The Wheels Keep Turning....

Hello all!

Here's a quick re-cap of some of the exciting things we have been working on since coming back from Spring Break!  The learning never stops, and it's amazing to see how eager the kids are to pick up where we left off!

Venn Diagrams and Author Studies

In our class we have a number of authors that we know and love, such as Jack Prelutsky and Maurice Sendak.  Tommie DePaola is an author that we have been looking at closely while doing our Author Study.  I have collected a few titles from this author and we are slowly going through them, stopping every now and then to dissect the books.  We have been using Venn diagrams to compare and contrast the different main characters.  It's lovely to see how the students check their work during discussions and make sure their information is accurate before it is added to the Venn diagram!  This is a work in progress and something we will be revisiting again soon.  Don't forget to come in and check it out!

Sound Waves and Echos

Since we do have many discussions in our class, sometimes our voices do not always get heard. We have noticed that when there is a speaker that is sitting towards the front of the class, sometimes the people that are behind you cannot hear your idea! Those of us who are trying to listen carefully might feel like the speaker is using a tiny voice and cannot hear them, even though the speaker feels they are using a normal voice.

We checked our ideas by my sitting in front of the class speaking in a normal voice and then turning my body away from the class and speaking in a normal voice again.  Some friends felt it sounded the same, while others felt it sounded kind of like there was an echo.  We felt that the sound waves of my voice could have bounced off the metal door and came back to the group in the form of an echo.  This got many of us excited about this concept and some of us have started drawing pictures to illustrate how the concept of an echo works!

Play Writing

Have you come in to see our new songs and poems?  Don't forget that every month we practice different songs and poems and we have a great time breaking them down and comprehending what is happening in each line.  Our poem, The Snail, by Jack Prelutsky, got us thinking about writing a story about a snail and the different adventures he has with his other bug friends.  I cannot wait to see where this story goes now they these Loving Kinder Gardeners have their creative juices flowing!  There is much anticipation to finish this new project so that we can act it out and preform it in front of families!  How exciting!

Emergency Preparedness

Last week, the 5th graders had an exhibition about different natural disasters that occur around the world and how to best prepare for them.  This got the wheels turning in our minds about volcanoes, lightning and thunder again.  It was interesting to see what the 5th graders had on display as a survival kit.  We have discussed what types of tools we would need to stay safe during a disaster in the past, maybe it is time that we gather the tools we brainstormed!  Stay tuned for more information on this!

These are just a few of the things that have us excited about being school people!  Thanks for sharing these great minds with our community!

Love, Gaby

P.S.  Thank you for the soil!  Keep it coming!! This is so exciting!!