I set up a challenge for the students to see if they could build a gate for our five little pumpkins. They had to use some good critical thinking strategies to find a way to balance the pumpkins. Many of the students came up with some good ideas. They planned them, tested their plan, and then often had to refine their thinking to make it work. These kinds of challenges are a part of the Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies component of our curriculum.
0 Comments
We love our story "Five Little Pumpkins". We have re-told the story with our finger pumpkin mitt and we've read it as a big book. But the best was when we dramatized it using our stick puppets. We've been talking a lot about 'being brave' - just like Kerry Koala from our Fun Friends program. The children got to practice this by standing up in front of their classmates and saying their lines. A fantastic job by everyone!! It's always a bucket filler to hear your friends clap for you when you finish!
Meet Kerry Koala: We've been using the Fun Friends program to help us talk about feelings and emotions. This week Kerry Koala came to our class but she was very nervous. We talked about being 'brave' and how that means sometimes we have to do things even if they are a bit scary. The children helped Kerry be brave by telling her some of the things that she needed to do to talk in front of the whole class. They told her to use a big voice, to stand tall, and to look them in the eye. It's important for children to be able to identify and express their emotions in appropriate ways. Kerry Koala used different pictures to talk to the children about their feelings. Then we made Kerry Koala stick puppets - happy, sad, scared, and mad. We used the stick puppets to show how we would feel during different scenarios: you fall down and scape your knee - how do you feel?; your first day of kindergarten - how do you feel?; Mom and Dad take you for ice cream - how do you feel? etc. We will be seeing Kerry Koala a number of times throughout the year to teach us about feelings, how to face fears, relax, solve problems, and set goals.
A number of children have enjoyed exploring at our Discovery Table. Using "loose parts" the children had a chance to create salmon habitat and redds. The idea behind loose parts is that you use different materials to explore, build, create, and design an infinite number of 'masterpieces'. This allows for the students to focus on the Core Competency of Creative Thinking.
We've been focussing on the changes that are occurring now in the season of Fall. We went outside this week to see what changes we could notice and we also did a scavenger hunt to look for some things in nature. It was a beautiful day outside and we had lots of fun being "Nature Hunters"! We've also been busy making fall projects in the classroom: We played our Autumn math game - Falling Leaves. The children had to practice the math skills of reading dice, matching numbers, and counting. It's a partner game so they practiced the social skills of taking turns and being a good partner. We always make sure to thank our partners for playing when we are done!
We have been busy learning about the life cycle of sockeye salmon. Sally the Salmon has been teaching us all about her life as she went through her different stages of development. During her travel back, she begins to change and she notices lots of her other friends are beginning to change too. They are all changing to a bright red colour with green heads and green tail. Wow! And the male salmon are all getting big humps on their backs and their mouths are becoming more hooked with sharp teeth. What a transformation! Finally back at her home, Sally the Salmon finds a mate, digs a redd and lays her eggs. Her male partner fertilizes the eggs with milt and then Sally carefully covers her eggs with small rocks by swishing her tail around. She doesn't want any predators - like birds or bigger fish - to eat her eggs. She wants the life cycle to continue!
What a fantastic day at the salmon run! We had beautiful weather and a great opportunity to see many spawning salmon. Thanks to all our parent volunteers! And what fun - we had our first bus ride!!
Our school Aboriginal Education Worker, Mrs. Pittman, came into our class to help the children make a 'fishy' snack. Everyone got to make their fish aquarium using rice crackers, yogourt, fish crackers, and sprinkles. We got to eat them at lunch time!
We've been reading books about the changes that take place during the season of Fall. We then took a trip outside to the school yard to see what changes we could notice. We came back and made some Fall leaves for our class tree. |
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
March 2023
Categories |