Our Trip to the Pumpkin Patch Part 1

On October 9, we took our first field trip to the pumpkin patch. We started out at the park where we ate lunch, then played.


Playing on the rocking thingy.

The monkey bars are always a favorite.


And the slides...



Climbing...

Digging...

And waiting in line.

Getting Ready

I am trying to prepare myself for the new school year. Here is a list of priorities...
1. Make sure classroom is clean and organized.... with all excess piles of "stuff" cleared away.
2. Put together and label items for students: cubbies, tool kits, seating arrangements, etc.
3. Get "Back to School" bulletin board ready.
4. Learn more about new Language Arts curriculum.... especially phonics component.
5. Figure out if any changes will need to be made to my schedule to effectively use new language arts program and also more "Words Their Way" activities. Print out new lesson plan pages if necessary.
6. Get "RESULTS" assessment binder prepared.
7. Choose first 2 weeks theme... will we do "Bearly Beginning" again or should we change?
8. Try to figure out how to more effectively use the yucky old Math Program we adopted.
9. Buy the new stuff you need, but make sure to get reimbursed right away before budgets are frozen or eliminated.
10. Look at FOSS science and see where the unit on "Trees to Paper" will fit with new Language Arts curriculum.

Snail Week

Near the end of school we have snail week. We collect enough small margarine tubs for each child to have a snail and a snail house to keep it in. We oberve, feed and clean up after our snails daily. We make paper snails, and do drawings of snails. We also do some math using our snails... we estimated height, length and weight then calculated the actual height, weight and length. We had a snail curcus where we found out if our snail could hang upside down, walk a "tightrope" (pencil), go over spikes (on a fork), crawl through a tunnel (toilet paper tube) and go over sand paper. On Friday, we had snail races. We made visors and banners to cheer on our racers. There were 4 heats with 4-5 students in each heat. The snails started in the middle of the track then moved to the outer circle. I gave a ribbon to each child saying "Congratulations! Your snail earned 1st (or 2nd-5th) in the race! It was a fabulous week!

Getting Ready for Butterflies

So next week we will be diving into learning about other insects. One of my favorite art projects are these stained glass butterflies. An adult traces the outline of the butterfly on 2 12x18 inch pieces of black paper, then cuts out the inside shapes. The students use starch to adhere strips of tissue onto wax paper, then glue the butterfly pieces onto the outside of it. An adult cuts the completed butterflies out when they are dry. I know it is heavy on the adult work, but they look beautiful in the windows!

Bees

In May we enjoy a funfilled insct unit. My favorite week of the unit is when we study bees. GEMS has a FABULOUS unit on bees called "Buzzing a Hive." It is really hands on and interactive, and makes a nice change for us in spring when we are all feeling a little wiggly. The first lesson is to make a paper bee with all the correct parts. We look at real, dead bees and a poster of a bee and then set out to make our bees together. Another day we make paper flowers with stamen that have pollen on them after we have used cotton balls to find pollen in real flowers. Later in the week we make cells for our big hive with things in them you would find in a real bee hive. I use soybeans for an egg, a white pipe cleaner for larvae, waxed paper for wax, yellow powdered tempura for pollen and yellow paint for honey. More in the writing and art area coming soon!

Presidents and Patriotism

One of my favorite units in February is Presidents. We have so much fun learning about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and just our country in general.

One art project that gets them thinking about the whole idea is this....
We color and cut out the 2 monuments (after talking about them and looking at real pictures of them) then we put watered down tempura paint onto the paper where they use a straw to blow on it and make it look like fireworks. The original idea was to use black paper, but you just couldn't see the paint on it, so we switched it. I am not sure where the masters for the monuments came from.

One of my favorite lessons for this unit comes later... we use a variety of pictures to discuss symbols. We say again and again, "a symbol is something that stands for something else". We talk about traffic signs (a review from the beginning of the year). We talk about letters and numbers. Then I introduce some of our patriotic symbols. I have about 15 both national and California symbols.... for example, the Washington and Lincoln monuments, the bald eagle, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Redwood tree, etc. We look at each one and discuss what it is and whether it is a National symbol or a State symbol. On a different day, we brainstorm words that these things stand for... justice, freedom, protection, beauty, strength, honesty, etc. Then we hold up the symbols and say some sentences: "The California Poppy stands for beauty." "Abraham Lincoln stands for freedom." Then, each child chooses a symbol and draws it with a pencil. When the pencil drawing is done, they go over it with a Sharpie marker then watercolor paint it. On another day, we all choose a sentence and write it. This particular example says, "The bear stands for protection."

Snowman Goodness

We are up to our neck in snow here in Kindergarten, even though it has been sunny and 65 degrees this week! We are starting our "Cold Places" unit. This is one of my favorites with so many great activities. The pictures above were taken at the California Kindergarten Conference some previous year. Aren't they cute? I haven't actually made these, but they are on my list of things to try.