All about weather!

We spent the last part of winter studying all about the weather! We started off by discussing wind, sun, and water, as well as all the different types of weather out there. It was immediately apparent that wind and tornadoes/hurricanes were the most fascinating topic! Below is an experiment we did called What Can the Wind Below? The kids practiced making predictions and testing their hypotheses by blowing on different classroom items.

After a few weeks of reading and learning about weather types, each kindergartener chose a type of weather they wanted to research and write a report on. We got lots of non-fiction books from the library, and also explored Pebble Go and National Geographic online, plus watched a few episodes of Bill Nye and Sid the Science Kid to get more information. Then they started writing their research reports! I was truly impressed with their ability to convey facts in an informational book. Several groups shared their reports with the whole class in a "science meeting," and everyone read their finished books to our first grade reading buddies.

"Sun can make the temperature hot on the earth." 

"It can make ice melt." 

"It can make your face warm."

During our last week on weather, we made collaborative posters showing the features of each season. Then each kindergartener chose their favorite season and painted a water color scene of themselves during that season. Then we shared a sentence "My favorite season is...because..." They did a great job!

Vowels vowels vowels

Vowels are often the hardest letters for early readers to learn! By the end of kindergarten, they are expected to be familiar with both the short and long vowel sounds. Here are the different sounds for each vowel:

We are currently learning the short sounds for all the vowels, and much more time will be spent on the long vowel sounds in first grade. Here is a video that we've been watching to practice the short vowel sounds. It's a big hit in our class :)

Penpal letter writing

Learning to write is one of the most challenging parts of kindergarten. It requires lots of literacy skills, including planning out what you want to write, separating one word from another, stretching out the word and figuring out what letters to write for each sound in the word, and also remembering to leave spaces and form letters correctly and use legible handwriting!

It's a lot for a little learner to take on. I am always looking for authentic writing experiences for our kindergarteners, so they can have a purpose for why they are writing. For the past few months we have been lucky enough to pair up with a high school in Milwaukee, whose sophomore English class have become our penpals! It's a really awesome experience - the kindergarteners are fascinated by receiving letters from TEENAGERS, and they spend so much careful time writing and drawing letters to them. On the flip side, the English teacher (who is a friend of mine) says her high schoolers are ecstatic when they receive letters from the kindergarteners in the mail, and they respond with kind letters and detailed drawings.

It's a very cool experience of writing with purpose, and getting to know another community of learners. We are trying to arrange for the high school class to visit our classroom, but details are still up in the air.

Here are a few pictures of the letters we received, plus the ones we wrote back!

Farmer and chefs in the classroom

Friday was a jam-packed day of food and fun! Recently we've been lucky to have two CSA farmers, the family of one of our classmates, come in to do a lesson on food and farming with the kids! Last month Farmer Bard talked about tomatoes, and this Friday he did a lesson on root vegetables, specifically how carrots are grown and stored. We are going to continue these lessons (which include a veggie tasting!) as often as we can this spring! Many kindergarten students are very picky eaters, which is typical at this age. But did you know studies show that repeated tastings of the same food will often change a child's preferences?

Here are some pictures of our farmer in the classroom teaching how tomato seedlings are planted:

To continue our food adventures (and exposure to new types of food), we paired up with the district high school's cooking class, a group of sophomores who are studying food, culture and cooking. They came to our classroom and presented on where spring rolls come from - and then let the kids make their own! The high schoolers did an amazing job of prepping all the veggies ahead of time, and let the kindergarteners watch as they soaked rice paper to make the rolls. Then the kids got to choose whatever ingredients they wanted for their rolls. Many chose shrimp, kohlrabi, bean sprouts, and carrots. They also provided two types of sauce for dipping. The kids loved it and all but one student gave the spring rolls a try!

The high schoolers will be coming to visit our classroom once a month. I can't wait to see what they bring next!

Counting in kindergarten

The Common Core standards expect that kindergarteners be able to count to 100 by the time they are ready to leave for first grade. We have been practicing counting since our first day, and some kids are now comfortable making it all the way to 100! Here is a video we recently started watching in order to get some more practice in. I love how the video emphasizes the decade numbers (10, 20, 30, 40...) because those are often the trickiest for kids to remember. Feel free to watch this at home and let your kiddo sing out loud :)

Dress like your favorite book character day

Last Friday was Dress Like Your Favorite Book Character Day, in honor of Dr. Seuss and Read Across America week! I was unfortunately home sick but the substitute teacher sent a wonderful picture of the characters. Lots of Ninja Turtles and princesses!

Writing lately

We have been doing lots of writing lately. We are lucky to have our reading specialist, Mrs. Cronin, help us every day during Writers Workshop now, which means the students get double the help from teachers, which is great. But they have become so independent and successful at writing they hardly need us! :) We are currently working on writing non-fiction "How to" books, in which kindergarteners choose something they know how to do and write out the steps. But we have also been working on other aspects of writing.

Stretching Out Words
A big concept in both reading and writing for kindergarteners is "stretching out a word." This is the same as sounding out a word, and it seems simple enough, but it takes a lot of thinking and knowledge synthesis on the part of a five-year-old to sound out a word. First, they have to be comfortable breaking the word down into each of its parts, which can be tricky. For example, "mat" has three sounds to it - mmm aaa ttt, while "flat" has four sounds to it - fff lll aaa ttt, and "that" has only three sounds - tthhh aaa ttt.  Complicated stuff for beginning writers!

Next, they have to recognize that each sound is represented by a letter or combination of letters. Then they have to remember which letter it is, and how to write the letter! It's amazing to see their minds at work during writing. We do lots of practice with stretching out words as a whole class, and independently. Here are some pictures of us practicing:

The best part is to see them putting this practice to work during writing time! Here we are writing letters to our high school penpals in Milwaukee. They were so excited to send their letters off to a real high schooler! We are eagerly anticipating their response. :)