Classroom Meetings

Weekly class meetings are an essential part of kindergarten instruction.  Usually the topics have to deal with social situations. This past week, we discussed what it means to be a good friend. I had the kids brainstorm what it means to be a good friend. Children shared with partners nice things they do for their friends. Then they shared out and we wrote examples on the board. We also shared things we should not do to our friends.

Shape Cities

The past month, we've been learning about shapes. We did shape hunts in the classroom, made a shape book and have practiced drawing shapes. As a fun activity to wrap up our shape unit, we made shape cities! We used the four main shapes we learned about (circle, square, rectangle and triangle) to create a city skyline at sunset. We used black paper for the buildings to create the illusion of silhouettes. We used colored paper for the windows and doors. We also experimented with mixing paints to create a beautiful sunset. It was a fun project!

Apples!

It's apple time! With apple season, there are always plenty of fun projects going on in kindergarten classrooms. We started our learning about apples by learning about Johnny Appleseed. In our writing center, we talked about character traits and the traits that Johnny Appleseed had. He was kind, giving and loved animals. We also made apple books and made beautiful apples for our classroom window. We will continue our learning next week so stay tuned...

Sort, Sort, Sort

We have survived the first month of school! It has definitely been a month of adjusting and learning. As we dive into our curriculum, one of the routines I introduced this past week is sorting.  
We have started early concept and shape sorting activities that will be followed with picture sorts that develop phonemic awareness and include activities for rhyming, syllabication, and sound play. The purpose of these activities is to get our students used to these procedures so they are prepared for their individualized program.

How Many Dinosaurs Do You See?

On Friday, I posed the following question to the class: You are swimming underwater in a lake and see dinosaur feet in the water. You don't want to go to the surface in case they are not friendly dinosaurs. How many dinosaurs are standing in the lake?

Prior to asking them this question, I wanted to tap into their background knowledge to ensure that they knew what dinosaurs were. I read them the story, How Do Dinosaurs Go To School and then showed them various pictures of dinosaurs. While looking at the pictures, I had the kids observe how many legs each dinosaur had, what they looked like, if they looked like a meat eater etc.

I then projected the question onto the screen and had the kids look at the picture to the problem. The picture showed eight dinosaur feet. I then opened it up for discussion. Kids went up one by one to explain how many dinosaurs they thought there were and why. A few of the kids got into a debate about why their answer was the correct one citing "bone structure" and "leg curvatures" to justify their reasoning. :)

The Common Core State Standards for Math focuses on these 8 Standards for Mathematical Practice in addition to specific grade level standards. I encourage you to read them and reflect on what standards for mathematical practice you think were addressed by the kids solving this problem. How many dinosaurs do you think there are? I think there are 8...all posing like ballerinas on one foot. ;)

Cookies Do A Body Good...

While I consider myself fairly health conscious, I love the occasional sweet just as much as the next person. I took a baking class a while back and was talking to our instructor about how she manages the sugar intake with her two young daughters. She said the key to sweets is portion control and quality ingredients. She bakes her daughters cookies with all natural ingredients and makes the cookies really small so they still get that satisfaction but aren't eating as much.
I saw this on my Twitter feed and had to share. Maybe a fun activity to do this Labor Day weekend?

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blog/after-school-cookies?sf5746579=1

The Kissing Hand

We completed and survived our first week of kindergarten! We had smiles, tears, laughs and wails.  When my brother and I started school, we were complete opposites. I didn't even realize my mother had left while my brother cried before they even reached the door! This is fairly typical for the kindergarten transition and I know as the weeks continue, our smiles and laughs will outweigh the tears.

Our theme this week was based on the book, The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. We read this book on Monday and talked about how we were feeling about starting school. Answers varied from, "excited" to "sad." Throughout the week, we made our own kissing hands, Chester books, went on school tours, made new friends and started becoming more familiar with our new "home."

By Friday, I could tell even our more reluctant group of students were becoming more comfortable with me and our class. How do I know this? Well...one of my rules in kindergarten is, "No scribble scrabble" and I explained that to the kids daily this week. On Friday, a group of girls (whom shall remain nameless), came up to me and said they had a present for me. They had a mischievous grin on their face as they handed me a paper full of nothing but...SCRIBBLE SCRABBLE!! I couldn't help but burst out laughing. Only one week and they totally get my sense of humor!

I can tell that I am going to really enjoy this group of kids...:)