Thanks to all the help and support at the Kindergarten's Fall Parade! The cherubs had a blast and did an amazing job!
In Writer’s Workshop, the class has started to learn about writing 3-page stories. Last week, Room #7 worked together to create a story about our trip to Smolak Farms! To begin our writing experience, we wrote a one-page story – We went to Smolak Farms! But, after a discussion about how authors use more than one page to tell their stories, the class and I decided it was time to stretch our stories over several pages. This was accomplished by the boys and girls verbally telling the story, with my guidance, and then stretching out their verbalizations over 3 pages.
Page One: We got on a bus and drove to Smolak. Then, we went on a hay ride!
Page Two: We ate a snack in the barn.
Page Three: Next, we picked pumpkins, saw animals, and played on the structure! Finally, we took the bus home. It was so much fun!
I modeled touching each page as we verbally told the story so that the cherubs could gain practice first tactically, picturing it in their minds, and then actually writing the story. This is difficult work! I’m impressed with how many students are experimenting with this tricky skill! We will continue creating 3-page stories to increase their ability in storytelling – using details and breaking the story apart into a beginning, middle, and end! Try telling stories together at home for fun!
As you know, the students of Room #7 have been working on their rhyming words. They learned that rhyming words rhyme when they have the same ending sound. On Wednesday, the class read The Hungry Thing. This book describes a ravenous monster that continually asks the townspeople to Feed Him. When he asks for food, though, he uses made-up words that rhyme with the actual food he wants. For example, the Hungry Thing asks for “gollipops” when he really wants lollipops! The class became rhyming experts and was able to shout out together exactly what the Hungry Thing really meant to say. Afterwards, I was the Hungry Thing and some boys and girls had to make up rhymes for the food they were holding. For example, one student said he would give me some born instead of the actual food, corn. The kids loved this activity and we will definitely be doing this again!
We have also been talking about syllables in class! Wowza! Room #7 discussed how every word is made up of parts, or syllables. We figured out how we can discover how many syllables a word has by putting our hands underneath our chins to see how many times our chins move when we say the word. Next, we did a picture sort to see if the word had one, two, or three syllables! The kids did a fantastic job with this! We will continue our syllable finding with poems we read, morning message, and our Alphafriend songs! It’s a great game to play at home as well!
We started a new unit in Math this week. During this unit, students are working a lot with shapes – learning their names, understanding their attributes, and describing the differences among them. Students are also finding out about teen numbers! During one of our whole group times, I introduced the students to a fun chart: What Does The Shape Say? Using the song, "What does the fox say?" we talked about all the different shapes, and if they could talk, how they would describe themselves. The kids learned 2 new "fancy" Math words: vertices and parallel! Ask them what each shape says! (circle, rhombus, square, rectangle, trapezoid, hexagon, and triangle)!
Math Stations:
- Shape Puzzle Books – Using various paper puzzle pieces in a book format, the children counted how many Unifex cubes could fit on each. Next, they recorded that number inside their books. Great job practicing your counting skills, Kindergarteners!
- Build a Staircase (to 9!) - This week, this fan favorite got even trickier!! Not only did the kiddos use number dice to increase their number recognition but also had to build the staircase to 9! They had to choose which dice to use (1-6 or 4-9) dependent on what they needed in their staircase. Working with a partner, the boys and girls of Room #7 took turns rolling a die. They then stacked cubes together to represent that number. Once the partners finished building their staircases (1-9), they took turns rolling the die to disassemble them!!
- Guess the Next Number - At this center, the children first lined up number cards from 1-20 (oohh a challenge!). Next, the kiddos closed their eyes, and I turned over various cards so that they could not see their numbers. When they opened their eyes, they used their knowledge of one more and one less to predict what the turned over cards were! Everyone did a magnificent job with this activity!
- Shrinking Number Monster – Another favorite, students rolled dice to determine how many “eyes” belonged on their monster work board. They then took away one eye, recounted them, and wrote the number that was one less!
- Grow and Shrink with Ten Frames – This activity appears to be just a simple counting game, but it is one that allows children to begin to see relationships between numbers. Using our 10 frame manipulatives, the cherubs represented a number and then had to choose to either “grow” or “shrink” their manipulatives to represent the new number. This station was even trickier this week because the numbers are getting greater! The kiddos are really developing their number sense with this station!
- Spin and Write Teen Numbers – Spin and Copy Teen Numbers – Using a spinner with all of our teen numbers represented in 10-frame form, the kiddos spun, then practiced writing that number on their board. They always had to remember: “Numbers in the teens start with a ONE!”
- Great Monster Race - This is an independent activity with a Halloween twist! Here, students had to roll dice and trace the number their dice had landed on. The students continued rolling and tracing until a particular spooky image won (e.g., a ghost, a haunted house, a witch, etc.)!
During Learning Labs this week, I introduced a project for our Math Center. At this center, students worked to complete unique pumpkin glyphs. On Monday, students painted their very own pumpkins, mixing yellow and red to make orange. This week, they created jack-o’-lanterns out of these pumpkins. The students individualized their pumpkins according to the rules of the glyph. For example, if a student is a boy, he cut out circle eyes. If the student has 2 syllables in his/her name, then he/she cut out a happy mouth. The students will continue with this project next week, but they had a blast working to construct pumpkins that reflected parts of their own identity!
Have a fabulous weekend and a very fun and safe Halloween!!