Show What You Know

Hello! It's been a full four days in Kindergarten. 

Some highlights...

Students have been very interested in buying and selling things this week. I have purchased, so far, a five dollar purple hippopotamus, a one dollar medication for said hippopotamus, a free cup of coffee (my students know me well!), and, best of all, a fifty thousand dollar, very large orange! When they are not selling to the teacher, they sell to eachother, deciding who is the business owner and the customer.

This morning, SA and the JK girls were bankers who supplied me with money to buy gum from KA.

In addition to being a lot of fun, this sort of activity at learning centres is very valuable. Students are using number sense and numeral writing skills, communication skills, including Habit 5 Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood (listen before you talk), and are exploring the real world scenerarios that they have watched you the parents engage in. 

Students are also bringing their literacy knowledge into it, as they explore the sounds and letters that make up the words of the items they are selling.

GR is teaching me about C - our letter of the day. He shows me what he knows as he tells me about the different words of things that we can buy that start with C.

We are continuing to explore our world in the other centres as well. Building, art, Bible, reading, writing, dramatic play, and others. It's been exciting for me to see the social learning as students make connections with new friends and participate in wondering and discovering and imagining together.

I've also enjoyed seeing their leadership skills come to light, as they become comfortable with the leadership roles they applied for and with the 7 Habits language. 

JA is the leader of watering plants. On Fridays, he fills up the can, and waters each plant the right amount to keep our classroom green and homey.

I was able to see this even more as we decided together how to show what we know about snails. I asked students how we could do this... how do we learn things and how do we teach things. How would we do this for snails? Initially, I had planned to make a books, but I posed the question to the students, and they agreed on a different idea - to make a movie where everyone had a part, and to make snail art for it (by the way, our class absolutely loves glitter!). 

They decided on the music, the things they would say and who would say it, and the art for it. They also decided that they wanted parents to see, and the Grade 1/2 class. So parents, the Super Snails movie is in your inbox, and Grade 1/2 will come to our "snail theatre" on Tuesday! Snails was a fun inquiry for us, and we're excited to show you what we know!

Next up, we start to study Fall!

Highlights as told by the students...