Snow, Snow everywhere!

 It always fascinates me to think about who was the first person to study things we take for granted. The book Snowflake Bentley is a biography about the man Wilson Bentley that studied, you guessed it, SNOWFLAKES!  .

 

The students like this book because they love to see the photographs that he took of the snowflakes.  They are gorgeous and really make the students think.  We compared picture after picture on our Smart board and came to the conclusion that  every snowflake is different! 

We started a snow journal that combined math and writing prompts. We predicted what wound happen if we built a snowman in the classroom.

We then discussed where the best place to build a snowman was and charted our thoughts.

I love the answer "Michigan"!  We were so lucky that we have had so much snow this winter because we then.......built a snowman in our class and watched it's progress all day.

We then wrote in our journals about the results.

We finished off the week buy "growing" our own "snowflake" crystals with Ms. Doennig's class.

 

I still love snow !

What can make a teacher cry

I have to admit, Monday I was a little bummed showing up for school.  It didn't seem right being robbed of a day by snow. But now on Tuesday, as I look back on the previous day, it was a day I will remember for quite some time.  Monday we studied the life of Martin Luther King Jr.(naturally!) and I thought the students might have trouble sitting through a biography or two.

We read about the young life of Martin.  How he was friends with many people and how his mother really loved him.  Many of the  students were able to relate to this!  We then got to a section of the book where Martin and his family were walking to the movies. Another family approached the movies at the same time.  As they approached, they noticed the sign "Whites Only". The other family entered the movies but Martin's hung back. I asked the students,"What did this sign mean?"  Nobody answered at first. I tried to prompt the students by saying,"Why would this family be able to go into the movies and not this family?  Think about the sign and look at the illustration."  I finally had a girl raise her hand and say,"Mrs. Renfro, I think it means that only people wearing white clothes can go in."  Another boy said," No, because Martin is wearing a white shirt!"  The girl then raised her hand and said, "I bet those people that went in had the last name White."  I found this quite amusing and intriguing that NO ONE understood the  meaning of the sign.  Also, quite heartbreaking that I was the one that was to tell the children what this means.   I tell them it would be like chosing to like someone because  they have blond hair or brown eyes.  To them it seems crazy and unimaginable and horrible.
They relate Martin's message of treating everyone fair by relating it to Coach Esposito's message("Treat other people the way you like to be treated").
When were close to the end of the book, a was able to read the famous excerpt from Dr. King's speech.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”  This choked me up. After listening to the kids during the lesson I was blown away.  It was hard for me to finish the book.  It wasn't just the message itself, but the students reaction earlier in the lesson that got to me.  If Dr. King were alive, he would see how different things are now.
Thank you parents for sharing your wonderful, sweet angels with me.

                                                            

Star Student Announced for January

The Mitten

I love wintertime!  I am not sure if it goes back to when I was a child and would wake up eagerly checking the TV for school closings when the first snow fell but I think this carried over into adult life...especially since I now wake up eagerly checking the TV for school closings when the first snow falls!
The Mitten is one of my favorite winter books to teach. The kids love the different animals that climb inside the mitten. This is a good week to concentrate on text to text connections and story retelling. The Mitten is based on an Ukranian folktale. We read two versions of the tale. My favorite is the following by Jan Brett.

The students really enjoy this version because the author, Jan Brett, gives clues in the illustration as to what will happen next in the story. We "re-enacted" the story.  Jan Brett has a website with many supplemental activities to the book, which includes masks for this story. The kids really got into it!
We also read another version of the book.

 

We then made a poster outlining the differences and similarities of the two books.  the students did a fantastic job with this. We have been working really hard this year on making connections, whether it is through other books we have read(text-to-text) or something that has happened in our lives(text-to-self). This gives the students meaning in what they read.

 

Seatbelt Safety Assembly

Wow! What a wonderful assembly we had today about seat belt safety.  You know, it is hard to keep 17 kindergartners' attention for half an hour, much less 65 kindergarteners' attention, but this assembly was informative and entertaining. We were shown the proper way to wear a seat belt and why, what an airbag looks like, sounds like, and smells like(it stinks!) when it is deployed, and the reasons for sitting in the backseat if you are below the age of 13.

Volunteers from the audience helped demonstrate with balloons how fast an airbag is deployed.

With the help of the audience, we were treated to a beatboxed version of "Be a Backseat Driver" which was very good and the kids  LOVED it!

Snowman Writing

Last week, I have to confess, I experimented with the students.  It isn't as nefarious as it sounds.  There were no science labs, rats, or lightening. (Although, mawahaaaa, that sounds fun....) With the help of Mrs. McCloskey, the computer teacher, the students illustrated their writing in Microsoft Paint. She is always so wonderful to work with and the students just adore her! I was really excited about this.  I always like to try something new and the illustrations turned out much better than I thought they would. How adorable! This is definitely a project that I will do in the future.

 

 

January Math Games

On Fridays, which we like to call "Friday Fundays", during math we get to play math games that strengthen and review math skills we have already covered.

 snowman addition

For the first time this year I have incorporated pre-addition into our math stations and the students are doing fabulous!  The students pull two snowmen cards out of the bag. They record the numbers on a snowman sheet and then count the symbols or make marks for each number and write how many symbols or marks are all together.  We use the words "and" and "is" right now instead of "+" and "=".

 snow graph

The students at this station are working on a snow graph. The students love any station with a spinner! I found this activity on another blog "Musings of Me".  I have found so many wonderful ideas for our classroom through blogs!

penguin roll and cover

At this station, the students play as a group game.  They roll a die and cover that many penguins with markers.  The first one to cover their board wins.

penguin patterns

In this station, the students complete a pattern of bow ties that the penguins are wearing with dyed bow tie pasta.  I initially got this idea from the website, Making Learning Fun, but as everything goes in education, I expanded the idea. They then record their patterns on a pattern sheet.

 kindergarten yahtzee

This idea came from Ms. Doennig next door, who in turn, found it on a Kindergarten blog.  The kids love this game!  If they roll a number they already have recorded they get to make the "Wah-wah" noise, which they love.