Hello everyone!
Thank you for coming to check out this week's adventures in Kindergarten!
Gardening was a bit different this week due to the rain: Friends remained indoor to sort and sift through different seeds. They worked in small group to find similarities and differences between the different types of seeds Beth introduced them to.
Many friends have started to experience wiggly teeth, and some friends have already lost their first teeth! We enjoyed The Tooth Book and were struck by the page which talked about someone eating much too many sweets and needing 50 fillings. We have a few friends who have visited the dentist and were able to answer some burning questions: What are fillings? What are cavities? How do they happen? How do you get rid of them?
After lunch, I presented the class with a few images of different cavities. Friends shared their thoughts and personal experiences with cavities. Check out our Disscussion Notes Binder for more information.
In the afternoon, friends wrote about what they knew about cavities. Come and check out our journals to see their ideas.
This week, friends finished the final touches to the Costume Party Planning, including the vote for which foods to have at our party. Thank you to Jennifer, Brenda, Laura, Dennis, Rakefet, Nooshin, and Tovah for helping to bring in these special treats!
Another portion of the Party Planning that was completed was the games. Friends joined small committees to help create the games and how to play them. They presented their ideas to the whole group and received feedback on how to make corrections to the parts that were either not clear or needed adjusting, such as using toilet paper for the blind fold for Mummy Tag. After testing this, friends found that toilet paper tore very easily and suggested using a piece of fabric instead. The committee heard the class' feedback and changed their work, testing it again and finding that it did make more sense to use a piece of fabric instead!
We tried out a new game this week called, Find the Letter. I scattered letter cards around the floor and asked friends to find the letter that made the sound I gave them. (ex. Which letter says "NNNN"?)
Morning Meetings are a great time to share what learning friends are excited about at home. Our friend Leon had gone on a Nature Walk with his family and wanted to share what he learned about the Torrey Pine he found. This gave other friends a chance to share their own experiences finding different types of pine cones and reflecting on their prior knowledge about this topic!
This week in Math in Motion, friends learned several yoga poses, exploring each “animal” pose through imagery, breath and sound. Students practiced counting their breath and the length of poses using skip-counting and patterns.
We ended this month with our first live recital of our Songs and Poems for October. We performed first at 9:00am for families and then again at 9:15am for our Buddies!
After having met with different Buddies in the past few weeks, Tony and I paired the friends with a 7th or 8th grade Buddy who listed common personality traits or interests. The newly paired partners took a walk around the school together to chat about any exciting plans they had for later that night. Check out our Discussion Notes Binder for more information about our Buddies.
A BIG thank you to Sarah, Seng, and Natalie for helping to prepare the classroom for our Costume Party after school! The children loved it!
On the day of our Costume Party, we had such a blast! Thank you so much to Danielle, Julia, Rakefet, Pernille, Jennifer, Seng, Natalie, and of course, Clara, for helping to support the friends in their games!
Check out the snapshots below!
Our Food Testing Area: Here friends tried out different items and recorded which foods they ate on a checklist.
Whack-a-Witch: Friends practiced their hand-eye coordination, as well as counting how many whacks they gave to try and get the witch before she went back into the "forest!"
Light the Candle: This challenge type games asked friends to slow down, practice their aim and precision skills as they attempted to throw the "candle" as close to the center of the jack-o-lantern as they could!
Pin the Face on the Jack-o-Lantern: Here, the children were asked to use their best deduction skills as they were handed a different piece of the jack-o-lantern's face, and tried to put each one in the right place. Some came out really clear and others gave friends a good laugh!
Mummy Tag: Students had to use their sense of touch and hearing in order to find their quiet friends around them as they were a blindfolded mummy!
Reading Spooky Stories: Friends enjoyed listening to various Fall and Halloween themed books when they took a break from all of the games or to rest their bellies after the tasty treats =]
I introduced another new game today called, Find the Number. I asked friends to find the number that I called out on one of the scattered number cards. They were also asked to identify if their number was even or odd.
An example given to the friends was to consider the number 3. Three would be an odd number because it does not have an equal number of pairs. The index and middle finger would be paired up, but the ring finger would not have a partner. Therefore, it is odd.
Thank you Sarah for being our Family Reader this week!
We ended this week a little bit differently. Instead of cooking, we had a "Game Day." I introduced some new math, language, matching, and social studies games around the room for the friends to enjoy. With the help of Clara, two friends from the Peace Patrol, and myself, friends rotated to different games.
Math Puzzles:
After selecting an equation, friends use gems to count out how many the total would be. They would then find the missing piece of the puzzle and write down their findings on their piece of paper.
Map Puzzle:
Friends worked together piece together a map of the United States of America. They found different strategies to solve this problem, consisting of starting with the edge pieces and then moving on to the parts that had water at the edge, leaving the middle pieces for the end. After completing the puzzle, the students discussed where they were located on the map as well as other states they have visited.
What's GNU?:
This language game asked friends to fill in a consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) type word and sound it out. If it made a real word, they wrote it on their paper. If it was a fake word, they did not write it on their list.
Life on Earth:
This matching game challenged friends to find the matching cards in the mixed up pile. It also gave friends the opportunity to talk about the different animals, insects, and plants on the cards and where they live, how they help the Earth, and any other neat facts they knew about them.
What a busy and topsy turvy week we've had! Next week, we will resume our usual routine and revisit poem structures, jokes, more ways to collect information, testing new mediums, and more!
Thank you for all of your support!
Love, Gaby
No comments:
Post a Comment