Halloween Fun

It's hard to keep a group of 15 five and six year olds calm on Halloween.  I wanted to recognize the holiday, yet not go crazy with 15 costumes, parades through the school and platters of cupcakes.  So we played it down a bit.  I took all the standards I wanted to cover for the day and found ways to teach them with the theme of Halloween.

We made jack-o-lanterns and then sorted them from the shortest to the tallest. Each child tested one jack-o'-lantern against others to determine its correct place in the lineup.  This helped the children to compare and contrast two objects and sequence items according to a rule.

Then we listened to two stories with spooky characters. We talked about the characters in the books, made a list of the characters with a focus on the first sound and number of syllables for each word.  The children were given the opportunity to make a spooky puppet.  They had to cut out a mixed up sentence starter, "I am a" and finish it using the name of their puppet.  This student is showing off his zombie puppet.  Note that we are becoming more familiar with letters, syllables and words in this fun but educational project.

But we weren't done yet.  We enjoyed a snack of jack-o'-lantern clementines, cheese, crackers and carrots, and one treat (cookies decorated like witch hats).  We talked about how oranges keep us from getting sick, cheese builds strong bones, and crackers give us energy.  Then we talked about how the cookie was a once in a while treat.  I think that covers a few science standards regarding what animals need (and want) to survive.

Then we made a graph to show what kind of face we wanted to carve for our jack-o-lantern.  The kids made a happy, mad, or scared face (once again focussing on the onset and number of syllables for each word).   This covers standards as we collected and shared data, compared numbers, and discussed more and less.  We also had to do some problem solving when our graph came up with a tie.

All in all, it was a pretty mellow Halloween day.  The kids were having fun, but were calm.  Here's to a safe night of trick or treating!

More Experimenting

Last week we had so much fun experimenting with floating vegetables we tried some more this week.  We tested a mango, an apple, kale, an orange, garlic, a delicata squash, and a baby carrot.  We were surprised to discover that only the baby carrot sunk.  After checking all of the fruits and vegetables I asked the class if they thought a pumpkin would float.  Everyone took a turn holding two pumpkins of different sizes and predicting if the pumpkins would float or sink.

Many children used the fact the pumpkins felt heavy to justify both the float and sink predictions.  This will lead us into some exploration of why some heavy things sink, while other heavy things float. The
pumpkins did float, and as a result we have even MORE questions.

The chart above shows some of our questions, which will turn into future experiments.
* Do balls float? Would a baseball, basketball, golfball, marble, tennis ball, and football float?
* Do all seeds float?
*Do pizzas and pies float?
*Can you make a floating object sink if you change what it looks like?

The question we will answer tomorrow is, "Do jack o' lanterns float?"  Stay tuned.....

Pumpkin Fun

Our class has been learning about measurement by using pumpkins.  We have measured the weight, height and circumference of our pumpkins.  The kids have watched videos of a pumpkin's life cycle and we have sequenced the life cycle.  We read a book about picking apples and pumpkins then made a journal entry about the connections we made to the story.

All this pumpkin work has me thinking about Halloween.  In order to maintain a sense of calm during the day at school, I'm asking parents to not send costumes with their children on Halloween.  We will make masks at school instead.  We will also enjoy some orange and black snacks.  If you have any healthy snack ideas please contact me by e-mail (broper@svrsu.org) or by calling 882-7585.

Stone Soup

We took a trip to a farmer's market on Friday and used ten dollars to purchase several different vegetables.  The class bought a bag of root vegetables including beets, carrots, potatoes and parsnips.  Then we purchased some lettuce, kohlrabi and summer turnips.

Today we discussed these vegetables and performed an experiment with them.  The students guessed whether each vegetable would float or sink and then we put it into water.  We were surprised that the summer turnip floated.  Most of the other vegetables we tried sunk.

After our experiment we put all of the ingredients into a crock pot along with some garlic and barley.  We waited a few hours and then invited Mrs. Burgess' class to join us for the story Stone Soup, and then to enjoy the soup we made.  Our soup was a lovely shade of pink.  What vegetable do you think we added to create that color?

Horseshoe Crabs and Shaving Cream

We practiced being scientists today as we observed and wondered about a horseshoe crab.  The students felt, smelt, and looked at the horseshoe crab before they drew what they saw.  Then we each wrote something we observed about the horseshoe crab.  We pulled back together as a group and then wondered about our observations.  We will look for answers soon.

The other fun part about today was using shaving cream!  The class enjoyed making shapes out of the shaving cream.  Then we did numbers.  This is an easy way to practice making numbers, shapes and letters at home.

Monday Fun

Today we were so excited to use some new games I found at Goodwill.  Camden's grandfather, Mr. V, came in and led one of the games while I had some fun using different shaped circles to paint designs with the kids.

The class also worked on separating words in sentences.  We made Halloween sticker stories for journals and discovered how many syllables were in some Halloween words.  It was exciting to see some children start writing independently for choice time!

We are now spending some learning time with Mrs. Burgess' kindergarten.  Mrs. Burgess and I are sharing students to target their literacy needs better.  Everyone meets for a few songs to start, we divide into groups, and then regroup for a final song or story.  The kids are enjoying meeting some other kindergarten students.

If you have not signed up for a conference yet please let me know what time would work best for you.  Have a nice evening!

Shape Collage Sharing

We are now discussing shapes in Unit 2 of our Everyday Math program.  The class talked about the attributes of each shape.  Then we made our own shape collages and shared them with our class.  I was impressed with how several children used shapes to make patterns or pictures and then told us about how they made their art.

Families can continue our study of shapes at home by pointing out shapes at the dinner table, in the house, out in the yard, and while driving.  You can make shapes with sticks or spaghetti.  Have fun with shapes!

October Newsletter

October Newsletter

We have been very busy already this month.  The children are working on learning more about shapes and patterns as we count forward and backward.  We have focused on the following sight words:  the, and, a, I, go, like, and to.  The class is writing in journals and reading to themselves each day.  We have been going to the Morris Farm once a week with Farmer Abi to learn more about living things, tools, and how to perform a service for others.

We have parent teacher conferences Wednesday, October 24 and Thursday, October 25.  A sign up sheet has been sent home.  If you need another, just send in a note or call 882-7585 or email me at broper@svrsu.org. 

Our first book order has just been shipped!  More book orders will follow.  This is an optional way to build your child’s library.  The PIE book fair (during conferences) is another great opportunity to find great books as well.

As the weather chills I’d like to remind you all to write your child’s name in ANYTHING you want returned home.  This includes coats, hats, mittens, boots and especially SNOWPANTS!  I encourage you all to help your child practice getting in and out of cold weather clothes to gain greater independence with this task.  The more independent each child is, the more time we have for learning and playing.

Please remember to check out our classroom blog! http://msroperskindergarten.blogspot.com/

Sign up for emails and you’ll receive our almost daily updates of all the wonderful things happening in kindergarten.  It’s also a great way to prompt conversations with your child. 

That’s all for now, and remember, we’re in this together! PLEASE let me know of any concerns or questions you might have. 

                                                               Your Partner in Learning,

                                                                        Becky Roper

Busy Days in Kindergarten

Today we read a Cheerio counting book.  Then we glued groups of ten cheerios onto a piece o paper and enjoyed snacking on extras.  You could do this at home by counting out noodles, popcorn, peas, etc... just see how many groups of ten you can make.

We also read a new poem about falling leaves.  We looked for our October sight words in the poem and then Nevaeh's mom helped us cut out leaf puppets to make fall through the air.

Our class has a new pet.  We have a yellow Beta fish.  The whole class discussed how we would keep our fish safe.  We will not put anything in the water but food.  We will not move the fish bowl.  We will just watch the fish.

The kids really enjoyed the firemen coming into school to talk with us about fire safety.  All the kids are charged with asking their families to help them know TWO WAYS OUT of the house in case of a fire.

Tomorrow we will be weeding in the school garden.  Bring some mud boots if you have them!

Columbus Day!

Enjoy this long weekend with your children.  While you are out and about, or enjoying some quiet time at home, look for our October sight words with your child.
Our October sight words are:
the
go
to
a
I
like

See how many of these words you can find, and take note of where you find them.  Happy hunting!

Swiss Chard Harvest

Today we worked on our Social Studies and Science standards by harvesting Swiss chard in the school garden at Morris Farm.  The class was providing a service to the school by reaping the chard for tomorrow's lunch.  We learned more about the parts of a plant (especially the parts we eat) when we were shown how to take the chard from the garden by Miss Abby, our farm to school coordinator.  When we returned to the classroom the kids enjoyed using crayons and watercolors to create a picture of Swiss chard.

Book Bags

Today we talked about our Book Bags.  We talked about books that are just right for us.  Some children have already brought in their books from home and were excited to add those books.  We sorted money today and counted how many days we have already been in school.  Many thanks go out to Heidi Thiboutot for volunteering her time and making the book bags and song cards that went into the bags.

Lemon Letters and Pattern Creations

Today we created our own patterns by using sorting tools.  Most of the children used patterns based on color.  We also made books about the number six.   The class enjoyed a lesson about finding books that  are "just right" for them.  I modeled wearing all sorts of shoes that were not just right and then found the "perfect" pair of shoes for me.  Then we read a "just right" book for the class called "Farm Animals."  Everyone enjoyed knowing these books would be going into our Read to Self Book Bags.  

Please be sure to send in a few books from home that are "just right" for your child as we learn how to read to ourselves.

We had great fun reinforcing the Ll sound as we squeezed lemons to make "invisible ink" to write our letter Ll.  Some words to describe the lemons were "sour," "bumpy," and "slimy."  Our invisible ink was then warmed with heat from a toaster and the Ll's made another appearance.  

We played Whack A Word with our giant fly swatters today.  We used our October words for "whacking."  Those words are:  the, and, a, I, go, like and to. It was a fun day!

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