers in Spanish with Alicia. Today we went over numbers 1-5 in Spanish, then Alicia in random order showed friends numbers 1-5. Friends then needed to figure out the numbers as Alicia showed it! Followed by friends two at a time playing a game of swatter. This time the swatters were really really big! Our Cardinal friends really enjoyed this game! Ask your Cardinal how it feel working with the big swatters?

Alicia continued by playing a game of Canima Canima (Walk) in which friends walked around the classroom and then Alicia said para (stop). Alicia then called out a number in Spanish and the Cardinals did a great job at finding that number in the classroom and said it in Spanish or tried to with Alicia's help. Today it was Colby's turn to squeeze la vaca!