Today was an exciting day in kindergarten because we got our gingerbread back! They seem to have gone on quite an adventure. The look of anticipation on their faces as I opened the Southwest Airlines' delivery box was priceless! The enthusiastic cheer when the news came that they arrived was probably heard all over Avon! It was also fun to watch a special DVD that taught us how we have happiness because God gave us the greatest Gift of all....Jesus, our Savior! We are blessed to share that happiness with others as we give in both words and actions. It was also interesting to learn a little about a saint from long ago named St. Nicholas. He also gave to others because Jesus first loved us. We continued to work on our new set of literacy centers. Our mini lesson focused on leaving spaces between words in a sentence. I demonstrated how hard it is to read a sentence where all the words are squished together and it appears that there is only one word in the sentence. Later in the morning we began a new set of thematic centers. We are studying the concept of a year and time. The students began making new year's faces with hats to place in the hall. These will go with some new year's resolutions that we are writing. Later the students worked with partners to find objects which were heavier or lighter than other objects. Some also learned how to balance a scale intentionally which is an essential skill. The highlight of the day was meeting the Colts' mascot. We had an excellent convocation this afternoon to learn how we can be the best we can be. It is important to take care of our bodies physically and also to take care of one another socially by treating one another in kind ways. We are thankful that we were able to have such a wonderful event brought to our school! Later the students finished making and collecting their gingerbread traps and catapults to take home, along with their precious gingerbread. They cannot wait to hang these precious ornaments on their trees at home. Enjoy! We reviewed the story of the birth of Jesus with a number of beautiful books. Also, we are learning a little about when Jesus was a boy and how He went to the temple at 12 years of age. He amazed those around with His questions and understanding. He showed us how important it is to be in God's house and to study God's Word. It was also in the temple that we get a glimpse of His early start to His ministry on Earth to share with others about God's saving love. We will continue studying about Jesus in the temple when we return from Christmas break.
The students worked on counting the number of words in sentences today. They also learned about 3 different kinds of punctuation marks (period, question mark, and exclamation mark). They are learning when these marks are used and what to call these ending marks. At literacy centers today students are working at counting the number of sounds in words, printing the letters that represent the sounds in consonant-vowel-consonant words, stamping words, solving word puzzles by looking at the shape configuration, using letter clues to match words to pictures, and using words to compose sentences in proper form. We will continue these literacy centers when we come back from vacation as well. We are learning about letter Yy and taking note of not only the print differences, but how y is special because it can be both a consonant and a vowel at times. We learned that its consonant sound does not sound like /w/. We worked on using three lines to print uppercase Y and only 2 lines to print lowercase y. Uppercase Y is tall and lowercase y is short and also falls below the bottom line. During Math we began a new unit on measurement. We had fun comparing objects on balance scales to see which objects were heavier or lighter. We are still looking for our gingerbread. The last we heard they were shopping at the great Mall of America. We sure hope to see them soon! So we still do not have our gingerbread! They are still running and have been spotted on Mount Rushmore. They apparently wanted to climb up to see George. So we are brainstorming and problem-solving. How could they get up there? How can they get down? We also discussed what caused the gingerbread problem in the first place in the traditional tale. That poor gingerbread trusted that fox to get him across the river. So we learned about catapults. Could we make a catapult for a new little gingerbread to cross the river or to get up or down a mountain? Could the catapult send snowballs at the fox to scare him away? We began a fun STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, & Math) project as we are designing some catapults with new little paper gingerbread. There are quite a few designs going on in our class, along with some great collaboration. We can't wait to continue these next week!
It was busy in kindergarten as you can tell from the photos. There are a lot of gingerbread "traps" going on and paths leading to catch them everywhere. You do have to watch your step:) The gingerbread appear to have gone to the Grand Tetons and they apparently wanted to "Go Tell It on the Mountain!"
We had so much fun making our gingerbread ornaments today!!! Unfortunately they ran away! So we made posters and traps for them. If you locate them, please let us know.
Please do not forget to bring your child to the kindergarten room by 6:15pm tomorrow night, Dec. 13. We can't wait to share the Good News with you through recitations and songs! Students should wear Christmas clothing appropriate for church. We had fun with some thematic centers based on a gingerbread theme. Students guessed how tall a gingerbread was using certain things like candy canes, stars, Christmas trees, etc. Then the students measured to get the actual number and compared their results. Students had fun trying to draw the other half of a gingerbread in a symmetrical fashion. They also did this with a snowman and a bell ornament. Then they folded it on the line of symmetry and cut it out to see how close they were to drawing it symmetrically. They also had fun sorting little gingerbread by those that were symmetrical and those that were not. Another center had the students use little gingerbread houses and magnet letters to determine which words they could make that were real and which ones were nonsense. They also had fun writing their own versions of gingerbread stories. It was a busy, but very fun day! Today we continued to practice for our Advent service. Please do not forget to have your child meet me in the kindergarten room by 6:15pm this Wednesday, Dec. 13. Students should wear Christmas clothing that is appropriate for church.
We began a new set of literacy centers for the week. They are practicing /ch/, /sh/, and /th/ sounds as they play a "Spin and Dab" game to match these beginning sounds. At the word work center they are manipulating the letters from the word snowflake to see what little words can be formed. For the phonemic awareness center the students are playing a matching card game to see which words have the same vowel sounds. At the reading table the students are sequencing the steps to build a snowman. Finally at the writing table the students are writing some winter sentences in proper form. I noticed today as I was testing students to see if they could count the correct number of words in a sentence, that half a dozen students thought that a question mark was possibly a word. We worked quite a bit to help those students realize that words are composed of letters. Then we talked about how punctuation marks are not composed of letters and how they are symbols to help us mark the end of certain kinds of sentences. Please discuss these print concepts often with your child. We are beginning a fun gingerbread unit this week. I had the students help me tell the traditional tale using some picture/word cards. Later this week we will be digging deeper into this fun tale as we investigate symmetry, measurement, problems & solutions, etc. In Math we are learning about the meaning of the - symbol. Students illustrated some subtraction equations today. It is important for students to work these equations from the left to the right. The students are learning to start with the whole and then take away part. This is different than addition where you begin with a part and add another part to get to the whole. We continue to use manipulatives and a variety of methods to help understand this new concept. |
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