Week of October 13--Bat Week

We studied about bats last week using both fiction and non-fiction books.  We started the week off with the story Stellaluna which is a fictional story about a bat who gets separated from her mother bat and lives with a family of birds.  The kids really enjoyed that story.

The rest of the week we read non-fiction books about bats and learned so many new things that we wrote down on our chart:

• Bats fly and eat at night
• Bats eat fruit, insects, and yes, some do drink blood from cows and other animals
• Bats sleep upside down
• Bats can live in trees, attics, garages, under bridges, and bat houses made by people
• Bats use echolocation (the kids loved that word)
• Baby bats are called "pups"

We watched the Magic School Bus video "Goes Batty."  We then decided to act like bats.  We hung upside down from our tables and screeched all over the classroom like bats do.

Kolton, Jakob and Maddy enjoyed their time upside down.

Lillian and S. looked like bats!

Kernan was one happy bat!

Aiden is truly hanging from the table with Gage.

Jack also figured out how to truly dangle from the table.

Jacob wanted to stay like this for awhile.

Nikolas was having lots of fun.

Evan liked his upside down view.

Garrett and Gio were perfect little bats.

Josie, Alex and Cody waited patiently for the "bat" picture.

Look at that smile from Jakob.  What a happy little bat.

A view of my bats!

Bats screeching all over the classroom.

So much movement…the camera had problems taking pictures of the bats moving.  

There is Kernan the Bat flapping his wings.

We also decided to make additional pumpkins for our Pumpkin Patch bulletin outside our door.  We cut up pieces of orange construction paper and glued them onto a plate.  This was a fun and engaging fine motor skill for the kids.

Garrett did an awesome job on his pumpkin.

Abigail loves the camera.

Kolton worked hard on his pumpkin.

We also have some kids from 4th and 5th grade who come in to help our kids out with special projects i.e. painting.  I have permission to print the picture of Leah who loves to come in and work with our kinders, but I need to check on R. to see if I can publish her picture.  Leah and R. helped make bat handprints.  Check them out in the hallway when you come for parent-teacher conferences.

Inga is getting her hands painted black for her bat handprints.  

We used a new free choice activity on Wednesday and Thursday: bingo dabbers.  The kids used the dabbers to make a picture.  They will also be using them to find letters and sight words.  If you want to use these at home, the Dollar Store has a whole bunch of them.

Nikolas, Evan, Jakob and Cody are enjoying the use of dabbers.

This was Evan's first creation.

This was Jakob's first creation.

We always have a very busy school week and I try to capture some of the new things that we do for parents.  Many of the activities that we do during literacy stations and math stations have a  routine that we will keep all year.  What changes are the materials that go in these stations.  Kinders thrive in the classroom through the use of routines and they don't always notice when I change up materials to make them more complex.  I'm sneaky that way.  I'll try to take some pictures of our stations next week.