Hot Dog! A Writing Celebration

I am so proud of the work that my students have done during our first unit (Drawing) of Writer's Workshop. 

Here's what we learned:

GROWING WRITERS:

draw shapes

draw people and detailed faces to show feelings

use different colors

draw sound or motion

fill up the white space

use speech & thought bubbles

add words

and

are inspired by GREAT BOOKS

I just love seeing my growing writers SO EXCITED about books and writing!

We studied Mo Willems' craft during the last 2 weeks of our drawing unit. (Check out our adorable Oil Pastel Pigeons HERE.) Pigeon loves hot dogs and we discovered that "having a hot dog party" was at the top of his Things I Want List. We felt like there was no better way to celebrate our writing than with a Hot Dog Party of our own!

We got ready for the party by doodling Mo characters on our table covers:

During the party students:

shared their writing with their special guests

ate hot dogs and these adorable cupcakes

and decorated paper hot dogs with funny things

(you can play Hot Dog Dress Up online with Duckling and Pigeon HERE)

Here are the highlights from our celebration and the students' favorite pieces from this unit:

Customize a collage

**Kindergarten Friends - I am proud of you!! :)

Pigeons... inspired by Mo

WE LOVE MO!

My kindergarten friends and I have been studying the work of Mo Willems.

We just adore his characters, the way he uses speech and thought bubbles, his funny, detailed illustrations,... I could go on and on! 

Many of my kindergarten friends have shared that Pigeon is their favorite Mo character. If you love Pigeon too, check out this site:

We learned how to draw Pigeon by following the steps laid out on Mo's blog. 

After practicing on whiteboards, we drew them with oil pastels.


 I love that my 5 and 6 year old friends are drawing with such excitement and confidence! 

Check out these BEAUTIFUL PIGEONS drawn by my growing artists! I LOVE THEM... and have been thinking about sneaking them home to decorate our play room. 
ha ha : )

Another free slideshow design by Smilebox

Apple Investigation & Apple Fun

Apples, Apples, Apples 

Here are some of the apple books we enjoyed last week: 

   

The children and I *LOVED* doing 
Mrs. Lee's Apple Investigation. 


Each child weighed their apple using a balance scale, used cubes to measure it's height, drew their apple and noted it's color, checked for a stem, etc... 

Click HERE to get a copy of the investigation from Mrs. Lee's Blog.

 It's awesome! 

My growing scientists used their senses to make observations about apples

and they drew and labeled the parts of an apple in their science notebooks.

The children enjoyed peeling and coring their own apples. We put them into the crock pot, along with some sugar, cinnamon, and water... and a few hours later we had many visitors wondering what had the hallways smelling so good. 
Our applesauce was delicious!

Alphabet Under Construction Collage

Check out our Alphabet Under Construction.

First, we read this: 

Then the children got creative- selecting items (feathers, puzzle pieces, yarn, foam shapes, etc.) to glue onto the first letter of their name.

Digital slideshow personalized with Smilebox

I love seeing these beautiful creations hanging above the reading corner when I walk into the classroom each morning. 

This great idea came from:

Cooking in Kindergarten: Roll a Bowl of Fruit Salad

My kindergarten friends and I love to cook!

Last week we had a lot of fun with:

Roll a Bowl of Fruit Salad

They had a blast rolling the dice to see what type of fruit and how many pieces to add to our fruit salad. 

I made the dice with foam cubes and fruit/number stickers.

It was delicious and very fun to make!

Here's the recipe:

roll a bowl of fruit salad

recipe by Mrs. Rider - copies great onto white or colored paper :)

Meeting Mr. Eric and James Dean!!

After reading, re-reading, painting, singing, drawing, watching,  and loving all things Pete the Cat this week, I was THRILLED about the opportunity to meet the author (Eric Litwin) and illustrator (James Dean) of these fun books Friday night!!

I loved being able to share this fun night with my children, Scott and Madilynn, and with many of my kindergarten students. 
It was such a treat to watch their eyes light up as they read and sang along.  

Here are some of my favorite shots of the night:

a book dedicated to my growing readers!! 

Madilynn, James Dean, Scott, and Mr. Eric Litwin 
*love this*

 Some of my kindergarten friends!

Click on the picture below to see a previous post about all of our Pete the Cat fun!

*I forgot to mention how much the children LOVED reading & coloring Shannon Martin's Pete Loves School book. One of my kindergarten friends, Sofia, brought her book in for the author and illustrator to sign!

You can check out Shannon's blog here: 

and download a copy of the book here:

We LOVE Pete the Cat!

WE {LOVE} PETE THE CAT!!!!!

We have had so much fun with Pete the Cat this week.

We read:

and

We watched this:

and this 


We also checked out these great Pete sites:

We made a character map all about Pete:

* idea from: 

We also practiced drawing and watercoloring Pete, just like the book's illustrator James Dean.

Check out our beautiful Pete pictures:

***Cincinnati Parents and Teachers- AWESOME NEWS!!***


The author (Eric Litwin) and illustrator (James Dean) of
 Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes 
and
 Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes 
will be at Joseph Beth in Rookwood tomorrow night: 
Friday, September 9th @ 5:00 p.m. 


I hope to see you there!