To celebrate Kwanza we first had guest come in and share a slideshow of pictures from her trip to Africa. The kids loved seeing all the pictures and had many questions and comments about the slides. After her visit the kids made her a thank you card. Each child made an animal that they saw in the slide show and then added it to the card to make a savannah. She also sent our class a book with her pictures from her trip. Everyone has loved looking through all the beautiful pictures. They also made a long Kwanzaa chain using the traditional colors. We also played Mancala, read Kwanzaa books, listened to African music while playing instruments, watched African dances, and ate fruit and coconut biscuits. They also were able to try some African spices on their fruit and coconut biscuits.
We had a lot of fun learning about and celebrating Hanukkah with our Kindergarten pals. We made and ate latkes, read Hanukah books, made Star of David ornaments, lit a menorah, and did some Hanukkah coloring. At the end of our last LEAP session individuals and groups presented final projects. Some groups presented reports on subjects that they researched and others presented creations they had made. We have two groups that are working on putting on a reader's theater performance. The plays will be The Lion and the Mouse and The Ugly Duckling. They have read through their scripts multiple times and are working on recognizing what their character would sound like during different parts of the play. Using different voices and tones while reading is part of the common core standards. The groups have also made lists for materials they need for the setting and costumes. They have been working during their free time in the morning and during choice time at the end of the day to make their masks and settings. This has been a joy to watch because I am seeing everyone work together and help each other. We had a fun 100s celebration by spending some extra time playing in the snow. There was lots of sliding and some attempts at building a snow fort with the small amount of snow that we have. To celebrate Thanksgiving we read about the Pilgrims and their lives as they traveled and arrived in the New World. With our Kindergarten friends we made hard tack. In the afternoon we tasted the hard tack and some dried meat. While they tried the food they ate standing up and without talking, which was traditional for Pilgrim children. There was mixed reviews of the food.
One of the experiments we did during our matter unit used gummy bears in different liquids. We put one gummy bear in four different liquids and let them sit in the liquids overnight. The liquids we used were water, salt water, water with baking soda, and vinegar. Before we started the experiment everyone made predictions about what would happen to the gummy bears. Some of the predictions were that the gummy bear would dissolve, it would get bigger, it would shrink, or it might stay the same. We also measured the gummy bears before we put them into the liquids so that we would be able to decide whether it changed shape overnight. The next day the kids were amazed when they came into the room. I heard lots of "look at ours", "ours got bigger", and "it looks see through". They then remeasured the gummy bears and found out the they all got larger and some got very gooey. I think their favorite part was squishing the gummy bears after they had measured them. We also had one of our stuffy celebrations on the same day, so we had some more fun reading to them! Last Monday we got together with Ms. Parker's Kindergarten class to make cards for veterans. We discussed how veterans believe in protecting their country. We then had the kids share something they believe in. We had a wide range of answers from, friends and family to Robin Hood and Disney World. Then the 1st and 2nd graders put their letter writing skills to work writing a letter with their Kindergarten friend. They then worked together to create a card to put their letter into. Hi everyone! Here are some more pictures of our circus practices! I hope you all enjoyed the performance! I know the kids were proud of themselves and each other. Today the kids were able to have some practice time before our lesson. They practiced balancing feathers, which they are already good at after only one lesson! Today during our lesson we learned more tricks with the spinning plate. Ms. Nettie showed us how to throw and catch a spinning plate, how to pass a spinning plate between two people, and how to balance a spinning plate. At the end of our lesson everyone got a chance to perform in front of our class by themselves or in a small group. I was so proud watching all of them having a great time performing and showing the skills they have learned so far. |