Tuesday in the Trees!

It was a beautiful morning in the woods.  It was much less windy with the tree cover.  Kindergarteners found LOTS of chestnuts this morning and enjoyed looking at the beautiful fallen leaves.

Students also greatly enjoyed bringing in their stuffys for stuffy day!  

Our sound today was /g/ and we went to the Computer Lab to use the Smart Board to listen and practice writing g. 

We Are Putting on a Play!

This morning we went down to the library and practiced roles for a play we will be putting on next Friday November 9 at our weekly Friday morning community meeting (8:10 in the gym).  You may  recall that Ms. Beth read the book The Friend Ship by Kat Yeh in the library a few weeks ago.  It was such a hit that they built a large cardboard ship and have been acting out the different animal parts!  Over the next two weeks Kindergarten will be learning lines and making animal masks to perform the book for the school.  We are very excited!  Ask your Kindergartener about The Friend SHIP.

This afternoon Mrs. Tourin's class joined us to learn about animal homes.  We learned about the difference between a squirrel and bird nest.  

Many students thought that this was a bird's nest but actually it is a squirrel nest!  We learned that you can usually tell the difference because squirrel nests are typically much messier than birds' nests.  

A dreary Wednesday

This morning we welcomed our second Mystery Reader.  Thanks Mikey for coming to read to us!

During Reader's Workshop we talked about Partner Reading and how two people can share one book. 

We also finished our shared writing retelling The Little Red Hen.  Students were excited to come up and share the pen!  I also read The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza and it was the first book where the little red hen shared what she made (because the pizza was so big)!  However, the cat, the dog and the duck did help wash the dishes. 

Tuesday in the Trees!

This morning I read an old book How the Forest Grew and we talked about how land changes over time before we headed out to the woods.  We definitely noticed some changes in the woods this morning as many leaves have fallen to the forest floor.

During Reader's Workshop we worked on building and writing names and I read another version of The Little Red Hen.  We also talked about how to retell a story and did some shared writing to retell the little red hen.  We also added to our character chart noticing which  characters are different in different versions.

In Math today I introduced the Ten Frame which is a graphic tool that allows you to quickly "see" how many.  We then played a 10 frame memory game where students had to flip two cards and match the numeral with the number of dots on the Ten Frame.

Today we started a mini unit on The Little Red Hen.  We talked about how a folk tale is a story that was told a long time ago and then over time people decided to write it down so there are lots of different versions of The Little Red Hen.  We will be learning about characters and comparing how the stories are the same and different.  We also made a chart of things that we can write and draw about.  Students came up with lots of different ideas and tomorrow they will choose one idea to begin their first story!

Our First Mystery Reader!

This morning we welcomed our first Mystery Reader, Ella's Dad, into our classroom!  Kindergarten was excited to see who would be our first guest reader.  If you are interested in coming into read you can sign up here: Click Here to Be a Mystery Reader! or contact me if you want to come in but these days do not work with your schedule.

This morning I also introduced a reading app that you can access at home!  Students can access hundreds of e-books at home for free! Many of the books are audio books and can be read to your child. You DO NOT need to pay for this.  Click log-in then you should see student login and can enter our class code which you will see below!

Tuesday in the Trees!

It was a wonderful Tuesday in the Trees today!  Many students took on the work of making Land Art and really made some beautiful creations.

Today during Literacy Stations one of our stations was sorting classmates names based on whether they had the letter /s/ or an /a/ . I read the book One Small Place in a Tree by Barbara Brenner after we noticed that many of the trees and fallen logs in the woods have holes in them.  We learned how holes might be formed over time and learned that even dead trees are important as they can be shelter and homes for many animals. 

Land Art for Kids

What is Land Art you ask?  Land Art is creative and fun and can be done by anyone.  It involves making art and sculptures using materials you find in nature, such as leaves, fir cones, twigs, pebbles, rocks, sand and shells.  Some examples:

This afternoon Mrs. Tourin's class joined us.  We looked at some Land Art from  http://landartforkids.com/section345789_116533.html and discussed how we can use things that we find in nature to make art.  I also read  Fall: Animals in Fall Preparing for Winter by Martha E. Rustad in preparation for our time in the woods tomorrow morning. I was excited to see some Kindergarteners already taking on the making of Land Art at our end of the day recess.

The "Friend Ship"

Last week Ms. Beth in the library read the book The Friend Ship by Kat Yeh.  Then this week she brought in a big box and they made the Friend "Ship."  It was great fun reading in the ship today with friends!

Tuesday in the Trees!

It was an awesome morning to spend time in the woods!  We noticed some leaves changing colors and many green leaves still on the trees.

Our poem for this week is Fall Leaves

Fall Leaves 

One is orange, 

Two are brown,

Three look yellow

On the ground. 

Three are green, 

Two bright red, 

One just fell 

Upon my head!

Our first writing unit has focused on how to use shapes to draw.  We have been working on using different shapes to draw body parts and then adding details.  We discussed how sometimes stick people are okay but when we are writing stories the reader should be able to "read" the story through the pictures just like the books in our classroom.  Students have been practicing drawing people out of shapes in their drawing journals.  It can be a little tricky but that's why we are trying it out!

  

Why do Leaves Change Colors?

It was a busy Monday!  This morning I read the book Over in the Forest: Come and Take a Peek and we learned about different animals that we might find in a forest.  We learned that "kit" is the name for many baby animals such as beavers, squirrels, and raccoons.  In Math we worked on making different combinations of 3 and at stations to count and identify numbers 1-12.

This afternoon I read the book Why Do Leaves Change Colors? and we talked about how as the days get colder and have less sunlight trees need to start prepare to rest during the winter.  With less light the leaves will lose their green color (chlorophyll) and we start to see the colors that are "hiding" inside the leaves like red, orange and gold.  When it gets colder the leaves eventually fall off except for evergreens like pine trees.   

Applesauce

The folks at Allenholm Farm gave us a big bag of apples for the classroom and today we made applesauce. Kindergarten LOVED using the peeler, corer and slicer to prepare the apples.  Together we wrote out the recipe.

This afternoon Kindergarten received their poetry journals and illustrated our first poem of the week.  They really enjoyed coming up and sharing their illustration under the document camera.  We ended the day with trying out our apple sauce!