Kilcommins' Kindergarten: April 2017

During the 2 weeks leading up to April vacation, we found ourselves exploring several versions of Jack and the Beanstalk. I didn't really have any idea how many versions where available to share with kindergarten children. There are plenty, each having similar features, but all having something just a little different to talk about.
Here are just a few of the books we used in the classroom to inspire our curriculum in ELA, Math, Science, and Art.

Image result for jack and the beanstalk covers

Image result for jack and the beanstalk covers

Image result for the giant and the beanstalk by diane stanley

Together we have read and listened to these stories. We have compared them to one another and even determined a favorite.

The overall favorite version was:

What made it our favorite?

* the illustrations

* the text features that illustrated what was happening in the story: such as it grew, and grew, and grew!

* it was predictable for a young reader

Our next favorite version:

* In this version the Giant is more friendly

* there are familiar characters from other stories named Jack

(Jack from Jack and Jill, Jack from Little Jack Horner, and Jack Sprat)

We have taken so many pictures of the children and the activities during this theme. I hope the pictures chosen to share with you, paint a clear picture of the learning and fun that happened.

English Language Arts and Art

A directed drawing

Scissor practice

Sequencing and retelling the story

Building, reading and illustrating sentences with sight words.

Identifying CHARACTER, SETTING, PROBLEM & SOLUTION

Creative writing. We are working on:
* writing phonetically
* using sight words in our writing
* spacing in between words
* capital letters at the beginning of the sentence
* ending punctuation
* using illustrations that match the words we write

Writing and illustrating a sentence from the word on our "magic bean"

Coming up with a variety of CHARACTER TRAITS for Jack and the Giant.

Building our vocabulary

"Stretched"

"snatched"

"tossed like a ball"

Math with Jack and the Beanstalk

Measuring and comparing our own illustrations of Jack and the Giant

Number puzzles

Building an Apple "Jack" beanstalk. We were working on:

* estimating how many

* counting

I observed several children change their original estimates after they starting putting the cereal on. This allowed me several opportunities for me to ask them to explain their thinking.

Nora independently organized her thinking by using a strategy we have done several time before. She created spaces for her to sort and count by 10's.

Using non-standard units to measure a giant's foot

Talking about math:
* seeing number combinations
* seeing shapes and the number of sides
* counting

We did this math activity in whole group. The next day we worked in small, collaborative groups to do the same activity with a similar picture.

Working collaboratively to demonstrate flexible thinking in math.

We call this WHICH ONE DOESN'T BELONG. The children are becoming experts with explaining their mathematical thinking and listening to the ideas from others. #growthmindset