Watchers in the Woods!

It's my favorite day of the week again - Woods Day!  Before we went to the woods this morning we talked about how we can be watchers.  It is interesting to observe students really creating bonds with one another and taking interest and ownership in their learning.  In the woods many boys and girls enjoyed working together to make seesaws from large logs, create princess castles out of trees and use magnifying glasses to observe nature up close!  The adults noticed how the noise and excitement of being in the woods is beginning to calm down and students are more interested in exploring, watching and building!  As we were walking into the woods one kindergartener noticed a large nest way up in a tree and this led to a discussion between a small group on whether this was a bird's nest or a squirrel's nest.  After lunch we did some googling and found out that it was indeed a squirrel's nest - they tend to be higher up and much larger!  I read the book The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri and we learned that squirrels are busy preparing for winter.  This afternoon while outside two boys found a squirrel nest and brought me to check it out - how cool!

Our brain is a muscle!

This morning at Morning Meeting we talked about how our brain is a muscle and the more challenging things we do our brain will keep growing stronger.  I read the book Everyone Can Ride a Bicycle by Chris Raschka to lead into this discussion.  We learned that the little girl tries again, and again and again and again...to ride her bike and does not give up until she gets it!  We then watched this short video:

and learned that our brains keep growing and getting stronger so it is important to never give up!

We played, ate snack and then Mrs. Guilmette came to visit us for Guidance and talked a lot about our feelings.  After Guidance we had math.  For math we talked about how numbers have different "hidden parts."  A cube tower of five can be broken into different parts: 2 and 3, 4 and 1 and 5 and 0.  After I modeled this kindergartners came up with different "hidden parts" for a cube tower of 6.  We then practiced saying the "hidden parts" as addition sentence: 2+3=5,..After this mini-lesson a new math game: Find It! was introduced.  This was another partner and dice game where you had to match the number of dots rolled on the dice to a dot combination on the board.  Some partners chose yesterday's game "Roll and Build" and some played the new game "Find It!"



For Reader's Workshop I read another book about Fall: Fall Leaves Colorful and Crunchy by Martha Rustad.  This book taught us some BIG words: veins and photosynthesis.  Kindergartners found it interesting that leaves have veins just like us except leave veins carry water and people veins carry blood!  The day ended with Art with Mrs. Hawkes.  

Leaves, Math Games and Computers!

Kindergartners have noticed that the leaves outside are changing!  This morning during morning meeting we had a conversation about what we have noticed with the colorful, changing leaves.  We read the book My Leaf by Monica Wellington and learned how we can identify the different leaves that we find.  The book also showed us how to make leaf rubbings with crayons and leaf prints with paint which we can try later this week.

When we were lining up to go outside this afternoon one kindergarten friend asked "how come we didn't do math today!?"  I laughed and responded that we did but we were having so much fun with our math game 'Roll and Build' that you didn't even realize you were doing math!  After practicing our subitizing I introduced a new math game "Roll and Build."  Partners worked together to take turns, roll one die and build a tower with the corresponding number of cubes.  The game is over when the game board is full.  This game while fun and simple works on a lot of math skills: one to one correspondence when counting, numeral identification, fluency and subitizing!

To kick off reader's workshop I read the book The Watcher by Jeanette Winter which tells the story of Jane Goodall.  We learned that when Jane Goodall was 5 years old (just like Kindergartners) her family called her a "watcher" because she was always looking closely at the world around her.  We learned that Jane Goodall later traveled to Tanzania to observe and help protect chimpanzees.  Through this book we made connections to our time in the woods and brainstormed a list of animals we might find in our woods if we too become watchers.  

After I finished reading I introduced a new "Work Board" for Reader's Workshop.  Students will always have the job of reading privately or with a partner during Reader's Workshop but now will have a day where they will meet with me in small groups AND a day where they get to use the computer to read and listen to books!  Right now we have four students a day using our two computers to read or listen to books using the website:  https://www.getepic.com/.  This is also available as an app for a tablet or smart phone.  Epic is free for educators but there is a fee associated if you want to use this at home.  It is often referred to as "The Netflix of Book" and is a great resource for accessing more books for your child at home!

We also earned 100 Cat Cards today for positive behavior expectations!  The class voted to wear pajamas to school so if you would like your child to wear pajamas to school tomorrow they may!

Trip to Shelburne Farms!

What a beautiful and exciting day at Shelburne Farms.  Kindergartners were broken up into different groups and had an opportunity to explore the farm.  We hiked up a big hill, listened with 'big ears' to the sounds of the forest, searched under logs and trees, built our own fairy or animal houses, ate lunch outside and visited many animals in the barn!  What a fun and busy day we had!

Thursday in the Thistle!

Thursday has become my favorite day of the week as it is the day we go to the woods!  This morning Officer Difranco and Ms. Mellencamp came to our classroom and told us that we were going to have a lock down drill.  Officer Difranco explained that a lockdown drill is to practice in case there was anything unsafe going on in our school.  He made us laugh when he told us about a school that had a moose running loose in the halls!  Soon after we practiced quietly and quickly coming to our safe corner until Officer Difranco came to check and Ms. Mellencamp told us the lockdown was all through.  Kindergartners did an excellent job staying safe and quite during this drill!

After we had an abbreviated music class with Mrs. Hurley and then went to the woods with Mrs. Slack's class.  There was some building of fairy houses and students created their own see-saw - SO COOL!



This afternoon we talked a little bit about why trees are so important for us - they help make oxygen so we can breath, can be used to make things like furniture, shelves and paper towels, and are also home to many different animals and insects.  Afterwards we read Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems (one of my personal favorites), practiced partner reading and had time to play and explore in our classroom.

Wonderful Wednesday!

It was a wonderful Wednesday in Kindergarten.  This morning we reviewed the letters introduced so for: b. f, and t and introduced m and n by listening to these letter songs:

Tomorrow we will add m and n to our: "These are letters chart."  Mrs. Guilmette joined us for Guidance this morning and talked to us about understanding our feelings.  After having time to explore and eat snack we enjoyed another math lesson on sorting and learned a fun counting game! Today we worked on sorting items based on the weather: sunny, snowy and rainy.  

Our read aloud for Reader's Workshop was The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone.  Many Kindergartners were familiar with this classic tale and enjoyed helping out with the reading especially when the goats went over the bridge and went "TRIP, TRAP! TRIP, TRAP!"  After our read aloud I modeled partner reading: sitting side by side, putting one book in the middle and "see-saw" reading when one partner starts and the other partner continues.  

Lots of sorting going on in Kindergarten!

Today was a terrific Tuesday in room C-7!  This morning we watched a quick video about Antarctica as many questions were asked after reading Mr Popper's Penguins yesterday.  Students were surprised to see so much ice, snow and penguins make up the South Pole!

In math we continued our conversation on sorting.  I added numbers up to 7 to our set of subitizing cards and then I displayed the following image from our Eureka Math series on the board:

I didn't read the directions but asked how can we sort these pictures?  Every day I am constantly surprised at the creative and thought provoking student responses.  The creators of this worksheet were looking for a "correct" answer of animals that fly and animals that do not fly but Kindergartners engaged in a much deeper conversation sorting the animals into black and white and not black and white, animals with some white on them and animals with no white, animals that you would find in a forest and animals you could find in a house.  Amazing!

This afternoon for Reader's Workshop we read another non-fiction book Bat Loves the Night by Nicola Davies (she writes some GREAT non-fiction!) and students were excited to learn more about bats.  After reading and learning another fancy word, echolocation we watched a (silly) video about echolocation.