Writing Tool: Flaps

One of our goals for making our writing easy to read, is giving ourselves enough space on the page to write our sentences.  Sometimes, even if we plan it out, we run out of room.  To solve this problem, I introduced flaps during a writing lesson.  Students looked back through their writing to find places where they had run out of room.  They re-wrote their sentence on a flap and taped onto the page where they needed more room.  This was a great editing tool!  

Now when they write new books they can use a flap if they want to add more writing but there isn't more room on a page.  

Egg Hunting for Sight Words

We have the most fun egg themed stations this week! One of my favorite is egg hunts around the room for sight words.  I place our new heart words inside eggs, the students have to find an egg, read the word and record it onto the sheet.  Anything with an easter egg is a big deal in kindergarten!

April Character Development: Understanding

Our April character development topic is understanding.  It will encompass both an understanding of friend's feelings (empathy) and an understanding of people who are different than us.  I am so excited about our books for this month, they are awesome!

Spork 

 

His mum is a spoon. His dad is a fork. And he's a bit of both. He's Spork! Spork sticks out in the regimented world of the cutlery drawer. The spoons think he's too pointy, while the forks find him too round. He never gets chosen to be at the table at mealtimes until one day a very messy ? thing arrives in the kitchen who has never heard of cutlery customs. Will Spork finally find his place at the table?

Peanut Butter and Cupcake

 

What’s a little piece of bread to do when he’s feeling lonely? Find a friend, of course! And that’s exactly what Peanut Butter tries to do. But sometimes friends are hard to come by, especially when Hamburger has to walk his (hot) dogs, Cupcake is too busy building castles in her sprinkle box, and Egg laughs so hard he starts to crack up! Does Peanut Butter have a soulmate? Young readers will know the answer long before Peanut Butter does and laugh along with each mismatched pairing.

A Lion in Paris

 

His It tells the story of a lion who, bored by his rural life in the savanna, seeks excitement and opportunity in the City of Light. Upon arriving in Paris, the lion is disappointed to find that despite his size, people barely pay attention to him, not even when he lets out a ferocious roar on the busy underground Métro.

At the Same Moment Around the World

 

Discover Benedict drinking hot chocolate in Paris, France; Mitko chasing the school bus in Sofia, Bulgaria; and Khanh having a little nap in Hanoi, Vietnam! Clotilde Perrin takes readers eastward from the Greenwich meridian, from day to night, with each page portraying one of (the original) 24 time zones. Strong back matter empowers readers to learn about the history of timekeeping and time zones, and to explore where each of the characters lives on the world map. 

 

 My Teacher is a Monster

 

A young boy named Bobby has the worst teacher. She's loud, she yells, and if you throw paper airplanes, she won't allow you to enjoy recess. She is a monster! Luckily, Bobby can go to his favorite spot in the park on weekends to play. Until one day... he finds his teacher there! Over the course of one day, Bobby learns that monsters are not always what they seem.

Little Sweet Potato

 

When Little Sweet Potato rolls away from his patch, he is forced to search for a new home. He stumbles upon some very mean plants on his journey and begins to wonder if maybe he is too lumpy and bumpy to belong anywhere. Will Little Sweet Potato ever find a home that's just right for him?

More Arduino Boards

Here are some more pictures of us working on programming our arduino boards. We also played the board game Robot Turtle to learn more about programming and coding!

Chicken Little

We have been working a ton on retelling stories, this week we focused on using character names while retelling a story.  To emphasize this, the students made their own Chicken Little out of a tube.  Then we made a written and picture character list to roll up inside the chicken.  When they bring it home, they can use their tools to help remind them of all the character's names.  

St. Patrick's Day

Here are some activities we did leading up to St. Patrick's Day and on St. Patrick's Day!

Rainbow Windsocks 

Leprechaun Traps

A Visit From a Leprechaun 

He Left Us Gold! 

Who is Worth More to You Than Gold?

How to Catch a Leprechaun

Leprechaun Creations With Our 2nd Grade Buddies

Chicken Little Retelling and Characters

By reading the book Chicken Little this week, we learned more about retelling and got to talk about different characters in books.  

First we read the book and made a chart of the characters.  We also talked about what a character is and what is looks like and can do.

Then we read with our partners and looked for who the characters were in our favorite books.  

Finally, we did another reader's theater using Chicken Little. We talked about trying to make our voices different for each character!

Here's a little clip from our reader's theater.  I usually narrate and move the story along and let the kids say their character lines in certain places.  This time, they went full speed ahead and did their thing without me.  It was amazing! Here is a little clip of them, and this is the first time they retold it!

Arduino Boards

Our principal, Dr. Locke, is helping our class learn how to program arduino boards! We will use our knowledge to program lights to blink at different speeds.  In addition, we are learning about circuits through our Snap Circuit boards and we made a human circuit using this energy ball!

And here is us experimenting with the arduino boards!

Food Packaging Video

Here is our class packaging food for Children of the Nations on King 5 News!

Biography Reports

Wow, I am so impressed with the biography reports that the class gave last week! The kids did a great job learning their information about a famous person, I can tell that they practiced a lot.  Thank you parents for your support on this project. 

Class Auction Project Tee-Pee

We made a tee-pee for our class auction project this year! The kids tie-dyed fabric using sharpies and rubbing alcohol.  I sewed their tie-dye into bunting flags to hang around the tee-pee.  I sewed a stripe of polka dot fabric to the bottom to add some more pattern!