Exploring in 3D

One of my favorite math units and an important geometry standard is learning about 3D shapes!  Students should be able to describe the faces, vertices and edges of each shape.

I gave the students 3D shapes and real world pictures to sort into cubes, cylinders, spheres or cones.  They also replicated 3D shapes using cubes and made cubes or pyramids with marshmallows and toothpicks.

They looked at geoblocks and matched ones that had the same face.

They were also given the challenging task of making 3D shapes with clay.  This was interesting because some students still made flat shapes and had a hard time understanding what it meant to be a 3D shape.  

Thanks to Harry Kindergarten, we rocked out to this tune this week!

The Amazon

It's been a jungle around here as Jack and Annie took us into the Amazon rain forest! 

The children worked hard on our rainforest!  We've added snakes, sloths, parrots, frogs and monkeys.  It is such a great mural to make.

This is the first year I've embarked on making rain forest dioramas!  I love this project so much and I **think** the kids are sharing my enthusiasm!

In math I gave the children two different shapes with the task of making a rain forest animal.  Their creativity is amazing!

Walk Like an Egyptian

Recently Jack and Annie brought us to the Egyptian Pyramids. The children learned facts about Ancient Egypt and worked on scenery and props to decorate the classroom.  

We have been doing slideshows to learn about Ancient Egypt.  After the slideshows the kids pick a "fact" that they learned.  Slowly the children are adding one or more sounds to their words.  I love scaffolded writing because every child can feel like a successful writer!

The Egyptians made mud to make houses.

Cats hunt mice.

Pyramids have tricky tunnels.

Egyptians used pottery.

The children learned about amulets.  Amulets offered protection for the living against things Egyptians considered evil forces (sickness, floods etc.)  The gemstone, image and shape were all significant to whomever made or wore it. 

After Thanksgiving we will be acting out Mummies in the Morning while other stations pretended to be "Life in Times" of Ancient Egypt.  They will pretend to build pyramids: the children will communicate their ideas and have some trial and error with different shaped blocks.  

The children also painted beautiful, Egyptian inspired sunsets!

Ta-Da!

The children have been actively engaged as we explored castles and "knight life" the past few weeks!  Last week the children worked on a shield of armor.  We talked about how knights used these in battle to tell each other apart, but they also represented them.  The children decorated their shields with their favorite color, first initial and a favorite animal.  Many children then pointed out shields they saw in our non-fiction castle books!

In math the children used squares, rectangles and triangles to design their own castle.

For our main literacy stations, the children have been dramatizing and pretending to be Jack and Annie from the Magic Tree House.  The Tools of the Mind program has taught us that "Vygotskians identify ‘leading activities’––activities that have the most potential to impact children’s cognitive and social development at different ages.  The leading activity for preschool- and kindergarten-aged children is intentional, mature make-believe play. Self-regulation and executive functions develop through engagement in this kind of play, creating a strong foundation for later learning.  The children engaged in make believe play as they acted out a feast, a medieval market and Marshall's taking care of the horses.  

Setting the scene...

As we prepared for our imaginary journey, the children learned about medieval times and wrote a daily facts.

Knights wore armor.

Horses wore armor for protection.

Other Tales

We concluded our unit on Folk/Fairy Tales and besides the traditional tales I also read a few fun versions of the classics.  Here are a few we have enjoyed:

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka

Little Red Riding HOOD By Lisa Campbell Ernst
The Three Billy Goats Fluff by Rachael Mortimor
The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Will Grace

We're off to the world of Knights and Castles as we study for our next Magic Tree House adventure!

Three of a Kind

We are in full swing in room 103!  The past few weeks the children have been making props and acting out familiar folk tales.  We have acted out The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Three Pigs and this past week Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

All of this team work and creative play will help develop a community in the classroom as well as teach children how to interact with each other.  There is a team captain who passes out the "role" they will be.  The children help each other remember the words and go through the story at least two times.  

The kids are learning how to deal with frustrations like not getting the role they want, and learning responsibilities like working as a team, getting something started and cleaning up.

Each day the children write a plan for what they're going to do.  The children are practicing writing using the "stem" I am going to be _________.  They write a line for each word and will slowly start adding familiar words and sounds as we practice the letter sounds.

Square pigs!

For our science lab we did some building like the Three Pigs.  The children used blocks, craft sticks and cups (thanks for the donations!) to build a structure.  I gave the children two challenges: the first to build a structure where the base was one cube, and the second to build the tallest structure they could and lastly the longest structure.  They worked hard and had fun making their buildings but it was tricky figuring out how to communicate with your buddy on how they wanted to build something.