Daring Designs

This post requires very little text.  The materials and the children's creativity speak for themselves.  It's important to know that this is work that comes out of the children's "Explore" or free play time!  We are learning all the time!

"Red Apples, Green Apples, Yellow Apples too...

...Everyone says they're good for you!"
The title and the first line of this post are taken from a poem that the children have been learning.  In preparation for our trip to Hackett's Orchard last Monday we did several apple related activities including a taste test of three different color apples!
Below you can have a look at the taste test  (we did it on a sunny day in the Courtyard), some highlights from our trip, and making applesauce back in our classroom.

Continuing with seasonal fun, we did a fall scavenger hunt with our big buddies on Friday.  

Above you can see some buddies searching for items such as "a red leaf" and "a sunflower".  Speaking of sunflowers, we did some really careful looking at sunflowers earlier in the week and created ripped paper designs to illustrate a sunflower poem in our poetry journals.

Lastly, a highlight from our week was Friday's Workshop during which I challenged the children to be "Brave Spellers"- to use the words they know and write the sounds they hear in words they don't know.  To do this we took to the outdoors to recreate something we practiced inside.  Having already practiced the phrase  "I see __________" on whiteboards in the classroom- we went outdoors to see what we could see.  The children saw so many fall favorites!  "I see a pear", "I see a playground" and "I see a leaf" were all authentic pieces of Kindergarten writing that we celebrated.  Below you can see Literacy Teacher, Ann Knox lending a hand.

Hard At Work and Play!

I hope that this post will give you a good idea of the range of experiences our class has over any given week.  Below you will see the class working through a rotation of three different activities within a Math Block- this is laying the foundation for what will become our Math Menu sessions.  For now, the children work in groups with a teacher at each station.  Have a look at Domino Parking Lot, Spin and Trace a Shape, and a cut and glue Pattern Page.

You can also catch a glimpse of our first Farm to School lesson with Kali and her helper.  We met out by the garden where we opened up bean pods to see the seeds inside and helped chop bok choy and peppers for a bit of garlic-y stir fry.  Many of us wanted seconds!

 

Every day the last block in our schedule is Explore (aka Play) time.  The children make choices to build with blocks, use art materials, play in the pretend area, use playdough, and engage in with a wide variety of open ended toys.  Classic games from the shelf are also an option and here you can see two children having a super time with Connect Four.  It's a social and self directed way to finish our day.

Getting to Know the Routine

A look back at the second week in Kindergarten reveals small glimpses at important parts of our day.  Below you will see the children proudly displaying their numeral writing on chalkboards- it's part of a system of instruction where we "wet, dry and try" the strokes to make each number or letter as a way of training our muscle memory. You can also see the children working in pairs to play "Ladybug Race"- a game the Ms. Kathy, our Math Coach introduced on Friday.  Earlier in the week we enjoyed our time in the Courtyard making Fairy and Elf homes and playing hopscotch in the round.  Last but not least we worked together to color a "mystery puzzle" the turned out to be a colorful picture of two children with a heart between them.  All in all a beautiful week of getting to know one another and the different parts of our day.

Welcoming a New Class

It was a very successful first week in Kindergarten for the children in Room 28!  We spent time getting to know each other (and our schedule) through work and through play both INSIDE and OUTSIDE of Orchard School.  In these photos you can see the children and Mrs. Freeman engaged with playdough during our Explore (free play time) at the end of the day and bringing their focus to a sequencing paper involving scissors and glue sticks with Miss Allyson. 

Another activity that required patience and a careful approach was collaging names with seeds- a follow up to a book we read called The Surprise Garden.

 Speaking of the garden, we explored some of the outdoor spaces that make Orchard "a wonderful place to grow".  Below you can see kids playing our own version of Bocce in the courtyard while others are drawing with chalk or playing in the sand.  

We had our first Friday Forest adventure and took a group photo at the stump circle after looking for insects and taking a quiet moment to hear the sounds all around.