Spiders and spirals and shadow tag and such (Ss week)

 Cutting spirals to work on some fine motor skills.

Our science experiment: there is double-sided sticky tape made into a web on the tray.  We tried to slide our fingers across the web, but it was tricky.  Then we dipped our fingers in oil and we could slide all over the web without getting stuck - just like a spider since God made spiders with special feet so they don't get stuck!

 We rolled a ball of string around the carpet to build a spider web, which we walked around on.

Then we sang a silly song about elephants dancing on a spider web (the song seemed new to everyone, but they enjoyed it)

We ended today by playing shadow tag outside.  Do you see the dinosaur shadow?

(And can you tell these pictures were taken on yellow and green day?  I love all the bright colors)

Super Ss!

 Some centers from this week (sorry for the poor pictures): matching lettered spiders to a corresponding picture, alphabetizing spider webs (I think I got these from Shannon over at the Kinderpond), stamping spiders -aren't they cute? - and some fantastic fine motor skills trying to make spider webs.  We also used scissors to make spirals, and read/acted out The Itsy Bitsy Spider.

 And our favorite: making sparkly spider webs.  Today some children used their center time to make more spider webs...so there may be more glitter headed your way.  And then they asked "Can we do it again tomorrow?"  But I said no (because I don't want all you parents to hate me :), and brought the glitter back to the art closet.

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:

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! :)