On the last day of school we made a quick video of our favorite things in kindergarten.
This has been such a great year. It was honor to teach all of my kinders and get to know their families. On the last day of school we made a quick video of our favorite things in kindergarten.
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Our butterflies began to emerge from their chrysalises today and we were fortunate enough to see it happen. We have been enchanted by the painted ladies since they have arrived. What a powerful learning experience to watch this process happen firsthand. After two of the butterflies emerged out of their chrysalises, we drew what we saw and wrote about it. One of us even wrote a number sentence and subtraction story about having 5 chrysalises, then 3 emerged as butterflies leaving us two chrysalises in our butterfly garden. We released them Friday afternoon out on the playground. It was a lovely experience. Sight words are very important for beginning readers to learn because they are words seen frequently in text (they are also called high frequency words). The faster and easier a child reads these words, the better their reading fluency and comprehension are going to be. In our classroom, we have 'Rainbow Words.' This is a fun way for our class to learn our sight words at our own pace. After we show off to Mrs. Huston, our parent volunteer, that we can read these words without hesitation on two different occasions, we move to the next level of the rainbow. We have different color cards on a binder ring that we take home between school and home to keep practicing. These are also great resources for us when we are writing. We love our Rainbow Words! I purchased this program from Hello Literacy on Teachers Pay Teachers.
All this week, we have watched our five painted lady butterfly caterpillars grow, molt, and then form their chrysalises. We are getting a first-hand experience with the life cycle of a butterfly. We have learned that they begin as an egg, hatch into a caterpillar (larvae), form a chrysalis (pupa),and then emerge as a butterfly. We are really enjoying watching this process. We can't wait until our butterflies complete their metamorphosis!
We had a wonderful time on our field trip at the Gentry Safari! Students toured several species of exotic animals, birds, and reptiles. They got to feed the baby giraffes and even pet a joey! The petting zoo was very fun also. Once we were on the bus and started to drive through the safari, we got our safari journals out and sketched our favorite animals. Some of us filled up our entire journal with pictures of exotic deer, bison, zebras, wildebeests, lions, tigers, bears, and hippos. We recently just finished our plant life cycle unit. We decided to grow grass seeds in cups and then observed what happened over several days. While we were observing, we drew and wrote about what we saw and did that day. Their writing was incredible! We learned that it took several days for the seeds to germinate (yes, we even used that word in our vocabulary!), and that plants need soil, water, and sunlight to grow and change. We also learned the parts of a plant through the unit. After our grass got tall enough, we drew our faces on the cups and the grass looks like our hair. They can even give it a haircut as the grass continues to grow! |
AuthorI am a kindergarten teacher in love with kindergartners and learning. I hope that this blog and site are going to be able to make a positive difference in the lives of my students and their parents. Archives
October 2016
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