What Not to Wear Day!

Yesterday was our What Not to Wear spirit day at school. It's always exciting to see what ideas the students (and teachers) will come up with!

We made our switch from exploring the observable characteristics of plants to the characteristics of animals. We read From Head to Toe by Eric Carle, which allows the students to role play a variety of animals through body movement. It also has a simple enough pattern that most students will be able to read it up on their own, so I hope they will pick it up during one of our reading times.

We took to our Smartboard to Google some images of animals that students wanted a better picture of in their mind, such as donkeys, gorillas, sea sponges. We also looked at images of the ocean, as our morning question was "Do you like the ocean?".

Next, we brainstormed all of our thoughts on what we know about animals and got into a little bit of what we want to know and learn.

We ventured to the library and found a giant book, Amazing Sharks, that had a lot of really interesting facts. We also did a see/say/spell of our new PWIM words and read a book called The Ocean together. That book was a Level A reader, so it was easy for the students to follow. For example, it read "the ocean, the shark, the seaweed". Since students showed me that they could read, their next task was to show me that they could also spell! I explained that when we begin writing, sometimes we have to do invented spelling because we are really guessing how to spell the word using the sounds that we hear when we say the word.

So, I used a simple sentence of "A _____ swims in the ocean" and used pictures of animals to fill in the blank. Students were given white boards and their job was to take their best guess at how to spell each animal name. They did a great job!!

 

We finished off our ocean/animal talks by singing Baby Shark, by the Learning Station. It's been on replay in my mind ever since!

Before ending the day with a school wide Raider of the Month assembly, we practiced colouring leaves like the ones that we will be painting for the school mural project. Students are asked to use bright, bold colours and patterns on their leaves. I allowed the students to use my special, colourful markers so this activity lasted longer than anticipated!

 

A random highlight of my day was when I mentioned Bananas in Pajamas and the whole class chimed in to singing the theme song from the show! Then, of course an in depth conversation of Bananas wearing pajamas ensued.

 

I love my job!

 

Have a fantastic weekend everyone.

Plants, The Number 9, & Interconnectedness

Yesterday was a busy, wonderful Wednesday! Here are the highlights:

Free Choice Centers & Morning Meeting:

It is interesting to see what students will choose for an activity every morning when they have the chance to explore any and all materials in the classroom. Yesterday was a big day for the art center!

I had to switch up our Proud Wall as new artwork was being produced that needed to be displayed. Art was going to be a theme that would come back later in the day.

 

During our morning meeting, we always discuss the morning's yes/no question that also serves as a means for taking attendance. The students are also now printing their names every morning rather than just locating the paper with their name on it. Yesterday morning I decided to introduce a style of painting that would be discussed in our afternoon's lessons. It turned out to be a really great way for them to practice viewing art and expressing their connections to the artwork.

 

Science: It was time for a culminating lesson for all of our knowledge that we have gathered about plants. So, we watched two videos on YouTube. One was about the needs of a plant and the other was about the different parts of a plant. Then, we brainstormed all of the information that we have learnt about plants so far. Next, students recorded their observations of their bean plants and then also filled out a part in their booklet about what they've learnt and three things that plants need to survive.

Some were getting bigger. Some have huge leaves. Some are big and some are small. One plant had a small, medium, and large stem!

Scientists at work!

 

Math: We moved forward to talking all about the number 9! So fitting, as in our countdown, we only had 9 days of school left after yesterday!

 

We filled out our All About The Number chart. Then students had to find 9 math manipulatives and create the number 9 in two sets (such as five and four, which was the most common set).

 

Some finished more quickly, so we also worked on patterns. The big challenge: make a pattern using 3 colours!!

 

Phys.Ed: We had a mixture of our warm up, including tag, and practicing manipulative skills of throwing and kicking. We played a game where the students had to try and knock down the other teams pylons.

 

After lunch we had a mixture of Social Studies, Art, & Health (it's all interconnected!):

We worked together with the Grade 1 class to learn all about an exciting project that has started at our school; the mural project.

 

We learned all about the project and what it represents. This included talking about interconnectedness and how what we do effects everyone around us. To demonstrate, we used dominos. As we were waiting for the Grade 1 class to join us, I was able to witness just how interesting dominos are! The students were quite enamoured. It began with experimenting with how to make them all fall down and then turned into building patterns and 3-D structures (math IS everywhere!).

 

The student's also viewed and discussed Leah Dorian's artwork, which some students recognized as the painting that we were discussing during our calendar meeting. After explaining the symbolism and importance of the mural project, students were broken up into 3 groups. They rotated through 3 states. The first station focus on what a promise is and included a reading of the Robert Munsch story A Promise is a Promise. The second station taught students about the medicine wheel. The third station had students brainstorming all of the connections that they could make to the our schools four core values:

 

 

The afternoon flew by with these activities! We will continue discussions about the mural project leading up to the day when students are able to paint their own leaf on the mural. There is so much great learning that can and is happening around the mural project! I am excited for this new addition to our school that will reflect our values and our interconnectedness.

 

 

Rainy Tuesday

Today was a rainy day of indoor recesses. The students didn't seem to mind too much, as they got to spend extra time in the gym. Those who had umbrellas were a little down as they wanted to use them! However, at the end of the day they got creative and ended up created a dance routine- umbrellas included! It was the highlight of my day watching them groove and lip sync to the song. :) I took some video footage that I think would be great to save for when they graduate high school!

Speaking of recording memories, the division's Ed Tech stopped by for a visit today. He is working on interview videos with the students that will be presented during their Kindergarten grad! I can't wait to watch them and hear their answers.

We also learnt more about sharks and ocean creatures today. We read some excerpts from Commotion in the Ocean and searched for some more "wonders" and "wows" in our non-fiction books (pretty much every page is a 'wow'!). We also read two cute picture books about sharks, Don't Each the Teacher ( I just HAD to read that one to see what it was about) and The 3 Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark.

We also watched a video of the song Octopus' Garden to lead into our ocean themed math activity. The Octopus has 8 legs, which is handy for us as we were just discussing the different ways that we can show the number 8! Today, we found a new way:

 

 

We also worked on our "This is me in May" pictures and recorded our plant observations.

The students are very excited about our beans and keep asking to take them home.

Check out how much they have grown:

 

All in all it was a fantastic day! We've begun our countdown to the end of our school year- 10 days to go. Time flies when you are having fun. :)

Spiders, Sharks, and Sprouts

Happy Thursday!

This morning brought the surprise of .... a water table!

Before heading to the library, we read and discussed another Eric Carle story, The Very Busy Spider. One point that always comes up is how beautiful the pictures are in Eric Carle's books. We got to practice some animal sounds through this book as well.

Math was all about the number 8. We discussed the various ways to represent the number. Then students works on creating sets of 8. They were asked to count out 8 objects, rearrange them and count them again.

In our Phys. Ed class we worked on the manipulative skills of catching and running and kicking a ball.

For our PWIM class, we 'dove' into our collection of books about sharks, diving, and oceans. First, we sorted fiction from non-fiction books. Then, students each chose a book and were asked to find a 'wonder' or a 'wow', which we marked with post-it notes. Afterwards, each student picked one page in their book that they wanted to share with the class.

Afterwards, we did our shake out for our new poster. The students came up with some great words for us to study! We rounded off our shark discussions with singing and dancing to the song Baby Shark with The Learning Station.

 

We ended the day with Science, which involved observing our bean plants. It was the most exciting day so far; our beans have grown so much in the last two days! Students recorded their observations in their Plant Observation Booklets.

 

I'm curious to see what our beans will look like when we return to school on Monday!

 

Until then, have a great weekend everyone and enjoy the lovely warm weather!

Birds & Bucket Filling

Yesterday, we enjoyed some great new learning experiences!

People from the Sci-Fi program at the University of Saskatchewan came to our school. Our K class joined in with the Grade 1 class to learn all about birds! We learnt about how birds adapt, what wing span is, different bird calls, and areas where certain birds live. Some fun activities included comparing ourselves to different bird spans (including measuring how many students it takes to make up the wing span of the Albatross), using straws as beaks to role play being hummingbirds looking for nectar, and making up our own species of birds using feathers, marshmallows, paper clips, and toothpicks.

 

We then had an early lunch and recess before hopping on the bus to Leroy for an afternoon of Pink Day activities. Most, if not all, of my students had never been on a school bus before, so that journey alone was a learning experience! When we arrived, we had just enough time to participate in 2 of the classroom activities that the SRC had planned. Then, we were treated to a magic show by Steve Harmon which took a positive spin on anti-bullying by focusing on Bucket Filling. It was a great reminder for our class, as we've been learning about bucket filling since the beginning of the school year. It's always great to learn amongst laughter ~ and who doesn't like a bunny and dove magically appearing!?

 

 

 

Some other highlights of the day were that our fish survived the weekend, we've discovered a sprout growing in one of our pots, and (the student's don't know it yet) our sensory bins have been changed to match our PWIM picture! Tomorrow's free choice center time should be very exciting...and wet. :)

Tuesday's Report & a Thursday Preview

A new addition to the classroom generated some excitement first thing in the morning!

 

Another highlight of the morning came with the next story in our Eric Carle author study:" Slowly, Slowly, Slowly" Said the Sloth. As with the other stories, we discussed what made this story special. However, this book in particular really sparked a big discussion about the main character, with lots of questions about sloths. So, since we now have the SmartBoard and it's easy for the students to view what's on the computer screen, I went to Google to search images of sloths (so cute!). Then, we looked up facts about sloths for kids. We also found a video about a sanctuary that assists sloths (again, so cute!). It was a great impromptu mini-inquiry.

 

In math, we talked all about the number 7. Then students worked on making 7 in two sets using snap cubes. They were instructed to pick two different colours, roll a dice, and then choose on colour to snap together that number of cubes. Then, they had to add on the other colour until their snap cube train added up to 7.

 

 

Tuesday was our last day for our construction PWIM picture. Students were read Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site and then they did a cut and paste activity to make a picture of  a construction site.

 

 

Afterwards, they did a math activity to match the numeral to the number of construction vehicles.

 

 

I introduced our newest PWIM picture at the end of the day (photo to come). It shows some divers and sharks at the bottom of the ocean. We worked together to come up with some "I wonder" questions. Then, we read a non-fiction book about sharks and a fictional story called Nugget and Fang. The non-fiction book already answered some of our "I wonder"s. We also learnt that the most common belief about sharks, that they eat people, does not happen nearly as often as humans harm sharks! I am really excited for this last PWIM cycle and the students have already showed an interest in ocean animals. The grade 2/3 class just finished a cycle using this same photo, so we may have to invite them to share their knowledge with us!

 

 

 

Tomorrow (Thursday),  I am observing in a different Kindergarten classroom, so the students will be working with the sub. Their learning will include observing their bean seeds and recording those observations, recognizing numerals and sets from 1 to 10, and reviewing what sentences are and then working on a cut/paste/draw activity with a simple sentence. For our Eric Carle study, they will be reading Little Cloud. Hopefully it will be warm enough for them to read the story outside and then take a look up at the sky to have a discussion about clouds and what they see. Then, they will be doing a craft/writing activity revolving around what pictures they see in the clouds. I am excited to hear about how that lesson goes!

 

 

Hopefully the warm weather will continue tomorrow so that the class can enjoy this outdoor learning activity. Have a wonderful long weekend everyone!

 

 

 

Walking, Planting, & Reading

Happy Friday!
I was very excited to be back in the classroom and the feeling appeared to be mutual. I was greeted with many excited voices and stories this morning. We continued working on our mother's day "All About My Mom" books today. Then, we went on a walk with the whole school community and some community members to raise awareness and money for juvenile diabetes.

In the afternoon, students were read a story about Splat the Cat planting a flower. Then, they shared all of their questions regarding what they want to know about plants. They also planted their own bean seeds. To round off the activity, they began their Plant Observation Booklet by predicting what their plant will look like.

 

We also read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which had a lot of connections to a song/video we watched about Herman the Worm! The kids all voted for this story as their favourite Eric Carle book so far.

We also have a new addition to our classroom! (Yet to be named). I hope this one lasts a while :)

I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!

While the teacher is away...

Here's one of the tasks that I left for the students while I was away yesterday:

They had to predict where I was! They did this same activity in September and it is so very exciting to see the growth that this project displays when compared to their first try!

K is for Kindergarten

Yesterday was a pretty chilly day, but our adventures kept us warm! Students and staff were treated to yummy smoothies as a healthy snack from the SCC (thank you!).

Before heading to the library, we read one of the newest books in our classroom, Z is for Moose. The kids and I loved it! The storyline was funny, easy for the students to read (except for what was in the speech bubbles), and leant itself to predicting.

 

 

In Math, we discussed stars and read a poem about 7 stars in our Big Math Book from the Math Makes Sense program. Then, students counted out 7 paper stars, found the numeral 7, and glued them onto a paper to make a picture of a starry sky.

 



Our PWIM lessons with Ms. Bergen involved three different word work puzzles. First, students had to find the missing letter in some of the PWIM words. Then, they rotated between 2 centers. The first center involved finding clothes pins with the letters needed to spell a chosen PWIM word. The second center has students putting together paper puzzles to spell the word.

We had a mixture of Science and ELA at the end of the day. We read and discussed our second Eric Carle book, The Tiny Seed. As a group, we filled out the chart where we are recording what is special about each book and the lessons from each Eric Carle book.

Then, we stitched gears to a more scientific perspective, and students each shared what they know about plants. One of the great things about the new Smart Board, is that students can watch their words appear on the screen as I type them. What a great way to combine technology, literacy, and building schema.

The third part of the lesson involved each student choosing a plan from our classroom (luckily we have 7 plants and 7 students!). They had to observe their plant, draw a picture of it, and state what it smells like, feels like, and what it reminds them of. They all did a great job!

 

A finished product:

 

I'm not at school tomorrow, so students will be reading Miss Nelson is Back & predicting where they think I am. We did this activity at the beginning of the school year (after listening to Miss Nelson is Missing), so I am curious to see how their work has progressed!

They will also be working on a Mother's Day activity and a letter sounds activity. In math, they will be working on an activity where they roll a dice, demonstrate they can recognize the number, and then state which number comes before and after. I am sure that they will have a great day and I look forward to our adventures on Friday!

 

Have a happy week!