Centers and Reindeer Art!

How are we already in our last week before Winter Break? This week we talked a lot about how everyone feels differently going into winter break. I explained that I am excited for Christmas but sad because I would miss them. Then one student said "I'm going to miss everyone in our class!" I think that statement really shows how bonded students are with each other and it warms my heart. Here are just a few of the things we did this last week.

Literacy Centers

In our literacy centers students have learned the routines to work completely independently at each station for 25 minutes! It seems like a big task but students are doing a great job at working quietly and staying focused. I snapped a few photos from activities students were engaging in this week. First I saw two students who were sharing a laundry basket to read in during library. Then I saw three students who were working together on a rhyming puzzle, helping each other find matches and working as a team to complete them all. I also saw students making cards for their families and for each other. So sorry if there has been an influx of cards coming home, but students love getting to say thank you and making something special for the people they love :)

 Reindeer Directed Drawing

Perhaps my favorite directed drawing we do in Kindergarten is our Reindeer drawing. Like all directed drawings first we followed step by step directions to draw our reindeer, then we traced our reindeer in black sharpie. Next we colored in our reindeer's with brown colored pencil (and red noses it students wanted to do that!) and finally we got to watercolor the background. They turned out so great I can't wait to hang them up for us to admire!

I truly enjoy every day I get to spend with your children and while I am excited to have a few days to rest and recover I will miss seeing their smiling faces everyday. This will be the last blog post until we get back so to all of you have a wonderful winter break and Happy Holidays!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

All about Winter

This week we did lots of winter activities focusing on Elves and learning about Hibernation. We will be doing more winter themed activities leading up to winter break that use all of the different skills we have learned so far this year. It should be lots fun :)

Elf Directed Drawing

Like all of our directed drawings students started by drawing their elves (following step by step directions). Then we traced our lines in sharpie and finally colored in our pictures. We used watercolors as our art medium this time. Students spent over 45 minutes on these, I was amazed at their focus and desire to make them look just right! I am so proud of how they turned out. Here are a few photos of the process:

Hibernation Writing

Our winter poem for the week is called Winter's Here and it talks about animals that hibernate during the winter. We then took what we knew about hibernation to write about it in our journals. I was so impressed by students diligence and desire to get their writing just right. They have come so far from the beginning of the year!

Bears hibernate in the winter.

This student wanted to write "The bears hibernate in the winter."

 Sorry I don't have more this week. We have been so busy that I have totally forgot to take pictures! Only 10 school days until winter break!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Thankful Turkey's and Career Day

Thankful Turkey's

This week we started talking about what it means to be thankful and what we are thankful for. We started out by reading a book about being thankful. Then we brainstormed a list of things that we are all thankful for:

After we made the list we made our thankful turkeys. Students got to write and draw one thing they were thankful for on every feather of their turkeys. Students were only expected to do 3 feathers, but most chose to write more! They turned out so great! Here are some photos of students working on their turkey's and the wall of turkeys!

A student writes that they are thankful for their toys and house

They turned out so great!

Career Day

On Wednesday we had the wonderful opportunity to interview different people from varying careers for our Career Day. Before we went to see the varying jobs that were present as a class we brainstormed some questions that students would like to ask them. Here is what we came up with:

In the gym there were jobs like forest rangers, stenographers, face painters, chiropractors, computer engineers and more. Students loved getting to walk around and ask them about their jobs!

Students look at the varying tools a park ranger uses.

A stenographer shows students how to type on her special keyboard.

Then the fun continued as we went outside to discover jobs that use slightly larger tools, especially their vehicles! Outside we saw a Firetruck, multiple police officers and sheriffs, PGE vehicles, a Garbage truck, and more. It was so fun and engaging for students to see all the varying careers that are out there. Such a fun day!

Seeing the tools on a Firetruck.

Seeing a PGE truck lift in action!

Seeing how this truck pours garbage in the back. 

The Forestry service and Timberlake Job Corps show students how they
could put out forrest fires and some tools they would need.

We only have one more week before conferences and Thanksgiving! I can't believe we are almost to December already! But you know what they say, time flies when you're having fun!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Writing, Poems and Pumpkin Patch!

Writing

In our writing time we have moved to the point of sharing our writing with others. We have talked so much about the purpose of writing and the main purpose being to save our ideas and share those ideas with other people. This week I introduced writing partners where students sat and read their writing with their partners. They were so wonderful at listening to each other and were so proud to share off their writing! I can’t wait to share their writing with you at conferences as well!

5 Little Pumpkins

We do lots of poems in our class. Poems are a great way for students to quickly learn a piece of writing and then they can use that poem to find words and letters they know in that poem. I send home paper books of the poems when we do them and those are a great resource to practice at home since the students know the poems so well they can point to the words as they read them!

This week we did the poem 5 little pumpkins. First we read the Pete the Cat version in a story book. Then we assembled our 5 little pumpkins lift the flap books. The students loved the activity and they turned out so well! It was great to see the kids reading them to each other!

Pumpkin Patch

We had so much fun at the Pumpkin Patch this week. Students got to make a dirt baby (please put those in a cup of water in a window sill so the grass will grow for the hair!) see a few farm animals and of course see how pumpkins grew. The kids were so excited because we got to see almost every stage of the pumpkin life cycle. We saw lots of flowers from the pumpkins and a few flowers that had the green pumpkin starting to grow from the flower. We also saw different vines, green and brown, and of course got to see a wide variety of pumpkins. It was wonderful to see kids running around going “Miss Adams look here is a flower, next will grow a green pumpkin” or “Miss Adams this vine is still green so I don’t think it’s ready to pick yet!” Not only was it fun but it was a wonderful hands on learning day! Thank you to everyone who met us there or chaperoned and made the day truly special.

A student decorates his dirt baby.

A student puts the eyes on his dirt baby.

Students enjoying the hay ride.

A flower that has a green pumpkin bulb!

A pumpkin flower that we saw!

Students enjoying the view at lunch!

Can't wait for the exciting week ahead!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Pumpkin Experiment and Shared Writing

We did lots of pumpkin activities this week as we are anxiously awaiting our pumpkin patch field trip! We will be finishing up our pumpkin activities this week and moving on to weather very soon!

Pumpkin Writing

To start off our week we learned a poem called 10 Little Pumpkins (ask your student to sing it for you!). Then after we learned our poem as a class we each took a part to write down the poem. 

A view of some of the writing!

Once we had written out the entire poem students worked with a partner to make 1 pumpkin. This was quite the challenge for some groups. I heard lots of great compromising "I'll draw and you cut" and I even saw some Rock-it-out (basically rock paper scissors) happening to solve problems. It was really great to see.

Students making their pumpkin and stem.

One student makes the pumpkin, the other the stem.

Once we finished our pumpkins I put them up on a bulletin board in the hallway so everyone in the school could see the hard work we put into making it!

The finished product :)

Pumpkin Lifecycle

This week we continued working on our understanding of the pumpkin life cycle. Not only did we read books about the pumpkin life cycle but we also wrote about it too. We started by putting the life cycle in the correct order and then from there we were able to complete our sheet about the life cycle. Students loved getting to mix up the cards and put them back in the right order!

Pumpkin Experiment

To top off our week we did our pumpkin experiment. We measured our pumpkin to see how tall it was, we put our pumpkin in water to see if pumpkins sink or float and then came the huge task: counting the pumpkin seeds. On a piece of butcher paper I put out lots of 10 frames and with a partner students sorted through their pile of pumpkin guts to pick out the pumpkin seeds and put one seed in each spot on our ten frames. We had roughly 450 seeds in our pumpkin! It was so much fun and the kids really enjoyed it!

I am so excited for our field trip this week and I know the students are too. I promise I will take photos of all the fun!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Bats and Pumpkins!

Now that we are in our second week of October we definitely felt it with our pumpkin and bat crafts this week. They turned out so wonderful! 

Bat Directed Drawing

Every other week or so we do a directed drawing as a whole class. What that means is I sit at the front and using basic shapes I show them exactly how to draw a picture and they copy it down. So for example the bat one started with circle in the middle of the page, then 2 triangles coming out of the circle for ears and 2 rainbows one on each side for wings. It is a lengthy process where students really have to listen and follow directions! They have definitely improved on this as we have done more! Finally after we drew them, we colored them in with colored pencil and watercolored the background!

Check out how great these are!

A student watercolors his picture.

A student water colors his picture.

Bumpy Pumpkins

As we prepare to go to the pumpkin patch we discussed how different pumpkins can look from each other and created our own unique pumpkins! We started with an art activity where we painted papers orange and green. Then when they dried we used them to construct our pumpkins! Students loved getting to make them silly or scary or just happy! They really did amazing work and I love showing off their work in the hallway for the whole school to see :)

A student paints her paper green.

A student paints his paper orange.

A finished bumpy pumpkin!

A finished bumpy pumpkin!

Our Kinder patch of bumpy pumpkins!

This week we will be looking more scientifically at how pumpkins grow, their parts and of course learn a fun new poem about pumpkins!

Stay tuned for more fun next week!

Smiles,

Miss Adams