Apples, Apples, Apples!

This week we have been reading, observing, and tasting apples!  On Monday, we made many observations using our eyes and hands to determine how apples look and feel.  On Tuesday, we tasted different apple products, including apple cider, apple chips, and applesauce.  We made a chart of everyone's favorite apple product.  The most popular treat by far was the apple cider! It was so yummy!

Today, we will observe the insides of our apples and taste yellow, green, and red apples.  Once each person has picked his/her favorite, children will get to record the results on their own.  We will also discuss how apples sound as we bite into them and how they taste!

Constructing 3-D shapes

We had so much fun today in math!  Ask your child what 3-D shape he/she made with play dough and straws/sticks!  We worked so hard to make cubes and the class demonstrated amazing perseverance.  Unfortunately, the cubes did not stay together very well!  Many children also tried pyramids, with much more success.  Some children worked individually and some worked in pairs, but all were extremely focused on the task.  Here are some pictures of our math challenge today!

This activity helped children understand how several squares put together make a cube.  A cube has 6 square faces.  A pyramid has a square base and triangle faces.  We didn't quite get to counting all of the edges and vertices today (sides and corners in a 2-dimensional object)!

Exploring 2-D shapes

For two weeks, our class investigated 2-dimensional shapes in a variety of ways.  We used attribute blocks, real objects, paper shapes, pattern blocks, and geoboards to explore and create triangles, rectangles, squares, circles, and hexagons.  Geoboards are great for building shapes with a specific number of sides and corners.  Pattern blocks are great for seeing how two or more shapes can make a new, larger shape (which is the foundation for fractions).  Here are some examples of our work!

Retelling a story

One of the reading strategies we practice weekly is retelling a familiar story.  We have read some wonderful books to practice this strategy, including Chrysanthemum, The Dot, and Otis.  Small groups of children are given story event cards to put in order from beginning to end.  The children must work together, as each one is responsible for one card.  Here are two pictures of retelling in action!

Picture Day!

Wednesday, September 30 is Picture Day! Please return your picture packet filled out and payment (or submit payment online) by Wednesday.  Our class will get our pictures taken a little before 9:00 that day, hopefully before we have time to mess up hair and clothes!

Here is my kindergarten school picture!

What are they doing?

As I was walking around during Literacy Center time, I noticed two children putting letters on the matching board in a strange way. "Friends, what are you doing?" I asked. "We're making the mixed up alphabet" they said.  We read The Mixed-Up Alphabet by Steve Metzger last week and these two students were recreating the story with their literacy materials! How wonderful! It reminded me to slow down and ask about the purpose or plan behind what children are working on. They usually have very clever ideas! It may look like play, but there is deep thinking going on!

If you look carefully, you can see the letters in the book are all mixed up because in the story the letters decided they wanted to be in a different order. The red plastic letters are in the same order as the book.

Zero the Hero!

Zero the Hero visited our class on Tuesday and left us a surprise in the shape of a zero: dried pineapple rings! So exciting! We watched a video clip of Zero the Hero and read his book.  We also have special Zero the Hero journals that we worked on.  In the journals, we wrote to 10, made tally marks to 10, colored in ten pennies, and filled in a ten-frame with ten circles!  What a fun celebration.  We can't wait until the 20th day of school to see what Zero the Hero leaves for us!