The PLAY!

Well, we read the book.  We read it again.  And again.  And one more time for good measure.  Then we wrote, and wrote and wrote.  Finally a script was ready.  Then we picked roles, and practiced, practiced, practiced!  The kids practiced during choice time, they practiced at home.   We made costumes, props, backdrops.

We invited EVERYONE in the school, and practically EVERYONE came.  The kids performed their play over and over and over.  Then the families came.  Moms and dads and grandparents, aunts and uncles....  We celebrated with party mix, owl cupcakes, cookies, and cheese and crackers.

This was a wonderful day to be a kindergarten teacher.  I am so proud of these kids!

Props!

Today we made props for our play.  The kids made drums, flutes, shields, black clouds and fire darts!  We rehearsed some more and found our marks for where to stand.  Everyone is practicing speaking clearly and with volume.  Ready or not, we'll be performing on Friday.

We also had some fun using a number grid to make a mystery letter.  Everyone helped each other find numbers like 57, 43, and 27.  Our mystery letter was P!  Then we used dice to create addition sentences and graph the sums we came up with.

The class has also started reading books by Leo Lionni.  We love that he is both the author AND the illustrator of his books.  Our first book was titled Swimmy.  The class could make a connection of all the fish working together to the work they are doing on our play. Today we read the book Frederick and learned that everyone can contribute to a group in their own way.

Stay tuned for more play updates.  Remember, the performance for parents is Friday afternoon at 1:30!

Best Day EVER!!

We truly had the best day ever in kindergarten.  We covered several math, science, social studies, writing and reading standards with eggs,  and plants today!  Rather than a lengthy explanation I'll let the photos tell the story. 

 The kids stuffed bags with different materials to protect a raw egg from a long drop.   Four of our six materials came from plants.

 We used a plant based dye (beets, blueberries and grape juice) to dye our plant based popsicle sticks

 The kids check out our material bags after the drop to confirm their predictions of if an egg would survive the fall.

 Mrs. Keach asks the kids what will happen to an egg left in vinegar and the kids find out what will spin best, a hard boiled or raw egg.

 We dropped six bags of materials protecting the eggs.  Note the sugar, beans, and fur on the floor from bags exploding on impact.

 The best way to start off the experiment is with Humpty Dumpty.

 After the real egg drop, the kids tucked different materials (legos, tissues, dinosaurs) in plastic eggs to see if the plastic egg would break open.  It was constructive chaos!

 The class LOVED watching the bags drop.  It was more fun than Times Square on New Year's Eve.

 The end result of our packages.  There are broken shells in every bag but the sugar.

 Making predictions for our experiment.

Counting out popsicle sticks.  How many did we dye?  How many did we leave natural?  130 were dyed, and 169 were left natural.  One stick stayed out so we could use it to stir the dye.

On top of this, the kids finished writing their play AND earned all their marbles!  We will be celebrating with pajama day on Monday, April 1.  This truly was the best day ever.