Super Centers

I got some cute spider centers from another teacher's blog, and since it was Ss week, we tried them out today. Here are some children sorting spider pictures to match the beginning sound/letter on the web.
And putting spiders in alphabetical order. For some reason it is just more fun to put letters in order when they are written on pictures.
This was probably the favorite center, also the trickiest because of the fine motor dexterity required, but that's why I love it.
And the last center was actually an original idea (gasp!). We have been having a bit of a problem with some children scribbling on their work or just doing messy work. I told the children that this was a problem, reiterated that Kindergarteners do not scribble, and then we had a scribbling center so we could get it out of our systems. After this center, there should be no more scribbling. We'll see how that goes next week. I might keep the poster as a reminder.
They had a lot of fun. :)

Ss is for super-awesome day (and really long post)

Ss is for sidewalk chalk. We went outside to attempt to write the lowercase alphabet. And of course we could draw afterward. It is so interesting to watch children work and to see the variety of ways they approach things. The other part of our writing today was called "Alphabet Measles". I don't know where I got this page, but it was a fun way to practice uppercase letters. Just connect the dots! I think at least one child snickered almost the entire time - they just thought it was so funny to be connecting measles to make letters. Some children tried to write the alphabet in order (that is what the paper said to do, but we took it as a suggestion), some decided to write it backwards, others wrote names, words, or random letters.
Ss is for science experiment. Here is the banana goo. It's pretty much broken down now and looks like mud. Fait accompli!
Ss is for sticky notes on things around the room that start with S (like snowy and Saturday and shelf, and scissors and someone who starts with S and...)
Ss is for shadow tag (our apologies to the junior high classes who may have heard happy shrieking this afternoon)
Ss is for sponges and stamps and seasons. (this is the apple picture I mentioned yesterday. I don't know why it is sideways - I uploaded it correctly twice. Tilt your head or computer.)
We are reading many color books and doing colorful experiments. I stole this idea from Mrs. Karen. We had a lot of fun trying to melt crayons (we initially tried it outside with just the sun, but it just isn't hot enough anymore, so we brainstormed other things that could heat them up - oven, microwave, fire, lava, hairdryer). Ms. VP lent donated her extra hair dryer. You should have heard the exclamations when it first started to melt. "OOOH" "Wow!" "It looks like fireworks!" It was a bit noisy but everyone had at least 3 turns to melt crayons. (Be forewarned: if you try this at home, prepare for multi-dimensional splatter... the side of our sink is more colorful than it used to be, as are the cleaning supplies. Also, Crayola crayons melt significantly better than Roseart crayons do). This was process, more than product, art.
Here is the final product:

The story of Jacob, as retold by Kindergarteners

Enjoy your children's retellings of the story of Jacob. Overall, I was impressed with the accuracy of some of the details. Some of the language is reminiscent of the Jacob poem we have been learning.

He went on a long walk and had a dream that God said he would be with him and watch over him wherever he went. And that’s all.

He likes staying home a lot and he more likes to sleep and rest a lot. He went to another state because his brother was going to kill him. And then when he came back Esau was not going to kill him anymore.

Jacob traveled far away. He heard his call and did obey. He sent his only son to be the savior of the world. Jacob, he traded the soup for the birthright.

He likes staying inside a lot. He made soup and he stole the blessing from their dad. And he took a rest at Bethel. And he married two girls. Then he went back to Canaan and he met his brother and he gave him presents.

Jacob made some soup and then Esau said “I’m very hungry.” And Esau gave Jacob the birthright. And they stole the blessing from their dad. And then when Jacob stole the blessing from their dad, Esau said “I’m going to kill him”. And then Jacob’s mother said, “You stole the blessing from your dad”. And then Jacob left his home in Canaan. And then Jacob came home. The end.

Jacob went away and he left his family for seven years. And they went back. Jacob got lots of animals and Esau got forty-hundred people and Jacob gave all of his animals to Esau. And then they went home.

Jacob shared the soup ‘cause he wanted to get the birthright but his brother was going to get it. And then his brother said, ‘cause he stole the birthright, he said that he was going to kill him, but it really didn’t happen.

He liked to stay home and make soup. He took their blessing from their dad and the birthright was the given trade.

He wanted to be number one. And that he gave the birthright to someone else, so his brother got very mad. And that he made some soup and he traded the birthright. And he took all that he had and left his father hurt and bad.

Jacob made some soup and he wanted it really bad and he said “Give me the birthmark and I will give you the soup.” He traveled far away too.

Jacob was the younger one who wanted to be number one. And then he gave him the soup and then Esau got mad.

Apple Day (and a few other things)

Today everyone was excited about apple day and sharing. This was the first time we had everyone bring something for sharing, so that was a lot of listening they had to do while waiting for their turn, and I was really, really impressed with how well they did. Great job, Kindergarten!

When we focus on a letter for an entire week, we saturate the days with as many activities as possible that start with that letter. For example, we ssssang the ssssssilly pirate ssssssong and we sssssnuck out to the playground for a little extra recess and we ssssssslithered across the room. Yesterday we thought of 29 words that started with Ss!

And now, on to Apple Day!

We have very few pictures of our apple day adventures because we were too busy to take pictures. Hopefully your child showed your their apple page so you know what they did. After we graphed our apples (by color and by stem/no stem), we had some scientific explorations to learn more about them. We measured how tall our apples were and how much they weighed. We predicted if they would sink or float and then tested it. We cut them and tried to get the seeds out of the core, using fingers and/or teeth.

We made beautiful pictures showing the seasons of an apple tree. (Sorry, again no picture. We were too busy with glue and glitter and paint... you can see one tomorrow)

Then came the best part: we made applesauce. Our room smelled so good. Finally, after the last recess, it was ready:
First we observed how it looked and felt, then we smelled it and tasted it. 6 children and 1 teacher really liked it. The other 5 children were less impressed (though a few of those may have really just disliked because their neighbor did). For most children, it was the first time they had eaten warm, chunky applesauce.

Recipe for applesauce: slice a bunch of apples. Invite someone over to peel and cut them. Put them in a crockpot with a dash of nutmeg and some cinnamon. Cook for a few hours, lifting the lid occasionally to mash and smell. Add a little sugar (optional. I added about a tablespoon). Eat!

Your little scientists also made a diagram of an apple, labeling its parts.
Then we did some non-fiction apple writing. Look at that great kid writing! This child is starting to write down the sounds they hear and remembered to use spaces. (I bought a apple. Regular apple.)
We did a little extra patterning practice. Children who finished had the choice of coloring (fine motor skills :) or labeling (math challenge! :)

I see bugs!

Today we went on a short jaunt over to the 8th grade room to see the bug collections the 7th and 8th graders had done. They were pretty amazing. We had fun looking at them and asking a few questions. Just 8 more years until they get to do this project!
Mrs. Ervin also showed us a large grasshopper, a crayfish, and a frog.

Alphabet Party!

The alphabet is done,
So we had a lot of fun.
Hip hip hooray-
Today was party day.

Today our class had an alphabet party. This means that we did literacy activities throughout the day. In the morning we rotated through several centers: reading alphabet books,
making alphabet puzzles
(now it's done. This one is my favorite puzzle),
playing A, B, Seas, and an unpictured activity where they used tweezers to grab letters from a bucket to fill in the blanks on cards (A__C, gh__, __WX...)

Then at snack time the children were told they HAD to play with their food before eating it. We had alphabet crackers. We sorted, tried to find vowels/letters in our names/etc. We did some alphabet dancing (The ABC Disco by Jack Hartmann is the class' current favorite).

We read several alphabet books, sang and signed the alphabet to the tune of Who Let the Dogs Out? (Who Let the Aa out?), marched around the room chanting the alphabet, wrote the alphabet, did a fun alphabet dot-to-dot and matching page...and then it was time for PE.

This afternoon we added the alphabet song to our poetry books and played more alphabet games. Most children thought it was pretty hilarious when I threw some cards in the air (and then they had to put them in order).

Here are some children playing alphabet cover - simple but fun:
Matching uppercase and lowercase letters (baseball mitts and balls)
Next week we start letter of the week!


And a few pictures from earlier this week: the art center was rather busy.
Here are some binoculars and night visions.
And a cool-looking turtle.
Apple prints with buddies.

Same Pattern, Different Way

In math we were working on translating patterns, which can be challenging. Basically, it means that you show the same pattern in a different way:
A B A B A B
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
O O O O O O
First we all made a pattern with links. They could choose what type of pattern to do (AB, ABC, AABB...).
Then we made the same pattern with stickers or other stuff (straws, pom poms, sequins, foam shapes...) glued onto paper. This was their favorite part.
Lastly, we drew the same pattern a different way.

Here are some really nice AB patterns.
Some children challenged themselves with a more difficult pattern. It's not always translated perfectly, but you can still see they understand the concept.
If your child needs more practice with patterns, have fun with it at home. You can use kitchen utensils like forks and spoons, toys such as Legos, or pieces of Creation like rocks, sticks, and leaves.

Quote, buddies, scientific grossness

Remember that banana peel that we were observing? This is what it looks like now. We observed it carefully with our eyes and hands, and then described it ("black" "dirty" "yucky" "slimy" "soft"...). We drew in our science notebooks how it had changed. Gross as it looks, the children enjoyed it.
And on to more pleasant things: we had fun with our 4th grade buddies Friday afternoon. We played a sponge water game, the over/under relay, and ended our time with popsicles.


And we'll end with a quote:

"Lowercase t is basically a lucky number."
"Why?"
"Because it looks like a cross."

Apple Glyph

Glyphs are fairly new to me, so perhaps they are new to you too. A glyph, as far as I understand it, is a visual representation of data (or an art project that tells you stuff). Each part of the project means something, so you can analyze your data by looking at the project.

For our apple glyph the color of your apple indicates gender, the number of leaves shows how many people are in your family, a stem means you like to climb trees and a worm means you like to eat apples.

So next we will analyze the data and, just by looking at the apples, figure out if there are more boys or girls, or count how many people like to climb trees or eat apples.

I might change it a little for next year; it really does look better if everyone starts with a white apple because then the colors show up better

Abstract Expressionism

Today we had an art lesson on Abstract Expressionism. We read a book from the library about Jackson Pollack and the way he dripped paint onto his paper to make an 'action painting' (also known as splatter painting). Then we went outside and made our own paintings. They're quite colorful and we had a lot of fun. So if you are wondering how your child's shoes got such a fabulous makeover (or why their face is blue, their hair is pink, their legs are green, or their feet are red)...


After the paintings were mostly dry, I brought them in. It was interesting to see this table cloth and figure out where the papers had been.
And we left a colorful mess on the floor. (Good thing we did most of our work outside, and hooray for a wonderful janitor)

Oh the marvelous mess we make!

Today was a busy, messy, artful day. One of our morning rotating centers involved spinning paint around for an apple glyph (picture coming later hopefully). Today was Rr day, so for art we made recycled robots (thanks to Mrs. Karen's website for the idea.) The class was really excited about it.
One of these robots does not look very happy.
Some children got creative and took the leftover cereal box pieces to create extra features. Here is a robot wearing a dress.
One of these robots has a hat.
Near the end of the day, during science we got to recycle all sorts of 'junk' into wonderful creations. A few children wore their work: below are a tie and a dress.

Bug catcher:alien spaceship:

ladybug catchers (I'm not sure who had this idea first, but it was by far the most popular creation today)
trap and a person
ladybug house:bottle for words
Not pictured here: more ladybug catchers, smiley face man, ladybug catcher with two rooms attached by a straw so the bug can crawl through, and a girl.

It was a fun day. If your child ever gets bored at home, just give them some tape or glue and let them at your recycling bin. It's a very inexpensive form of entertainment.