We kicked off our new math unit this week and these eager little learners are ready to measure! Ms. Katie launched a fun activity of problem solving and comparisons...using our shoes. We will be exploring length, height, weight and capacity!
On my first day back from maternity leave, I wanted to reconnect with the kiddos in a really fun and memorable way...while giving them the opportunity to show me what they have learned with Ms. Holly. The kindergarten students partner with Mr. Scott’s third grande class for big buggies. We share our love of reading and take turns sharing books, class projects, or creating art together. It’s a fun tradition and the kids always look forward to seeing each other in the hallway or at our town meetings! This group of lucky kindergarten students have the opportunity to work with the very talented Ms. Lois for our O.N.E. Steps program. We start with warm up and learned a technique called mirroring. The kids worked in partnerships and slowly mimicked each other’s moves. We always end the class with a celebration- a cypher circle!
One of the first routines we learned in week 2 was how to do math stations. The kindergarten kids worked in groups to explore some of the math manipulatives we will be using this year. When the tambourine shakes - it’s time to quickly tidy up and get ready to rotate to the next table! These kids were champs! We are so lucky to be working with an amazing group of kindergarten learners. Ms. Holly, Ms. TT, Ms. Erica and I are so excited to get to know these kiddos this year. In our first 3 days of school, we have had lots of fun and really enjoyed getting know one another!
In September, I asked the kids to draw a self portrait. The next day, I explained that a protrait is a drawing, picture or painting of someone- often from the shoulders up. We talked about the parts of their faces and I introduced a series of steps to follow in order to create their very own self protrait. We followed this same process again in January and for a final time in May. This is one of my favorite projects and a cornerstone of the portfolios I send home at the end of the year. In the pictures below, you will see the students hard at work in this multistep process and then also a snapshot of their 3 portraits. It’s amazing to see the amount of growth each child has made in a year! I am so very proud of these talented artists and honored to have worked with them this year! The Kindergarten students learned a lot about weather this year! Students practiced observing the weather daily and took turns reporting the weather as our class meteorologist. In addition to learning about different types of weather we had a lot of classroom discussions about how weather impacts our daily lives.
One of the culminating projects at the end of this unit challenged kindergarten students to use their knowledge around these topics to design the roof of a dog house that would protect a dog from different types of weather. First we had a discussion about potential building materials. The kids had so many great suggestions and reasons to back their ideas. For example, "We should use rubber because that protects you from lightning!" or "We should use metal because the water won't want to stay on it." Some other materials suggested were; wood, tape, plastic, cardboard, paper, glitter and more! I explained to the kids that engineers and builders often have to work with a variety of constraints - such as budgets and limited resources. We made a list of available resources within the classroom that we could use and decided to focus on a roof that would protect a dog from rainy weather (instead of cold or extreme heat). We then tested the different materials to see which were waterproof. Finally, the kindergarten students entered the planning stages of their designs. They selected materials and created sketches of their plans. Then we started building! After constructing our dog houses, the K students tested their creations to see if they would hold up to rainy weather. We recorded our results in our weather journals. There were so many great discussions throughout this project and the kiddos really had fun! |
The Kindergarten Students at the Integrated Arts AcademyWith the help of Ms. Emily! |