Monday, March 21, 2011

Daytime Observations



My Growing Scientists began studying day and night today.

The children loved taking a science walk this afternoon to record things that they could see during the day. They did an AMAZING job recording and sharing their observations.

Thanks to April from Chalk Talk for sharing the recording sheets.


Check out my Growing Scientists as they record and discuss their
Daytime Observations:


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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Leprechaun Traps ... Kindergarten Style



Happy St. Patrick's Day!


The children were delighted to find a special note and a trail of sparkling shamrocks in our classroom as they came in from lunch recess.

Johnny Leprechaun also left behind a bowl full of "magic powder" which we were instructed to add milk to and shake.

As we began to shake Emma quickly moved away saying, "I need to stay back in case there is an explosion. I want to have kids ya know!"

Thankfully there were no explosions, just delicious green pistachio pudding!

During free choice time many students decided that they wanted to build leprechaun traps. I loved watching them brainstorm, write, and build together.

Here are some of their amazing traps:


They used Lucky Charms, nickels, grass, soft bedding (yarn), nice notes, and a gold necklace to lure the leprechaun....


but we were unable to trap him. Maybe next year!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Amy Krouse Rosenthal


Amy Krouse Rosenthal:
A Person Who Likes to Make Things

A couple of weeks ago my amazing Kindergarten team and I attended the Dublin Literacy Conference. There were many great speakers and I left feeling informed and inspired.
Hooray!

I had the pleasure of attending a class taught by one of my favorite children's authors: Amy Krouse Rosenthal. My class just LOVES Little Pea, Little Hoot, and Little Oink. We also enjoyed The OK Book, Duck! Rabbit!, and Spoon.
The books are absolutely adorable and have all become book box favorites!!!


Teachers: Click HERE if you'd like a Teacher's Guide for Little Pea, Little Hoot, and Little Oink.


During the class Amy shared her passion for making things.

She likes to make:
short movies
books
art
people happy
salads
wishes
something out of nothing
and much more!



Amy likes to celebrate life and make people smile. She is working on a special project called: The Beckoning of Lovely.


Amy shared several other short movies that she has made.

They all made me SMILE. I promise, you will find at least one that will make you smile too!


You can check out the movies (and find out more about Amy and her books) on her website:


Thank you, Amy, for your fun children's books, creative ideas, inspiring free spirit, and reminding me how fun it is to "just make stuff".

I look forward to seeing what my kindergarten friends make this week!



Sunday, March 13, 2011

Seuss Fun Review


The children LOVED all of the FUN SEUSS ACTIVITIES we participated in over the last two weeks.

Some of their favorites were:

making green eggs and ham
painting Seuss characters
buddy reading
crazy sock day
fish addition
pajama day
Cat in the Hat self portraits
scratch art
Horton Hatches an Egg
Wocket in my Pocket rhyming
and
enjoying a great collection of Seuss books together


Check out some of the highlights of our Seuss Fun:

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Monday, March 7, 2011

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish





We are still loving all things Seuss in Kindergarten.

Today we read:


We found:

RED FISH


BLUE FISH

RED and BLUE FISH

We also made these adorable fish equations:






I am Not Going to Get Up Today!




Last week, we read Dr. Seuss' I'm Not Going to Get Up Today.

This book was new to me.... and it quickly became one of my favorite Seuss books! I loved all of the rhyming words and detailed illustrations.


Our Pajama Day was a lot of fun. It was really rainy all day- the kind of day that you just want to stay in bed in your comfy PJs.

We watched a sing-along Cat in the Hat Movie, wrote about staying in bed all day, made adorable Cat in the Hat snacks, and took a little rest in the reading corner.
The students loved going to lunch and the computer lab in their pajamas.




Thursday, March 3, 2011

Crazy Sock Day

We had a very fun CRAZY SOCK DAY in Kindergarten.

The children just loved sharing their crazy socks with their friends.


We read Fox in Socks, traced and measured our friends' feet, and compared our socks.

Here are a few highlights from our day:

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We are looking forward to Pajama Day tomorrow! At the end of the day, Emily said, "I am going home, putting on my pajamas, and going right to bed so pajama day will be here sooner!"


Tuesday, March 1, 2011

READ!!



Today the children brought in their favorite Dr. Seuss books to share with their friends.

They loved relaxing and reading with their partners this afternoon.


We also brainstormed all of the places that readers like to read:


Then drew them:


We discussed the topics that we like to read about the most and then made these:


The children like to read about dogs, cats, astronauts, football, princesses, and many students just couldn't choose 1 topic so they wrote: Read everything!

Check out this slideshow capturing our project and our special reading time with friends:



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