We've certainly had our fair share of delays and cancellations recently, so it feels nice to get back into a bit of a routine this week! We've been working hard on our letters, sounds, and shapes, as well as exploring our unit of inquiry into how sound is made. As we head toward conferences, we're also entering assessment season: it's always exciting to see how much the students have grown! Our reading groups this week focused on the letters Mm, Ii, Ss, Ff, and Rr. We explored these letters and sounds by dictating words on whiteboards, building them with Wiki sticks, and sorting pictures by beginning sounds. The students are making amazing progress, and are beginning to use the sounds to make words! Math saw us counting all the way to 100 (wow!), exploring the concept of addition by using dice and unifix cubes, and building pictures using shapes. Using concrete materials like cubes help to make the very abstract concept of addition much more accessible. During Genius Hour, we wrapped up our exploration of the water cycle by returning to our original experiment cup. If you recall, we added salt to snow to see how it affected the melting process. After the snow had melted, it also evaporated, leaving just the salt behind. After learning about the water cycle, we had one final inquiry to make: what would happen to the salt if we added water back to the cup? We hypothesized, then carried out our experiment. Everyone was shocked to see that this time, it was the salt that disappeared! This prompted us to learn the new vocabulary words dissolve, and wrapped up our inquires into water. We used pictures to show the water cycle and how water moves through the different phases. We opted for a directed drawing, and even discussed the correct vocabulary words as we worked! A large part of our week was spent digging into sound. We spent our Unit time looking at various instruments, discovering how they made sound, and finding the vibration in each. We discovered that string instruments, like the guitar, create sound when the strings are plucked and vibrate. They even went one step further, inquiring into how the hollow inside of the guitar affected the sound it made. Some students connected this to YouTube videos they had seen where the guitar was filled with water, which made the sound deeper and more 'whooshy.' Although it hurts my musician heart to think about filling a guitar with water, it was a great connection! Each student had the opportunity to play the guitar and feel the neck and body for vibrations, and some even inquired into how the frets could affect the sound as they played. After everyone had had a chance to play the guitar, we took it one step further: we made our own instruments using geoboards and rubber bands! The students explored how different shapes make different sound, how stretching the rubber band more made a higher sound, and how a loose rubber band made a lower sound. We added our discoveries to our KWL chart, and will revisit this concept when it's time to create our own musical instruments at the end of the unit. Later in the week, we explored how our voices create sound. Using a hand placed gently on our throats, we spoke, sang, whispered, and shouted. We sang high and low, introducing our vocabulary word pitch, and discovered that the vibrations in our throats feel different based on the sound we're making. Finally, during Genius Hour, we used rice and beans to make individual shakers. We practiced rhythm by playing them as we sang through our story of the day, 'Oh, A-Hunting We Will Go.' Oh, a-hunting we will go. A-hunting we will go. We'll just pretend, and in the end We'll always let them go! The most impressive thing to happen this week was when a student described how sound waves work without being taught! Based solely on his own discoveries (specifically using our voices), he described how the sound feels like it moves up and down, then drew a model to explain his thinking. Little did he know, he was spot on! We then watched a quick video explaining sound waves, and it was like watching a lightbulb go off. What an incredible learning moment! It was a short, but full, week in kindergarten, and I'm hoping we can have a full week when we return! Despite feeling like carrots in the produce section, we got outside and braved the misty weather for both Woods and recess. Apologies for the bags of muddy clothes coming home - if there's a mud puddle, they will find it! The students were thrilled to be outside again after last week's cold chill, so a little rain wasn't going to bother us. Here's hoping next week brings a bit of sun!
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It's been another great week! Even though cold temperatures have kept us mostly indoors, we still found ways to learn and have fun. We've started our second round of letters and sounds, and the students are doing an exceptional job putting their skills into practice. We've also been exploring teen numbers in math, and have been using lots of hands-on projects to demonstrate our learning. Finally, the students have shown a great interest in the properties of snow during Genius Hour. We've been conducting snow experiments, and learning about where snow fits in the water cycle. We have a group of little scientists this year, and it's incredible to watch them learn! Students had the opportunity to do some hands-on letter practice this week using Wiki-Sticks, a fun flexible learning tool similar to a sticky pipe cleaner. We reviewed the letters A, M, and N and practiced letter formation, beginning sounds, and blending CVC words. Here, students can be seen building an uppercase M! In addition to teen numbers, we also did a bit more review of 2D shapes in math. Here, students can be seen going for a 'shape walk,' recording shapes they found in our classroom on their clipboards. In this picture, these students were discussing how the crayons had a rectangle bottom, a triangle top, and an oval center. Later in the week, we explored how teen numbers can be made using a ten and some more ones (i.e., 13 can be made using a 10 and 3 ones). To show this, we made paper chains! Students chose a color of paper, then made a paper chain 10 loops long. After that, they got to choose a teen number and add the additional loops in another color. When finished, they show our teen numbers as a ten and some more ones. In addition to the teen number skills, students were practicing fine motor skills, counting, and problem solving (there was some difficulty figuring out how to attach the loops to one another, but they persevered!). These will be hung up in the hallways so students can be reminded of their teen numbers as well as their hard work. Last week, the students brainstormed a lot of great questions they'd like to explore during Genius Hour. This week, we chose the question 'Where does snow come from?'. The students noticed that the snow was disappearing, so we decided to start exploring this question by first figuring out what was happening to the snow. We conducted an experiment where we brought in two cups of snow and added salt to one. Then, we observed to see what would happen. In this picture, you can see that the snow in both cups has melted. However, the students observed that the snow with salt melted faster than the snow without. When we returned to school two days later (thanks, snow day!), the students discovered something amazing - not only had the snow disappeared completely, but there was a strange substance left in one of the cups! The students first hypothesis was that it was ice, but after a bit more exploring, they realized it was salt. We passed around both cups to give everyone a chance to observe and discover, and the conversation was just incredible. They discussed what the strange substance could be, how it got there, and why the other cup was completely empty. After everyone had a chance to see the cups, we brainstormed a whole new list of questions. Most of these questions revolved around temperature - the students are starting to realize that the snow only seems to stick around when it's cold, which should prompt some really fun experiments in the weeks to come. One student even proposed an answer to our original question - maybe snow comes from the North Pole! After much hypothesizing, we finally began to find some answers. We learned about the water cycle, how water can change forms, and how it eventually comes back down to earth. It took some thinking, but the students eventually figured out how snow fit into our water cycle - when the clouds get cold enough, we get snow instead of rain! Even though we spent most of our week indoors (and probably will this week, too!), the students still found lots of ways to have fun. Stay warm, Wolfpack!
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a restful winter break, and is rejuvenated and ready for 2024. We had a short week this week, but it was jam-packed! After reviewing routines and procedures, we embarked on a brand new phonics curriculum which allows for greater flexibility and differentiation than ever before. Students from both classes are getting to mix and work together on individual phonics skills, such as letter/sound identification and decoding CVC words. So far, the students are loving it! We learned two letters this week: Ll and Oo. On Friday, the students had the opportunity to choose one of these letters and make a mini-report on it. They identified their letter, drew a picture of something that started with that letter, and then used that word in a sentence. They did such an exceptional job! In math this week, we reviewed ten frames and shapes, and the students notice everyday just how much closer we're getting to our 100th day of school. We also introduced our math books, which has been a very exciting novelty for the students. We played a roll and record game, and went on a shape walk to record shapes we found. We've also started our next Unit of Inquiry regarding sound. The students discussed what they already knew about sound, as well as what they wanted to learn. They had lots of great questions regarding animal sounds, so that will be a big focus for us as we work our way through this unit. We recording all of our findings on a KWL chart, and even got to watch a Magic School Bus episode where we learned that sound is created by vibration. We'll continue to add to our KWL chart throughout the unit as we learn new things! During writing, we discussed New Year's Resolutions. Each student picked one or more Learner Profile traits that they wanted to focus on in 2024, then wrote them on slips of paper to make into a paper chain. This is now hanging in our classroom, and will stay up for the remainder of the year as a reminder of all the good things we're going to focus on improving! Finally, we made sure to have lots of fun! Whether indoors or outdoors, the students were just happy to see their friends and have the opportunity to play again. We found cool pieces of ice and big sticks, built enormous towers (talk about teamwork!), guarded 'eggs' in their 'nests,' and even became cone monsters. I can't wait to see what next week brings! |
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May 2024
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