Last Day of School

     Friday was the last day of school.  It is always difficult to say good-bye to a class that has grown so much academically, socially and emotionally.  After 12 years of teaching, it does not get any easier.

      We started our last day together by doing the calendar one last time.  We read the book, Goodnight Moon, and then gathered into our Sharing circle.  With yarn, we made our goodbye spider web.  Each person took the ball of yarn, wrapped the yarn around their hand a couple of times and didn't let go.  The child said goodbye to one thing in the room.  Still hanging on to the yarn, the student threw the ball of yarn to another person in the circle who repeated the procedure.  When all the students had shared, a beautiful web connected everyone in our class together. 


     The spider web was used several times throughout the year.  On Thanksgiving, it was used to share things we were thankful for and on Valentine's Day, we shared things that we loved.


     After the web, we returned to our seats to draw and label 4 things we wanted to say goodbye to.  When completed, the students shared their paper with 3 other students.

     For story time, we read the book, Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the Last Day of Kindergarten.

     Earlier in the week, we made a Kindergarten Memory Book.  Today we finished the last thing in the book.  We collected our classmates autographs.  The children love this!  I had to convince one little guy that he was to write his name in all the books and not the name of the student seeking his autograph.  Autographs were a new concept for us!

     To end our morning, I had a give away.  I put all the posters, interactive writing pieces, class books and any other things I don't want any longer in the middle of the circle.  I pulled student's names and they could choose one item to keep.  I am always amazed at how excited they are to be able to keep these things, and I'm always surprised at what they choose.

    After cleaning the room, it was time to say goodbye to my little friends and close the room for another year.

     Summer!  Yes!  Here I come!

     Continuing today with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, we began writing our own book, The Hungry Five (or Six) Year Old.   On each page of the book, the students are writing and illustrating what they eat on a particular day.

                        On Monday, I ate a pickle.

                        On Tuesday, I ate a watermelon.

                         On Wednesday, I ate ice cream!

      We watched a DVD of Eric Carle sharing how he makes the illustrations for his books.  He uses a collage method which means gluing on a collection of different materials. 

       The students used the collage method to decorate a butterfly.  They were given a cut-out construction paper butterfly, and they cut out different colors and shapes from paper scraps to glue onto the butterfly.  We also learned that a butterfly is symmetrical so the scraps had to be glued on to maintain the symmetry.  This was a simple lesson to practice collage and symmetry.

     

Frogs & Eric Carle

 

 These are the activities we did last week during our frog unit.  

*We started our study of frogs with a KWL chart.  We read numerous non-fiction books to learn as many facts as we could about frogs.

* Learned about the life cycle of a frog and participated in a cut & paste activity sequencing the life cycle  (eggs, tadpole, froglet and frog).

* Focused on reading and writing words from the -og word family (dog, log, hog, frog, etc.).


* Wrote  fiction or non-fiction stories about frogs in our journals. 

* Completed another fact writing activity by completing the frames:

        Frogs like to eat _______.
        Frogs can ________.
        Frogs live in _________.
        Frogs are __________.

* Created construction paper frogs and wrote one fact about frogs on it.

Today we started our author study on Eric Carle.  We discussed the collage method that Eric Carle uses in his illustrations and later this week we will create our own collages.  We looked at his web site, and watched a video of Mr. Carle reading, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Together we read, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  The book led to a discussion on the days of the weeks and healthy vs. non-healthy foods.  We created a class book with each student completing a page about what they eat when they are hungry.

Frogs

     It is Frog Week in our Kindergarten class.  We started the week learning about the life cycle of a frog.  


                     eggs to tadpole to froglet to frog




      We practiced drawing frogs.  I love to teach the children how to draw because of the confidence it gives them to create many other things.  And children just love to draw!  


     In math, we guesstimated how many frogs were in a jar.  We wrote our guesses on sticky notes and posted them on the white board.  When all the guesses were in, we counted the frogs to find the actual number.  There were 16 frogs in the jar, and Carli guessed the exact amount.  We also performed addition and subtraction story problems with frogs.  I gave them a sentence like, "There were 3 frogs at the pond.  One more came along and joined them.  How many frogs are at the pond now?"  The children drew the picture and wrote the math sentence that goes along with it.


     The word family -og joined the neighborhood.  We listed all the words that live in the -og house.


                        fog   frog   dog   hog   jog   log    blog

       We are anxiously awaiting Fun and Fitness Day on Friday.

Bunnies and Eggs

     It is a fun week of bunnies and eggs.  On Monday we read Jan Brett's, The Easter Egg.

      In the book, Hoppi, a little bunny, tries to design the best Easter egg so he can help the Easter bunny deliver the eggs on Easter morning.  After reading the book, the students were so excited to write their own books about the different kinds of eggs their friends and families decorated.


      
                    Mommy has a big red egg.
                    My sister has a little striped egg.
                    Taryn has a bunny egg.
                     I made a gold egg.


     The children love sharing the books they write.  I continue to be amazed and proud of their writing skills.

     In math, we used jelly beans to estimate, sort, count, graph, add and subtract. 

     During the week, we have been playing, "Crack Open an Egg."  The students choose a plastic egg out of a basket and break it open.  Inside is a sentence directing them to complete a skill we have learned during the year.

                        Tell us what an author and illustrator does.
                         Draw a worm and tell us the body parts.
                         Count backwards from 10.
                         On the whiteboard, draw 1 circle and 2 triangles.
                         Find something in the room that is a cylinder.

     For Sharing, the children prepared a "surprise egg".  I gave them a plastic egg to take home.  They had to place something inside the egg and write 3 clues about the item inside.  At Sharing time, they had to read their clues and the class guessed what was inside the egg. The students had to be detectives and use the three clues to make reasonable guesses.  This can be a difficult skill for many kindergarten kids.



      We made this cute bunny.  (This is a picture of Ava's bunny.)

      The students were given two cut-out egg shapes.  The first egg was decorated by drawing different lines (straight, zig zag, curly, etc.)  After decorating, we folded it in 1/2 and cut on the fold line.  They drew a bunny face on the second egg shape.  We used brads to attach the egg parts to the top of the oval to create bunny ears.


     

      This is an bunny bag made out of a white paper lunch bag.  The opening was cut into bunny ears and the students decorated the front with a bunny face.  When they returned from specials at the end of the day, they found a couple of pieces of goodies in their bunny bag.

     This is a simple art project.  The body of the chick is a circle.  The wings were made by tracing our hand.  We added Goggly eyes, a beak, legs and grass.

 

      I have always loved duck/bunny.  One side is decorated like a bunny.  Flip it over and the other side is decorated like a duck.
  

Peter Rabbit & Snails

     We started the week reading Beatrix Potter's, The Tale of Peter Rabbit.  This is the story of a naughty rabbit whose choices almost have dreadful consequences for him.  After reading the story, we had a good discussion about how some of our own choices led to unfavorable consequences.  The students made many connections with this theme!  After our talk, the children wrote in their journals about their choices and consequences.  

     I shared with the students the Peter Rabbit web site.  You can go here with your child to find activities and information about Peter Rabbit.

     After studying fish and worms, we moved on this week to our next animal, snails.  What interesting animals!  Imagine how excited Kindergarten kids are over an animal that uses a cool belly foot to move along very slowly on a trail of slime!  We are learning the body parts of a snail, its needs and how it is different from the other animals we have studied.  Water snails are available for us to observe.

Worms

     Last week was worm week in our Kindergarten.  The purpose of studying the worms was to learn different kinds of worms have similar structures and behaviors, worms have basic needs and all animals, even worms, deserve respect. 

     The students dug out a red worm and an earthworm and compared how the two worms were alike and different.  We learned the body parts and discovered how they moved.  We learned how worms are great for the earth.  Who knew worms could be so interesting?

     We integrated worms into our other curriculum.  In Literacy, we read the book, Dairy of a Worm, and then students wrote their own diaries about a worm.  They were so excited at the opportunity to write a diary just like the one we read.  Their creative juices were flowing, and the results were terrific.  I can't wait for the students to share the books with their parents.