C'mon it's Turkey Time!

Wow! November has flown by! There are so many fun projects, lessons, and discussions that stem from this month. Here are just a few pictures of what we have been creating and learning this month. And I couldn't help myself from teaching them this song at the end of the day! Enjoy the pictures and our turkey time video! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Our Thanksgiving Trays. Each student said what they were thankful for and then cut up and sentence and put it in the correct order.

These were our turkey mobiles. We hung them from the ceilings around the classroom. 

These were our kernal feathers. Each student glued down the kernals using patterned colors and spelled out their names.

Miss Mahoney also showed up this cute project! We made Indian corn using colored patterns, fall colors, raffia, and lunch bags! We got to practice tying when we made these!

Our cute scarecrow bulletin board! We recited this poem every day as we lined up.

Our symmetrical turkeys and Veterans Day Turkey.

We are thankful for our Veterans!

We created bar graphs. What's your favorite way to eat corn? Canned Corn, Carmel Corn, and Popcorn and Corn on the Cob.

We learned to count by 5s using our turkey hands. We warmed up calendar time almost every day using this chart! The students loved making the turkey hands too!

We made tally charts about our favorite pumpkin treats! We got to choose between pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread and pumpkin pancakes!

Here is our Turkey Time Video!! Enjoy!

Long Ago Day

In Social Studies we learned all about what it was like Long Ago. To celebrate our learning and Thanksgiving, for one day we dressed as it was Long Ago, wrote on chalkboards, ate cornbread that we made, and made pilgrim hats and collars. I even acted like a teacher from long ago for a short bit! Some kids thought it was funny, others said they would never go to school if their teachers were that strict! Overall we made some wonderful memories! Enjoy our antique pictures from long ago!

People Long Ago Didn't Smile...So we tried not to either!

Then we took a picture from today! 

And one just to show that kids today can be silly too!

Fabulous Fall Party!

or watch the full width video below!

Tricky Teens

There is so much that kindergartners are expected to know and do at such a young age, but when it comes down to it, they are still kids. They need to move, they need to be silly, and they need to have fun. So rather than just teaching the curriculum from a book. I am always trying to incorporate hands on and interactive ways for them to learn.  Our biggest focus lately has been learning and recognizing those tricky teens! P.S. They are tricky because kids want to say, oneteen, twoteen, threeteen, etc.).

Here are some ways that we have been learning: 

Work on Writing: 

We have written the numbers in paint, in sand, and in clay. The helps us see the number and create the numbers in various ways. 

Memory Match:

For this game the students first have to put the numbers 11-20 in order. Then they have match up the corresponding dots with each number. After they are done with both parts, they can find a partner who has been checked off and flip a set of cards over to play memory match (finding a number and dots that match). 

Singing and Dancing:

For tricky teens we have a rap about how numbers in the teens they start with a one! We put actions to it to get their bodies moving and grooving and recognizing those tricky teens!

Number Chains:

We also make Teen Number Chains. This is very good for those visual learners to see that 10 +1 more is 11 and 10+4 is fourteen, etc.  It also reinforces those teamwork skills by creating such large chains! 

Teen Tangle:

Lastly, we play a game called Teen Tangle. It is much like Twister, but with teen numbers. The kids love getting all tangled up with this game and recognizing their numbers while doing it! 

Teen Number Sparkle:

We have played sparkle using tricky teens (this would be good to play with your family for spelling words, counting, or skip counting). With teen number sparkle, we start in a circle, one student starts at 10 and we go around the circle until 19, then the next student says sparkle, and the student after that is out. We continue going around until we have one friend standing to be the Terrific Teen Number Winner!

Fire Prevention

For the past two weeks we have been learning all about fire prevention. – how to stop drop and roll, staying low to the ground, what to do if we are ever in a fire, and how to prevent fires. We also practiced a fire drill at school once and we will do it once more this week.

 Today we got a special surprise and we had the firefighters come to give us a presentation. They showed us what they wear, how they stay protected and what they do to make sure we are always safe!

Then we went outside and learned about tools and gadgets that make fire trucks unique. We even got to tour the fire truck! We took home some fun fire hats to remind us of all the things we heard, saw, and learned today.

Fire Safety - create a slideshow with music

Challenge: Create a fire safety plan with your family and talk about ways to prevent fires in your home.

Fun in the Fall

In health we have been talking about sharing, caring, feelings and friends. Since we don’t have many fun fall days left, I decided to embrace the weather and take our lesson outside. We talked about how sometimes doing things on your own is difficult – moving things, cleaning up, playing sports, playing games, and even going to Kindergarten. We decided that sometimes, rather than working alone, it is better to work as a team, because as a team, we are stronger.

So for the activity today we had 1 minute to create a leaf pile that went up to our hips. I first let them go at it for one minute alone, creating their own piles. 

Needless to say our piles weren’t very high and it was a difficult feat! Next we had one minute to work as a team to create one large pile.

Our goal was to make it up to our hips again. After one minute we stood around it and the pile was above ALL of the student’s hips! 

We were excited and decided to celebrate. 

 This showed us that working together as a team can be much more rewarding that just working by yourself. 

 Here’s to teamwork and having fun in the fall!

Challenge:

Earlier this year we read a story called “Bundle of Sticks.” Ask your child if they can explain how teamwork is similar to the story “Bundle of Sticks” and what teamwork at home and at school means to them!

Alive, Awake, Alert, Enthusiastic!

This is one family that is waking up right! In our classroom we do a morning meeting everyday, which consists of a greeting, a sharing time, an activity and a morning message. One of our favorite activities to start our day with is "I'm alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic!" We start out slow to warm our bodies up, and then speed up to challenge our brain! We love our morning meetings and I am happy to see that they aren't just taking place in the classroom!

Challenge: This week have your child come up with a greeting (Hello Neighbor song, bow, handshakes, butterfly, etc.), something they would like to share (favorite breakfast, favorite book, favorite vacation, etc.) and a fun activity that we do in the classroom (Oliver Twist, Zoom, Tricky Teens, Letterise, etc). This is a wonderful way to communicate and have fun with your child before the day even begins! Are you feeling alive, awake, alert, and enthusiastic?!