A Wet Week!

Well despite the freezing cold, we still had a fun week in Kindergarten! This week's theme was lakes, rivers, and everything that lives in them!

Monday
On Monday we talked about the water cycle. We had our own personal lake for this lesson (aka a crock pot)! We heated water up to make steam (evaporation), then we put on the lid and let it gather on top (condensation). Once we lifted the lid, we saw the precipitation drip down. I've never seen six year olds get so excited about water drops!

Our lovely "lake"

Later in the afternoon we also painted white snowflakes on black paper. We talked about how each snowflake is different! Just like God made each of us different!

 And sure enough, every painted snow flake was different!

Tuesday

Tuesday was all about the critters that live in lakes and rivers. We learned all about different fish, frogs, and bugs that thrive in water. Then, they got to draw their favorite water critter and write what their favorite part of it was. 

The most unique answers were "because it's king" and "because it has crunchers!"

In the afternoon we also started to work on tying shoes. We used jump ropes for some fun practicing!

It looks like I just tied up my students! But I PROMISE they were learning!

Thursday

Our book this Thursday was In the Small, Small Pond by. Denise Fleming. It was such a neat book with BEAUTIFUL pictures!

We then made fun little frogs with torn green paper.

New Things

New Letter Blends: fl, sl, tr

New sight word: where

Pythons and Prairies

Last week was our first full week back after Christmas break and that crazy weather! All the students seemed ready to be back, and I was too! Now, pythons and prairies is a pretty weird combination, but it describes this week perfectly!

Monday
The student's got a special treat on Monday! The zoo came to KA for an hour with live animals! The zoo instructor talked about adaptations (which might have been a little much for kindergarteners) and also brought some neat animals for us to meet. The first animals was a millipede, which are poisonous (I didn't know that!). The second animal was a python, YUCK! But it was cool to pet!

While a few of my students prefered to hide behind me while the snake came around, two brave boy asked if they could hold it! Luckily the instructor said no! The next animal brought in was a parrot (which I was more scared of than the snake). However, I'm not sure how much the students actually learned about that because they were too busy laughing about how it did it's "business" on the carpet! The last animal brought in was an ADORABLE hedgehog!

 I think the hedgehog was the overall favorite of the class :)

Tuesday
The unit we are currently working in is all about geography; and this week was focused on prairies. Tuesday we discussed pioneers and how differently they had to live! One parent from school was nice enough to let me borrow seed to grind into flour to show what the pioneers had to do to get flour.

Okay, sooo I cheated a little bit by using an electric mill, but they still got the point! After discussing differences, we then talked about similarities between pioneers and us. We sang "Pop Goes the Weasel!" and "Yankee Doodle"just like pioneer children use to. We also played "Hot and Cold" which was a game pioneer children use to play too!

Thursday'

Our prairie theme continued by learning about prairie dogs on thursday. We read an adorable book called The Great Fuzz Frenzy, which was filled with alliteration and new vocabulary for them to hear. 

We then cut out and pinned together our own prairie dogs. 

The students decided they should all be named Big Bark (a character in the book). It's great to see them connecting stories to other activities!

New Things!

New verse: "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6

New letter combinations: st (at the end), sp, br, mp

New sight words: was, off (flashcard coming home soon)

Let's Get Started!

Wow my first post! I just wanted to introduce this blog and what I hope to use it for! The main purpose for this blog is to connect with parents and to let them know what is going on in my crazy classroom! I plan on posting every week about what fun things we did! I never really know what to expect everyday from my kindergarteners, which makes every moment so much fun! So, I hope you enjoy reading about my class as much as I enjoy teaching my class!