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

Apples and Shaving Cream! What a week!

This week we finished up our apple unit with not one, not two but three apple activities! Plus we also worked very hard on writing our numbers from 0-10 from memory! It was a fun filled week!

Apples, Apples and more Apples!

To start off our apple week fun we began with an apple torn paper craft. Students tore out small pieces of green, red and yellow paper to make an apple craft. The kids really took their time and they turned out so nice!

A student tears his red paper.

A student tears his green paper.

A few of the finished apple projects.

Then we moved on to our apple printing. Students got to use apple halves to paint a fall tree. It was a great chance for them to get messy while also looking at the veins that the apple left in the paint when it dried. The students really enjoyed it!

Finally we ended our apple week with an apple tasting! The students got to try a red, yellow and green apple and we graphed which type of apple students liked best. Spoiler alert: red won! This was a great chance for students to use some math skills, graphing which apple flavor won, and also writing (we came up with describing words for how our apples tasted!) All in all it was a fun week filled with apples :)

Number Writing

We have been working really hard on being able to write numbers 0-10 from memory. It really helps students when we move on to addition and teen numbers when students don't have to spend lots of time figuring out how to write a 5 or a 6f or example. To help with that we did a fun activity where we wrote our numbers in shaving cream! The students loved getting messy and it also allowed them to use their whole arm/hand to practice writing those numbers! It was so much fun and I saw lots of improvement in their numbers afterward!

This week we are moving on to our pumpkin unit as we lead up to our pumpkin patch field trip. I can't believe we are moving into week 6 of Kindergarten but I am enjoying every minute and I hope your students are too :)

Smiles,

Miss Adams

All about Math

This week we have been focusing on our math centers. We have 3 basic rules: use a quiet voice, keep working until the timer goes off, and put things back where they go when it is time to clean up. Next week we will start earning group points. As a table group they will be working to help each other remember the 3 rules to earn points. When a group gets to 10 points they earn a prize :)

Here are a few of the math centers we have been working on:

Partner Games

One of the students favorite parts of math centers is partner math games. This weeks game was 5 in a row. Students roll a dice and cover up the number they rolled on the board with their colored cube. Partners take turns and the first person to get five cubes in a row wins! This week we worked on being a good sport if you don't win and ending each game with a handshake :)

Number Writing

Another area we are working on is our math number writing. We have been learning our number writing rhymes and practicing in lots of different ways. This week we will practice with shaving cream (I promise to take pictures!) If you are making a list or counting any items at your house you can help your child by having them practice writing that number!

Write the Room

A new activity we did this week was write the room math. Around the room I posted cards with a different number of objects on them. Students then walk around, count the objects and write the number on their recording sheet. Everyone loved it! When I changed the cards on the second day they asked me all day "when are we doing write the room!" 

This week we are finishing up our apple study so expect lots of photos of our apple projects :)

Smiles,

Miss Adams