Where is winter? The children are starting to think that winter is over and that spring is here. Little do they know that snow is in the forecast for this weekend! This week in Kindergarten, the students have been exploring patterns found in words. The goal of this is for the children to become competent solvers that take words they know and use them to read or spell words they don't know. The two patterns we have been focusing on are -at and -an. Some were challenged with the pattern -ack. Because the children love when they make a discovery, they LOVED working with letters and patterns and building words. When they build a word, they had to determine if the word they created was a nonsense word or not. To hold them accountable, I had them circle the words that they thought were real words. Some even were challenged to use the real words in a sentence. We then turned to find word patterns within a text. Who better to turn to then Dr. Seuss? They couldn't believe all the word patterns they found in the book The Cat and the Hat Comes Back. It was good that they could connect what they were learning to "real life." The children have also been really dedicated when it comes to making their own books. Using recycled paper, the children come up a story of their own. At the end of the day, an author is chosen to read their book to the class. The next step in their writing process is for them to understand that stories always have a beginning, middle, and an end. Alexis wrote a story that is now being displayed in the library for the other children to take home. She is very proud!
In math, the children have still been exploring the ongoing concept of measurement. This week, however, was special because the children became familiar with the standard ruler. They each got their own ruler and were able to measure objects to the nearest foot. We have also started talking about the worth of money. We start from the bottom and work our way up, so the children have been becoming familiar with the penny. They are doing a very good job understanding the worth of a penny. They were so interested in the picture on the back of the coin. Their first thought was that it was a picture of the White House... which in my opinion, was a very fair guess! They were amazed at the pictures we found online of Abraham Lincoln and the Lincoln Memorial. The children really love learning about history.


Aaliyah working on her penny investigation sheet and penny rubbings.





In science, we are in the process of talking about weather and the fact that it changes day by day (this winter has been a GREAT example of this!) The students will be starting a research project on Monday based on authentic learning activities that engage student interest and motivation. These activities are designed to answer a question or solve a problem and generally reflect the types of learning and work people do in the everyday world outside the classroom. The two most popular topics that were picked were thunderstorms and rainbows (rain,) but I have some students interested in researching about wind and the sun. We talked about the water cycle today, and did a really interesting experiment that visually showed the children what happens when the water is too heavy for the clouds to hold. This would be a fun (and easy) experiment to do at home: Fill a clear, plastic cup up with water. Spray shaving cream on top of the water. Point out that the shaving cream doesn't sink or mix in with the water. Pour about 10 drops of blue food coloring on top of the shaving cream. The shaving cream represents the cloud, and the food coloring represents the rain. You can see the food coloring drizzle down from the cloud. Very neat! Let the research and discovery begin!





Picture taken by: J'Lyn James