We are thankful for so many things!

With the days getting shorter we have noticed it's hard to do our weather chart in the morning now!  It's usually still pretty dark! But... in the spirit of being thankful this week, we were thankful for the beautiful sunrises that we get to see out our window!!!

We took this opportunity to have a mini lesson on why it gets darker in the winter, and why we have day and night.  Then we painted day/night pictures! (They will be displayed at the school... so they haven't come home yet...)

In another mini science lesson, we dissected a fox to look at its organs and body parts.  The kids were absolutely fascinated.  We found the stomach and looked at what the fox was eating, opened up its heart, looked at intestines, muscles, tendons, spine, eyeballs etc.  It was neat for the kids to see all of the parts of the body that we learned about last month in our body unit!  Then we wrote in our journals about what we saw.  I got everything from, "We cut open a fox. It was cool!" To "The fox was bloody. I didn't like it."   I am thankful to my son for getting me a fox to dissect, and I am also thankful for the wonder that I get to experience fresh every day when kinders learn about the world around them!

The kids wanted to make turkey puppets like the one I used at Morning Meeting, so we did!  Hopefully you got to hear the poem that goes with them!  I am thankful for the enthusiasm of 5 and six year olds!

In math one day we did a hundreds chart turkey mystery picture.  This is really good for helping the kids get familiar with patterns of numbers and how they are organized in the hundreds chart.  I tell them one number or set of numbers at a time, and they watch their picture emerge and try to guess what it is!

We had a fun pumpkin pie making party on Thursday with our Kindergarten Grandma, Carol.  The kids each made their own mini pies to take home and share with their families!  We practiced reading and following a recipe.  We are so thankful for Ms. Carol volunteering in our classroom!

And last but definitely not least, we took time this week to be very thankful for all of the people at the school that help us everyday.  The kids listed everyone they wanted to say thank you to, and we made turkey cards for them.  Then we delivered cards all around the school.  It was fun to watch all of the smiles come to people's faces as the kids handed them their cards and shouted a chorus of, "We are thankful for you!"  When we got back to the classroom, the kids all said how much fun that was, and we talked about how good it feels to do something for someone else.  

I am so thankful for my wonderful kinders, and all of the people in their lives who help them be successful at school.  

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!