The rest of our week centered around answering the student's winter-related questions such as "how is snow made in the clouds?" and "how are igloos made?". We learned about these topics through books, videos, and inquiry. 

To investigate igloos, we watched this video on Inuits building an igloo: ​

I then put the students into teams and challenged them to make an igloo out of sugar cubes. They had to work together, make it circular, and then measure the width and height. ​

Next week, we will become researchers and start learning about animals in preparation for our polar bears and penguins unit! The students are already so excited :) ​

This week was all about winter and snow!
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Before we could start our week, the students brainstormed what they already knew about winter, and what they wanted to learn. This helps us frame what we are going to do and learn in the next few weeks. ​

​Our literacy activities were centered around the book Snowmen at Night by Carolyn Buehner.

We read/listened to the story 3 times this week so we could practice retelling the story. We identified the beginning, middle, and end, and also sequenced the events.  Then, we wrote about what we would do if we were snowmen at night, and made q-tip snowman paintings. 

Additionally, this week the students took a big step in owning their writing by making their own lines and starting their writing independently. When we write in our journals, we count how many words we are writing. For example, "I went to eat pizza" (5).  Usually I help the students count and make the lines, this week they all tried it on their own and rocked it! 
We also learned one new blend in Jolly Phonics- oa. ​

Next week we will continue with snow!

This week, we wrapped up our unit on traditions by learning about wish and tooth traditions! ​

We started the week reading the Wish Traditions book,  that took us all over the world to learn about the different traditions they celebrate- such as throwing a coin in the Trevi Fountain in Italy. ​

​We used the beautiful illustrations to inspire us to retell our favorite wish tradition through it's setting. The students had to build, draw, or paint the setting, and then tell about. The final products were so cool! We also started our own tradition, a wish jar! The students wrote down a wish they had, and we all took turns placing them in the jar. We read a poem about the wish jar, and sealed it up tight. It will proudly sit in our room the rest of the year. 

​After wish traditions, we moved on to tooth traditions. We read a book called Throw Your Tooth on the Roof, and learned about what children all over the world do when they lose a tooth. After practicing turning and talking to a partner, we learned that our class has a shared tradition of the tooth fairy coming when we lose a tooth. We also learned that some families have unique traditions, such as what they put the tooth in. Again, we picked out favorite traditions, drew it, and wrote about why we liked it. Ask your child which was their favorite... there were many interesting ones to choose from!

Additionally, this week in literacy we learned our first diagraph in Jolly Phonics, ai, and also the letter j. The students are working so hard on hearing sounds and blending to make words. Lastly, we learned a little about Martin Luther King Jr. by reading Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport. We then wrote our "dream"- something we could do to make the world happier. 

In math this week, we talked about 10's and practiced our number writing. 
We sang this song and practiced counting by 10's : ​

Last but certainly not least, PM Kindergarten was the class Tiger Stripe winner this week! We won this for awesome behavior around school. Stripes the tiger will get to hang out in our room all week. 

Next week, we're diving deep into teen numbers, and SNOW! Maybe will get some real snow to go along with our theme :) ​

On Wednesday we learned B in Jolly Phonics and Handwriting. We also began learning about traditions. We started by reading a non-fiction book about New Year's Day, and the traditions people do to celebrate. The students participated in the tradition of writing a new year's resolution. They did a great job thinking of thoughtful and sweet goals for themselves. Additionally, we started talking about our own family traditions, and what makes them special. 

On Thursday, we took our own family traditions and drew them on the iPads using Seesaw. The students then recorded themselves talking about their tradition. We also reviewed the letters L, F, and B with a sound sort and played math games with our 3rd grade buddies. Last but not least, the students completed a group math task. We talked about how we have been in school for 73 days, and I asked the students to work in groups to represent 73 using unifix cubes. They did a great job being creative, and learned the best way to complete the task was to work together! This also led to a great discussion about 10's- and we ended up making 7 groups of 10 with 3 extras. This leads perfectly into teen numbers and groups of 10, which we will be working on for the next few weeks. 

On another note, the favorite center this week that you may have seen a lot of on Seesaw has been Osmo! The students LOVE all of our new games. They are so great for creativity, higher level thinking, and teamwork (the students often work in groups to complete the games or tasks). So much fun! ​