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!

Playing to Learn!

First of all, congratulations to Jocelynn Erickson for achieving Elementary Student of the Month!  Jocelynn was recognized in front of the whole school for her hard work and terrific attitude at school!  Way to go, Jocelynn!

This week as I was looking through the photos I realized just how much we PLAYED!  They say that "kids learn through play"... and I believe that is definitely true!  So, I'd like to show you some of the ways that we played to learn this week! 

In the classroom we studied the sense of sound by making pencil box guitars and taking a slo-mo video to watch how the rubberbands created vibrations!  We also played a sound matching game with easter eggs full of different materials.  The students had to find their "sound match".  They had a great time!

Music class fit in perfectly with our science this week!  Ms. Fastenau showed the kids how to make some "found" instruments using wine glasses and straws to create vibrations!

Continuing our study of senses, we asked, "What wold it be like to try to read if you were blind?"  We tried it out by reading the braille outside of our classroom, and all agreed it would be VERY difficult!  

We finished up our science unit on senses with the sense of touch.  Here the kids are playing Mystery Bag... trying to guess what is in the bag only using their sense of touch.  We also did some Word Work and came up with a huge list of adjectives describing touch, and used those words to help the rest of the class guess what was in the bag!

In reading and social studies this week we learned about how friends play together and follow social rules to get along.  We also read about games around the world!  Then we had game centers in reading to practice playing nicely, taking turns, and following rules.  

We also played BINGO with our Popcorn Words!  Here the kids are making their own BINGO boards by writing down the words they feel are lucky!

On Tuesday our whole class got to go to the District Cross Country Race in Tanacross.  Everyone had a blast!  The kids all finished a half mile race.  Highlights of the day also included playing on different equipment at the Tanacross School playground, like the merry-go-round, and getting temporary tattoos from the State Troopers who attended the event!

The kids also did some beautiful art this week!  They made stained glass-looking leaves, and very cute dot-stamper pictures of ants.

Have a great week!  And don't forget to PLAY!

Ants Work Together, and So Do We!

I found these example of kids working together at recess the other day.  It made me happy to see my class helping each other!  We have been studying our ants, and watching how they work together...

We also watched a video of some leaf cutter ants that found a way to get across a broken branch they were crawling on.  They made a bridge!  So we made a bridge also!  Then we did some writing in our journals about how our ants work together.

We have been getting into the routine of our new math curriculum, My Math.  We also have time each day to do math centers... exploring hands on applications of math concepts.  Here the kids are in their math groups playing dominoes, making pattern necklaces, and working on their daily math lesson.

In science this week we asked the question, "What happens to all of the leaves that fall on the ground?  Why isn't forest piled up with old leaves?"  After making some hypotheses, we watched a time lapse video of what happens to leaves on the forest floor, and learned that they get decomposed by mushrooms and other fungi!  So... we went outside to see if we could see that happening.  We found some mushrooms growing, turned them over, and sure enough, they were "eating" leaves!  We could see their white thread-like roots growing into the leaves.  It was awesome!  We took some back to the classroom and took a closer look in the microscopes!

Then we wondered... does food decompose, or rot, the same way?  We decided to let some food decompose in our classroom, but we did some experiments to see what would affect how fast the fungi would grow on the food.  We added salt to one plate, water to another, left one out on the counter,  and put one in the fridge.  We will watch closely to see what happens, and what effects salt, moisture, and temperature have on the rate at which food decomposes!

This week we had a district cross country meet in Dot Lake.  Each class got to take their top three runners, so we had lots of fun in P.E. practicing and having races.  It was VERY competitive and exciting.

Melody, Natasha, and Braiden got to go to Dot Lake to race.  They all ran half a mile and did great!!!  You can only see Braiden's back leg in this picture, because he was so fast.  He was already almost gone by the time I took it!  We will have another race on Tuesday, Oct. 3rd in Tanacross, and this time we are going to take our whole class.  Hopefully you found a permission slip in your child's folder for this event.

We had the opportunity this week to watch some Fairy Tale plays that the Middle School and High School drama class put on for us.  It was SO much fun, and they did a great job!  Thank you to Ms. Walton and her drama students!