March is Reading Month

March is 'Reading Month' at Kindergarten and this year's theme is all about the ecosystems. Sydney's class theme is "Rainforests" and we helped decorate the hallways and classroom in that theme. I have to say that it was so much fun that it makes me want to go back to Kindergarten. One of my ideas for the class was to create a rainforest tree in the middle of the room and that be the reading corner:

I found some carpet rolls in our basement that we were able to make use in the class. We used a large carpet roll to form the trunk of a tree (with brown butcher paper crinkled up and covering it) and there was a large green carpet that was used for the base, where the kids can sit and read their books. Kids brought in various stuffed animals (monkeys, snakes, birds, frogs, etc) and put them around the tree and some dangling from the tree branches.

As soon as Sydney learned about the rainforest theme, she immediately said "Well, I've seen a rain forest in Malaysia". And she's right. She has had the wonderful experience of throwing bananas to the wild monkeys near my parents home and she has seen what the thick rain forests look like. I thought it was cute that she also thought my mom's backyard was a type of rainforest. There are a lot of banana trees and other trees that are foreign to her in that backyard.

Another lesson on "life's not fair". Sydney sometimes tells me of projects that the other kids in her class got to do while we were in Malaysia, and that sometimes she feels sad that she didn't get to do those projects. Once again, life's not fair, but not every kid gets to ride on an airplane and visit a foreign country and see a rainforest!