Over the last week the children each created three 'wonder questions' that they wanted to answer about penguins. With their Big Buddy, they spent some time on the Chromebooks researching the answers to their questions. They then copied their findings and drew pictures in their Penguin Books.
Walk like a penguin!We thought we'd try waddling like penguins - which wasn't too hard until we added an "egg". We pretended that we were Emperor Penguins who had their egg on their feet. The hard part was trying to move without letting it drop on the ice! Our Discovery CentreThe children have been imagining and using their creative thinking with the items at our Discovery Centre - penguins, chicks, and their predators.     Penguin Provocations I put out some penguin items to provoke some thinking and to give some inspiration for drawing and writing in the classroom.  Last week we received a special delivery - a box from Antarctica. Mrs. Connelly delivered it to our classroom. We noticed that it even had air holes and snow on the top.  We opened it up to find our new penguin friend, Percy. He came all the way from Antarctica because he heard that we were learning about penguins. Included in the box with him was a note about his journey from Antarctica to Kamloops.   He will be fun to have in the class as we continue on our research journey!
We wondered how penguins stay warm in the cold. We read that they have a layer of blubber or fat under their feathers. So...we conducted an experiment. We created a "blubber glove" using butter to create a layer of fat. The children dipped their hand in an ice cold bowl of water. Brrr...they all agreed it was too cold!! Then they put the blubber glove on and put their hand back in the water. The blubber glove protected their hand from the cold...just like the blubber does for the animals living in Antarctica and the Arctic.
Some of our Winter artOur Class Tree:  Melted Snowmen:Oh, no!! Our snowmen melted. I wonder why:  Making them was messy...but fun: Winter Trees:Our finished products turned out great!  Loose Parts - Snowflakes    It's A Blizzard!! 
Then we looked at books to see what we could discover about things that people do to take care of pets. The children also shared the kinds of things that they do to take care of their own pets.  To pique curiosity about Penguins, I set out some books, some stuffies, and little figures at our Discovery Centre. The children enjoyed choosing to go to this centre throughout the day. Then we wondered:  In order to answer this question, we will need to do a lot of research to find out more information about penguins.
Then the children looked through many non-fiction books about penguins to see what they could discover. Even though reading is difficult for them at this age, the pictures can provide lots of information...and lots of questions!
We went to the library and Mrs. Sauer taught us about Speed Stacking. She taught us the proper way to stack and de-stack the cups. There are certain ways to do it properly.  Then the children got a chance to try it. It was tricky but they were starting to get the hang of it! Very soon at lunch time, Mrs. Sauer will be hosting the Speed Stack Club once a week in the library. The students can choose to go there instead of going outside. The Mitten We did a short literature study of the book The Mitten by Jan Brett. We have read the story a number of times and, using masks, the children re-enacted the story using our large mitten. During Activity Time a number of the children took the initiative to use the giant mitten and the masks and act out the story many times!  Many of the children made their own paper versions of the story and some of the children also used our finger puppets to re-tell the story as well as. Mitten/Glove GraphAs a part of Math, we created a mitten/glove graph. The children all got to "hang up" their answer to the question.  |
AuthorI'm Mrs. MacDonald. Welcome to a window into our kindergarten classroom. My goal of this blog is to give you an opportunity to see some of the things that we are doing at school. Enjoy! Archives
December 2018
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