Curious Kinders

If you want to be inspired, if you want to rediscover wonder, if you want to be curious again, you should try spending time in a Kindergarten class!  

We began our study of the body this week in science.  As we delve into this unit we will spend time wondering about and wondering at the amazing creatures that we are.  Here are some of the things that your kindergarteners are wondering about...

We had a new visitor to our classroom... Mr. Bones the skeleton.  We spent some time with him, exploring what our bones look like, and how our joints fit together.  Then we created some skeletons of our own!  We even played anatomy Hokey Pokey!  ("You put your femur in...") . 

Besides the skeletons, we have had lots of fun making other Halloween decorations, including our footprint ghosts!  

We studied nocturnal animals, and studied how their eyes were different than ours so that they could see better in the dark.  As part of those studies we did experiments on our own eyes to see how our pupils adapted to light.

Then we looked at owl pupils and made Halloween owls!

In reading we read a Photo Essay about nocturnal animals.  We learned about the format of a photo essay, and then we used magazines to collaborate on our own class book:  a photo essay about animals!  

In other reading news... we reached our goal of learning 15 Popcorn Words, and so the students earned a popcorn party!  

This week we took a big leap in writing:  Kid spelling.  My kinders discovered that they can spell!  They chop up a word and write down the sounds that they hear.  (This can also be called inventive spelling or phonetic spelling...) .  The important thing about kid spelling is that the kids are allowed to spell at whatever level they are able.  They will often ask, "Is that right?"  And I will answer, "That looks great!  You heard a lot of sounds!"  or, "Yep!  That is great kid spelling for that word!  They spell it differently in books, but that looks great!"  When we take away the "right" or "wrong" about spelling, then kids are more willing to hear sounds and TRY to translate them into letters, which is an extremely valuable step in reading and writing.  Here the students are presenting their kid spelling labels to the rest of the class.

On Wednesday we had the special treat of having art class with Mrs. Shauna Lee!  The kids worked on painting techniques to create a fall tree.  One of their favorite parts was using the blow drier in between painting steps!  Thank you to Ms. Shauna for volunteering to teach art in our school!