Thanksgiving Baskets

 One of the best parts of working at Wiscasset Primary School is the amazing Partners in Education group.  Each year they set up a Thanksgiving Basket experience for the students.  Each grade brought in a different component for a Thanksgiving basket.  Then PIE sets up all the food up in a "store." Produce harvested by the students from is also added to the basket.  PIE always finds ways to tie in learning to these experiences.  The kinders crossed items off a shopping list, and we talked about how each item could be used.  Their favorite part was using the scale to weigh out carrots and potatoes.  I loved how this worked nicely into our math lesson the day before when we were using balances.  

When we returned to class the kids were thrilled to learn a new game called "Monster Squeeze."   One child thinks of a number and as the other child guesses, the first partner tells the second child if the guess is too high or too low.  With each guess one monster is moved closer to "squeeze" the correct number.  It is a great game to teach children how to compare numbers.  I sent home a copy of this game with each child, so be sure to ask your kiddo to play a game of Monster Squeeze with you.  Better yet, take it to Thanksgiving dinner and have aunts and uncles play as well.

Wampanoag and Pilgrim Games

We pretended to be children in the 1620's.  Though the Pilgrim and Wampanoag children worked very hard, they also found time for play.  The kids learned to play Naught, an older version of Tic-Tac Toe.  They also did a little "hop-frog," also known as leap frog.  Their favorite game was "Ring and Stick," played by the Wampanoag children.  Because the Wampanoag children didn't go to Wal-Mart to buy their toys, the kinder-kids didn't either.  They were supplied with string, pipe cleaners and popsicle sticks.  They saw a model of a ring and stick game and then were cut loose to make their own.  The kids had to experiment with knot tying, length of string, and size of the ring.  They tested their products over and over.  They helped their peers tie knots and make rings.  Whenever a child actually caught the ring on the stick their faces were priceless, hence all the pictures today.  We talked about how this game actually trained the Wampanoag children to focus on a target, a useful skill for hunting.

This afternoon was special as Bethany from SASSM came to visit us with her friend Penny the Porcupine, a puppet.  Bethany and Penny taught us ways to deal with people who are touching us if we don't want to be touch.  We can: tell the person to stop, walk away, or tell a trusted adult we need help. The kids all colored a Penny the Porcupine sheet to take home and share her tips with families.  

Be careful with Hop-Frog.  The kids found me to be a little too tall to hop over.

Even the adults had fun with Ring and Stick.  Mrs. Potter was very proud of her success.

Look at the determination on his face.  He was determined to get the ring on the stick.

Heavy Thinking

We started our morning meeting today with a new tool, clipboards!  We learned how to sit on the clipboards until it was time to use them.  Then everyone had to answer our sign in question:  What is heavier than a person?  The kids took out their clipboards and a scrap paper to draw what they thought would be heavier person.  They also tried writing their answers. Everyone shared their answer and we were all impressed with how many letter sounds the kids are capturing.

After lunch we picked out different objects in the classroom and used a pan balance to figure out which objects were heavier and which objects were lighter.  We learned that the heavy objects make the pan balance go down, lifting the lighter objects into the air.  We also learned that some objects that are big can be lighter than the smaller object it is compared to.

Now that we have some more time in the morning to do exploratory learning, the kids will have an opportunity to experiment with their questions regarding the pan balance.

Sight Words

One of the super cool parts of being a kindergarten teacher is the ability to watch kids take learning into their own hands.  We set the stage and the kids take over.  Today, during word work, one of the students used the magnet letters to spell all the November sight words.  He was so excited I had to take a picture.  The child in the background is on the website starfall.com learning more about letters and stories.  While the kids are doing their own learning, the teachers have the opportunity to work with small groups of children.  It's usually so quiet in the classroom you'd have to look twice to confirm students are there.

Many of you asked how you can help your child at home.  Grab some magnet letters and ask them what they can show you.  Ask if they can find all the letters with curves, all the letters with lines, all the letters with diagonal lines.  Ask your child to spell his or her name, or friend's names, or even better, sight words.  Make it fun.  PLAY with words by seeing how fast he or she can write a word, or trace it in shaving cream.  Have a great weekend playing with words!

Building a Common House

We made it to North America, created a Compact to agree on the rules for our new colony, and now it is time to build the colony.  The kids learned how everyone had to work together to build the Common House, the first structure in Plymouth Plantation.  Tomorrow we will learn how hard our first winter was and brainstorm ways the Pilgrims could have fared better.

We also found examples of symmetry in nature by looking at shells, leaves, and our bodies.  Then we made a bar graph to demonstrate the favorite dessert of kindergarten.  Both KB and KR classes decided cake was the favorite dessert.

Symmetry Paintings

Today we made symmetrical paintings and created a Kindergarten Compact based on the Mayflower Compact.  It was busy, messy and fun!
Have a great LONG weekend.  We'll see everyone on Tuesday.

Riding on the Mayflower

Well, we packed up our belongings making some hard decisions of what to keep and what to leave.  We asked four questions before putting anything in our trunk.  Can you eat it?  Will it keep you warm? Can you build with it?  Will it make you healthy if you're sick?  The kids then explained to their peers why they picked the items they did to put in their trunk.  Then we said a pretend goodbye to all our friends and family and boarded the very small Mayflower.

We simulated what life on the Mayflower was like based on a book we read and research about the Pilgrims trip.  We thought about how stinky the boat was, and heard the mean names the sailors called the Pilgrims as they got seasick (if your child calls you a "glib glabbety puke stocking" you'll know where it came from).  Then we turned the lights off as the Pilgrims couldn't have a fire for light or cooking during a long storm that damaged the boat. We ate hardtack, just like the Pilgrims, which was as hard as the name implies.  We finally made it to shore and the kids cried out, "Land Ho!" Tomorrow we will create our own version of a Mayflower Compact to decide how everyone should treat each other in this new land.

Our Play is Our Work

 Today, as the kinders were enjoying choice time, I took a few pictures to show how their "play" leads to discovery of new concepts.  As we played with attribute blocks the kids counted sides, compared squares to rectangles, realized circles have no side, made new shapes by putting other shapes together, and counted as they made roads of shapes.  They put together puzzles, using their knowledge of the alphabet to decide which piece should go next.

 After our choice time the kids went to the book fair and found some books to put on their wish lists. The book fair will be open during parent-teacher conferences.

We also talked about how the Pilgrims needed to leave so much behind to sail on the Mayflower to a new land.  They looked at two bags full of loved and "necessary" objects from my house and had to decide which ones to take.  They could only fill one bag.  When a blanket was selected, room had to be made, so other objects were removed.  We talked about what was necessary to survive, and what just made us comfortable.

Fun on Monday

Today we learned how to estimate.  We looked at a group of ten objects in one jar, and then estimated the number of the same type of object in another jar.  The kids had fun checking their estimates by counting by tens and twos.

We then talked about how to write true stories about our lives.  The kids each came up with their own true story, and then went to work telling the story with pictures, labels and sentences. We shared our writing with our friends, and I was impressed with the sounds the kids are hearing in their words.

We made a list of all the things we know about Thanksgiving.  The class talked about cooking with family, having family come spend the night, and giving food to other people.  We watched a quick video explaining how the first Thanksgiving came to be and then we looked at  books about how people lived 400 years ago.  Over the next few weeks we will be exploring the steps leading up to the first Thanksgiving.

Remember: Parent Teacher conferences are this Wednesday and Thursday.
There is no school Friday or Monday.

Spiders and Pumpkins

We had a great time acting out "Little Miss Muffet" today after trying some cottage cheese to act as the "curds and whey." The kids took turns being the spider and Miss Muffet.  We were able to practice a direction word "beside" as we learned where "beside" was in our nursery rhyme.  We also practiced making frightened faces instead of happy faces, because that matched the words we were reading.  Then we slowly said all the words of the first two lines of "Little Miss Muffet" and wrote down the sounds we heard.  After that much sitting everyone took a stretch and walked to their table to illustrate the poem "Little Miss Muffet."  We discussed if our pictures matched the poem.  If the illustrations didn't match, the pictures were sent home.  The illustrations that matched were posted on the poem.  For instance, Little Miss Muffet did not share her curds and whey with a zombie, so that picture went home =).

After lunch we checked to see if pumpkins floated.  I'll let your kids tell you the answer to that.  Then we tested all sorts of objects in the room.  The kids were surprised by what floated and sunk.    They had to be scientists and record what they saw with their special scientist tools, colored pencils.  They wrote about what floated, what sunk, and then a conclusion or question about what they noticed. Check out all the wonderful things your children did today.