Monday, October 17, 2016

Taking a close look at the details

A good observer has learned to slow down to look for the details. 

In kindergarten a good observer is:
A SCIENTIST
AN ARTIST
A READER
A WRITER
A MATHEMATICIAN
A FRIEND
A LEADER
A LEARNER



We filled the classroom with a variety of fall themed natural items.  Over the course of 2 days the children sketched one item of their choice.  The next day a smaller piece of paper was provided to illustrate an "UP CLOSE" picture.  We encouraged them to OBSERVE the interesting DETAILS and to include those details in their illustration.  

The following pictures are quite remarkable for 5-6 year old children. They really captured the distinguishing details of many of the items.


















Making the connection between letters & sounds


One of the most important skills for children to develop in the kindergarten year is the recognition that letters and sounds are related.  We often call this "the alphabetic principle," which is the notion that speech sounds can be connected to letters in a predictable way.

Part of our daily routine is practicing letter names and their associated sounds with our FUNDATIONS cards. This is a fun part of morning meeting the children look forward to. We use the letter cards as the teacher says the letter name, names a picture, and the gives the sound.  The children ECHO  what the teacher has said.
Teacher:  " B  bat  /b/"
       
Children (all together):  " B  bat  /b/"

                         














 We have been working on identifying the beginning sounds the children hear in words. Below are pictures of one of the activities the children enjoyed.  They were asked to pick a letter (or 2) to draw a picture the begins with the given letter.

B  balloon, blue butterfly & brain

 D dinosaur, dog & doughnut

 F   feather & football


H hat & heart

L  lamp & lollipop

M mittens, magnifying glass & monkey







Saturday, October 8, 2016

Apples


Apples

It would not be fall in kindergarten if we did not talk a little bit about APPLES.

These photographs will show you some of the things we did in class to explore apples.

We investigated the changes of an apple tree throughout the seasons through literature and video.




We read about apples- fiction and non-fiction



What can you carry on top of your head?







A taste test was also involved


                   
  


A little "math talk"
 " 6 people like the Red Delicious"
  " If 1 more person liked Granny Smith there would be a tie"
  " 2 are the same"
 " Only 1 liked the Braeburn best"

Making Applesauce and writing the recipe to bring home.





Thursday, October 6, 2016

The Kindergarten Name-Game


An important part of being a classroom community is learning the names of one another.  There have been several activities the children have participated in to help them become familiar with the letters and identification of their own names and of their peers.  

Here are a few pictures of a few of the NAME GAME activities.





Egg Experiment- Humpty Dumpty was an egg

Humpty Dumpty was an egg.
We were WONDERING about eggs. 
Are they fragile?
Are they strong?
What is inside?

Take a look a our SCIENCE EXPERIMENT IN PICTURES.  
We thought it was cool to watch the changes over a couple of days.

We were able to observe the eggs.  We talked about what we could SEE, SMELL, FEEL, and HEAR.

We recorded our observations in an egg shaped book!

 
On the very last day, we opened up all the eggs to see inside.  
Some of our thoughts included:
 "It looks like a balloon"
" It is stretchy"
" See, it was very fragile"
" I still see yellow"
" I see something white"




Sunday, October 2, 2016

Exploring Blanchard's Campus

Young scientists using their senses as we take a walk around our school campus.

STEM in Kindergarten

Documenting our nature walk.

What do we notice?

"Colorful stepping stones in the outdoor classroom."

"Cracks in the rocks."


"Acorns."


"I hear a chipmunk and I see flowers."



"I hear a bird"




"I see the golden water" 



"Berries for the birds"




Child created MAPS of our walk.
 Our school, a maple tree, and a bridge to get to the library

 The wind is making the flag wave when we come out of the school.  

 My map shows the big tree, the bush with lots of red berries, a path and the bridge.


Learning how to use PIC COLLAGE to share our pictures and revisit our nature walk.