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.

Week of October 6--Full Moon Week--Yes it was crazy!

Well this week was a short but busy week…and it was a little crazy, maybe due to the full moon?

Monday was our library day with Mrs. Polikoff who read the class Caps for Sale.  The kids loved the story and played the part of the monkeys in the story.  Mrs. Polikoff read a part of the story and then  had the kids imitate her: "monkey see, monkey do."  They had a blast!

Thursday was Naturalist-in-Residence with Sarah Uebel with Mr. Canning helping her out.  We also had Lillian's dad Brandon volunteering.  We started the session in Room 4 with a wonderful story The Shape of Betts Meadow, Mrs. Uebel talked about restored wetlands, then we completed an assignment together, and finally, we went to the wetlands to see what Mrs. Uebel had taught us.  The kids did a great job listening and following directions.  I am so proud of them!

This was a great story!

Our very own wetland preserve.

Thursday afternoon we decided to make some paper pumpkins to decorate our bulletin board.  I love how the pumpkins came out.  They are very individualized. :)

Look at all that creativity.

Looking good!

Very busy kiddos.

Busy, Busy!

This group actually looked happy to see me taking their picture :)

And this is our classroom pumpkin patch.  Isn't it cute?

I had my husband stop by and hang up Pete the Cat way high up on the wall, 

but then Pete looked so lonely that I decided to put the kids' pictures up on the wall near him.  

Week of Sept 29--What have we been up to?

Morning Work
We start our day writing our names.  First we trace over our typed name, then we trace over the dotted name, and finally we write it by ourselves.  The kinders are getting better at doing this.  They really enjoys Fridays which is when I put out the scented markers.

 

Miri loves to write her full name every day on the last line.

Maddy is doing a great job writing her name.

Look at all the focused kinders writing their names.

Gio and Abigail are hard at work writing their names.

Read to Self

After writing our names, we "Read to Self" at the carpet area.  The kids know that they can read a book by looking at the pictures, reading the words, or discussing the story.  They are getting better with their reading stamina and can sit for longer periods of time with a book.

S. is enjoying her book.  Look at that smile.

Jeiden likes his book.

Evan chose a fun book.

Garrett likes his book.

Gage is so happy when he gets to read.

Writer's Workshop

During writer's workshop I model a writing strategy and then the kids go and "write" a story based on a topic of their choice.  At this point in the year, the kids are expected to draw a picture related to something they want to share.  i.e. their family, a family outing etc.  If they can, they try to label the picture with the beginning sound of something in their picture.  Eventually they will write a sentence that starts with a capital and ends with a period.

Gio worked hard on his picture.

Jacob drew a cool picture and labeled a couple of things.

GoNoodle.com

Brain research indicates that kids cannot sit and concentrate for long periods of time and neither can adults for that matter.  The age of a child can be used as an indicator of how much time they can sit and focus. What that means is that  5-6 year olds should receive a teacher focused lesson that is 5-6 minutes long and then get a brain break.  We do lots of brain breaks in our classroom.  Sometimes we just stretch and other times we do a 2-3 minutes GoNoodle.com video that gets our wiggles out.  The kids love these short little burst of exercise and so do I.

I forgot to take a picture of "brown day" but here is one of "black day."

Today was Hannah's birthday.  She is our first birthday celebration of the year.  

Happy birthday Hannah!

Hannah's parents brought in a special treat.  Yum!

Packing Up

Packing up for the day has got to be a teacher's least favorite time of the day.  Really!  Have you ever tried to get 25 kids ready to leave at once?  Yep, that is what we do daily.  We have procedures that we have in place, but the kids are five-six years old and things do not always go smooth.  Someone always forgets where they put their lunch box or something spills all over the place or papers go flying or missing or….well you get my point.  Getting 25 kids ready to go home is NOT easy.  But your group of kinders actually does a pretty good job. I am so proud of them.  They are pretty fast and efficient.  Look at them.  Don't they look so responsible?