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.