Honoring our Amygdala

Kindergarten students have been exploring Mindful Awareness during our Minds Up lessons this week. They have learned about the functions of the three parts of the brain; the hippocampus, the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. This week, we focused on the amygdala and how our minds work.

Kindergarteners learned that the “security guard”, or the part of their brain that keeps them safe, is their amygdala. The job of the amygdala is to protect us and to process danger quickly and efficiently in order to keep us safe. A little more about this you can find out at this link. When faced with danger, or a stressful situation, our amygdala tells us to fight, flight, or freeze.

The Mind Up curriculum empowers students and provides them with the knowledge to understand how their minds work. Kindergarteners discussed ways to deal with our minds when we have very strong emotions or stress. Students learned about calming techniques such as deep breathing and positive self-talk and then shared their own strategies with peers. This allows students to feel a sense of control and ownership over the decisions they make. As we dive deeper into mindfulness, Kindergarteners will build on what they know about the brain.   

Preparing to Publish           

Brave writers have been quite busy preparing their best piece of writing for a very special audience! Students sorted through their writing folders to find their most interesting and detailed piece to take through the publishing process.

Writers met with their “Strawberry and Banana” writing partners to share their best piece, and to give and receive feedback about how they could make their writing even stronger. Partners helped support each other in deciding what kind of details would strengthen their stories.

We are so proud of all the hard work our Kindergarteners have put into their very first published piece!

Predictable Patterns

This week Kindergarten readers have started a new reading unit called Predictable Patterns and Characters. Students have learned that to be strong readers they can get ready to read by looking at the pattern and saying what repeats. Brave readers are listening to how books have rhyme, rhythm, and repetition. Kindergarteners are using patterns in their books to predict what will happen next. Your young reader can’t wait until next week when they learn to use patterns in books to figure out the tricky parts.

Important Dates:

• Monday, October 30^th Pumpkin Presentation and Feast @ 2:00
• Tuesday, October 31^st Halloween Carnival ½ day 11:30 Dismissal
• Thursday, November 2^nd Natural Dye Painting @ 1:45
• Wednesday, November 8^th TCS Picture Day
• Monday, November 13^th Parent Conferences 11:30 Dismissal
• Tuesday, November 14^th Parent Conferences 11:30 Dismissal