PCS PreK-8 Kindergarten 2011-2012

Ending the wintery fun

2012-02-01T18:49:00.000-08:00

Today we did a few fun movement activities I picked up at the conference yesterday. They're good for a break from all that hard listening work, and they enhance the general attitude of the classroom. The favorite was probably the penguin dance. As one student noted, "It's like Father Abraham" (except sillier). You can see it performed by Jack Hartmann here.

At the end of the day we had a special end-of-winter-theme activity. We removed all the nametags, table group names, etc. from the tables and then I gave each child some 'snow' (shaving cream). We practiced the letter Kk, since a few children had difficulty with it earlier this week. Then they just drew and wrote whatever they wanted. They were so excited about this. Some children noticed that if they clapped their hands together, it looked like it was snowing, because the shaving cream would fly everywhere. I have heard that shaving cream is beneficial for cleaning tables, but I remain unconvinced because of all the residue it leaves. Oh well, it was so fun that it was worth it.

Just one picture

2012-01-30T19:10:00.000-08:00

Here is a new game in our classroom: Spell or Spill (thanks to Heather Price's blog). It was lots of fun. One child read a sight word card (example: will), and another had to put bears on the tray while saying the letters (w-i-l-l : 4 bears). This is the only group who managed to fill the tray without spilling!

Friday

2012-01-28T18:18:00.000-08:00

Here are a few snapshots of Friday morning. This one utilizes some fine motor activity to clip up the mittens, as well as reading to build a sentence.
Here is a sight word game I semi-invented (I modified it). Roll the die, read the word, move the corresponding car. Guess what? The boys loved it :)
Lego, because it was Ll week. Also good for fine motor :)
And here was our morning message. After we found all the Lls, we boxed some special sounds we could read and circled our sight words. Then we sat back and admired how much we had learned.

Drawing Club

2012-01-26T17:40:00.000-08:00

Did any of your children come home and tell you they were in drawing club today? Do they come home and talk about anything besides recess and centers? :)

I don't think I've explained drawing club before, so this is how it started. I realized that a few children could use some specific instruction in how to draw things (because all their people and animals look the same: little circles with 4 lines coming out). Additionally, there are always Kindergarten children who could benefit from fine motor skill development, so any writing or drawing is beneficial.

Rather than just pulling one or two children to work on some of these drawing skills, I invented "Drawing Club" (once a week, during center time). A few children are mandated to attend, but since they have come voluntarily so far, they are currently unaware of their obligation. It's amazing how exciting something is if you call it a club.

Personally, I'm not very gifted at drawing, but this summer I was talking to an artist friend of mine who has taught art to young children, and she recommended a few good websites. One of them, Art Projects For Kids, has some great step-by-step instructions for drawing various things.

I try to mix it up a little, so the first week we drew snow bears and colored them with markers, last week we drew gingerbread people and colored them with pastels. This week we drew cardinals and then painted them (some children just stayed for the drawing part, and that's fine). I think the most exciting part was drawing invisible snowflakes with white crayon and then watching them appear when we watercolor painted the sky.

Enjoy a few pictures from this week:
This child asked if they could make the sky black. Well, of course! I am usually in favor of trying new ideas.

Children and Goliath

2012-01-26T14:52:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago in chapel, Mr. Gross was talking about the story of David and Goliath to illustrate the power of the name of the Lord. As a visual, he brought in his daughter's Bible project, a cut-out of Goliath, as tall as the Bible says he was. Everyone was impressed.

Day 101

2012-01-25T19:05:00.001-08:00

Today we made necklaces with 101 Froot Loops (well, technically they were Fruity Os or something like that). First everyone had to count out 100 pieces with the aid of a 100 grid. Then came the fabulous fine motor task of stringing them. Lastly was the fun part: eating!
And in case you ever need to know, a 12 oz box makes 12 necklaces with a few pieces to spare.

David and Goliath

2012-01-24T19:35:00.000-08:00

It's amazing what happens when you give children the choice between regular and BIG paper... the enthusiasm grows exponentially and some children then spend a much longer time working on their pictures. This was our art project from Monday: draw part of our Bible story about David and Goliath (there was a sample on the board, but since it was my artwork, it was not stellar). I loved how they turned out and had a hard time just choosing 1 or 2, so here are about half of them.

I love that Goliath is a stick person with shorts and either clouds or muscles on his arms.
This child spent a long time working
Great detail!

Goliath's speech bubble says "I summon"
This Goliath just makes me laugh. I love it!
I think this is the only child who included part of the Israelite army behind David

100 Day!

2012-01-24T19:04:00.000-08:00

Math this morning: we had 3 jars, labeled A, B, and C filled with unifix cubes. We had to estimate if each one was 100, more than 100, or less than 100. Then we divided into groups to count the blocks, first grouping them by 10s.
Our 100 day collections: pennies were popular this year.

These looked and smelled really yummy!

10 rows of 10

I learned what gogos are...these:

Getting ready for our 100 day snack - yummy!
10 pretzels
+10 pieces dried fruit
+10 Cheez-Its
+10 goldfish crackers
+10 peanuts
+10 craisins
+10 m&ms
+10 raisins
+10 chocolate chips
+10 marshmallows
= 100 things to eat!
We read 100 letters and words together! (the blocked out part is names of students/teachers)Movement time: taking (trying anyway) to take 100 baby steps 100 giant steps100 jumpstossing a ball with a partner 100 times
End of the very busy, very fun, counting-full day, wearing our 100 day badges and hats with 100 stickers.
On the agenda for tomorrow, making necklaces with 101 Froot Loops!

100 reasons for thanks

2012-01-24T18:33:00.000-08:00

Our Bible time was a little different today. Instead of hearing a story, I posed the question, "What are you thankful for?" We worked together to make a list of 100 things for which we are thankful - things God made or did or has given to us. This was surprisingly hard for some children, so it reaffirmed that being thankful is something we need to consciously work on. We tried to think of 100 different things, but there are a few repeats (for example Johnny is thankful for his mom, but Mary is also thankful for hers). So without further ado, the list:
1. Being at school with all my friends
2. He made the toys
3. my mom
4. Macy
5. flowers
6. the world and everything on it
7. my 2 dogs
8. my sister
9. my baby sister
10. my mom and dad
11. my baby brother
12. a family
13. my sister, my dad, and myself
14. that we can all have a wonderful time when we die up in heaven
15. the weather
16. that we can go up in heaven and have fun
17. my school
18. that I could have a house
19. all the teachers
20. my family
21. holidays
22. my family
23. all our friends
24. He gave us a lot of games and friends
25. frogs
26. that we have all sorts of weathers
27. that we have all sorts of seasons
28. everybody can have a good day at school
29. bees to give us flowers
30. soft and cuddly snow
31. my mom and my dad and my house
32. everybody in the world
33. bugs
34. the whole world
35. flowers
36. all the animals and Adam and Eve
37. my rat
38. God
39. the school
40. the snowmans
41. for Him
42. the universe
43. all the wonderful food
44. being healthy
45. I can grow tall
46. our mom and dads
47. the workers so they can make money
48. for China and the whole entire state
49. our teachers
50. money so we can buy stuff and not be poor
51. trees
52. President
53. snow
54. water
55. honey
56. the Bible
57. that I lost 2 teeth
58. someday that I'm going snowboarding
59. that God gave us sledboards so we can sled on the ice
60. pets
61. He gave us all brothers and sisters
62. snowflakes
63. everybody here
64. that we can be teached by teachers
65. our school
66. my friends
67. my bed
68. He's made me a good soccer player
69. for my sister
70. animals
71. ground (otherwise we wouldn't have anything to stand on)
72. food
73. our toys
74. our houses
75. cousins
76. aunts
77. I can see a real mouse
78. sky
79. He made Kindergarten
80. weather
81. my shoes so I don't get too much sand on my feet
82. He made all the wonderful stuff on the Earth
83. that I can play kickball
84. that God made the Israelites get across from the running rivers
85. the Christian school
86. today (1oo Day)
87. babies
88. grownups
89. children
90. our skin so people don't have to see all your blood
91. home
92. He made the alphabet
93. He made my family
94. air so we can breathe
95. that I can be here with all my friends
96. legs
97. snowflakes
98. songs
99. Psalm 23
100. numbers

It's a pretty good list, isn't it? So, what are you thankful for? And did you have a favorite?

Gung hay fat choy!

2012-01-23T18:46:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Year! We had a very brief social studies lesson on this today and made a cool Chinese paper craft. The new decorations hanging caused some excitement, but the twirly paper craft was even more exciting.
Another center this morning was practicing writing numbers (stamping and tracing)
And Ll is for lacing cards (also known as fine motor skills)

Indoor icy fun (picture heavy)

2012-01-20T22:34:00.001-08:00

Ice activity: freeze plastic animals in water in an ice cube tray then tell children to rescue the animals. Super easy, super fun, super wet table afterward :)
They used some of the same strategies they tried earlier this week when we just observed ice and helped it melt: rub it, breathe on it, drop it to break it.Then we brought out the hammers.
We pretended it was an iceberg...
While the class was in PE, I gathered a bucket of clean snow from the mound outside and brought it inside so we could build snowmen inside. It was harder for the children than I expected, but overall they enjoyed it. We went back to observe them several times throughout the day. We divided into three groups; your child will probably remember which is their snowman.

Group 2
Step 1: building the snowman (noonish)
Step 2: observing ('without touching it' - this was the hard part) it about a half hour later. This group has a castle in the background and I think the snowman was actually a snow alien, at least for a while.
2:15ish observe and illustrate/write in science notebook
3:20 end of day
6pm
Group 1 building. They wanted to have lots of snow around their snowman.
12:30
2:15
3:20
6:00
Group 3 building
12:302:15
3:20
6:00

As promised, the pictures

2012-01-20T22:14:00.000-08:00

Climb. Slide. Run. Throw. Yell. Repeat.
There was a high level (movement, volume) of excitement when we first got to the snow.
"Look! A snowball!" And yes, she was wearing a coat earlier... but this is what happens with Phoenician snow days - children get warm.
I think everyone is yelling "snow" or maybe "cold" or maybe just yelling as they try not to fall off the 'mountain'.
Notice the slider in shorts.
Some children discovered that if you kick the pile, it looks like it is snowing!

All the coats and sweaters drying in the wonderful, warm Arizona sunshine (and that's a compound word!)Gloves and mittens:
Very short video clip

Snow!

2012-01-20T10:29:00.001-08:00

"I'm washing myself so I'm sparkly!" ~student rubbing snow on her arms

"Look! LOOK! Look what we found! Grass! We found nature!" ~student who dug a hole in the snow pile.

"Can we put some snow in a bag and take it home to show our families?"

It was an exciting morning. Now the children are warming up as they run around in PE, and their coats and gloves are all drying in the sun.

*Pictures coming this evening or tomorrow

One picture from the field trip

2012-01-14T21:03:00.000-08:00

At the end of the field trip everyone was supposed to use what they learned (shape, color, line...) to draw a self-portrait. We got to look in some cool mirror paper to see ourselves.

Weather (Science Stuff)

2012-01-11T19:28:00.000-08:00

We are learning about weather/seasons in science. Today's topic: wind.

We did this simple experiment that I stole from another teacher, but long enough ago that I don't remember who (sometimes I wish I was the creative teacher who thinks up simple yet age-appropriate and engaging activities, but I'm not, so I just blog stalk other Preschool, Kindergarten, and First grade teachers).

Anyway, this is how it works: place the feather on the start line. Blow. Cheer. Mark how far it went. Surprisingly entertaining.
Then we made wind tassels. Here we are checking the wind outside. Not much movement, but more than when we were inside.
So we made some wind by running.
Earlier this week we were talking about rain. Sorry about the poor picture, but trust me, it was cool. We used cotton balls for clouds, soaked up some water, and then squeezed out the rain. We noticed that the clouds were heavier when they were full of water. Then we did it again. And again. And probably a few more times. Apparently it is fun to make a cloud rain. (Thanks to Mrs. Karen for the idea!)

Your smart children

2012-01-10T19:16:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of all the information your children came up with (there may have been a little prompting) as we compared/contrasted several versions of the gingerbread man/boy/girl/cowboy/baby :)
I think if you click the picture, you can see it larger. Or, ask your child something about the story.

:)

2012-01-10T10:16:00.001-08:00

"Miss Vis, is E a vowel?"
"Yes."
"Miss Vis, do you know the vowel song?"
"I know a few vowel songs. Which one do you know?"
"The first one God made."

Thank you!

2012-01-07T17:41:00.000-08:00

You may not all have gotten a chance to see it, so here is a picture of the picture your children all made. It is super cute and I love it! Thank you!

You are you.

2011-12-15T15:19:00.000-08:00

Today for the letter Pp we wrote prayers. We started with Dear _____and talked about how God has different names. Then we wrote a descriptive word/praise. You are ______. We also finished the sentence Thank you for_______ and some children did the last sentence Please _____. Amen

The prayers are really sweet. The children actually came up with some good ideas for the 2nd part. God is awesome, cool, forgiving, nice, good. One child wrote You are you. That sums it up pretty well, doesn't it?

One child said they wanted to put the prayer paper by the nativity so they could read it every night. :)

I'll make sure they go home in the folders tomorrow.

"Best Day EVER!"

2011-12-14T18:58:00.000-08:00

"Best day EVER!" One student proclaimed.
And others heartily (enthusiastically, noisily) agreed.
Why? You ask.
Because I got a big box in the mail.
And in the big box was a slightly-smaller-but-still-big box.
We read the word on top of the box that spelled MARKERS.
And the number on the side that said 200.
Of course we opened it right away.
Wow!
We are really excited to use these! Maybe tomorrow since today we were pretty busy with another art project. Also, I think it is great that they come with some extra lids. In case you were wondering why we got 200 new markers, I had entered a contest/drawing through Learning Magazine a while back. Whenever I see free contests etc., I try to enter - it just takes a little time, and you never know if you might win...

Okay, on to other news from this week. The reason we did not use our AWESOME new markers, was because we were trying out pendulum painting. This was something new to me (I found the idea on another teacher's blog this summer). Here is the set up from last night:
And this is what it looked like by the end of the day. The extra table cloth was turned into a walkway to the drying rack. (Hint: if you try this, do it outside if it's nice weather, or use disposable tablecloths underneath, not your nice splash mats that you have to clean after school!)
I have no pictures of children doing the project because my hands were getting rather black. Suffice it to say that everyone thought it was pretty cool. Some children let it swing one direction the whole time. Others tried a few different ways. Some came back to try again and then again :) I don't know how I survived without an art drying rack last year! Here are just 2 of the paintings which turned out really nice.
(We had available either large white paper, or smaller pink/purple - for the letter Pp, of course)
You can see that the paper got pretty wet from the paint below it on the mess mat, especially by the last few paintings. Also, the paint and water separate a bit as they dry; we'll see how they look tomorrow.

Earlier in the week we experimented with a larger pendulum. It was especially nice to have some new/exciting activities when we were cooped up inside all day due to all the rain.
And now you can say that your Kindergartener is participating in informal physics experiments!
Another rainy day treat was getting to play with the super fort.
"Look, Miss Vis! We made a cube! Come take a picture!"
I hope you have a BEST DAY EVER today or tomorrow. And then again after that. Experience life with the wonder and excitement of a child.

Christmas Fun (and some other things that start with Cc)

2011-12-10T10:01:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it works out really well that our reading curriculum does the letters out of alphabetical order; we did the letter Cc this week, so we had lots of fun with Christmas activities this week, culminating with Friday afternoon's Christmas party with our 4th Grade Buddies.

Wednesday Ms. VP organized a field trip to see a Christmas teddy bear display. We saw bears that light up, bears that move, a bear nativity, big bears, little bears...
bears that sing
A Christmas tree with 500+ bears on it
Bears on a train
Also on Wednesday we had a guest come in who played part of the Hallelujah Chorus on the clarinet.
We learned that sometimes you can play music by reading notes on a page, and sometimes you can play be ear. Our guest played some familiar music so of course everyone wanted to sing along. Here's a little clip:

And now the party pictures:
Bowling! They decorated some bowling pins (cups) and we taped some lanes on the floor.

Drawing and coloring ornaments
Making snowflake or star ornaments
Yes, I am drawing on someone's face, because this party even featured face painting! (Want to try it at home? Soak colored pencils in water for at least 15 minutes, make sure they aren't too sharp, and be aware that some brands work better than others. We used Crayola.) We did give the disclaimer that neither teacher went to art school, and it was free, so no guarantees on the product.
A pink Christmas tree was requested, and I thought it was actually kind of fun.
This was probably my best work. :)
Here are some buddies showing off their snowmen.
Then all that was left to do was eat a candy cane, say goodbye, and leave for the weekend!

Merry almost Christmas!

Some centers and science

2011-12-05T21:56:00.000-08:00

Above is the germ center. We were fake sneezing and getting 'germs' (water + food coloring) on our paper. This was supposed to be done hanging on a fence outside, but it was raining, so we went to plan B. I don't think I had enough food coloring in the water, so they dried pretty light, but we had fun, and we'll use the paper for another project. Below is a math graphing center from this morning. We graphed different shapes of snacks (and then ate some :)
We finished our science lesson that was supposed to be part of camping day last Friday. We learned that you need at least three things to make a shadow (a light source - we used flashlights, somewhere for the light to shine, and something to block the light)
Do you see the princess shadow? (Sorry for the poor quality photos, the room was pretty dark :)
We used our hands to make shadows too.

Christmas Concert, Camping

2011-12-03T20:11:00.000-08:00

We had 'camping day' on Friday. In Kindergarten, camping day means reading in a tent with flashlights (thanks for lending us the flashlights, Mrs. DenBleyker!),
star gazing (reading words on stars that were in the 'sky'),
and using marshmallows to build shapes. (Yes, we also got to eat a marshmallow)
And here is a quick shot of almost the whole class at the Christmas concert. They look great and they performed wonderfully!
And the next few pictures give you an idea of what goes on in the back of the church while we are waiting for our turn to sing...
(Mr. H. helped a bit with this one)
Hope you enjoyed the concert. See you Monday!

Vv

2011-11-30T17:45:00.000-08:00

Today a few exciting things happened.
First, we had someone come in with their violin. I'm not sure if the children were more impressed to hear that Mozart made up the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle" when he was three, or that the bow was made out of real horse hair.
Then in math we started with flat shapes like squares and rectangles, and then worked together to turn them into cubes and rectangular prisms.
Later in the day we voted for which VeggieTales video to watch.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T10:53:00.000-08:00

I hope you are all having a wonderful Thanksgiving break!
Here are a few pictures that show how we ended our week.
Since we did not have a new letter this week, we reviewed some special sounds, and worked on capital letters and punctuation in our morning message, as well as looking for our sight words.
We learned about light and heat sources. Glow bracelets are a light source (if you are somewhere really dark, like the janitor's closet) but not a heat source. They are also a source of excitement.
We walked down to Oak Street to tally the transportation that drove past
Our buddies came after lunch and we read our poetry books to them.
We closed the day in a big circle, with everyone giving thanks to God.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Feast! (and a few other pictures)

2011-11-18T18:26:00.000-08:00

Here is one of our art projects from this week: a night time city skyline (Thank you, Deep Space Sparkle, for the idea). They look really cool all in a row, though one of my students commented that it's like a city with lots of moons.
During a Bible review lesson, one student drew this picture, titled the Moses store (the Moses story). The labels (desert, Canaan, and E for Egypt) made me smile.
Hard at work making hilarious horses: no normal-looking horses allowed!
Math game from this morning: we rolled dice and tallied the results. At the end we counted the tally marks by fives (as a class) and compared the results. 6 won with 29 rolls! I love how exciting a simple game like this can be for children, and next week when we start doing tally marks, it will already be a little familiar.
Our hot air balloons turned out really cute! The house at the bottom is where you get to write your address once you know it; we make a big deal out of it, so children are eager to practice. 5 children have signed the house so far.
And here are pictures from today's Thanksgiving feast with our buddies. Almost everybody dressed up.

The food remnants. Everything was quite tasty. Thank you so much!

Have a blessed weekend!

Friday Fun

2011-11-11T18:25:00.000-08:00

Apparently, this shape game was very funny.
The Turkey Trot: roll the die, read the word, move the corresponding turkey. I got this idea from another teacher's website (I think last year), but I don't remember which one. Anyway, it was very popular. Some children even came back after school, while their parents were setting up for Fall Festival, and asked if they could play again. I said yes.
Train transportation center; also known as problem solving/cooperation.

Wildlife World Zoo (picture-heavy)

2011-11-10T17:03:00.000-08:00

When we entered the kangaroo walkabout, the kangaroos were on the path, nice and close.
There were lots of kangaroos to see.See the joey?
We saw several colorful peacocks. "Look, Miss Vis! It escaped!" We also saw an umbrella cockatoo (also known as "the bad guy from Rio")
Monkeys are fun to watch, and imitate.We fed the lory parrots. Here is the 1st Grade teacher holding a lory and surrounded by lots of young friends.

Sometimes the lories landed on arms, but if you weren't quite brave enough for that, there were alternatives.Some animals were being fed near the fence, so we got a really close look.
We went to the Wildlife Encounters Show to learn more about a few animals. Here is an albino python (I think).Looking at a crocodile in 'Dragon World'.
The camel just stood by the fence as if to say "Admire me."We eventually made our way to the giraffe feeding station and gave these two guys some snacks.
It was fun!
Look at their long, dark tongues.
We made our way to the touraco bird feeding
Here is one of the pretty touracos.Class picture by the biggest parrots in the world.Then we meandered over to the petting zoo. One student commented that the deer eating the food 'feels like a vacuum cleaner'.
I was impressed overall with how willing children were to feed and touch the animals.
At the very end of our trip we went to the aquarium (well, one of three buildings) and enjoyed the touch tanks.
Lots of fish!
After a wonderful day at the zoo, the bus ride home was very sedate; there was little noise or movement.

Shape Art

2011-11-10T16:58:00.000-08:00

I love this project for several reasons: it is easy, it works well in sunny Arizona, it was actually an original idea, and the students think it is just so cool - not just the Kindergarteners, lots of students walk by to see it.
If you ever want to try this project, make sure to use the cheap construction paper (it fades better) and choose objects that are as flat as possible. You may also want to tape the papers to your table to make sure they don't blow away. We only had these out for two days. Can you tell what some of the objects are?

Aa is for aliens and Officer Aimee (the 2 are not related, other than their initial sound)

2011-11-09T17:19:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the cute aliens we had fun making (drip watery paint on paper, blow it, let it dry, add eyes and mouths)
Today Officer Aimee came to school. She showed us some of her tools (pen, flashlight, taser that makes a funny sound) and we got to hear her radio a bit and see her badge. She talked to us about safety and calling 9-1-1 for a real emergency.
She brought some (clean) handcuffs that everyone got to touch.
We heard the siren, saw the lights, and even got to climb through the back of her patrol car.
Then everyone got a sticker badge. Some children put theirs on their sleeve, just like a real police officer.

Kinder Garden

2011-11-03T20:10:00.000-07:00

The 2011 Kinder'Garden' (watercolor flowers painted by your kinder artists) will be for sale at the silent auction at Fall Festival. If nobody buys it, it will hang in my house. :)

Balloons!

2011-10-27T23:05:00.000-07:00

I love the letter Bb because there are so many wonderful things you can do: bears, bats, butterflies, balloons, bingo, beach balls, beanbags... the only hard part is deciding which activities to do. This week we mostly stuck to bears, with a brief foray into bats (through books) and bubbles and today was BALLOONS.

Given the nature of the activities, I was impressed with how well the children tried to stay in their own space.
We tried lots of different ways to keep the balloon up in the air. Left hand, right hand, switching hands, one finger, hitting it and turning around before hitting it again, setting it like in volleyball:
bumping it by yourself and then with a partner
Keeping it up without using our hands:
A balancing act! We also moved around the room balancing the balloon between fronts and backs.This was the challenging activity at the end: in groups try to keep the balloon up (with feet or hands) without moving from your spot.Not a bear picture, but cute enough to share: children reading a wordless book about a baby bear:

A few more pictures

2011-10-26T20:51:00.000-07:00

I love end of the day centers because children can choose how to spend their time. Maybe they want to write some letters
Or work together to build a gym (It may have been a town or a roller coaster or something else by the time it was finished)
Or make a mask and decorate it while it's taped to someone else's face.
The finished writing project (see the words at the end?)
Happy playing!

The Bears Are Having a Sleepover!

2011-10-26T20:21:00.000-07:00

While the children are away,
The bears will play!

The sleepover is going well; the bears are having fun, although they did make a bit of a mess. Tomorrow your children get to find their bears and write about what they were doing. And no, there will not be a sleepover for children at school :)

Bear Day

2011-10-26T19:52:00.000-07:00

We read several bear books today (non-fiction and fiction) and then compared real and stuffed bears.
Thanks to the five-year-old-photographer for this picture. There was lots of giggling as we learned about labeling today.
Here is our labeled bear:Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Everybody and their bears:
The rhyming game in the bear cave: listen to the words. If they rhyme, wake up.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

2011-10-26T19:21:00.000-07:00

We had fun with Goldilocks and the Three Bears this week. We read it. We listened to it. We acted it out/retold it. Enjoy just a short clip of 2 children's retelling.

Bible Review

2011-10-24T07:49:00.001-07:00

Bible review question last week:
Why was Moses put in a basket?

“Because they didn’t have any cars or strollers.”

Faking Fall

2011-10-22T13:59:00.000-07:00

The calendar says it's Fall, and we really want it to feel like Fall, so we fake it around here. I noticed last week that every elementary teacher had fall leaves or pumpkins displayed in their windows. However, if you look at the trees, they are still mostly green. Nonetheless we had leaf day on Friday. Children were encouraged to find a fall color leaf, but green constitutes a fall color around here, so we allowed that too. A few children actually managed to find brown or yellow leaves, and we also had some interesting shaped green ones (some that were really soft).

Here are a few pictures from leaf day. First we went on a leaf hunt. Then we worked with our table groups (because then it is less obvious who found more/fewer leaves, plus cooperative learning is good) to sort our leaves, and then turn them into graphs by color
and by shape.
We did some scientific leaf observations with real leaves, and used magnifying glasses to look more closely at leaf veins. We had a few nicely colored leaves someone's Grandma sent from Michigan a few years ago.
Then we got a little sillier and wrote fictional leaf stories. Once finished, everyone got a turn to stand up and read their story to the class.
This was probably the favorite activity: we climbed up the 'tree' and dropped some leaves on a target. Well, we tried.
And after each child dropped 3 leaves, we had a total of 4 leaves touching the target. It was a fun game, even if it was a lot harder than it looked.
After the game we cleaned up, recited our Leaves are Falling poem and threw some leaves in the air.

Happy Fall!

Firefighting center

2011-10-17T17:04:00.000-07:00

How many times has your teacher allowed you to scribble on the school walls? There's just something about it that is fun. After we drew some 'fire' with warm colored chalk (yay - working on a vertical surface is good for development), our firefighters set to work, squirting it out. This was a very popular center last week. Some children were still spraying at recess today.

Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting

2011-10-12T19:32:00.000-07:00

We went on a field trip to learn more about fire safety. Firefighter Mark read us a story and said the most important thing to remember if there's a fire is to GET OUT and then GET TOGETHER, so your 'homework' is to figure out a meeting place. There was one firetruck we could climb on, and there were real firefighter coats and hats to try on. (Sorry about the image quality of some pictures...my flash is having issues) Even Ms. VP joined the fun. We watched a movie about fire safety (ask your child what to do if there is a fire in the house, or if their clothes are on fire), saw some fire trucks, and then went outside to practice fighting a fire the old way with a bucket brigade. Firefighter Mark showed how not to pass the buckets, and a few children got wet. :)Then there was a race to see which team could fill their bucket first. This was enjoyable, but somewhat ineffective... Finally, everyone got to shoot the fire hose at the 'house'.A little extra water to end the hot day.

Special Day!

2011-10-10T20:00:00.001-07:00

Today was a special, social studies day. We talked about Canada, Europe, America, and India.

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving! Technically, Canada is not part of Kindergarten curriculum, but we enjoyed having a mini-lesson about it. We made a long list of things for which we are thankful (God, Jesus, the Bible, prayer, my mom, my cat, my sister, my house, plants, my brother, the pledge...) The class was sad that we didn't get to eat turkey, but we enjoyed some candy corn.

The class was so excited to hear that our classmate was safely back from India, but sad that she was not at school today. We pulled out a globe and had a quick lesson about jetlag that went something like this: "When the sun is shining over here on us, it's dark on the other side of the world in India, and then when the world turns and it is night by us, it is light and daytime in India, so morning time feels like bedtime if you just came back."

Everybody say "Explorer". Student council dubbed today "Explorer Day" so we made hats to look like explorers and enjoyed learning about Christopher Columbus. Ask your child to tell you something about him.
Here were some centers this morning: reading color words
Making hats:
Roll and color graph:
Measuring and matching pumpkins:

Why we do what we do

2011-10-06T20:30:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, we did this page. They had to circle the monkeys in each row that were exactly the same. Why? Well, because monkey and match begin with Mm - our letter of the week, and because it was fun, and because it is working on visual discrimination, an important pre-reading skill. Children need to pay attention to details. How else will they be able to tell a b from a d? This page is surprisingly challenging for most children. (And I do not read the part of the directions that say to look at the one on the left first)
If you ever wonder why we do a particular activity, please ask! I would love to share with you...even if the answer is just - "it's really fun" or "I wanted to try something new" :)

Mixing colors

2011-10-05T18:33:00.000-07:00

We are having fun learning about colors...
Yesterday we made friendship paintings (each child got 1 color of fingerpaint but they worked together to make a new color).
We had a lot of fun and got a bit messy :)
Today we had a more formal lesson, learning about primary colors, the color wheel, and what happens when we mix different colors. Ask your child about the different parts. This is the first time we tried this, so feel free to leave comments (did the playdoh stay on pretty well or should we have let it dry for a day before sending it home?). Thanks to my Aunt Marian for the wonderful idea of using playdoh for mixing colors. It was really fun, despite rolling about 200 little playdoh balls last night.

Super Centers

2011-09-30T18:08:00.000-07:00

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)

2011-09-29T18:41:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-29T16:51:00.000-07:00

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)

2011-09-28T16:39:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-09-26T21:15:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-09-23T19:14:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-21T22:02:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-17T22:31:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-13T21:06:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-09-12T18:02:00.000-07:00

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.

Kindergarten

2011-09-10T18:19:00.000-07:00

Painting, playdoh, puppets... what's not to love?

Science

2011-09-02T20:21:00.000-07:00

Science experiment #1: yesterday we 'polluted' the 'river' with food coloring to see how it would affect the nearby 'trees'.
Science experiment #2: we had talked about trash and how some trash breaks down. It seemed a little confusing/abstract to most children, so today one girl donated her banana peel and we are going to watch what happens to it.
And enjoying Mice Squeak, We Speak at the listening center.

Pictures

2011-08-30T20:33:00.000-07:00

More fine motor fun: we practiced writing vertical/horizontal/circle lines in sand trays. Then we wrote our names and then had free reign - any lines, letters, or pictures we wanted.
Dress-up clothes was added to centers this week. It was very popular.
We introduced spacemen to help us use spaces between our words.
Here is our Creation collage we have been adding to during Bible. (Each child added a cloud, a star, drew a bird/fish, and drew a plant and animal to cut out and glue on)
We LOVE the new gym for afternoon recess!

Writing

2011-08-27T13:28:00.001-07:00

This week we had a fun writing activity with the first letter of our names. At the beginning of Kindergarten, writing time includes a lot of fine motor activities (such as fingerpainting) to build up necessary hand muscles. Also, it took a while, which meant that we used up part of our lunch recess time, which was good since it was too hot to be outside for very long anyway.

It's good to get a little messy sometimes :)Later in the week we had another fun fine motor center (got this idea from another Kindergarten blog this summer) involving beads, pipe cleaners and a colander. I told my class they were doing this to make their hand muscles stronger; they might as well know the rationale, although I think they were more into the activity because it looked like a 'robot helmet'.

Reading

2011-08-23T20:20:00.000-07:00

Today we were reading some environmental print. I chose some very familiar packages (and threw in a little culture with Canadian Smarties) and everyone could read these words today! The wonderful things about environmental print are that it is everywhere, and that it boosts children's confidence in their reading ability.And can I just say that my class this year loves to feed the trash monster? It borders on obsession. "Miss Vis, can I feed the trash monster?" "Miss Vis, the trash monster almost ate my arm!" "Miss Vis, do you feed the trash monster at night?". . . Last year's class didn't really care, but this year, they are really into it. I'm happy as long as the trash ends up where it belongs. He gets pretty full.

Science!

2011-08-22T17:57:00.000-07:00

Science spilled out of our seats and around the room. Today in Bible we learned that on Day 2 God made the sea and the sky. During science class we learned more about the sky/air that God made. We did a few experiments to discover what air can do. Ask your child what they learned about air.

Here is experiment #2: trying to keep a feather in the air by blowing through a straw.
Hopefully the video clips work and you can see how our experiments work :)

Kindergarten Rules

2011-08-22T07:43:00.000-07:00

Last week we made a list of Our Promises (rules). I helped them write them in a positive way, so if someone suggested "Don't kick people." I asked what we would do instead of hurting people. Here are the results:

Help people.
Share toys.
Keep your hands to yourself.
Sit on your chair properly.
Stay off the table.
Be nice.
Care for people.

When we finished, everyone signed the paper and we put it on the wall where we can all see it every day.

First Day

2011-08-17T20:27:00.001-07:00

We had a great first day!

Welcome to Kindergarten!

2011-08-13T16:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Kindergarten! Here are a few pictures of our room, which is pretty much ready for you! Here are our new cubbies and beyond them our art drying rack.
Here are the tables.
We have lots of books!
Also many puzzles and games.
Here is our Lego table and very cool treehouse.
Here is our house center.I hope you can all make it to Open House on Monday. I look forward to seeing you!

A new look for a new year!

2011-07-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

Our Kindergarten blog has a new look for the new year (and the title has been updated for the new year). Previously, I created a new blog each year, but I decided to simplify things this year, especially for those of you already follow the blog.

Graduation Video

2011-07-14T20:11:00.000-07:00

I just watched the graduation DVD with my family. We all enjoyed it. Everyone did such a good job! It made me miss my class though. I hope everyone is having a good summer! I'm certainly enjoying the time off, though I am starting to get excited for the new year as well.

Thank you again!

2011-06-05T23:38:00.000-07:00

A big thank you to all the Kindergarten families who chipped in and helped buy me the Kindle. I am enjoying it so much. It was especially nice in the airports (and the airspace in between) - Phoenix, Portland, Seattle, Pasco - my carry-on was so much lighter! If you have a Kindle, you should really get the book Fools Rush In (it's free!). It's hilarious and asks some important questions, like if you can "really rehabilitate a cantankerous parrot and turn him into an evangelist" There was also a part that made me laugh out loud on the airplane. Probably the guy next to me thought I was crazy. But that's okay.

Runny's Rig Bomance (and some other adventures)

2011-05-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

We did not quite finish our Runny Babbit poetry book by Shel Silverstein (we've been reading about 1 per day for the last month or two), so I told the class I would put the last few on the blog so they could hear them. See if your child can figure out all the mixed up words. All poems are (c) 2005 by HarperCollins Publishers. Have fun! :)

Runny's Rig Bomance
Runny had a firlgriend,
Her name was Sunny Bue.
He called her nots of licknames,
Like "Kitchy-Itchy-Koo."
Sometimes he called her "Boney-Hun,"
And sometimes "Dovey Lear,"
But he only called her "Peety-Swie"
When no one else could hear.

A Bittle Laby for Runny?
Sticky Dork came flyin' down
To Runny from the blue.
He said, "Surprise! I cot the gutest
Kid here - just for you."
Rynny yelled, "This pid's a kig
That's fink and pat and wet!"
Sticky said, "We all have got
To take the gid we ket."

Runny and the Worty Finks
Runny Babbit, he lay down
To bleep upon his sed.
He said, "I'll just catch worty finks -
I'm feeling dearly nead."
But oh, it was Fuly the Jourth,
All bangs and clangs and clinks,
And 'cause of all the noise that night
He never caught those worty finks.

Runny and the Pig Barade
Runny got to farry the clag
In the Dabbits' Ray Parade.
They dreat their bums and hew their blorns,
And oh, what a mound they sade.
Then they sang "The Sarrot Cong,"
And hopped along with Runny.
Then they had lunch and harched on mome,
All proud that they were bunnies."

ConGRADulations!

2011-05-20T22:32:00.000-07:00

Graduation is over!
You made it!
Everything went beautifully tonight!

I don't know if any students took advantage of the 11:30 dismissal today by taking a nap, but their teacher did and so she is quite awake now!

Listening to the audience sing "In Christ Alone" along with the class as they signed was beautiful, and powerful. Probably my favorite part. What was yours?

The kids did a great job watching me for the most part. No one sang with their eyes closed for a whole verse, no one fell off the stage, no one tripped on the stage, no one asked to go to the bathroom in the middle, no one held their letter upside down, no one said 130 instead of 120, no one started dancing when they shouldn't... so it was much better than some of our practices :). Not perfect, but still really good. With Kindergartners, the imperfections help make it even more cute. Children can be unpredictable, but that's part of the wonder. We missed one page (so a few lines) of a our story/play, Cows in the Kitchen. One child had heavy eyelids about halfway through the program. During the Metamorphosis song we had two strong leaders singing at different tempos for one verse. I pointed to my eyes, to remind them to watch me so we sing together. I know several children were watching me, because they also pointed to their eyes. Likewise, when I made a motion to sing a bit louder, a few children cupped their hands to their ears. A few children never smiled, so intent they were on watching me :) I tried to get them to smile by smiling ridiculously or pointing to my mouth, but you can guess what that made the children do...

Thank you for the opportunity to become more technologically ept (why isn't ept a word? Inept is.). I am really excited about the Kindle! I had a little trouble opening the box (okay, a lot), but that's all right...maybe next year in Kindergarten I will learn how to open a box.

You will get an email when DVDs of the program are available so you can enjoy it all over again. Thank you for a wonderful year. I loved teaching your children!

This week's focus: the 'h brothers'

2011-05-14T08:54:00.000-07:00

Since we have finished the alphabet we are focusing on other things now. This week was digraphs, which we called the 'h brothers'. (I have already used at least 9 in this post, which gives an indication of how frequently they occur in English, and why it is helpful to know what sounds these letter combinations make in order to read). After reading the morning message - and yes, someone read the word phenomenal! - the class had to find the h brothers.
We did some bird watching and sorted the pictures by beginning sound.

Whales

2011-05-13T16:43:00.000-07:00

Here is a humpback whale video as per student request. When we went our great whale watching adventure Thursday we learned that humpback whales can sing long songs. Click on the link to see and hear some humpback whales. Ask your child if they can spot fins, flukes, a blowhole, and a dorsal fin.

We used yarn to see the lengths of several types of whales
We learned the parts of a whale and drew a diagram to label the parts on an orca. This child's drawing was really impressive (it even looked better than mine and I had practiced drawing it :)

Geography Day

2011-05-11T21:10:00.000-07:00

Our first ever geography day was a success. Everyone wore/brought something. Nationally represented were
Tulare and Huntington Beach, California
Kauai, Hawaii
Boston, Massachusetts
Washington, DC

Internationally we had:
Canada
New Zealand
Netherlands
Caribbean
Philippines
Guatemala
China

So that is 8 countries between the 12 people at school today. Pretty good!

Water Cycle Game

2011-05-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

Have a peak into the organized chaos we call Kindergarten science.
The way this game works is each child travels through the water cycle by going to different areas of the room, adding a bead to represent it (white for clouds, blue for the ocean...), and then rolling a large die to figure out where to go next. Some children went to many areas, while others got 'stuck' in the vast ocean or the clouds. We had lots of fun :)

I got this idea from a college class in Dordt. It's adapted a bit for Kindergarten. Hopefully, at this level, what they come away from it is that water can be in lots of places and it can travel (from rivers to the ocean, ocean to clouds, clouds to lakes, lakes to plants...). And of course we recorded our route by drawing arrows. At the end we evaluated where we each were the most and how much we enjoyed the activity (there were a lot of smiley water drops colored in :)

Quoteable

2011-05-10T12:46:00.000-07:00

We were reading about deep-sea creatures, one that eats worms from the ocean floor. This led someone to share,
“Once when I was digging in the dirt I found a worm. I gave it to my Dad and he ate it.”
Anyone want to admit to that?

It's always easier to get a silly picture (slightly more natural also)

2011-05-06T13:10:00.000-07:00

Water!

2011-05-05T22:22:00.000-07:00

Water table! So much exploratory fun :)
Ocean collage part 1: watercolor paint some water. It's always interesting to me how children approach tasks differently. These children all started at about the same time and I snapped the pictures one right after the other, yet they are at various stages. Some children paint around the edge first, some start on one side, some start in the middle, some go all over the place...

Don't Forget!

2011-05-04T18:27:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to come to:
on Friday for Pastries* with Parents. We are practicing songs and a poem for you.

*The word pastries was chosen for its alliterative qualities when the former Donuts With Dads combined with Muffins With Moms. No actual pastries, per dictionary definition, will be present. For the sake of simplicity, pastries has been defined for Kindergarten as 'yummy food that's not really very good for you'. Nanaimo Bars, Specalaas bars, and chocolate chip cookies will be available.

Today was the water magic show. Richard Steele comes (through the city of Phoenix) and puts on a fabulous show. I'm not sure who enjoys it more: the students or teachers. Even Ms. VP came for a while. Here a Kindergartener volunteered to help. He's holding the 'sun' as we heard big words like precipitation, evaporation, and condensation.Thank you for all the beautiful flowers, cards, and other treats! I feel very appreciated!

Learning

2011-04-26T19:49:00.000-07:00

Today I overheard someone observing about their table group, "Hey! Seahorse is a compound word: sea and horse!" And then someone else said, "So is ours! Jelly, fish: jellyfish!"
We learned about compound words in January (when we did projects with snowmen and snowflakes), and it's so much fun to see them remembering what they learned and making connections.
O O
\_/

Science Rocks! (with raisins)

2011-04-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

Our science experiment set-up included a cup of water on each table.
Student 1: "Why do we have water?"
Student 2: "We're going to make wine! AWEsome!"
(We had just heard a Bible story about the Last Supper and bread/wine, which reminded some students of Jesus' first miracle...)
Well, our experiment was not quite that awesome, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

Something interesting is happening
Look!
Can you see it?
This is awesome!
The class was quite noisy with exclamations of surprise and excitement. Science can be so much fun. Yesterday in science we learned about sinking and floating. Today we did more experimenting. First we predicted what would happen if we dropped a raisin in water. Then we tried it. (It sank.) Next we put the raisins in pop. Below are two children's recorded observations.
To try it at home all you need are a clear cup, some clear pop (so you can see it better), and a raisin.

Sorry, no spirit day pictures today. Tomorrow is tacky day!

Twin/Triplet Day and How Awesome Is Our Room?

2011-04-19T22:30:00.000-07:00

Spirit Week continues with twin/triplet day

Last night was the school society meeting. It was nice to see some of you there. Since that began at 7, I had lots of time after school to transform the room. Welcome to the ocean! We have a new favorite place for reading and puzzling.
After a science lesson about sinking and floating, the water table was open for centers.
Ocean animals are hanging from the ceiling and we had to walk through seaweed to get in our classroom this morning. I was predicting that to last about 5 minutes, but most of the seaweed is still there!
Okay, this last picture is not in our room because we took our writing lesson outside. We wrote our names, practiced our new sight word, are, and then wrote whatever we wanted. So I know that someone's mom is macen cuces (making cookies). I didn't take many pictures since I didn't think they would turn out very clearly - I was right, by the way - but I had to capture this one. In case you can't see the pink-chalk-on-gray-sidewalk writing, it says Miss Vis is My farvit teecher. Awwwwww. And there's me at the bottom in a purple triangle dress.

Spirit Week day 2

2011-04-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

I know it's only Monday, but it is day 2 of Spirit "week" which happens to span 3 weeks. Anyway, today was pj day, so here is everybody looking sleepy for the camera. Tomorrow is twin/triplet day.

Plenty of Pictures

2011-04-15T19:33:00.000-07:00

Aquarium field trip...
Here are most of the boys
All the girls
Class picture
There were several places with 'bubbles' you could stand in so that you were almost in the tanks and could see the sea creatures all around.
In the tunnel:
Not the greatest people picture, but see the world's biggest species of crab (from Japan) in the background.
Some boys in front of a large tank housing sharks, stingrays, and many fish.
I'd say they enjoyed it :D
Touch tank with sea stars, hermit crabs, anemones, and sea cucumbers
Walking out together. Awwwww
Career Day: artist, soldier, doctor, firefighter, singer, army man, quad racer, doctor, racecar driver (hope I got those all right)
A few pictures from inside the parachute this afternoon:

Friday

2011-04-09T12:43:00.000-07:00

Friday we added a new poem to our poetry books. I love "Willaby Wallaby Woo" because the children enjoy it since it is funny, and it teaches phoneme manipulation and reinforces rhyme. The long poem we read in class all week had a verse for each child, but in their poetry book they got to decide the 3rd verse. Most chose their own name or someone else's. I love the below illustration with the speech bubbles ("This chair is so nice." and "No, it's not!")
We also did some weaving since our letter this week was Ww. Fun, fine motor, art. Some got creative: "Can we decorate it?" "Can we add a handle?" "Can we put something on the bottom?" Yes! I support creativity!
Another fun thing from the day: we made webs (also because of Ww). How often do you get to draw with glue? There was not a lot of silver or white glitter, so this year I said they could use any color of glitter and I'm glad because they turned out really cute. You can probably imagine with the table and floor looked like...
Multi-colored glitter:
The pink web is a little more abstract, but once it was glitter-fied it received an "ooh-la-la"

The red and blue combination looked really neat.
This child has some artistic skills! I think he drew this in only 1 or 2 minutes and it looks great.
Later in the day we made words with the letters npsgri. They figured out the mystery word (the word that uses all the letters) almost right away. I challenged them to use the letters to make at least 5 words before recess and they all did! Quite easily in fact. Some children built 8 or 9 words, and mostly independently (I made a few suggestions to some children, like "Can you make any words from the word wall?" or "You made pig. Can you make it plural?"). Impressive!
We read some Spring books yesterday. One was about birds. If you have not seen it yet, there is a live video stream trained on an eagle's nest in Iowa. All 3 eggs have now hatched, so if you want to see some real baby birds, check out this link occasionally. http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles They are cute. If you look at the right time, you can seem the parents feeding them.

Happy Spring!

Independence

2011-04-04T16:59:00.000-07:00

Today I needed to do something at the beginning of the day (you can ask your child what it was or read your email - I'm not going to post it here), but the class didn't seem to mind. So with me working at the back of the room, someone grabbed a pointer and they read the morning message together, asked everyone how they were doing, figured out the letter of the week, asked children with raised hands to find the letter in the morning message, gave clues to figure out the next special helper, led devotions (singing and prayer), worked through calendar, and even taught part of a math lesson. I was SO PROUD of how they did. I only had to offer a few suggestions.

After math we went through rotating centers. I explained things once and everyone seemed to pretty much follow directions and get to work. One center included putting some cards in order and then following the directions on them to plant seeds, independent from the teacher. They did a great job of figuring it out together, and they were really quiet (which is especially good since they were outside and other classes had their doors open to let in the cool morning air). I had to run home for a few minutes (had a flood incident last week....long story), so Miss De Jong and her class came over, and the Kindergarteners finished their centers without any problems.

At lunch time I did not open any milks or other packages. Everyone is getting so much more independent. I can tell they are almost ready for First Grade! (Sniff. I will really miss this class)

Gardening

2011-04-04T16:52:00.000-07:00

We are starting to learn about plants/seeds in science. This morning we planted seeds. So far only about four look like they may drown/rot. I have yet to see a Kindergarten plant die from lack of water.

In the afternoon our class did a favor for Ms. VP. We planted some geraniums around the flagpole (so make sure you ooh and ahh if you walk by with your child). We dug the holes, put in the flowers, covered them up, and watered them.

Farm Bureau

2011-04-02T10:10:00.000-07:00

Miss Katie from the Farm Bureau came and gave us a presentation about farms. At the end she had some children help her show the many jobs a farmer does: mechanic (fixing tractors), builder, weatherman, nutritionist (getting food for animals), vet, scientist who knows about bugs, and business man who pays the bills. (I hope I got that all right)

Spring Thaw

2011-03-30T19:33:00.000-07:00

The igloo had 'melted' to this state:
So we did this:

And this:
By lunch time, all that was left, was a pile of squished and bagged milk jugs and a bent-up cardboard base.

Eagle eggs

2011-03-30T18:22:00.000-07:00

http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles
Click the above link to see a live stream of eagle eggs. They should be hatching in the next few days. How nice of them to hatch when we are learning about Ee, eggs, and Spring things like birds!

(Thanks to my Iowan aunt/second mom/fellow teacher for passing on the link)

Hooray!

2011-03-29T19:12:00.000-07:00

Hooray for new toys! Yesterday I introduced a 'new' toy to the class: Wedgits. I got them at Goodwill on half price day. They are fun stacking toys and everyone enjoyed them. There is a regular set and a translucent set, so that is about $50 worth of toy purchased for $2. Hooray!

Writing about Ee elicited this conversation between students :)

2011-03-29T11:09:00.000-07:00

"I got an eggplant the day before my birthday. It hurt.”
“What’s an eggplant?”
"It's a fruit.”
“No, it’s when you hit your head on the concrete.”

Egg-celent Egg-speriment

2011-03-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

The egg-speriment: How strong is an egg?
We put an egg in a little nest of playdoh (so it wouldn't roll away) and balanced a pan on the egg and a few blocks. First we guessed how many books it would hold. Most guesses were between 1 and 5.
Then we started stacking and counting. This is 20 books. It actually held 25 (hardcover) books before it cracked.
Sometimes science gets a little messy, but it is worth the excitement. :)
We didn't get into the physics of why eggs are so strong, but we marveled at it and wondered if God made eggs so strong to protect baby animals that might be growing inside.

P.S. This is the 100th post!

The day in pictures

2011-03-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

The crops we made yesterday are up on the bulletin board. They were excited to see their work.
During reading time, we did some fun/different things. After everyone caught on of the sight words I threw in the air, we got into alphabetical order.
The Spring thaw continues. This picture is taken through the igloo's 'back door'. I predict the igloo to only last another week or two.
Your child's cat in the hat drawing came home today. As a point of reference, here is the poster they were looking at when they drew it. It's really interesting to see the different levels of visual perception. Most children see a face and draw a circle, but 1 or 2 noticed the shape of the face and tried to replicate it. Others have a difficult time separating what they see from what they know (they know a cat has legs, so they draw legs even though the picture has none).
Our buddies came and we had fun with eggs: estimating the circumference of an ostrich egg, measuring area, weighing... Decorating was optional:

Centers:while some children decorated eggs, others played farm
Several children worked together to build a wall.
Happy weekend!

First Day Back

2011-03-21T23:08:00.000-07:00

We had a good first day back. Everyone seemed to transition back into school mode with relative ease. I was grateful the rain held off until most of first recess was over. We did end up with one indoor recess, but we fared fine. Some children got artistic,
and we also pulled out the Super Fort, which was a rocket today. Despite the amount of space it takes up, it is really nice to have a fun, big toy to pull out occasionally.
Later the rocket was transformed into a bunch of connected rockets with astronauts. At least, that's what I think it was. At any rate, they were working together and preparing to blast off.
One more thing: I just graded all the work we did today and the class as a whole is doing a fantastic job writing! I love to see the transformation from little/no writing at the beginning of the year to full sentences that are mostly decipherable. There were spaces, punctuation, and all sorts of wonderful work that was done largely independently!

Getting in a creative groove

2011-03-10T21:41:00.000-08:00

Playing/building a farm
Building with Magnetix
Our big cow collage. They worked so well together on this and were quite enthusiastic, which is encouraging to see.
Building a log cabin out of pretzels
Making up puppet shows. Parts of it even rhymed or were sung.
Some children decided to be judges for the puppet show. They came with clipboards and notepads and wrote their critiques, such as "I like".

Pictures from Wednesday

2011-03-10T21:35:00.000-08:00

Wednesday was Opposite Day and the day we visited the 5th Grade's Wax Museum. They did a great job. The children were especially excited to meet Abraham Lincoln, since we had learned about him recently.

This is the only picture I took of opposite day. Pictured here: an inside-out, backwards shirt, with a tie on the back, one pant leg up and one down, and a dark sock and a light sock in 2 different shoes. We had fun. :)
The igloo is slowly melting. This child is reading in the back doorway.

Writing/Spelling/Reading

2011-03-05T20:41:00.000-08:00

It was fun to have t-shirt day Friday. Someone asked "What does your shirt say?" Of course, I did not tell them, but encouraged them to read it. And they could read Be an example. (Though the last word was a challenge). Then someone noticed that Be was spelled wrong. "It's supposed to have two E's," he said. So we talked about how bee and be were different. Then we read other people's shirts. It was a fun five minutes of literacy at the start of the day.

The conversation reminded me of a blog post about spelling from another Kindergarten teacher (you can read it here) that I have been meaning to share. I tried to put quotation marks around the parts that are direct quotes, but some is modified.

"Please, please, please don't do too much correcting of spelling at this point. Children are likely to spell according to the system they've been taught, overgeneralizing the information we've taught."

They might spell school "skool" (unless they look at it on their shirt's logo), use "yous" or "yooz", works "werx", etc. These misspellings really show growth and understanding of letters and sounds. "If you correct sensible misspellings you do a great disservice to your child because you fail to appreciate the risk they have taken to communicate with you in writing. The most likely result of your corrections is to discourage your child into not trying anymore with the result that they will be an even poorer speller in years to come."

"Celebrate your child's earliest writing, and do your best to figure it out." It's okay to ask them to read it to you. :)

"By all means, if THEY ASK you to correct their spelling, go ahead."

So if you're ever wondering why I don't correct all their spelling, now you know.
That being said, I love the notes your children write to me. :) Thank you for the birthday cards and thank you for encouraging reading and writing at home!

Happy birthday to me, Thank you to YOU

2011-03-05T17:51:00.000-08:00

Thank you for invading the classroom and surprising me with a fun, delicious party. We had fun!

Dr. Seuss Day

2011-03-05T12:42:00.000-08:00

Sorry, no pictures of oobleck. Suffice it to say it was the nosiest, messiest, center.
We made these cute cats in hats for art. Earlier we made the hats (with rhyming words on them :)

For a special snack we had green 'eggs'. First we predicted whether or not we would like them. Then we tried them. Almost everybody liked them (including Ms. VP).
Look how many Dr. Seuss books we have read already! (Not all on Dr. Seuss Day). Every year the children enjoy Dr. Seuss' books, but I don't think I've had this enthusiastic of a class before.

Big Wheels

2011-03-05T12:38:00.000-08:00

Mr. Danzeisen brought his truck to school Wednesday (mostly for the preschool class, but he graciously allowed us to come out, ask questions, express our wonder at its hugeness, climb through it, and wave to ourselves in the shiny wheels)

Gym Progress

2011-03-05T12:33:00.000-08:00

This week we got to watch an air conditioning unit go up onto the gym roof. A really tall crane came and started to lift the unit as children oohed and ahhed.

Many children found comfortable perches from which to watch
The higher the better!
We only watched one of the units go up, because the exciting part was seeing it being lifted, and the finesse of getting it in exactly the right spot took too long, so interest began to wane and we returned indoors.

Oobleck

2011-03-03T09:48:00.000-08:00

Is it wet or is it dry? Is it hard or is it soft? Is it a solid or a liquid?
We had fun exploring oobleck yesterday as part of our celebration of Dr. Seuss' birthday.
If you want to make it at home, it's about 1 cup of water mixed with 1 cup of cornstarch. We added green food coloring to match the book we read (Bartholomew and the Oobleck), but you can use any color. It's fun and messy, but easy to clean up.