In addition to researching animals, we also learned about non-fiction text features. So far, we have talked about diagrams, labels, and captions. The students made diagrams of the animals of their choosing by labeling the important parts of the body. Next, they drew themselves with their animal's important feature (an elephant trunk, a platypus bill, or chimpanzee feet) showing what they would do with the feature. They then wrote a caption explaining it. They were so creative!
This week we dug into becoming animal researchers. We started off with learning about what a researcher is, what makes a good researcher, and about some famous researchers. We read a book and watched a video about Jane Goodall. We then learned about an author who loves science and animals, Steve Jenkins. We read many of his books this week including What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? We focused on 3 animals we learned about from his books: elephants, platypuses, and chimpanzees. We used PebbleGo, National Geographic Kids, and Youtube videos to learn more about these animals. The students then picked which animal they wanted to research about the rest of the week. In addition to researching animals, we also learned about non-fiction text features. So far, we have talked about diagrams, labels, and captions. The students made diagrams of the animals of their choosing by labeling the important parts of the body. Next, they drew themselves with their animal's important feature (an elephant trunk, a platypus bill, or chimpanzee feet) showing what they would do with the feature. They then wrote a caption explaining it. They were so creative! We did a special math task with Mrs. Belkind this week surrounding the book Cookie Fiasco by Mo Willems. We presented the students with the problem, "there are 5 people and 4 cookies. How do you share them evenly?" They had to work in a group to figure out a way to split them up evenly. There were a lot of great math conversations happening! And last but not least, Wednesday we participated in Global School Play Day! We had a whole day of unstructured play time inside and outside. The students said it was the "best day ever!" :)
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It was a fun week in Kindergarten exploring winter! Here are some of the highlights... We started off our week with a science centers! We had so much fun exploring the different experiments. On Tuesday we had ALO with Mrs. Belkind. We presented the students with the question, "How many feet are underneath the table?" The students had to work together to figure out how many feet there were under the table, and then explain how they got their answer. The students used paper and unifix cubes to help show their work. Once they solved that problem, we then asked them "How many fingers are at the table?" This was great practice working with 10. It was amazing to watch the students collaborate and solve the problems. 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. Our other big math task this week involved our study of teen numbers. The students each made a white paper chain with 10 links on it. Then, they worked in a group to turn those chains of 10 into 11-19 by adding on with blue paper. For example, 13 would be 10 white links with 3 blue links added We extended and elaborated on our centers from last week and they were so much fun! They included: 1. building a winter setting in the block corner and then writing labels with post-it notes 2. exploring igloos by making structures out of sugar cubes and mini marshmallows 3. making symmetrical snowflakes and snowmen with loose parts, and then counting the parts 4. building a snowman with play-doh, and then explaining "how to" on Seesaw 5. Exploring ice in the sensory table, and sorting/patterning the objects frozen inside the ice 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! 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. Our centers were the highlight of the week! The centers revolved around the concept of winter and snow. The 4 centers were: 1. building a winter setting in the block corner 2. creating a winter scene with oil pastels and water colors 3. using loose parts and pattern blocks to make snowflakes 4. making fake snow in the sensory bin with baking soda and shaving cream! The students visited each center throughout the week and had so much fun collaborating and creating! The students worked really hard in math this week. We started by composing teen numbers using this video: We then dug deeper into our first teen numbers, 11 and 12. I asked the students to make 11 using their 10 frame boards. We then talked about what the best way to identify 11 was, and we decided it was having 10 be in one color, and the "extras" be in another. We then recorded all the ways we know how to make 11. We repeated the process with 12, and will continue this with all teen numbers next week. Lastly, we practiced our number writing with a "snowball fight", where the students wrote a number, crumpled it up, threw it like a snowball, then picked up a new paper and wrote the next number. 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 : We also used Handwriting Without Tears to learn how to write numbers 4-6. The students then played a dice game to practice their number writing 1-6. We also played our 10's baseball game again this week at review. 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 :) We are getting back into the swing of things in Kindergarten. Tuesday we were so excited to be back! We talked about what we did over break and then journaled about it. We also ready Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and painted beautiful snowy landscapes with crayons and watercolors during center time. During ALO and read Alphabet City by Stephen T. Johnson. We ended the day making snowman picture frames with our 3rd grade buddies, the perfect first day back! 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! Friday we learned a new math game, "tens baseball". The students played with a partner, and they took turns rolling a dice with 0, 10, 20, etc. on it, saying the number and indentifying it on their score sheet. More practice with our tens! We then finished up our Seesaw tradition drawings, had Music, and ended with centers.
Next week, we will learn about tooth traditions, tens, and teen numbers! We had so much fun wrapping up our gingerbread unit this week! On Monday, we started off our week working on our special holiday presents... lots of writing and hard work went into it! Tuesday, we made a gingerbread village out of recycled materials. The students first made a bluprint, and then tried to make a house (or boat, or building) that had... 1. a roof 2. a door 3. a window 4. measured 12 inches tall 5. our gingerbread man toy could fit inside. Many students decided to work with a partner, which was great to see their collaboration and teamwork. Additionally, Mrs. Belkind taught us a magic card trick that involves making 10. The students discovered and practice all the different combinations for making 10. Wednesday, Mrs. Jacobs came and taught us a lesson in stretching out a word and counting how many sounds they hear. This will be a great strategy to help with reading and writing. After, we finished our gingerbread houses, and retold a gingerbread story inside of our creations. Some students even made up their own versions. Additionally, this week in math we played "domino war". The students had a lot of fun with that and worked on their counting, one-to-one correspodence, and introduced them to greater than and less than. Thursday we made our very own gingerbread sugar cookies! We had so much fun. After, we did one final gingerbread STEM challenge. The students had to work in a team to make a bridge out of toothpicks and marshmallows for the gingerbread man to cross. This was a GREAT lesson in working with a team, making mistakes, and also snuck in some fine motor practice. Last but not least, we enjoyed pajama day on Friday. We watched Frosty, played, and saw the sweet first grade winter concert. It was the perfect way to end our week and kick off Winter Break!
Looking forward to more adventures and fun in 2017! This week in KD was all about GINGERBREAD! We kicked off our 2-week Gingerbread Man unit on Monday by reading Gingerbread Man by Karen Schmidt. This story is the classic gingerbread man tale, making it a great starting point. We identified the characters, setting, and introduced problem and solution. We also talked about repeating phrases and how the story ended. Monday we also recieved our Osmos for the iPad thanks to the PTO. Osmo turns the iPad into hands on play with many educational games. This week we have done coding, phonics, number practice, geometry tangarams, and art with it! Thank you PTO for this AWESOME new resource! Tuesday, we re-read and watched Gingerbread Man. The students then worked independently to identify and order all the characters based on the order they appeared in the story. They then drew the setting, and retold the story with a partner. The repeating phrases and multiple characters made it such a fun retell! Aditionally, our 3rd grade buddies taught us to code as a part of Hour of Code (https://code.org/learn). It was so exciting to get to use the Chromebooks. On Wednesday, we read our second Gingerbread book, Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett. The students had to be really good listeners and detectives during this book, as much of the story is told through details in the pictures. After identifying all our story elements (characters, setting, problem, solution, repeating phrase, and ending), the students tried using a venn diagram for the first time. We used hola-hoops to cerat a giant venn diagram and compare the characters from our 2 stories. This was a great way to easily see which characters were the same and different. After reading, the students made their own Gingerbread person. The catch was they had to use exactly 10 pieces to make it. This was a great math task in making 10. Lastly, we learned L in Jolly Phonics and Handwriting. Thursday we read Gingerbread Cowboy by Janet Squires. Again, we talked about all story elements and compared characters. We also learned a new math game involving adding 2 dice together. Friday we read our final Gingerbread book, Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campell. We talked about how different all 4 books were from each other, and what they had in common. We then voted on which was our favorite... Gingerbread Baby won! To wrap up, the students wrote about what they would do if the Gingerbread Man popped out of their oven. Last but not least, Olaf enjoyed his first week in Kinder! He chose 1 students a day who was being safe, respectful, and responsible. He will be back next week too :)
Next week, we will be creating our own Gingerbread village, our own gingerbread stories, and our own cookies! We are back in the swing of things in Kindergarten! This week was spent re-visiting expectations and routines, learning about our families, learning new letters, and collaborating in centers. Monday started off with journaling about our Thanksgiving breaks. We tried a new strategy this week. I came around and helped the students count how many words were in their sentence. I then highlighted the lines for the students to write on. This really helped the students with planning out their work, spacing, and recogonizing words. Monday we also started learning about families. We talked about where families live, who is in a family, and what families like to do together. We discussed how all families are different, and not all look the same. Throughout the week, we read fiction and non-fiction books about families, and the students took turns sharing their family pictures with the class. This will be great background knowledge for learning about family traditions next month. Last but not least, we ended Monday with self-directed play time and enjoying time with friends :) It was great to be back together! Tuesday we started our new center rotations. This week, there were 5 choices the students had to go to at least once. The students practiced independence by using a chart to check off where they had been and where they still needed to go. Their choices were: 1. making a blueprint of a tower, building, and then measuring using a yardstick. The challenge was to make it at least 50 inches tall. 2. sorting different objects in the sensory table by size, shape, color, or type. 3. Dreambox Math on the iPads. 4. Writing letters in the writing center (with encouragement to write to a teacher or friend). 5. Making a grocery list, shopping for the food, and then counting the number of syllables in a food to get the price (for example, apple, would be $2). The students did GREAT! They especially blew me away in the building center. We talked a lot about what a tower was this week; where we see them, how they're built, and why they're built. The students then used non-fiction texts and pictures of real towers to inspire their building. It was so fun to see them collaborate to make tall towers. The buildings, hotels, skyscrapers, and bridges they made this week were the most well thought out creations I have seen them make yet! They worked so hard. Additionally, the syllable shopping center was challenging and fun! We have been working hard on counting syllables in words, and this was a great way to apply that. Many students also practiced addition by adding all their "prices" together. Lastly, on Tuesday in ALO with Mrs. Belkind we read The Z Was Zapped by Chris Van Allsburg. The students then brainstormed what could happen to different letters that start with that same letter, such as "The F was flying". Next week, the students will make their own book. Wednesday we continued with our new centers, and also learned O in Jolly Phonics and Handwriting. We also learned G and U this week. Additionally, this week we learned a new math game called "baseball". The students roll a 12-sided dice, and then circle the number on their score sheet. If they roll a repeat number, they get a strike, 3 strikes you're out. We had so much fun teaching our new game to our 3rd grade buddies! We also played it with a friend in our class. Thursday the students completed their center rotations and then were able to pick their favorite center they could go to again. We also had a special visitor... Olaf! He is going to be here until winter break and is watching our class looking for positive behavior (especially being safe, respectful, and responsible). He is going to be picking students he sees showing these positive behaviors to come find him, and maybe even give them a little present! He will of course be making sure that all of the students get a turn :) Ask your student about his visit, and how they can show positive behavior in our classroom. It was great to get back into our routine this week.
Next week will be all about holidays and The Gingerbread Man! Our Thanksgiving week was a fun one! We started off Monday by learning about sink and float. We tested out what we learned by experimenting with different objects in our room. We made predictions and then recorded the results. This gave us great ideas for building our boats. On Tuesday, after reading about The First Thanksgiving and watching "Charlie Brown Mayflower Voyage", it was time to create our own STEM Mayflower boats! The students created a blueprint for their boat, and then recorded their thinking with the iPads on Seesaw. You will get to see this at conferences. After building, they got to test their boat on the ocean... even including some bad weather from the blow dryer! The boat had to float for 100 seconds to be successful. The students persevered so much, and everyone did a great job designing their boats. We finished our City by Numbers project with Mrs. Belkind Monday and Tuesday. We took the iPads outside looking for our own hidden numbers. Wednesday we talked a lot about what we are thankful for, and read about how the earth gives us so much for us to be be grateful for. We then made our placemats for our feast. These went home with the students, maybe to use on your Thanksgiving tables :) Thursday was feast cooking day! The students made cornbread, Jello, and their own butter! To make the butter, we had to shake our heavy whipping cream... which we did through a dance party! The kids were SO excited. Thanks to Linda and Traci for helping out! Friday was Thanksgiving Feast Day!! We had the best time at our class feast! The students took turns saying what they were thankful for, we ate, chatted, and enjoyed a special day with friends. Thank you Joe and Traci for helping! It was a perfect week remembering what we are thankful for.
Wishing all families a very happy Thanksgiving! This week was all about Elephant and Piggie! On Monday, we read Can I Play Too? by Mo Willems and learned how to find text evidence. We talked about that if you tell us something about a character in a book (like how they act or feel), you have to prove it! The students practiced this by using evidence to prove that Elephant or Piggie was a good friend. They marked their evidence pages with sticky notes. Then, we learned how to draw both Elephant and Piggie, and practiced! We used this video by Mo Willems which was great practice in direction following. Tuesday we read A Big Guy Took my Ball, and then broke into two centers. The first center was finding more evidence that Piggie or Elephant were good friends, and then drawing the scene that showed the evidence. The students also used speech bubbles to practice writing and to show even more evidence. The second center was making a blueprint of a setting for our book, building it, and then retelling the story using puppets. Some students also made the characters out of play-dough. Everyone worked really hard and collaborated so well! We also had ALO with Mrs. Belkind. We read a book called City By Numbers by Stephen Johnson, where we looked for hidden numbers in real pictures. We will be searching for numbers all over Indian Trail next week. Wednesday we continued with our Elephant and Piggie centers and rotated. We also completed our RMD sort, reviewed all of our Jolly Phonics sounds, and played outside. We are getting so spoiled by these beautiful fall days! We wrapped up our Elephant vs. Piggie election unit by voting on who we thought was a better friend and leader. We had real ballots and a voting booth too! We counted and graphed our results and Piggie ended up being our winner by one vote. We also did our first formal "read to self" time. We read How to Read a Story by Kate Messner, and practiced getting comfy and reading quietly and independently. Last but not least, we did a new type of sound scavenger hunt, where the students had to write the words they found that started with R, M, or D. Next week will be all about Thanksgiving! We will be learning about traditions, celebrations, and being thankful. And of course... prepping for our FEAST!
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