Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Monday, March 23, 2015
March Madness in Kindergarten
It's March, we're in Indiana, so I thought we would have some March Madness in the classroom. Instead of tracking basketball teams, we're reading books!
Each day we read two books as a class. Students vote for which book is their favorite, and the winning book moves on to the next round. We might not get to 64 books--that would take us 32 days and there are only 41 days left of school! It would have to be called Spring Madness instead and that just doesn't have the same ring to it.
I broke up the brackets into four categories: fiction, non-fiction, traditional stories (fairy tales, fractured fairy tales, folk tales, etc.), and favorite characters/authors. I'm excited to see which type of book is the winner! First the fiction books Let's Do Nothing by Tony Fucile faced off against Me Want Pet! written by Tammi Sauer. Who won? See below!
Ask your child if he or she voted for this book. Ask your child which part was his or her favorite.
Next up we read about some of our favorite characters: Pigeon in The Pigeon Needs a Bath written by Mo Willems and Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons written by Eric Litwin. We've ready many books with these characters in them, but these two books were new to us. I was not surprised as to which book won. Let's just say that I think this book is going to be the "Kentucky Wildcats" of this series!
Ask your child about what he or she knows about Pigeon.
For our first non-fiction books, we read Who Has These Feet? written by Laura Hulbert and What if You Had Animal Teeth by Sandra Markle. I thought this was going to be a close call, but I was wrong! This book came out on top:
Ask your child which animal teeth he or she would like to have (if any!).
On Thursday we read Somebody and the Three Blairs by Marilyn Tolhurst and Beware of the Bears by Alan MacDonald. This was fun because both books are what we call fractured fairy tales--they are new stories inspired by traditional fairy tales. The book that came out on top? It's one of my favorites!
Friday brought us back to fiction again. I didn't realize it beforehand, but I think the winning book from these two might be the Cinderella story of this March Madness. We read Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton and The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak. Here is the winner with 100% of the students voting for it:
Ask your child what made him or her vote for The Book with no Pictures.
I'm looking forward to seeing if Pigeon can beat out B.J. Novak's book! This week we have a new batch of books. Which books will move on to the finals? We'll see!
I broke up the brackets into four categories: fiction, non-fiction, traditional stories (fairy tales, fractured fairy tales, folk tales, etc.), and favorite characters/authors. I'm excited to see which type of book is the winner! First the fiction books Let's Do Nothing by Tony Fucile faced off against Me Want Pet! written by Tammi Sauer. Who won? See below!
Next up we read about some of our favorite characters: Pigeon in The Pigeon Needs a Bath written by Mo Willems and Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons written by Eric Litwin. We've ready many books with these characters in them, but these two books were new to us. I was not surprised as to which book won. Let's just say that I think this book is going to be the "Kentucky Wildcats" of this series!
For our first non-fiction books, we read Who Has These Feet? written by Laura Hulbert and What if You Had Animal Teeth by Sandra Markle. I thought this was going to be a close call, but I was wrong! This book came out on top:
On Thursday we read Somebody and the Three Blairs by Marilyn Tolhurst and Beware of the Bears by Alan MacDonald. This was fun because both books are what we call fractured fairy tales--they are new stories inspired by traditional fairy tales. The book that came out on top? It's one of my favorites!
I'm looking forward to seeing if Pigeon can beat out B.J. Novak's book! This week we have a new batch of books. Which books will move on to the finals? We'll see!
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Our Field Trip to the Planetarium
Last week we traveled to the planetarium at Carmel High School. It was a lot of fun! Here most of us are here waiting outside the high school:
Once inside the high school, we saw some familiar faces! We saw our former cadet teacher, a ESE counselor, and one of our subs. Who knew in that a school full of thousands of students we would run into the two we know!
Once inside the planetarium, Mr. Turner taught us a lot about objects in the sky. We learned how the earth spins, or rotates and this causes day and night. We learned that Earth is just right for life. Things can grow, water can be in a liquid form, and the air is breathable.
We learned a little about the sun, too. We learned that the sun is a star, and it's huge! We learned that the sun doesn't move, although it looks like it does. That's because the earth moves. We learned other things about stars as well. For example, stars don't have pointy shapes; they are round like the sun. Also, stars are always in the sky. We just can't see them during the day because it is so bright. Finally, we learned a little about the moon, too. We talked about how we can sometimes see the moon in the daytime sky. Cool!
I tried taking a couple of pictures, but since a planetarium is dark, they didn't really turn out. I did get a picture of the robot that helped Mr. Turner during his presentation.
Ask your child about the robot's name. Also, ask your child which part was his or her favorite and what they learned.
Once inside the planetarium, Mr. Turner taught us a lot about objects in the sky. We learned how the earth spins, or rotates and this causes day and night. We learned that Earth is just right for life. Things can grow, water can be in a liquid form, and the air is breathable.
We learned a little about the sun, too. We learned that the sun is a star, and it's huge! We learned that the sun doesn't move, although it looks like it does. That's because the earth moves. We learned other things about stars as well. For example, stars don't have pointy shapes; they are round like the sun. Also, stars are always in the sky. We just can't see them during the day because it is so bright. Finally, we learned a little about the moon, too. We talked about how we can sometimes see the moon in the daytime sky. Cool!
I tried taking a couple of pictures, but since a planetarium is dark, they didn't really turn out. I did get a picture of the robot that helped Mr. Turner during his presentation.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
St. Patrick's Day
Well, another St. Patrick's Day has come to kindergarten, and it's another year where no one caught the leprechaun. Look at these sad faces:
Following a trail of gold glitter, we entered the classroom to find all of the traps had been tripped! The lucky leprechaun left each student a note, and some of the students caught a few wisps of red and brown hair in their traps! He left us with a special snack of Lucky Charms cereal.
The leprechaun made us laugh and laugh this morning because he turned over a few chairs, clipped everyone down to parent contact (!) and he messed up our calendar!
The students were so excited! It was great to hear such wonderful things like "Oh well, we didn't catch him, but we had a lot of fun!"
I was so impressed with each of the designs of the traps, too. Each students presented his or her trap and explained how it worked. These traps were so thoughtful! Maybe next year!
Thank you for helping your child design a trap and doing your part to make this a fun day for kindergarten students!
The leprechaun made us laugh and laugh this morning because he turned over a few chairs, clipped everyone down to parent contact (!) and he messed up our calendar!
I was so impressed with each of the designs of the traps, too. Each students presented his or her trap and explained how it worked. These traps were so thoughtful! Maybe next year!
Thank you for helping your child design a trap and doing your part to make this a fun day for kindergarten students!
Which of These Traps Will Catch a Leprechaun?
Which of these traps will catch a leprechaun?
We'll find out on Tuesday!
Friday, March 13, 2015
All About Penguins
In another post I mentioned that we practiced asking questions while learning about penguins. We had so much fun learning about penguins!
We started by thinking about what we already knew about penguins. We wrote down anything we could think of! We save these thoughts so that we could confirm what we knew was true with our research or if we realized we had misconceptions. We practiced saying the word misconceptions a lot!
Before we dove into research, we wanted to think of some questions we had about penguins. Students wondered what penguins did to defend themselves from predators, what baby penguins did to stay warm, and where penguins lived. Some of us wondered where penguins used the bathroom!! We put those questions on a different sticky note so that we could remind ourselves what we were looking for while reading.
One of our questions was about how penguins move. We learned that penguins waddle and slide in a way called tobogganing. Here we are trying to waddle and tobaggan:
During our reading and research we came across some information that we had a harder time connecting to. For example, it was really hard to think about penguin fathers keeping an egg on his feet for two whole months! What is it like for a penguin father to move around with an egg on his feet? We tried it out:
As we read, we confirmed our prior knowledge or declared a misconception, we answered questions, and we took note of new learning. Then we put our study of information writing to use and wrote what we learned about penguins. Ask your child what he or she learned about penguins!
We started by thinking about what we already knew about penguins. We wrote down anything we could think of! We save these thoughts so that we could confirm what we knew was true with our research or if we realized we had misconceptions. We practiced saying the word misconceptions a lot!
Before we dove into research, we wanted to think of some questions we had about penguins. Students wondered what penguins did to defend themselves from predators, what baby penguins did to stay warm, and where penguins lived. Some of us wondered where penguins used the bathroom!! We put those questions on a different sticky note so that we could remind ourselves what we were looking for while reading.
One of our questions was about how penguins move. We learned that penguins waddle and slide in a way called tobogganing. Here we are trying to waddle and tobaggan:
During our reading and research we came across some information that we had a harder time connecting to. For example, it was really hard to think about penguin fathers keeping an egg on his feet for two whole months! What is it like for a penguin father to move around with an egg on his feet? We tried it out:
As we read, we confirmed our prior knowledge or declared a misconception, we answered questions, and we took note of new learning. Then we put our study of information writing to use and wrote what we learned about penguins. Ask your child what he or she learned about penguins!
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
I Can Ask Questions
We've been busy learning that good readers ask questions while they read. We first had to learn what a question is! We spent some time thinking about what words we would use to ask a question. Kindergarteners are very good at asking questions, but it's usually when they are not thinking about it. Interestingly it is when you want them to ask a question when they start telling you all sorts of stories and connections instead of a question.
Here is a chart we made to help us remember what words questions typically start with:
In addition to talking about question words, we discussed why readers ask questions. We put that on our chart as well.
We practiced asking questions for both fiction and non-fiction texts. We read many fictional texts, but one that stands out is Charlie Anderson. Ask your child to retell that story to you at home. It was such a surprising book, and asking questions really helped us make the story more clear--just like readers!
We read many non-fiction texts, too, but one topic that stood out is penguins. With a non-fiction text, we started off thinking about what we already knew and what we wanted to know--which generated a lot of questions! Our next job was to read about penguins and see if we could find the answers to our questions. Below is a picture part of our findings. The green notes were things we already knew before reading and were confirmed by our reading. The yellow notes were questions we had before we read anything and we added questions on yellow notes as they came up during our reading. The red notes are for new learning. Some of our new learning answered some of our questions. We tried to match up the yellow question with the red answer.
We learned that sometimes readers have questions that the author didn't answer. Time for more research!
When reading at home with your child, feel free to share questions about a story or topic you have and see if you can find the answers in the text!
Here is a chart we made to help us remember what words questions typically start with:
We practiced asking questions for both fiction and non-fiction texts. We read many fictional texts, but one that stands out is Charlie Anderson. Ask your child to retell that story to you at home. It was such a surprising book, and asking questions really helped us make the story more clear--just like readers!
When reading at home with your child, feel free to share questions about a story or topic you have and see if you can find the answers in the text!
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Our Ruth Lilly Field Trip
Our "field trip" was so much fun and we learned a lot!
First we learned about body parts. Students were able to place organs on our model as the presenter discussed each one.
As we talked about each organ, we learned some comparisons to help us understand each organ's job and how it helps us keep our body working properly. A heart works like a pump, the lungs are like balloons, the stomach is like a blender, etc. The students understood that the brain is like a boss.
Next we learned about our skeleton and muscles. Ask your child how many bones we have (206) or how many muscles we have (over 600). We learned that exercising helps take care of our bones and muscles. We played a fun game where we rolled a die with numbers and rolled a die with exercises on it. For example, we might have to do five jumping jacks or 10 seconds of running in place. Check us out doing our exercises:
I think that would be a fun activity to do at home. The students were so excited to exercise this way!
Then we learned about keeping our bodies healthy with foods. Ask your child about any time foods and sometime foods.
We learned about brushing teeth and flossing, too. We learned a little chant to help us remember where to brush our teeth: Up like a rocket, down like rain, round and round like a choo-choo train.
Another thing we discusses was germs. We learned that not all germs are bad.
Before our field trip was over, we discussed other ways to keep our body healthy and safe. We talked about bicycle safety, water safety, and other ways to stay safe. Ask your child to tell you a few ways to stay safe!
Ask your child about his or her favorite part of the field trip!
First we learned about body parts. Students were able to place organs on our model as the presenter discussed each one.
As we talked about each organ, we learned some comparisons to help us understand each organ's job and how it helps us keep our body working properly. A heart works like a pump, the lungs are like balloons, the stomach is like a blender, etc. The students understood that the brain is like a boss.
Next we learned about our skeleton and muscles. Ask your child how many bones we have (206) or how many muscles we have (over 600). We learned that exercising helps take care of our bones and muscles. We played a fun game where we rolled a die with numbers and rolled a die with exercises on it. For example, we might have to do five jumping jacks or 10 seconds of running in place. Check us out doing our exercises:
I think that would be a fun activity to do at home. The students were so excited to exercise this way!
Then we learned about keeping our bodies healthy with foods. Ask your child about any time foods and sometime foods.
We learned about brushing teeth and flossing, too. We learned a little chant to help us remember where to brush our teeth: Up like a rocket, down like rain, round and round like a choo-choo train.
Another thing we discusses was germs. We learned that not all germs are bad.
Before our field trip was over, we discussed other ways to keep our body healthy and safe. We talked about bicycle safety, water safety, and other ways to stay safe. Ask your child to tell you a few ways to stay safe!
Ask your child about his or her favorite part of the field trip!
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