Wild Animals vs. Tame Animals

After Thanksgiving Break, my kindergarten class will start a unit on wild animals.  Here is a resource that I made to go along with the unit.  It's a sorting activity.

You can get it for yourself by clicking HERE.

Here are some books that I am planning on reading to go along with the unit:

Community Helpers- Fire Fighters

Here are some things that we did for the week that we talked about Fire Fighters!

The Fire Chief let us use the fire hose to knock over the cones on our visit to the fire station.

Trying to "put out the fire".

Learning about being a Fire Fighter.

Fire Truck Snack

Fire Hats

Stop Light Snack And Police Officer Unit

When we talk about police officers in Kindergarten, we also talk about traffic safety and crossing the street.  I had a police officer, who is also one of our first graders' father, come in and talk about being a police officer and show off his police car.  At the end of the week, we had a stoplight snack for Fun Friday.  I gave each student a graham cracker and showed them how to break it in half.  Then, I gave them a scoop of white frosting and showed them how to frost their crackers.  Finally, I passed out red, yellow and green M&M's and showed them how to put them on their crackers to make it look like a stop light!  The kids loved it!

We also practice following traffic safety rules by riding our bikes around the school.  We got to ride a couple of laps around before it started pouring!  The bike riding also went along with our first grade reading story about a family that went on a bike hike.

 

The Bob Jones University Press Curriculum that we use for kindergarten also had police officer hats and badges for the kids to make!

The Three Little Pigs

This week we are doing a unit on favorite books. One of the books included in the unit was The Three Little Pigs. Today, we read the original big book by Paul Galdone. In math we are studying clocks, so when we got to the part about the wolf asking the pig to meet him at certain times, I passed out Judy clocks and had the students make their clocks show the time that the wolf was supposed to meet the pig and predict what time the pig would actually leave. After we read the story, I had the students write a paper about what they would have made their house out of if they were one of the three little pigs. Then, we worked on the letter g and I worked with small groups on a reading story about pigs. The students took the story home to read again for homework.

Predicting times during The Three Little Pigs

A kindergartener would build his house out of bricks.

One kindergartener would choose bricks because they're hard.  Another kindergartener would make his house out of bricks because it would look cool.

Practicing little g and big G with whiteboards before trying it on paper.

Practicing little g on paper.

Small group reading paper.

End of the unit reading book, "The Three Cats".  We read it in small groups first and then I send it home for homework.

The Very Busy Kindergarteners

Back cover of a book, made out of glue and glitter.

Last week we talked about spiders.  One of the spider books that we read was "The Very Busy Spider" by Eric Carle.  After we read the book, I had the students make their own books.  Here are some examples of their work.  This year, I have been impressed with my students' drawing and writing abilities.

"Joey wanted Austin to go get some ice cream, but Austin was very busy studying his spider."

Front cover, inside pages and back cover, before I put a student's book together.

Last week we talked about spiders.  One of the spider books that we read was "The Very Busy Spider" by Eric Carle.  After we read the book, I had the students make their own books.  Here are some examples of their work.  This year, I have been impressed with my students' drawing and writing abilities.

A Look at Last Week

We talked about dentists, doctors and keeping healthy last week in kindergarten.  I got this idea off of pinterest and modified it a little to talk to my students about eating healthy.  They really enjoyed the vegetables and cheese!

In kindergarten, we also did an experiment with milk, soda, and hard boiled eggs to see what kind of effect milk and soda have on our teeth.  We used hard boiled eggs to represent our teeth and put on in a cup of milk and another one in a cup of soda.  Then, we made predictions about what might happen to the egg.  Some of the predictions were, ahem, a little unrealistic.  After a couple of hours, we checked on the egg.  The egg in soda had turned brown and the egg in milk remained white.  After seeing the results, we had a discussion on the benefits of drinking milk and the dangers of eating alot of sugar and soda.

Some of the students in both classes were spreading a rumor about one of the first graders, so in our combined Bible class, we talked about being a good friend.  We listed characteristics of what kind of friend they would want, and then we talked about being that kind of friend to others.

In first grade phonics, we are learning about a penguin named Pip, so we made a penguin snack using oreos, Hershey kisses, and candy corn.

In first grade reading we were reading a story about a fox that wished she had a friend to share a snack with, so we had a tea party on Fun Friday and I shared a snack with them.  Also, a kindergarten parent came to pick up their child and dropped off donuts right before our party!

Well, thanks for stopping by! 
     Miss Rachel