Fun Friday

We had so much fun with Fun Friday today. Along with all the curriculum we normally do in our kindergarten day, I took a short time to do something fun with my kinders. I did a directed draw sunflower with the class and then I taught them how to color it in a specific way with crayons. Last, we used watercolor paints to paint the blue sky in the background. Their sunflowers turned out AMAZING and they were so excited to bring them home to you today! Yay, K-1! They did an excellent job following my step-by-step directions in drawing and coloring the flower. I am so proud of how well they all did!

Time is flying and my kinders are growing more and more each and every day as learners...WOW!!!

In litaracy, the HMH lessons have focused on the theme of "Home of the free and the brave." All of the books have been focused on learning about our country including our presidents and why it is so special. We have also learned why authors write text (their purpose) such as to inform, persuade, or to entertain. With each book we have read together, we have talked about which one fits why the author wrote the book. The book today was called, Presidents' Day. With this book, I asked my kinders to do a reader's response asking if they would like to be president or not and why. I LOVED walking around the classroom as they wrote their responses and drew a picture to go along with it. Many of my kinders decided that they did not want to be a president because it was too big of a job with some BIG decisions they wouldn't want to make. Friends have also shared that they didn't want to be president because they wanted to be other things when they grew up. I am so proud of the thought my kinder friends are putting into their written responses and I am amazed with how well they are sounding out the words they want to write to complete their sentences. Their drawings are outstanding full of detail and can tell a story all by themselves. I am AMAZED with what artists they have all become! Through this unit we have also continued to discuss story elements such as: characters, setting, beginning, middle, and end, central idea of the story, etc. We are learning so much with each literacy lesson and I am truly beyond proud of how much my kinders are growing as literary learners!

In math, our unit has been about skip counting by 10's and counting objects up to 100. We have also been talking about what number comes before or after a given number and have practiced counting up from a number and counting backwards too. They are doing a great job identifying BIG numbers within 100 and being able to tell me how many 10's and 1's make up that number. They all seem to LOVE working with numbers and are doing great with each new math concept we learn together in class. Today I paired up the class and I taught them how to play a game called "Race to 100." In this game, I gave each kinder a game sheet and a dice. They were asked to take turns with their partner rolling a dice and coloring that amount of squares on their gameboard. They kept switching back and forth rolling and coloring until one person reached 100 and won the game. They had so much fun playing with one another and sharing a high five and telling eachother "good game!" when someone reached 100. Great job, K-1!

In social studies, we have been studying economics where we have learned about what city, state, country and world we live in. To help them understand this concept we made a telescope and we put real pictures of where we live on them for reference. This helpd them to understand it even further. The lessons that followed were about learning about other countries and how they are different from where we live. They have different languages, foods, games, and music. My kinders loved learning how to say "hello" in many different languages and hearing music from all over the world. We are enjoying learning about the world!

In structured literacy, we have continued to learn about blends. We have practiced reading and writing words that begin and end with blends. They are doing a great job taking what they have learned from these lessons and implementing them in what they are reading and writing in the classroom. Their writing has impressed me more than I can tell you! They are all writing three or four well thought out sentences that begin with a capital letter and end with punctuation. They are doing a good job plugging in known heart words writing them the correct way and sounding out words they want to write with "brave spelling." I am so proud of all my kinder friends!

Wrapping up Pushes and Pulls in Science

In science today, the kids had so much fun being scientists and wrapping up our last lesson with pushes and pulls. I had them work in a small group today where I asked them to create something that would help a ball to hit a plastic cup that was far away from it. When they start with a single push to the ball, the ball can change direction and will miss the cup. It is hard to push the ball hard enough on the carpet so it goes in the exact direction you want it so it can knock over the cup. It most instances, the ball will change direction when pushed and be hard to hit a target. Therefore, we talked about what they can build so their ball goes in the right direction when given a harder push and will be successful in knocking over the cup every time. They thought of building a pathway with books, blocks, etc. so that the ball had an edge to guide it down a pathway right toward the cup and will end with the cup knocking over. They all did such a great job problem solving and figuring out a successful solution together as a group. When they found something that worked, I asked them to draw it in their science journals. I asked them to make sure they did their best to draw what they designed so it looked close enough to what they built and to color it with realistic colors. Then we met as a class and talked about what they made and things that were successful and some that weren't. To end our unit, I read them a book called Pushes and Pulls to pull everything we learned all together in one book. They had so much fun being scientists today!