Bats, Spiders and Owls

When deciding what to teach the week of Halloween, I allowed my students to vote: bats, spiders or owls.  The vote in our room was close, and I struggled to not allow students to learn about the things they wanted to learn about.  I decided to allow each student to be in a group and learn about the animal of their choice.

2 groups learned about spiders and one group for each bats and owls.

Students started off filling in a graphic organizer using some easy readers and PebbleGo.  I also found a book about spiders on Reading A-Z.  Each group chose a note-taker and got to work.

After completing their research, students worked with me to create a book using the app Book Creator. They learned to find images on Google Images and crop them if necessary.  Students were able to type their own text and add the pictures chosen to the page.  After the book was completed, it was sent to Apple to be published in the iBookstore.  Our technology department also converted the book into a PDF file and a YouTube file.

Sharing the PDF version of their book with the class.

You check out our books using the links below.

Spider Book 1
You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRvoBViQmbU
PDF: HERE
Apple Bookstore: id935354828

Spider Book 2 
You Tube: HERE
PDF: HERE
Apple Bookstore: id935729503

Bat BookYou Tube: http://youtu.be/Ps-cKy-PtZE
PDF: HERE
Apple Bookstore: id934901206

Owl Book
You Tube: http://youtu.be/ZsCEzRtGz3E
PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B95ti8YS2xP_R2txdEk0ZXFzbzg/view?usp=sharing
Apple Bookstore: id935364253

My students were SO excited to see their work published.  This was a fun project, and students learned a lot!

I'll be back soon to share our next project on healthy eating.  We are well on our way, but that project is not finished yet.

Wordless Wednesday {November 5}

I'm linking up with Miss DeCarbo for Wordless Wednesday.

My kiddos are loving their National Geographic Young Explorers magazines.  What materials do your students like to read?

Making Monday Interesting...

Here are a few things you would have witnessed in my room today.

Kids are a lunch Principal comes in.

P: "You can't go to recess today." (75 degrees and sunny)

Me: (confused) "Why not?"

P: "Police order, no kids on the playground.  There is a dog on the loose."

Me: "Oh.  Is it black because it was on the playground last week when the kids were in library?"

P: "Yes, and it already bit someone in the neighborhood, so they don't want the kids to witness it if they have to shoot it.  Pull your blinds too" (My room faces the playground).

Ten minutes later on my way to pick the kids up from lunch...

P: "Dog taken care of, you can go to recess".

The dog warden caught the dog and he's off to the pound.


On the playground...

Many kiddos were showing us ladybugs they were finding all over the place.

2 girls from my class come over...

A: "Miss H, I saw a bug in C's hair."

Me: "Was it a ladybug?"

A: "I don't know, I can't find it now."

Me: "I'll take a look".

I start looking only to find eggs and lice.  Ewww!  This lead to head checks for my whole class...good news, it is only that one kiddo.

Happy Monday!  Anything interesting happen in your room today?

Theme Related Art Centers

This is the first year our kindergarten kiddos do not go to art class.  Our art teacher retired last year, and she was not replaced.  I feel like I need to make sure my art center is more than just free drawing, but that it allows students to explore various materials and mediums and have a purpose for their art (at least some of the time).  

I've pinned a few ideas over the year, but haven't used many of the ideas I've been collecting. This will be the year!

The first thing I want to share with you is the DIY kaleidoscopes we made while learning about our 5 senses.  When our art teacher retired, she "gifted" us with materials left over.  I snatched these up thinking they would be perfect for the sense of sight.  My kiddos loved these and could not wait to share them with other staff members and their families.  They have come back to school in some instances because they were so excited about them.  

Our current theme is "Cornucopia", which is a fall theme.  I pinned this idea a few years ago, and I just never did it.  I modified it to use things I had (1 color of orange paper, blue background, and I used oil pastels for the details instead of paint).  My kiddos enjoying making this project too. It was interesting to hear them talking as they completed their project.  A few of them made pumpkins of different shapes after the book "Spookly".  We did not read the book in class, but a few of them cited it as the reason for pumpkins of different shapes.  These are hanging in our classroom "gallery". 

Our next theme is "What's On The Menu?" (food), so no art center plans as of yet.  Any ideas?  Tomorrow is our Halloween party because we also have Early Dismissal tomorrow.  Hoping it is as organized as a kindergarten Halloween party can be!

Emerging Writers {Mid-October}

In September, I wrote a bit about my plan for writing at the beginning of the year.  We finished the two packets mentioned in that post, and I was definitely ready to move into writing with this crew; they were ready!

I am being a little more flexible with my writing time this year and using more of a Writers Workshop model.  During each 2 week unit (prescribed by our curriculum), students have been creating little vocabulary books.  I put a list of words related to our theme in the center, and students write and illustrate at least 3 words in their vocabulary book.

I had a proud teacher moment when a student brought out her vocabulary book (with no prompting) and said to me "this says 'grandma', right?"  Everybody freeze!  Listen to what "N" just did... Those vocabulary books were flying out of the writing folders and suddenly everyone thought using the resources around the room was a great idea.

I wanted to share a few samples.

"I am going to play at the playground with my mom.  My mom love(s) me."

This was the kiddo with her vocabulary book.  Her sentence says: "Yesterday I went to my grandma's."

"I want to be a spaceman when I grow up."  This was inspired by their new "spaceman" they received to help them remember spaces in their writing.  He actually traced the top part of his spaceman to make the picture.  A spaceman is visible in the photo above.  I purchased them at Hobby Lobby for $3.99 for 24 (I used a 40% off coupon so they were even cheaper!)  The pack comes with 12 boys and 12 girls.

I'm so proud of their progress and their excitement for writing.  We received a IPEVO document camera through DonorsChoose.org, so my kiddos are pretty excited to be sharing their writing with their classmates on the SMARTboard.

How do you teach writing in your classroom?  What motivates your kiddos in writing?

Fall Field Trip: The Nature Center

Last week we went on our annual fall field trip to the Nature Center owned by our local university.  This year, 3 classes went at a time, but each class was split into 2 groups.  During our hour and 30 minute trip, we go for a nature walk looking for signs of fall.  This year, the staff at the Nature Center created an activity similar to a scavenger hunt to find items of different colors.

It rained quite a bit the night before our trip, but the rain decided to scoot out of our area before we arrived.  This definitely made our trip better!

My kiddos were good at finding items in our walk.  Our literacy coach came to the Nature Center for the first time; I learned something new, she has A TON of background on nature!  On our walk, we walked through the woods, chose a leaf to complete a leaf rubbing, walked around the pond where we fed the fish, touched tadpoles and observed a crayfish.  Finally, before walking back to the bus, we were off to the barn where we saw a donkey, 2 sheep and some chickens; we fed the sheep and chickens.  

"Eagle Eyes" (our literacy coach) found a salamander.  Our guide (who was great!) immediately put it in a bug box for students to get a closer look at.  She then released him in wet leaves so he could keep his skin moist.  This was a great start to our trip!

Those are slugs eating some fungus on a log. Most of the kids thought it was pretty cool.

Touching the tadpoles.  They had a really hard time catching them; those buggers were fast!

Feeding and checking out the chickens.

A pretty view from our day!

Dem Bones

I saw Mary from Sharing Kindergarten share "Bag of Bones" Cheetos on Instagram.  I thought, "we need these!".  Then she shared a freebie pack, Dem Bones, and I knew I would have to use these.  After 3 different trips to WalMart, I finally found my prize, 2 bags of "Bag of Bones"!

I used 2 bags for 18 students to make sure everyone had enough pieces to make their skeleton. I pre-bagged (I think I just made that word up) the pieces for each student in a snack-sized baggie.

Last week's (and this week) theme is the human body.  We focused on body systems last week with a focus on the 5 senses this week.  I decided to pull these out last Friday to wrap up our week of learning about body systems.

We have not done any food projects yet this year, so I went through all my instructions (don't eat the food, we are using it to learn, etc).  I had students graph first.  We sorted directly on the graph.  You could have heard a pin drop!  There was no talking, no looking around, just focused kiddos totally engaged.  Pure joy right here!

After students graphed their pieces, they picked up a paper to build a skeleton and label the parts of the skeleton.  There were different techniques to completing this, but most students just built the skeleton on top of the paper.  The kiddos below decided to build it on her own on the table next to her paper.

Check out his graph; he decided to just online the boxes.

Students used the words at the bottom of the graph to help them spell the words needed on the labeling paper.  Way to use your resources, kiddos!  After labeling their skeleton, students were permitted to eat their pieces.  I earned "best teacher ever" and the day was "the best day ever" thanks to this activity (thanks Mary!).  My kiddos certainly earned another food-based learning activity thanks to to their hard work and great job following directions!  I think we'll try my Candy Corn Math next (freebie).