Happy Thanksgiving

Popcorn!

Meet Popcorn, our juvenile albino oketee corn snake.  She is about 3 years old.  She is not poisionus, though she has fangs to grip her food and hold it still while she constricts it.  The picture above is her constricting a mouse.   We feed her frozen mice that are heated up in a hot water bath and dangled around by the tail using a long pair of tongs so she thinks it is alive.   Gross, right.  But that is life in the animal kingdom.  

   

Having live animals in the classroom is a wonderful learning opportunity for children.  The kids LOVE her!  They have responsibilities to help me care for her and maintain her habitat.  When we feed her the whole class is gathered around to watch. And of course, watching a snake molt right in front of your eyes is a far richer experience that seeing it on a video.  I've discovered over the years that being afraid of snakes is a grown-up thing.  I haven't met a kid yet who doesn't want to touch her.    

Red Ribbon Week Parade

During Red Ribbon Week we learned about keeping our bodies healthy and safe.  That means saying NO to drugs and alcohol.  Each student made their own poster and joined the rest of the kindergarten in a parade around the campus.  This is one of the classes favorite activities every year. 

Down on the Farm

The mobile came to visit our school.  We got to meet Cookie, a brown Jersey cow.  We learned about how the dairies care for the cows, watched her get milked, and learn what she eats.  We even got to see her spit up and chew on her cud (gross I know, but awesome to see at the same time).  This gave us the opportunity to talk about cows multiple stomachs.

The 3 Little Pigs

Retelling the details of a story is one of the student expectations for kindergarten.  We read the story of The 3 Little Pigs, watched the video. and mapped out the story.  Then the kids put on plays for each other in the storytelling center.  They were so cute!  Every kid knew the story and even used voices when retelling it.

One way to help your children learn to be  good readers is to ask them to retell stories you read to them.  They may not start out with many details, but with practice you will begin to notice much improvement.  This will help improve comprehension which is the reason we read.

Happy Halloween

  I have some great things to share with ya'll, but between work and family in town I have been very busy.  Anyhow, I showd this video to the kiddos during snack time last Friday and they thought it was pretty cool.

Happy Halloween!!

Have a safe and fun holiday!

Purple Song

Pumpkin Patch

 Our class pumpkin patch (made by painting and rolling their knuckles).

Garden Walks

Last week we went out on a garden walk to check out the vegetable garden I planted with my students last spring. We had a great time looking at all the different plants that were growing- tomatoes, okra, green beans, and flowers. We picked a few of the tomatoes that were ripe and some of the students took them, washed them up, and tried one (they were tiny cherry tomatoes).

We also had a few explorers find a newly emerged insect (I think it was a young grasshopper) standing on a leaf next to its discarded exoskeleton in our school butterfly garden.  One of the students asked if the insects skin has to come off like Popcorn's (our class snake) because the skin didn't grow.  YEAH!!  What a great connection!!  I love it when I see kids take what they know and apply it to new situations.  I was able to give an impromptu mini-lesson on insects anatomy and then we talked about how they are the same and different than snakes. I know it is hard to see in the picture, but the insect is on the underside of the leaf closest to the top of the picture.  The exoskeleton is near the tip of the same leaf.    

YELLOW Song

Here is a link to the song we are working on this week.

Shaping Up!

 While working on our shapes unit we read the story Mouse Shapes.  It is a story about three mice making a variety of things out of different shapes as they hide from a scary cat.  After working with the book, I told the kids they got to be creative little mice and make their own shapes pictures.  It was fun to see each child having fun and developing their own pictures.  When they were finished, they labeled the names of the shapes they used.

Math Time!

One of the kids favorite times of the day is math centers. It gives them a chance to work with different materiasl either by themselves or with a buddy. It also gives me a chance to work with smaller groups on specific skills. Here are some centers from this past week.

Pocket Chart Number Matching

Measuring Line Puzzles and Recording Your Results

Sorting Pictures By Similar Characteristics

Patterning

Creating Our Own Patterns

Graphing Gummy Bears

Roll A Number

The BLUE Song

We have been learning to spell the color words using songs by Frog Street Press.  After spending the earlier part of the week reading the words, we looked at the video of the song.  Enjoy!

ABC Song

We use this in class and the kids love it!

Welcome!

I have been looking for a place to post ideas, strategies, and information about our classroom going-ons. I plan on updating regularly. I am excited about the opprotunity to post news, pictures, and reminders of our classroom activities. Be sure to check back soon!