Kindergarten

This week we explored the artwork of Eric Carle. We learned about the collage process he uses for his stories, as well as his original ideas for The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We read his book, Rooster’s Off to See the World,  and the children created characters from the story, using the collage process.

The students sketched their images:

They painted their papers with a mixture of glue and water:

They placed pieces of tissue paper on their papers and added layers of the glue/water mixture on top of the tissue paper:

Once their work was dry, they cut out their characters and glued them to a piece of black construction paper. The children used oil pastels to add details to their pictures, and then wrote about their characters:

We have been exploring magnets at our science center.

Marble Painting:

We use magnetic wands to move magnetic marbles through paint:

We learned about another weather tool: windsocks!

We discovered that we can use windsocks to determine the direction and speed of the wind. The children used construction paper, markers, string, and streamers to create their own windsocks.

The weather was beautiful and it was a great day to go outside and test out the new windsocks. It was a pretty calm afternoon; however, at times, the wind became stronger and it was exciting to see the streamers start blowing!

 

 

 

Earlier this year, we were introduced to the original Roll and Record math game. The children rolled dice cubes and recorded the numbers that they rolled on game boards. This activity allowed them to practice their number recognition and writing skills.  This week, we learned how to play Roll and Record 2. Using two dice cubes, the children added up the numbers and recorded the sums that they found on their game boards. The Kindergartners were very excited to explore this game in a new and more challenging way!

As we begin our unit on coins and their values, we were introduced to the penny. We learned that the man on the front of the penny is Abraham Lincoln, and that he was the 16th president of the United States. We discovered that the penny is worth one cent and practiced exploring its value through a new game called Make Ten. In pairs, each partner took turns rolling a dice cube and collecting the given number of pennies. The children continued rolling the cubes and collecting their pennies until they made ten cents.

To help us practice proper number formation, we sorted through numbers 0-9 to determine which side of the paper to start writing our numbers on. Additionally, we are continuing to use our number formation rhymes:

Straight line down and then we’re done

That’s the way we make a one.

Around the track and back

choo choo!

That’s the way we make a two.

Around the tree

Around the tree

That’s the way we make a three.

Down and over

Down once more

That’s the way we make a four.

Back, down, around the hive

That’s the way we make a five.

Magic C then in you go

Now you’ve made a six you know!

Look across the park

Run down to Kevin

That’s the way we make a seven.

Make an S and then don’t wait

Go up again and make an eight.

Make a circle then a line

That’s the way you make a nine.

Straight line down then in with a grin

That’s the way you make a ten.

We also began our winter writing today! The children are looking forward to building snow people,  sledding, skiing, drinking hot chocolate, and more!

We are currently in the process of creating a dentist office for our dramatic play area.  The children built a table out of cardboard where they can lay out their “dentist tools” including tooth brushes, tooth paste, a tool to polish teeth, a tool to rinse, a face mask, gloves, timer for proper brushing, and an x-ray camera. Thank you Simon for bringing in some tools to add to our dentist office!

The children created many signs for the office!

We have a welcome sign:

 

(Welcome to Dr. Teeth’s Dentist Office)

We have a sign for the tool cabinet:

This sign helps patients who may feel afraid of the dentist:

(Oh no! Don’t you worry!)

We even have a special dentist comic for patients to read while waiting for their appointment:

(What is a toothbrush doing?)

Here is our x-ray machine:

The children created a giant model of teeth:

 

 

Our friendly dentist:

In other news, we had snakes slithering around our classroom this morning…

PATTERN SNAKES!