This Is For The Kids!

In posting to this blog, it's almost always parents who I imagine as the audience.  Blogging is a really effective way I can help parents stay up to date on the goings on in the classroom.  But this post is for the kids!  Building at explore time is a favorite activity of many and these pictures convey the creativity, cooperation, focus and wonder that you would see and feel if you were in the room.  In the last picture the construction material was connecting straws and the children were able to get inside their own structure. Please show it to your kindergartner- they will remember the moment!

A look At Our Winter Workshop

On the last morning before our Winter Break we closed out our month long sharing theme of "handmade" with an epic crafting workshop!  Thanks to the generosity of some super parent volunteers and Mrs. G, every classmate went home with a bag full of projects they had made themselves to either keep, share or give away.  The mood in the room was happy and relaxing, the snack was healthy and delicious and the project bags (stenciled by the children) were filled to the brim.  I hope your kindergartner shared his or her crafts with pride!   I apologize for not having a picture of the calming jars.

Animals in Winter Part Two

    I am very excited to share these photos with you- the children did an incredible job applying what we learned about how animals who stay active in winter, adapt and make themselves shelters to stay warm. Below you will see two modeling clay foxes and one skunk in their cozy dens. In the coming weeks these projects will come home so you can see your child's animal den up close. 

Animals in Winter

In recent newsletters you may have read about our study of animals in winter.  Through books, videos, and exploration in the woods we've been learning about the three ways the animals around us cope with the cold, Vermont winter- they migrate, hibernate or adapt.  We had a great discussion after watching an episode of The Magic School Bus in which Ms. Frizzle's class visits the arctic- we decided that that our jackets, snowpants and mittens are the "insulation" that keeps our body heat in just like a seal's blubber, the walls of a thermos or a goose's feathers!  Here are some photos of us exploring the winter woods, discovering possible animal homes, modeling our own clay animals who stay active during the winter and making a book for our book boxes with all these facts.

A Room Full of Authors and Illustrators

In a previous post I alluded to the idea that in the coming weeks students would be writing their own stories (based on events in their lives) using all we have learned from reading Old Favorites.  I'm very proud of this crew of young writers who over the last two weeks brainstormed ideas in a writer's notebook, discussed those ideas with a partner and listened to feedback, chose an idea and planned the beginning, middle and end, and then wrote and illustrated the story across pages using connecting words such as  "next", "suddenly", and "in the end..." Here are some pictures that show the process.

Visual Phonics Link!

At long last!  Here is the link to the masterful Karin Vogel demonstrating the Visual Phonics cues we use.  Have fun practicing with your Kindergartners!

Visual Phonics Link

Deep Into Stories

A careful look at the previous post let's you in on a story REtelling lesson led by Miss Jess.  After reading the classic, Mrs.Wishy Washy to the class, each student reconstructed the story with pictures and words on a paper strip.  The challenges of placing the story events in order and matching pictures with words are two of the ways we are preparing for writing our own stories based on real life events next week.  Below you can see a different type of retelling activity that goes with the story Harry The Dirty Dog by Gene Zion.  In this "old favorite" we stressed that really great stories, the ones we love to hear again and again and come to know by heart, often have a very recognizable beginning, middle and end.  Hopefully this structure will come through in the our original stories in the weeks to come!

Cooperation!

As I looked back at photos from the week it was clear to me that whether the task was building at Explore Time, retelling a story, or gathering natural items on a scavenger hunt the children were doing a spectacular job working together. Here's little look: