Kindergartners Can!

Puppets and dialog

     Making puppets using Model Magic is fun and easy!  This year I reviewed characters and dialog using Mo Willems books.  The children formed the dough around their finger then pinched and pulled to make a puppet.  When they were dry, we painted the puppet characters with acrylic paints to make them a bit more sturdy.  We learned a bit about puppetry and how to use puppets.  Then, we thought of dialog that our puppets might say and how they would say it.  Finally, we wrote a line for our puppets.

     You can find details for this lesson and 19 other rich writing lessons for kindergarten students!

Enjoy!      Molly    

Learning about Community

     As part of our unit on "Community Helpers" this year, we made this bulletin board town.  We had some small boxes left over and re-purposed them to be buildings.  Our children painted them, then added construction paper to make buildings for our town.  I was surprised when they asked each other what they were making and tried to make a great variety.  Our town ended up with:

• a few houses
• an airport
• a school
• a doctor's office
• a store
• a zoo
• a hotel
• a bank

  

  

Enjoy!   Molly & Laura

There Was a Little Turtle

     This week, we used the song "There Was a Little Turtle" as a basis for literacy learning.  First, we learned the song:

There was a little turtle,

Who lived in a box,

He swam in a puddle 

and climbed on the rocks.

He snapped at a mosquito,

He snapped at a flea,

He snapped at a minnow,

and he snapped at me.

He caught the mosquito,

He caught the flea,

He caught the minnow,

but he didn't catch me.

     Then, we thought about how we could change the song to make it our own.  Where else could the turtle live?  What else could he climb on?  What could he snap? catch?  Not catch?

     We had a lot of fun with the possibilities and sang a few of them.  We then talked about writing our song in a song book with illustrations that match the words and help the reader understand the song/story.  We began working on the books by putting the title on the front cover, illustration, and author's name, decorating the back cover, and numbering the inside pages.  This helped get us thinking about our own versions.

     Over the next few days we worked on the other parts of our song books.  We have a free lesson plan and templates to print labels (30 per page) for the beginning part of the stanza. Children complete the stanza with their own word and illustrate the page to compliment the words. You can download this free lesson at our store: 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Kindergarten-Literacy-Lesson-The-Little-Turtle-Song-1152041  

     We also worked on making a turtle puppet.  I cut an opening out of opposite sides of a paper bowl.  We stapled it to a paper plate of the same diameter and placed turtle feet where it was stapled.  Children then glued tissue paper squares on the shell using a paintbrush and liquid starch.

     When our books were complete and our puppets dry, we used our puppets to read and sing our songs!  

Enjoy!

     Molly and Laura

All about Sunflowers!

Sunflowers!

Last week each kindergartner planted a sunflower seed in a plastic cup.  We discussed what the seed would need to grow and how we would document its growth in our writing journals.

We read a non-fiction book about the life cycle of a sunflower and then used this fabulous activity sheet to diagram the parts of a flower (could have made it a sunflower if I'd had enough seeds!)  Go here to find the diagram for your class -  http://littlestarslearning.blogspot.com/2012/05/cupcake-liner-garden-theme-craft.html

We then had a discovery center where children could look closely at a variety of seeds with a magnifying glass, comparing and sorting them as they wished.  Those basil seeds are tiny...and garbanzo beans are bumpy!

With squares cut from plywood and some joint compound (both very inexpensive at Lowe's or Home Depot), children used their fingers to carve out sunflowers.  We let these dry overnight and then painted them with acrylic paints.  With a little loop of ribbon stapled to the back, these will make great Mother's Day gifts!

Next we'll look at Van Gogh's Sunflowers to inspire us to write sunflower poems to add to the gift.    

                                                                                       


Sunflower House, by Eve Bunting, is a fun rhyming story about a child who plants sunflowers in a circle to create a place to play.  Children loved this book and imagined their own sunflowers as the beginning of something bigger in their own yards!

Wonderful Worms!

     Oh, my!  After studying about spring weather we just had to include a day of worms!  It was so exciting this year!  We started with learning some facts about worms - I used Wonderful Worms by Linda Glaser as the main text with some additional non-fiction books for them to look at on their own.
  
     We wrote facts learned about worms in a small booklet.  The topic or subject goes on the front green page, facts inside on the yellow pages, and how the child feels about the subject on the last green page.  

     Then, each child received a worm to take care of and to observe and learn from using a set of experiments.  I designed 3 experiments for them to try.

1.  Do our worms move toward a dark or a light area?

2.  Do our worms move toward or away from a lemon slice?

3.  Do our worms move toward a wet or dry area?

After the experimenting, we compiled our observations and found that most of our worms went to the dark area, moved away from the lemon, and moved toward the wet.

     Later in the day we read a fictional story about worms, Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin.  I found a really cute packet available from First Grade Blue SKies on Teachers Pay Teachers, https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Worm-Day-Freebie-Pack-229426  We used her story format to write our own fictional stories about our worm!

     All in all it was a slimy, but fun packed day of learning!!!  

Enjoy, 

     Molly

Sorry!!!  I'm not sure why I can't get some of my pictures oriented correctly!

Shapes

     Our lesson book, Kindergarten Geometry, includes so many fun lessons and activities for young learners!  Roll and Build was one of our favorites this past week!  This book containing over 20 detailed lessons about spatial concepts, 2D and 3D shapes is available at Teachers Pay Teachers, https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Year-of-Kindergarten-Geometry-20-Activities-with-2D-and-3D-Shapes-736426 

      This time of year, we are also working on addition and subtraction concepts.  Our Understanding Addition and Subtraction book links shape concepts with several problem types.  This lesson book is also available at Teachers Pay Teachers!

 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Year-Full-of-Kindergarten-Lessons-for-Understanding-Addition-and-Subtraction-1617989

     Here a child demonstrates her thinking to the class about a shape contextual problem.  Later, all students will solve a similar problem in their journals.

     Enjoy!

        Molly and Laura

Shape Hopscotch

Shape Hopscotch

As the days get warmer, we like to get outside and incorporate some fresh air and movement into our activities.  Students paired up to draw hopscotch games with chalk on our playground.  Each number had to be in a different shape.  This allowed students practice drawing and discussing shapes as well as practice writing the numerals.  

Tell Your Partner and Draw the Same

     We've begun working on 2D and 3D shapes in our classes.  One our favorite games is "Tell Your Partner and Draw the Same".  Groups of children try to give clear enough directions for a partner to draw the same shape picture as they draw.  Great focus, language, social work, and fun!

     This is one of over 20 lessons in our Kindergarten Geometry Lesson Book.  Check it out: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Year-of-Kindergarten-Geometry-20-Activities-with-2D-and-3D-Shapes-736426

Enjoy!       Molly & Laura

Color Words

     Here's a fun way to practice reading color words, reading cvc words with /a/ vowel, and drawing!  Feel free to copy the page to use in your class.

    

Yours truly,

     Molly & Laura

Basket Weaving

     Here's a fun idea for weaving baskets in kindergarten!  Collect enough berry baskets (works well with either 2 rows of holes or 3 rows) for your class.  Cut enough fabric strips about 1" wide and a bit longer than the distance around your baskets.  Children weave the strips around the basket trying to go in and out the holes.  They can tie the ends or ask for some assistance and trim any excess fabric after tying.  I staple a 1" strip of foam for the handle.  Try to staple into the fabric and the plastic basket for stability.  That's it!

Yours truly,

     Molly

Wacky Wednesday

     Having April 1st fall on a Wednesday this year made it a shoe-in for "Wacky Wednesday"!  This special day is based on a Dr. Seuss book of the same name where a child wakes up and finds that everything is wacky - it all starts with a shoe on the wall.

     We read this book a day or two before the upcoming special day.  On "Wacky Wednesday"  teacher and students come with a few things wacky in their appearance - clothes on backwards, mismatched patterned clothes, different socks ... ...  We marvel at each other's creativity!

  Then, I have a collection of "what's wrong" pictures from Highlights Magazine for children to find wacky things.  It works well to do this in pairs.

     I also like to use a hidden picture for children to find things as this is another great learning activity and it calms them back down a bit:)

     Because it was also April Fools this year, I read them a few knock knock jokes and invited them to write a joke of their own.  Here's a couple examples to get them thinking:

Knock, knock
Who's there?
Atch
Atch who?
Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you had a cold.

Knock, knock
Who's there?
Ya
Ya who?
I didn't know you were a cowboy!

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Tank.

Tank who?

You're welcome!

This is the format we used to write the jokes (wish I had a couple to share, but they just had to take them home and I did not get a picture!)  Feel free to copy and use this format for some fun in your class!

     Hope this gives you some ideas for a Wacky good learning time!

Yours truly,

     Molly

More April Rain and Rainbows!

After reading about rain and the music rain makes, each kindergartner wrote a "rainy" word on a notecard.  We had words like, drip, drop, plink, splash, and psshhh.  Next, students came 5 at a time to the front of the group with their notecard.  As I tapped each on the head, he or she read his/her rain word.  Sometimes I tapped the same student two or three times so our songs sounded like this:

drip, drip, drip, plink, drop, drop, splash, psshhh

Next, we dropped watercolor paint using eyedroppers onto watercolor paper cut into raindrops.  We hung these next to our rainbows!

Storms and Rainbows

 As part of our study of weather, we wrote about different types of weather, listened to and imitated the sounds a storm makes, wrote about a sequenced storm, worked with color words, and read many books.   

  

     We also painted storms with watercolor and topped the paintings with a rainbow painted with acrylic on Duralar clear paper.  We made batik weather flags by making designs with washable school glue on fabric, painting rainbow colors of watered down acrylic over the glue designs, and then washing the fabric.

      This year, I found some old watercolor postcards and used these as well.  We looked at several art prints that depicted weather.  Then, children painted a weather scene on one side using watercolors and white crayons for resist if they wished. The following day, students wrote a note to someone about the weather.  When finished, I displayed the cards front and back under some suspended clouds made by sewing fishing line through batting material and pillow filler.   We think the work and the display turned out super!

Enjoy!

     Molly and Laura