Exploring some more!

This week, we continued exploring many of the same themes as last week. 

Some of the class wondered how they could use the marbles that were too big for our marble run. So with tape and recycling, they constructed something new! 

Themes explored: Oral communication, as students talked about their ideas; leadership, as they synergized and solved problems; building concepts - how can we attach it, what else can we use, how we get that over here; physics - although they don't recognize it as such, of course! They learned about big marbles going faster than smaller marbles, how marbles reflect off of things, etc.

We also continued with our Only One You centre. They've extended this a bit, wanting to not just make illustrations, but also add words to their pictures. In the book, the parent fish send out their child into the world with words of wisdom (ie. "Always be on the lookout for a new friend). We talked about what kind of words are in the book, and decided they could come up with their own words of wisdom to add to their pictures. We will do this on the iPad and tie it in to our technology skills. One of my favourite things about the Kindergarten program is that the curriculum expands around student interest - I have loved facilitating this exploration with them! It is growing wonderful interest in books that will set a foundation for engaged reading and learning throughout their development!

One of the things we worked on this week was making our rocks out of clay so that we can paint, just like the original author did! One of our classroom volunteers is also going to bring in other rocks for students who would like to make several. Thank you as well to the parents who have volunteered items - it is much appreciated!

Another exciting surprise this week was that we won the recycling contest! The recycling teams grade rooms on no garbage in the recycling bins, everything being rinsed, and everything being sorted properly - so proud of my class for taking this on and doing so well with it! As the reward, we got an art experience with puff paint, that expands in the microware!

Afterwards, you use Sharpie markers to add details - pictures of finished products coming next week!

We also finished our guinea pig book and began practicing for our presentation to our expert coming in!

Other highlights - 

1. We are now very comfortable with Miss Carrots, and students are taking over her care! Our math skills, understanding numbers as definite quantities, have been growing so well! 

2. We went from missing several students at the beginning of the week to having almost all together at the end of the week! We prayed often for our sick friends. 

3. And lastly - we talked in devotions about kindness and friendship, which ties into Habit 4: Win-Win. I saw several students this week make special effort to just be lovely to the people both in their class and out. What a joy to see Christ's love shining out of these students!

Have a blessed weekend!

Marbles and Miss Carrots

Eagerness is the word I choose to encapsulate this week in Kindergarten. It seems that everywhere I turned, students had "I wonders" for us to discover. It was wonderful!

Highlights from this week:

Monday

We had a donation of a marble run! Students engaged wonders: I wonder how the chain lift works, I wonder why that one got stuck, I wonder how we could make a new one, I wonder how we could all use it... With that last one, they decided a line up would work; they organized it and self-ran it so everyone could enjoy it! I've been encouraging students to use their 7 Habits to problem-solve, and that is exactly what they did. Our run also only had one marble, so GR said he could solve that problem and bring some from home (with mom's permission, of course.) He brought varying sizes in the next day, which led to I wonders about size, fit, rolling, and how we could make a run for the big marbles!

Monday also say the welcome of Miss Carrots, our new classroom pet! We left her in quiet for most of the day, but students did get to see her. They did an excellent job remembering how to interact with a new guinea pig!

Tuesday:

Our devotions were on thankfulness to God for all the ways He blesses us, including through people. To act on this, we painted and wrote cards to people who left "God fingerprints" on our class and school.

We also got to hold Miss Carrots! Lots of I wonders about the sounds she makes and how God made her - we looked closely for special ways that she was made. 

This week, the SK's have been working hard on sounding out words when they write in their Big Beautiful Book! We use the popcorn word wall (for high-frequency words like you, the, and we), our morning message, and other text around the room. GR was working on his page of our guinea pig book, and realized he knew where to find a clue for "ing" - The King of ING, who sits on my cabinet as a reminder of how to spell the suffix ing. GR decided to shake his hand and get acquainted before using his new-found knowledge.

Wednesday

Miss Carrots is getting comfortable. We had time on the carpet with her... LA was wondering what her teeth were like, so he quietly peeked into her hideaway while she was eating. 

W also talked about God caring for the Israelites in the desert, especially looking at the Ten Commandments this week - God's wise ways to live.

Thursday

Thursday's devotions were again on fingerprints, so we used our own fingerprints to make pictures of things that show us God's fingerprints.

Friday

The Grade 3/4 buddies came and read with us! They came prepared with books they had chosen specifically for their buddies and their interests, and did a wonderful job reading and discussing these books. The Kindergartener's gained valuable one-on-one time building book-talk (comprehension) skills (More I wonders.... I wonder what this page is about, I wonder what will happen,..).

We also had more I wonder questions, this time about books. We finished our final drafts of our pages, on special paper, and compared our book with other books in our classroom. We decided we still needed something to cover the staples (I wonder what that could be), the binding, and we also decided we needed a back cover (I wonder what back covers have). Next week we will finish up these stages.

Here are some examples of their beautiful work.  

First draft on the right - suggestions were to make it a bit bigger and add a guinea pig, which KI did!

First draft on the right. Suggestions were to have just the one thing and make it bigger - HO went to look at the hay rack in the cage and used the suggestion to make the picture on the Left. 

We also read the book Only One You. The author, Linda Krantz, had an interesting method of illustration that peaked student questions. They asked if we could have a centre to make our own pictures that way. They brainstormed what we would need for a center and we started collecting. This will be another interesting inquiry into authoring, illustrating, and publishing! 

Be blessed!

Shapes, Snow, and Guinea Pigs Galore!

One of the best things about Project Based Learning is that you can learn so many things while working towards a common project. Our project's driving question is: "How can we make a happy and healthy home for our pet guinea pig?"

We looked at what living things need to live (food, shelter, water) and what that would look like for a guinea pig. We looked at responsibility - taking care of something even if we didn't feel like it. We had to commit to that before bringing a pet into our class. We looked at the habitat, including online shopping to decide if certain cages would work or not. 

With this project, I was very much wanting the students to not only discover the answers to our questions, but also how to find the answers. We talked about books and videos being good sources of information, and asking one of our volunteers questions because we had met her guinea pigs (she was kind enough to come in again this week for a more dedicated session with students to answer questions. Thanks Mrs. D.!)

We also used this to grow a learning skill - Beautiful Work. Beautiful Work is work that you have intentionally worked very hard on, maybe even changing things to make it better. We watched a video about Austin's Butterfly, made a bulletin board, Our Wonder Wall, with dedicated space for every student's beautiful work, and practiced. Beautiful Work is so valuable because it is a vehicle to introduce feedback, both giving and receiving. After practicing this how to give helpful feedback, we started working on our guinea pig book to share what we knew about these pets. First, we made a plan (Habit 2) and made a first draft.

  

Then, we got to sit in the colourful, feather-ful Beautiful Work chair. We held up our work, looked at it, and our friends used I Likes and I Wonders to give feedback (ie. I like the shape. I wonder if you could add a detail of...). Miss K acted as secretary to write the feedback down, and later that week, we made a good copy on special paper, showed everyone, and celebrated our hard work! Our next step will be to add the words on our good copy. 

(A teacher note: I know that these students are capable of amazing, creative, thoughtful work, so it doesn't surprise me when they make incredible things. But still I was blown away with how hard they worked on their good copies and how they integrated their classmate's feedback! This book will be something to be extra-proud of!)

Now, while it may seem that this project completely took over, we are Kindergarten which means our minds run a mile a minute! Shapes and snow, often integrated, also featured heavily this week.

Two triangles together, with one flipped, makes a rectangle!

We've been working on 2D shapes, and have made some cool discoveries...

Shapes are in everything - even zambonis!

We can look at the snowflakes God made, and use shapes to make our own. We made sure our's had six sides, like the way God makes snowflakes. All different, all special.

We also used shapes at our new snow centre, where we made snowman and snowflakes - sometimes both together!

LA practices cutting when he makes a \
snowman beard!

I know this is getting long, I'm sorry, but one more story. One of the special things about our school is that we teach students 7 Habits for leadership - so that they can grow and be effective in whatever gifts God has given them. I saw a really great example of this taking place, on Wednesday. 

I heard loud noises, not happy tones, coming from the building centre. Three boys come to me each explaining their point of view (there was a difference of opinion as to how the building blocks be used and whose idea should win). I had them stop, and asked them if they were leaders. They all said yes, so I asked if they knew habits to work with eachother. One of them said Habit 4: Think Win-Win. So I encouraged them to find a quiet corner, listen to eachother, and find a win-win.

This is the discussion starting...

I eavesdropped from the other side of the classroom, and heard each of them quietly say what they were hoping to do, in a proactive, neutral tone. A little more discussion, then JA had an idea that merged with KI's idea. And KI had an idea of how to include CA's idea, who agreed! 

They gave me the thumbs up sign, asked if they could build on a round table instead of the rectangle one, and were off! Building tracks, and plowing snow from the "avalanche" you see!

I watched their faces visibly turn from frustration to shared excitement as they problem solved. Best of all, they are realizing that they are leaders who can resolve these things. I as teacher am available always to help, but quite often, as the foundation of leadership is setting in, they just need a reminder of the tools we have learned, and away they go!

If you have stories of this at home, I'd love to hear them!

Also, a reminder, if you have friends with children turning 4 or 5 this year, spread the word about Ready, Set, Read! I'm excited to meet new families with children ready to explore the wonder of God's world.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a blessed Christmas break!

New Year's Fireworks!

We had a fun week learning with our friends again...

Learning balance
   

 

           Making action patterns with friends

Making selfies - we worked extra hard on detail - SA
has a mirror so that she could check the color of her eyes.

We also celebrated some accomplished WIGs (Wildly Important Goals)! HA and HO learned letter names, LA and ET worked on number recognition, and GR learned his letter sounds

    

Two special things from this week:

1. Show and Tell

Show and Tell is not only valuable for community
building, but also for oral communication. Students
have the opportunity to explain and answer questions from
other students.

2. Our introduction of our new project - we are getting a pet! A guinea pig to be specific. This project will have two parts. The first, that we have begun, is based on this driving question: How can we as Kindergarten pet owners create a happy and healthy home for our guinea pig? Part B will be based around good pets vs. bad pets and how we can people make good pet choices. 

First, we began on Wednesday with a clue search to find out what the surprise was!

From there, we looked at books and videos to find out what all living things need to live and how we can supply those for our pet. Having this pet will provide new opportunities for student responsibility and leadership, and will provide new opportunities for reading, writing, and math learnings.

Looking forward to more learning adventures next week!

Highlights from the students: playing outside in the snow, seeing our friends again, making our selfies, show and tell, hot dog lunch, and of course, the guinea pig project.