6 Ducks, 3 Bears, & 3 pigs!

Welcome back to another week in our K classroom! I was only with the students for half of the day today, as I had to travel with the Junior Badminton team. So, here are the highlights from the day:

 

In Math, we moved right into our new unit about the numbers 6 to 10. We reviewed the song Five Little Ducks and then did an activity where students acted out stories as if they were ducks (some in the pond, some out of the pond). Next, students had to count out six paper ducks and draw a pond on their paper. They had to follow instructions, such as "Put two ducks in the pond. How many are in the pond? How many on land? How many all together?" and so on.

 

Finally, students could choose their own duck story, found the numeral 6 out of a choice from 1 to 10, and then completed the sentence "____ on land. ____ in the water."

 

 

 

Students had an opportunity today to act out two of their favourite stories: The 3 Little Pigs and Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. Then, they had to choose their favourite story of the two and draw a picture of their favourite part.

 

Students also had an opportunity to have Grade 10 students read to them today. Later in the day, they were also read a story called Tough Trucks.

Then they worked on this Construction ABC Highlighting activity:

 

Students were to pull a magnetic letter from a bag, state the letter, letter sound, and a word that starts with that letter. Then, they had to find and highlight the letter on their sheet.

 

I'm looking forward to hearing from the students on Thursday about their feelings about the day. From my time with them in the morning and the note left from the substitute teacher, it was an all around great day with wonderful students! :)

Singing in the Rain

Well, it was another rainy day! We even sang and danced to A Roo Chy Cha by the Learning Station, which includes the lyrics "I'm singing in the rain, what a glorious feeling, I'm ha-ha-happy again!" So, at least we were actually singing inside where it was nice and warm. :)

We were also practicing our dance moves in gym class, while making different shapes and patterns with ribbons. We danced around to Happy by Pharell Williams- so much fun!

Before heading to the library this morning, we enjoyed the story Not a Box. It's such a great book to practice viewing, predicting, and using our imaginations! Each page gives an opportunity to interpret what the bunny is 'seeing' the box as.

 

In Math, we reviewed all of the previous concepts from our Shape and Space unit. Then we began our unit on numbers 6 to 10 by viewing a picture of various ocean creatures. Students took turns counting the different types of animals and plant life in the photo. They did a great job!

 

We had a lot of fun with our Word Work today. Ms. Bergen joined us and brought a fun new game with her! We played "Stop the PWIM word!", where students had to use Stop signs on pointer sticks to find and 'stop', or swat, the PWIM word as it was called out.

 

The students next played Mystery Word, where a word is pulled out one letter at a time from a large folder. Students then predict which of their PWIM words is the Mystery Word. Then we played Bang! Students take turns pulling a PWIM word from a paper bag. If they guess the word correctly, then they keep it and go to the back of the line. If they guess the word incorrectly, then they put it back in the bag. If they pull the word Bang!, then all of their word cards must go back into the bag. The last game that we played was bingo.

 

 

 

Last period was our Raider of the Month assembly. We also got to watch a fun video about our schools In Motion Day. It was a great assembly and our class (myself included) was very proud that one of the Kindergarten students was the Raider of the Month for the elementary level! Yay! They are such great friends that during our talking circle, several students said that their favourite part of the day was that their classmate won Raider of the Month. :) Such sweeties!

 

It looks like we're in for a wet weekend. I hope everyone manages to stay warm and dry! I'll meet you back here on Tuesday. :)

 

Healthy Foods, Building, Recyling, & Rainy Spring Weather

 

Happy Wednesday! We're half way through the week and it was a chilly rainy day outside. At least the rain held off until the end of the day, so the students got to enjoy all of their recesses outdoors!

 

The  main interests today during free choice times were train tracks/cars, dramatic play, and felt board stories. We read a story called Dana Banana in Health, which introduced the topic of healthy vs unhealthy (or 'sometimes') foods. Then students sorted through the plastic food from our kitchen area into the two categories. It was great to see that most of our play food fit under the healthy category!

 

 

 

 

Dana Banana loves healthy snacks and our class does too!

 

For math, students worked on building a variety of structures, ranging from hotels to castles to robots and even letters of the alphabet!

 

 

 

In Social Studies, we continued our talk about environmental stewardship and how we can care for the Earth. We read two stories about recycling. Then, we incorporated an art activity by creating flowers out of paper scraps from our art center. The final results were some very creative blossoms to display on our bulletin board!

 

 

We ended the day off with a See/Say/Spell, a few rounds of The Fastest Sight Word in the West, and an option between yoga/dancing and artwork (some chose to work on a sticker book where they could decorate faces). By the end, everyone was dancing. It's so much fun and more convenient to follow dance videos on our new SmartBoard! :)

 

Hopefully Friday will bring out the sun! Until then, take care and keep smiling.

 

 

 

 

Welcome Back!

It was great to be back to school today. Everyone had many exciting Easter stories to share with the class! Students wrote about Easter in their journals. They were shown how to write the word "Easter", and then were given the option of writing using pictures, lists, labels, words, or sentences. We also heard about Chester's Easter vacation- in Hawaii!

One of the most exciting parts of our day was that our Smartboard is now up and running! Yay! Some students chose to do yoga today and everyone got in some singing and dancing.

 

We combined Science with ELA and Drama today by retelling the story of The Three Little Pigs. One student opted for drawing a picture of the story and explaining it that way. The rest found masks in our drama center and acted out the story (two students had to play the role of the houses, which they were quite happy about).

 

Since Earth Day is tomorrow, we talked about what we like about the earth and ways that we can save the earth. We watched  YouTube video/song called Go Green and read a book called 10 Things I Can Do To Help The Earth. Then students each represented their idea of how they can help the earth through a picture drawing. They also signed and coloured a picture that served as a promise to help the earth. Here is a sample of each:

 

 

Those were the main events for the day. Even our tulips had a great day!

 

 

:)

 

Easter Fun

What a wonderfully busy day!

The class had a shorter amount of free choice center time this morning, but that was easily forgotten as we were invited to a puppet show! There were four stories from The Kids On The Block, which told stories about bullying, autism, feelings, and what it's like to be blind. Then, we learnt how to sing Happy Birthday in sign language.

In Science, we talked about why certain materials are used to make different objects. Then we experimented with different materials to see which were the most stretchy. Students worked in groups to try and stretch newspaper, wax paper, paper towel, saran wrap, and a plastic bag.

 

We worked on an Art activity this morning as well. Students used pom poms at the end of clothes pins as paintbrushes to paint Easter Eggs.

 

 

In the afternoon, we enjoyed some more Easter related activities. For our PWIM word work, I hid plastic Easter eggs around the classroom- one for each student. Inside each egg was a chocolate egg and six words from their PWIM board. Students then practiced reading their words (if needed matching them on the PWIM board) and then printed them on an Easter basket colouring page.

 

We also engaged in an Easter scavenger hunt around the school, which was set up by the SRC. We started with a clue in our classroom, which led to the gym. Another clue led us to the computer lab and then again to the library. The final clue led us back to the classroom to find a basket full of goodies!!

 

We rounded off the day by acting out the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Everyone has been asking me all day when they got to act out a play!

 

Now, we don't meet again until April 21st! I hope that everyone has a wonderful break. :)

 

Inspired Learners

Happy Tuesday :) We had our first day that actually felt- and looked- like Spring! Yay!

Our day began with free choice time, as usual. There was a lot of storytelling through Barbies, some exploration of weigh scales, and a couple of marble runs were set up. The real action began when I pulled out a toy cash register and fake money! Hopefully this will encourage some more focused dramatic play, which will also include some literacy and math skills. Already today, one of the first things that I heard was "First, we need to sort the money." Awesome! I have some menus and food order forms to introduce Thursday, so we'll see where that takes their creative minds.

 

In Science, we exploring floating and sinking. First, we did some experiments and then student's recorded some of their observations. Some student's remembered that we conducted a sink/float experiment with our pumpkins way back in October!

 

Sorting objects: Which float? Which sink?

 

For math, we read a non-fiction book called Math in the Store. We reviewed our previous activity about measuring weight. Then, students worked on a heavier vs lighter activity to show what they know about weight.

 

 

In the afternoon, we worked on our "This is me in April" drawings. Students looked at their past "This is me..." pictures, chose their favourite, and thought of a way that they could improve their work. After they finished, I had them do an assessment about letters, numbers, words, and shapes that they did the 2nd say of school. It is very rewarding to see the progress that they've made throughout the year so far!

 

We were invited to watch some skits on bullying by the Grade 8 and 9 students. Upon returning to our class, we had a discussion about bullying. I was going to read a picture book on bullying, but the class was so inspired by the older students, they wanted to come up with their own plays about bullying! They assigned characters, organized themselves, practiced, and then acted out their story. It was great!

 

Those are the main highlights from our day. Parent teacher interviews are after school the next two days and Thursday is our last day of classes before a week break! I am looking forward to some fun pre-Easter activities on Thursday. Chester won't be at school, though- he's off to Hawaii with our EA! We wish them safe travels. :)

Friday with Five

Our Friday Fun-day was enjoyed by 5 K students today. We were busy first thing this morning getting used to our new space. In addition to the rearranging that I did with classroom furniture- our new Smart Board arrived! Yay! The students were pretty excited once they realized we'd be able to watch videos on a 'big screen' like a TV. It's getting hooked up next week, so then we'll really be able to play and explore! It will be a learning experience for both me and the students! :)

In Science today, we continued with the idea of what can make structures stronger. Today's experiment included 2 plastic cups, paper, and metal washers. First, students made a bridge with the cups and flat paper. They tried to see how adding washers to the paper effected the 'bridge'. Then, we folded the paper to see how that would make a difference. You got it- it was stronger!

 

In Math, we explored how to measure weight. Students worked together on an activity to measure how many snap cubes scissors, paper, crayons, glue, and a pencil weigh.

 

For Health, we discussed the 7th habit from The 7 Habits of Happy Kids. Today's story was about Sophie Squirrel, who was stayed up way too late reading books. She even fell asleep in class! Her friends tried to get her to do different activities with them, but she kept telling them that she had to nap (when really, she was wanting to read). Her mom advised her that she needed to find balance in her life by taking care of not only her mind, but also her heart, body, and soul. So, Sophie then engaged in a variety of activities with her friends to do just that.

 

 

We played a game of Fastest Sight Word in the West. They are doing so well with knowing sight words and working on sounding out the words that they don't know yet! I continue to be impressed.

We worked a bit on an activity where they rolled dice and then wrote down the corresponding sight word. It was a great activity to review number and sight word recognition, plus practice their printing.

 

We rounded off the day with some dancing and our talking circle. Two more days next week and then it will be our Easter Break! Wow, the time is flying by. It must be because we have so much fun in Kindergarten! :)

 

Have a great weekend everyone.

 

 

Wonderful Wednesday Brought Some Changes...

Happy Wednesday!

We had a lot of excitement this morning with yet another engaging science lesson. Today's topic was layers and how more layers make a structure stronger. Students were given a Kleenex and were instructed to pull it apart, to show that it is made out of two layers. They discussed why it is better with two layers instead of one. Then, a little experiment took place with a tin can, a tissue paper covering the top, and an elastic band to hold it in place. Then, students took turns placing metal washers on top and we counted to see how many washers it took before the tissue broke. We tried the experiment with 1 layer of tissue and then a double layer.

Then, the students got to 'experiment' with a very exciting structure that is made out of many layers-- a piñata! Each student was able to have two tries at breaking open the piñata (three hits per turn) before the candy was freed! We then took a look at what different layers were used to make the piñata structure.

 

There were some interesting activities in math as well. We read a story called Math at the Airport, which is part of a series that demonstrates how math is everywhere! Next, we reviewed what length and height are. I had placed posters up on the board before the recess and one of the students clued in right away that we were going to work on measuring. Yes!

 

I demonstrated how to measure some items using snap cubes and then students worked on measuring a toque, shoe, mitten, and a scarf.

 

 

Measuring the scarves was a great adventure because they were SO long! One was 101 cubes long!

 

 
For PWIM, we did a See/Say/Spell using funny voices (deep, high pitched, spooky, sassy to name a few). Then we discussed the difference between fiction and non-fiction books. I read part of a non-fiction book about dump drunks and then a fiction cardboard book called I am a Dump Truck. We read a book together that had no pictures called I See Construction. Each student had their own copy and read aloud together. Their job was to then draw the pictures to match each of the sentences.

We made it to the 6th story from The 7 Habits of Happy Kids. This time the characters had to use each of their talents to work as a team so that they could win a soccer game. The habit is synergize, but we broke it down to working together is better and discussed why that is.

 

I'm excited for a new addition coming soon to our classroom- a Smart Board!! I decided it would be best to move our desktop computer to a spot that would be closer to the Smart Board, so I did some rearranging after school today.

 

A new reading space.

 

Our main group discussion area is ready for the Smart Board!

Now that I've moved that big cupboard, the students will have easier access to the art and writing center, as well. I am hoping that this will increase the writing and creating that happens during their free choice time.

 

 It will be interesting to see how the students react when they get to school on Friday! :)

Stay tuned....