Happy Halloween!

Ah, the long awaited day is here! To match out science inquiry with the holiday, we did a more in-depth Pumpkin Investigation today. First, we read Big Pumpkin, which is a great Halloween story. It has a strong pattern within it, but my students have yet to shout out "It's a pattern!" during a story. Afterwards, I used a pumpkin to do a group investigation. We had to draw the pumpkin, say if it was big, medium, or large, count the lines, measure it with snap cubes, and see if it would sink or float. I was very impressed that as soon as I brought in a plastic tote full of water, a couple of students had close guesses as to what the water was for! They did not use the vocabulary of "sink or float". One told me that we would see if it would stay on top or go to the bottom, and they figured the heavier things stay on top. Interesting! So, we took a vote and then discovered that our pumpkin floated!

I also wanted them to use their five senses, so I cut the pumpkin open. Each student took their turn staying how the pumpkin felt, what they seen, and what it smelt like - both before and after I cut a hole in the top. The kids were a lot more timid about feeling the insides of a pumpkin than I expected!

 

Next, the students did their own individual Pumpkin Investigation with their pumpkin that they've been sketching and photographing for the past seven weeks. We didn't have time to paint their pumpkins, as planned, but it was still a lot of fun with some exciting discoveries. I think their favourite part was checking to see if their pumpkin would float or sink.

In Phys.Ed. we acted out different Halloween characters to get our bodies warmed up for a game that used our throwing skills. The class was broken up into two teams and they had to knock down the pylons of the other team. Lots of fun! They also LOVE to dance for a warm up.

The afternoon brought out the costumes! We had a lion, Captain America, Superman, Batman, a bumblebee, a witch, a devil, and a character from Monster High. Super cute! I wish we got to dress up more often. They look so awesome walking around in their costumes! The energy wasn't even quite as high as I had imagined. We went to the library to get new books, read individually or in pairs, and our high school student helper read us a story, too. When we got back to class, we sang and danced to some Halloween and non-Halloween related songs and then coloured some Halloween pictures.

Last class, the elementary students went to the gym to parade around for parents and won some prizes for best costumes. We had an assembly with the entire school and then it was a bit of end of the day chaos! I hope that everyone has a safe and fun Halloween night! I hear some trick or treaters at my door so off I go....

Happy Halloween!

Twas' two days before Halloween...

One of the first things I heard this morning was an excited announcement from a five year old that there is today, then one more day, and then it's Halloween! As soon as we started talking about fall, about a month ago, my students have been talking about Halloween on a daily basis. So, today we began our last week of our pumpkin observations. We read the book Pumpkin Hill. Then, student's continued with our routine of drawing their pumpkins and then taking a photo (which we later paste into their observation books).


The 2 green pumpkins were 'replacements' for pumpkins that
froze and were getting a little too squishy.

We also did a spooky sound effects story, but they really wanted to act out a story. So, we did some choral poetry about Halloween that they could act out. By request, we also acted out the story
  Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? I also introduced an emergent reader, Orange Pumpkin, Orange Pumpkin, which follows the same pattern. Students then coloured their books and practiced reading them to me when they finished. They also had extra Halloween colouring sheets to work on today and each student completed a worksheet that showed what they will be for Halloween. I think I'll make a book out of those ones~ so stay posted for the final product!

We also continued our work on extending patterns. Students completed a cut and paste activity to extend patterns and then created patterns by colouring Halloween characters.

 

 

Other highlights of our day included practicing throwing and catching balls in the gym, reading A Case of the Stripes by David Shannon, eating yummy pumpkin chocolate chip muffins courtesy of the SCC (thank you!), and having our own D.E.A.R time for about ten minutes (students reading individually or with a partner). My students love books and literacy, which makes me so happy! Even when they have a choice to explore whatever they want in our classroom, most of them choose to spend their time practicing writing letters and words on the white board and playing their favourite literacy games together. They make me proud every day! :) 

Sweetness, Safety, & a bit of Silly too

Friday was such a great day in Kindergarten! As with all Kindergarten days, we had a lot of fun, but I had so many proud moments of my students showing polite manners, sticking up for one another when an older student is dipping their bucket, sharing, working as a team (which one student pointed out, you get a job done faster when you work as a team!), complimenting one another, and one student gave their peers the advice to "just walk away" if someone is making bad choices. I LOVE it!

It was our first morning with the new kitchen center, which was a hit! The kids were totally into role playing, which is super fun and engaging. The secretary came to drop off a form and found me in the "kitchen", drinking "coffee", eating "soup", and getting dressed up to go to a Barbie show! The next part of our morning involved a surprise birthday song and snack for the Grade One teacher and our classes. Before recess, we also read a super cute book called Splat the Cat: Where's the Easter Bunny, which has some fun pop ups.

Next, we had a great discussion about rules; who makes rules? why do we have rules? what rules at school and home keep us safe? They did a great job answering all of these questions. I modelled how to spell the word "safe" on the board, which the students wrote on a worksheet. They drew a picture on their paper to show a rule that keeps us safe, which I wrote a sentence about on their paper. Everyone came up with their own idea, which is always a mini success. Here's a sample:

 

 

Our other big activity was creating goofy pumpkins! It was different for them to have to cut out the pieces to make a picture rather than to draw it. It was also a great lesson for working on some much needed practice on proper gluing. We also got to talk about emotions and how the pumpkins were feeling by the looks on their faces. Here are the final products:

 

 

 

 

We also looked at extending patterns. I started with a connected skill from the ELA curriculum, in trying to get the students to predict what comes next in a story. Then, we talked about what comes next in different pattern examples. Finally, students showed what they know with another Halloween related cut and paste activity. Those who finished early decided to also create colour patterns on their page.



 





There are some more Halloween related learning opportunities coming up this week. The kids have been anticipating Halloween all month! I can't wait to see them in their costumes and to culminate our pumpkin inquiry with exploring the inside of a pumpkin and decorating our pumpkins. :) I hope everyone has had a great weekend! Until next time....

Open House

Today was a fun, busy, and long day with the Open House being held this evening. There was also a book fair in the library, which we visited earlier today. The kids were SO excited to see all of the books (me too!!). I was very impressed with the turn out tonight. Our room featured pictures of our year so far, portraits & photos from the first day of school, and a backdrop and fun props (which will become new dress up items for our classroom!) for people to take photos with.

So, today we had to make self portraits! We watched a cartoon about animals trying to draw self portraits, before we tackled the task of creating our own. We took turns looking in a mirror and discussed the colour of our hair and eyes. Their portraits have already come a long way since the first day of school. We may have to try painting self portraits one day.

 

 

We also had a review discussion about the 5 senses. I was very happy that they could list all five, even though we haven't talked about it for a few weeks. I gave them a piece of paper with two googley eyes. Their job was to create a creature, or monster, that could use all five senses. I forgot to take a picture of our bulletin board display, but here are a few examples of their work:

 

 

In math, we worked on making people patterns. The students took turns arranging each other to create a pattern. In Phys. Ed, we worked on a relay race where students had to pass a bean bag over their head, then under their legs, over their head, etc... So, we created an over/under pattern. After we mastered that, we had to work on running to the back of the line after we passed the bean bag so that the line could keep moving! It was a lot of fun. :) For our word work, we played some alphabet recognition games (I Have Who Has, Fastest Letter in the West) and did a See/Say/Spell with our PWIM words. We got in some dancing and singing, too!

I also have to send a big thank you to a student's parents for bringing in an exciting addition to our classroom! An actual kitchen/outdoor bbq set up for our drama center! The students were very excited about it and I know they just can't wait to explore it on Friday.

It's Pumpkin Time!

Today was picture day at our school! Everyone was looking their best and I was really proud with how well our class sat for the group picture. After working for a school photography company for five years, I have a strong appreciation for well behaved children on picture day! I can't wait to see how the photos turn out.
We didn't end up with a Phys.Ed. class today since the gym was occupied but we shook our sillies out and did a few other body break dances in our classroom. It's quite the workout! Some of our favourites are The Gummy Bear Song and Go Bananas.

Since Halloween is on it's way and the school's Open House is next week, I thought we had better create some seasonal art work to display. So, we combined science and art today! We read the story It's Pumpkin Time. The EA also read a story to the students. I believe it was called The Plumpy Dumply Pumpkin. First, we worked on our fifth week of observing our own pumpkins. They've changed so much in the last week! The students are really beginning to notice the changes. Here is what our pumpkins look like now (the two green ones are replacement pumpkins for a couple that froze and are getting fairly squishy- which is also great for science conversation!):

 

Next, it was time for some art! This particular project had a lot of steps to it, so we had to break it down over two classes. Plus that gave us time to let the paint dry. First, we had to draw pumpkins and leaves on white paper using a black wax crayon. Secondly, we worked on mixing paint colours so that we could paint our drawings. I gave the students blue, yellow, and red. They knew how to make orange and green from reading painting books a few weeks ago, but this was our first try at  mixing the colours. So, that was stage one. In the afternoon, we had larger pieces of black paper. We discussed what you would draw to show a night sky. Students used chalk to create stars, moons, and the ground/grass for the picture. Next, they cut out their pumpkin and leaf paintings and then glued them onto the blank paper. The result~ masterpieces that show pumpkins at night!

 



We also worked on our PWIM words, with a focus on the colour words. The students love Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? so we did two more readings of it with the students acting out the various parts. Then, I gave students their own copy of the book. The only difference is that each page follows the format "I see a...." Since the students have the story memorized, it was easy for them to know what colour words were on each page. They were to trace the words and then colour the pictures. Hopefully they will read them to their parents at home! We have been talking about how we can read the pictures to tell a story.

 

Those were the main highlights of the day. Of course there are all of those amazing moments in between that melt my heart when I witness how sweet and kind the students are, moments of celebration when a students are excited about learning, and moments of joy when I realize a student is meeting curriculum outcomes. Never a dull moment! :)

Wednesday, Wednesday, What Adventures Did You Bring?

After the long weekend, it was good to get back into the swing of things in our K class! This morning we discovered some really awesome felt boards and felt pieces that we could create pictures and stories with. What a great discovery! Almost all of the students created a picture using the felt pieces.

We had to cut our free choice center time a little short today, as we were going on our first adventure outside of the classroom; a visit to the public library! The students were very excited. We went with the Grade One class and I was very proud of my students for how well they walked down the street together. At the library, we learnt about Remembrance Day and an upcoming poster contest. Then, we did a craft activity to make a poppy using construction paper, a pipe cleaner, and coffee filter.  We were also treated to a little snack!


When we returned to school we realized that we missed recess so the students got a bit of extra time outside (even though it felt very chilly today!). Our Phys. Ed class was also cut short today by a late snack and team sports group photos. However, we had a fun time back in our classroom with retelling the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? Students were given a paper with a picture and the name of a character from the story. When it was their turn, they were to stand up. Students also practiced chiming in~ reading the story all together. We switched characters to do the activity a second time. Students were having such a fun time with it that we tried a third time, except we switched it up so that they had to create sounds and actions for their character. Here is a list of characters from a page in the book:

 

 

After lunch, we had a discussion about fire prevention and fire safety. Everyone shared ideas about what they've learnt or know already about the topic. Students each created a thank you note for the Fire Chief, who came to talk to us last week. After they finished, some students also coloured a picture to give to the Fire Chief or coloured a page from an upcoming class book about fire safety. 

 

In math, we talked more about the different types of patterns. We realized that patterns can have more than one colour and do not have to even be made of colours! Students then got to practice by creating patterns using either math manipulatives or drawing their pattern on paper.

 

It was a bit of a mixed up, but busy day. One more K day and it will be the weekend again! It feels like the weeks are flying by. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a fun Friday! We were treated to a healthy snack this morning~ fruit kabobs! They were yummy yummy (thanks to the SCC!).
We visited library and read a book called Giving Thanks, which is told from a First Nations perspective so it is mostly about being thankful for all of the animals and plants in nature. This brought up a good question~ what is nature? You never know what unexpected lessons will happy with young, inquisitive minds! The morning was topped off by a presentation from the fire chief, shared some great tips about fire prevention.



After lunch, we read a very funny book called The Plump and Perky Turkey. We shared our ideas of what we would do if we were a turkey on Thanksgiving. Again, a conversation that I did not expect to happen! Then we did an art activity. Students traced their hands twice on a piece of paper. One hand is traced lower, as some added features make it a turkey. The second hand is traced higher and it becomes a tree. Some students attempted to write "Happy Thanksgiving" on their pictures, while others opted to have me write it out for them. I think they turned out great!

Here are a couple of samples:

 

Next, we had a real adventure! We used shaving cream as "paper" and our fingers as pencils so that we could practice printing our PWIM words. It was good smelling, messy, fun! It also turned out to be a great opportunity for students who have a challenging time printing using a pencil. It was a great success and a wonderful way to end a Friday before a long weekend.

 

Something else that I have to share, because I think it is very cute and sweet. The students seem to think that our goldfish likes to read about other goldfish. So, if you come into my classroom, you may see this setup:

 

 

I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend, filled with gratitude, loved ones, and perky turkeys!

Happy Thanksgiving :)

More lessons on Gratitude

Today was a fine example of always being prepared for the unexpected! It was a good thing that I was feeling over prepared for today, because I thought we were going to the public library. After talking to the Grade One teacher, I realized that we are actually going next Wednesday! Oops! :) We got in a lot of great reading and lessons today and still did not get through everything I had ready for the students. :) I love productive days!

This morning, we continued with our Thanksgiving theme of "Giving Thanks". We read Curious George Says Thank You, where George makes thank you cards for people who have helped him. So, our class made our own Thank You cards for the special people in our lives! I loved seeing the combination of creativity and sweetness that ensued. The students used blank cards that I had bought at a craft store and decorated them with pictures and stickers. They had the choice of trying to write "Thank You" in their card and then they dictated to me a specific message of thanks. My two favourites were thanks to a sister for her snuggles and thanks to parents for the hamburgers they make!

We also made a few more leaves for our bulletin board that shared our thoughts on what we are thankful for:

Most of the leaves express gratitude for friends, family, and toys.
 

For ELA we tried our first See, Say, Spell to practice our PWIM words. I also read The Mixed Up Alphabet, we practiced singings the Alphabet Song, and tried to think of different ways that we could make letter shapes with our bodies! We even got into groups to make different letters. It was a lot of fun! I'm also finding the students practicing the alphabet recognition game I Have, Who Has during their free choice centers! In Phys. Ed. we practice throwing and catching balls individually and in partners.




This afternoon we worked on creating and representing patterns using bears. It was VERY exciting today because the students discovered that they have patterns on their shoes and clothes!! We are realizing our 'big idea' in math: Patterns ARE everywhere! We also began to discuss fire safety, as it is Fire Safety Week. We read Clifford The Firehouse Dog and discussed what we already knew about what you do in case of a fire. We learnt about "Stop, Drop, & Roll." Then, we worked on a fire truck craft, where students had to colour shapes, cut them out, and the paste them onto another sheet that had an outline of a fire truck. I think they turned out great!

 

 

We will be learning more about fire safety on Friday, with a special visit from the Fire Chief!

As my students are learning, I hope that everyone expresses gratitude and says thank you to someone today (and everyday)! That's how we fill one another's buckets, including our own.

 

 

Give Thanks

Leading up to Thanksgiving, we're spending some time this week on the theme of gratitude. We began today with The Thankful Book by Todd Parr. The kids loved this book! It's both silly and sweet. Everyone shared thoughts on what they were thankful for. Then, everyone represented their idea with a drawing in their journal. They practiced writing the date and the word "Thanks", as well. Then they dictated a sentence to myself or the EA. We also reviewed our Fall Leaves poem to discuss some colour words and the colours of leaves in fall. Each student coloured a leaf, told me something else they were thankful for, and I wrote the words for them. The leaves will complete our fall bulletin board. :)

I was so impressed on how well they worked in their journals today. It was only their second time this year!

Here is an example of a student journal entry.
 

We also reviewed last week's lesson on the importance of raising your hand and waiting your turn to speak. We will keep on working towards defeating Blurt Out Blue! The Speech and Language Pathologist had also introduced the idea of whole body listening, so I found a poster online to share with the students so that they have a visual to remember what whole body listening is all about!

 

In math, we worked on creating and representing snap cube patterns. It was Week 4 of our Pumpkin Observation today, too! They are finally starting to turn orange. We also learnt some new songs from Action Songs Kids Love, read Pinkilicious, practiced making letters out of play-doh, tried to find multiple ways to send and receive scarves during Phys.Ed, rescued TWO spiders (I do not know where all of the spiders come from! It seems like we are returning spiders back to nature every day!), worked on some turkey colouring sheets, and there was even a short lived wedding ceremony during our free choice centers! I wasn't quick enough to get a picture of the bride and her reluctant groom. Overall, it was a great start to a productive, fun week! I'm looking forward to what Wednesday and Friday have in store.

Fall Leaves

The fall season is truly here! It's so beautiful driving around town and the countryside.


This photo is from our small town, last week. I think most of the leaves have fallen off of the trees now!

 

Here is a photo of the poem Fall Leaves that I introduced to the students this week. We'll be practicing it more next week. Our students love choral poetry and action songs! :)



A Nameless Fish & a Superhero

Well, I was hoping that I could officially announce our class fish's name but after a discussion that included suggestions such as Nemo, Goldie, Orangey, Sparkley, Rainbow Fish, Herbert, and a full name of Nemo Orangey Goldie, we couldn't reach a final decision. The majority liked Goldie, so we may have to go with that! They were VERY excited to observe our finish finally swimming to the top of the water to eat. One student found the gold fish in Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?,decided that our fish would like to read that book, and propped it up beside his fish tank. We also decided that he liked to watch our dance moves to songs like Gummy Bear and the Bird Dance.

Other highlights of the day included our trip to the library. Today was extra special though, because we interviewed the librarian for the school newsletter! We also got to spend some time with the Speech and Language Pathologist. He came into our room to teach about social skills. Students learnt about the super hero Superflex and the 'bad guys' who try to distract us from our learning. There was a lot of laughs and a lot of learning, too. The main message today was to raise your hand and wait to be called on instead of blurting out or interrupting others who are speaking. If our class can remember to raise their hand for 20 minutes straight, then the SLP is going to bring us a treat! Here is the poster that will remind us of the 'bad guys' we have to watch out for:

 

In math we worked on AB movement and sound patterns, followed by a game called Pattern Trains. Students had to make pattern trains with snap cubes, following my instructions of what colours to put together. Then they had to decide if it was a pattern or not. Lots of fun! We also played I Have, Who Has to practice our letter recognition, read more of One Fish, Two Fish, Red, Fish, Blue Fish (which sparked a conversation about rhyming words), and had some time for our own individual discovery in the centers around the room.

 

 Something else that I don't think I've mentioned before: every morning the students answer the question "Do you have a ___ in your name?" So far we're at the letter K.

 

Well, there were only two days of Kindergarten this week, but I feel ready for a nap! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. :)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like.. Autumn!

It's hard to believe that we're onto month two of Kindergarten already! Today felt like a super productive day. It was great seeing the K's after not seeing them for nearly a week! When I was away on Friday, the substitute teacher read Miss Nelson is Missing. Here is the latest Kindergarten book, where students shared their ideas of where I was that day...

 

Students also read a great book The Rainbow Fish, in which rainbow fish shares his special, shiny scales with his fish friends. On Friday, students coloured their own rainbow fish and got a shiny sequin for each one. Today, we discussed how rainbow fish felt very happy when he shared his scales. Just like bucket filling, when rainbow fish filled their buckets- it filled his bucket too! I got the students to help me paint a large rainbow fish this morning and they each made a scale that shared an idea of how we can make others feel happy. Here is our bulletin board:

 

 

We also read a poem about Fall Leaves and worked on our first individual painting project: painting fall trees using our handprints and Q-tips as brushes to paint the leaves! I think they turned out wonderful and they're a very colourful, creative edition to our main bulletin board:

 

My intention is to add to this bulletin board in the next week as we discuss the importance of giving thanks.

Another sign of October: the students noticed right away that our behavior tree was different! It was time to make it look like a fall tree. Hopefully we don't have to switch it to a winter tree very soon!

 

 

We also completed our Week 3 Pumpkin Observations, worked on "This is Me in October" pictures, and did a pre-assessment on patterns. One of the most exciting parts of the day may have been our newest addition~ a goldfish!

 

 

With the hustle bustle of the day, we didn't get around to naming our fish today!

So, stay tuned for that announcement.

Meet you back here on Thursday for more of our Kindergarten Adventures :)