Really Rad Read-n-Munch

Thank you to all our wonderful guest readers.  This month's read and munch was extra fun with all our non-fiction, David Catrow, and Dr. Seuss books.  We are excited to celebrate Dr. Seuss some more on Monday so don't be afraid to let your kindergartner dress in red and white (cat in the hat) or red and blue (red fish, blue fish).  Thank you to everyone who filled our bellies and our minds during this snacking, reading, memory making time!

Non-Fiction Writing

Please be sure to fill out the blue non-fiction/expert topic sheet with your child this weekend.  We will be using these topics to help us narrow our ideas about expert topics.  I will be trying to find one book from our school library to match your child's topic choice so he/she can use this as a resource when "researching" information to include in his/her book.  If you would like to also find books you are welcome to send them to school with your child just please be sure to label them with tape and your child's last name so I can make sure they stay separated from our school/classroom/and library books.

Thanks so much!

Twinkle, twinkle...

oh my STARS!  

We had so much fun today sharing our night journals and talking about the things we see in the night time sky (include the moon and stars).  We learned about the nine planets and how the sun is a giant star.  We also explored other stars today and created constellations on black paper with pins.  The children loved using flashlights to illuminate their constellations and create shadows.  

Check out our solar system song too!
 

Shadow Hunter

We took some time to observe our shadows and discovered that shadows are created when the sun shines on something but not through it.  We went outside early in the morning to trace our shadows.  When we went out later in the day we were not able to see our shadows because of the cloud cover.  We talked about how clouds can cast shadows too...in this case, making our shadows impossible to see because the sun could not shine through the clouds.  Today we revisited our shadows and were surprised to see how the sun (appeared to) had moved over the course of the day causing our shadows to move as well.  It was an amazing learning experiment and one that solidified the understanding that earth is constantly moving, which causes our shadows to appear to move too!

Tackling the teens

We have spent our week internalizing our teen numbers.  We have spent time matching teen numbers to tens frames and today we used our double-decker buses to do quick images and them make the ten numbers using standard number cards.  The children have learned that they don't even need to count the tens but just to look at the additional tens frame to decipher which teen number they are counting.

Special speakers

On Friday we had two guest speakers visit our classroom.  

Our first guest was a family member of one of our classmates and a leader in the ability awareness festivities.  Benjamin's mom paid us a visit and took the opportunity to share a story with us about Ben's brother, Evan, who has Fragile X syndrome.  We learned how his abilities make him a unique and special part of his family.  Ben's big sister wrote the book when she was a kindergartener about learning and growing with Evan through the challenges he faces because of Fragile X and how celebrating and loving our unique gifts makes each of us feel valued and important.  It was the perfect reminder for us on abilities awareness day and was all the more personal because it was shared by a hero family (and written by a kindergartener in kid language)!

We also had a guest speaker visiting from the Denver zoo.  She gave us a great introduction to our next science unit "living things".  We learned about her zoo and how we have many of the same animals at the St. Louis Zoo.  She taught us about habitats and different types of diets (herbivore, omnivore, and carnivore).  We also learned about her area of study (bears) and their different features and dispositions.  It was so much fun and we each got bear stickers and a polar bear magnet as a gift!

Happy Hat Day Heroes!

My four caped crusaders!

Here is our hat day picture for "hats on for kids with cancer" day!

 Lovely Leader (AH)

 Super Girl Sophie (SD)

 Super Hero Shadow (JS)

 Quacky the leader (LA)

 Wonder Woman Girl (ER)

 Super Heart Olivia (OS)

 The Pretzel Girl (LH)

 Batman (CW)

 Crusher Ethan (EC)

THE super hero (DU)

 Super Lasers (EA)

 Super Speedy Etta (EB)

 

"Super Crazy Man" (LW)

 "Super Pretzel" (BS)

 Super Jacob (JP)

 Firebomb N (NJ)

 "Super heroes are super cool!" (FM)

 The Invisible Man (FW)

 SUPER BEN! (BT)

 

 "Super heroes to the rescue" (AC)

"I'm head over heels for my Kindergarten Heroes!" (KS)

Our Class Chant:
We are the heroes, the happy, helpful heroes.  We are always kind, keep others on our mind.  We make proactive choice, and use our big, brave voices.  We are the heroes, THE KINDERGARTEN HEROES!

We took today to celebrate our differences as well as all that makes us a kindergarten family.  The heroes each took time to label their super hero (pretzel picture) and/or say a "super hero" phrase.  We hope you enjoy this sneak peek into "a day in the life of a super class".