Fall Harvest Science

For the past two weeks, the kindergarteners have been exploring the Fall harvest, with a variety of hands-on activities and experiments.

Our first experiment began with Indian corn.
First the students explored the Indian corn using 4 of their 5 senses.  Then I had each student make a prediction of what they think will happen to Indian corn that is placed in water.  Here's what the students predicted:

Indian Corn

1. The corn will float.- Yes!  When we placed the corn in water, it floated.
2. The corn will turn brown.
3. The corn will turn yellow.
4. The corn will sink.- No!
5. The corn will grow.

Check back for updated information with this experiment!

Gourd Experiments

Our class also did a "Sink or Float" experiment with a variety of gourds.
Check out the tally chart with our predictions below:

To our surprise, despite the size or weight, everything floated!

The students learned that it is because they are hollow inside.

For both experiments, the students made predictions, and documented the results in their science journals.

As a special treat, we ate homemade pumpkin seeds!  Some of us liked them, some of us didn't!

Weekly Recap

Letters

This week we learned about the letters "E" and "D."  For each letter, the students practiced by sky writing the letter, creating them with wood pieces, writing the letters on chalk boards and in their workbooks.  As a class we came up with a list of words that began with each letter.

Check out our word lists below:

Ee Words
Long E sound

1. Eat
2. Easter
3. Eagle
4. Evil
5. Each
6. Ear

Short e sound

1. Elephant
2. Evan
3. Envelope
4. Egg
5. Empty
6. Echo
7. Ever
8. Ex
9. Excited
10. Extra
11. Extraordinary
12. Experiment

Dd Words

1. Duck
2. Dad
3. Dog
4. Dentist
5. Dinosaurs
6. Dream
7. Door
8. Dresses
9. Draw
10. Drawer
11. Dragon
12. Doctor
13. Dish
14. Dinner
15. Diner
16. Dining room
17. Dirty
18. Dust
19. Dig
20. Dump 

What words can you and your child think of that start with these letters?  On your next trip in the car, see if you can find these letters on billboards, signs, or buildings!  Feel free to share your answers with our class!

Book Buddies

The kindergartners will be partnering up with the second graders for "book buddies!"  This week the second graders came into our classroom and read a chapter book to their buddy about Halloween.

Reminders

Please remember to sign and return your child's Progress Report.

Each time you read a book with your child, don't forget to write the title and author on a leaf for our classroom Book It reading board.  This month's theme is "Fall into a Good Book!"

Have You Heard the Buzz?

We have new playground equipment!  A special thanks goes out to Stamford Preschool for purchasing the equipment and to the Stamford Select Board for installing it!  Thank you so much, it rocked our world today!

 Other Great News in Kindergarten...

We met our goal!  The students have been keeping track of all of the "Paw" tickets they've earned.  At the beginning of the year they set a goal to earn 101 paw tickets.  We counted our tickets today and the students had 111!  They are so proud and will now get to be the keepers of the Bobcat (our school mascot)! 

The students set a new goal of 50 paw tickets.  We discussed how the "bar will be raised" and that they'll have to work harder towards earning paw tickets.

Columbus Day

Today was a great day in kindergarten! 

We celebrated School Spirit week by wearing hats for "Hat Day!"  I can't wait to see everyone "Inside Out" tomorrow!  We also celebrated "Columbus Day" by reading a book about Christopher Columbus and talking about explorations we would like to take.  Places we would like to explore include:  the Rainforest, Moon, Woods, Florida, and Ocean.

We also focused on the letter "F."  First we came up with a list of words that start with the letter "F."  Next, we practiced making the letter using wood pieces from Handwriting Without Tears on our mats.  After that we practiced writing the letter on chalkboards and then we completed a row of the letters in our workbooks.  The students all did an excellent job at writing their letters! 
Check out our list of words below:

Ff Words

1. Fat
2. Fish
3. Flat
4. Flower
5. Fry
6. Frog
7. Fire
8. Fox
9. Fight
10. Friends

What objects can you find at home with your children that start with "F?"
How many letter "F"words can you come up with?

Feel Free to share your answers with the class!

Walk to School Day

Today was "Walk to School Day" and our class had a lot of fun walking to school together!  We lead the entire school as we followed the fire truck on our walk to school.  Once we arrived at Stamford we ate a healthy snack and then listened to the fire men talk about fire safety.  We learned important fire safety facts and all of the students had a lot of great questions to ask!  Back in the classroom, we practiced dialing 911 and discussed the importance of having a family meeting place and knowing what to do if there is an emergency.  Please extend this conversation at home and share with your children what they should do in case of an emergency.

On another note, we have made it through the first month of school and it has been wonderful!  The students have done an excellent job at transitioning into kindergarten, learning our classroom schedule, and our routines!  I am still using the Traffic Light system for classroom management and the students have responded really well to it.  They enjoy staying in the green and especially like it when it's their turn to choose from the treasure box!

Welcome to Kindergarten!

Our first week of school was great!  I am so lucky to have such a wonderful group of students.  This past week we began learning the classroom routine and procedures.  As a class, we worked together to create rules for our classroom and discussed the importance of following rules.  We also reviewed the 4 Rs and acted out different ways that showed how we follow the rules.  We are off to a great start!

Once the rain finally stopped, we were able to go out on the playground.  Check out what we saw in our own backyard:

 A spider web covered in morning dew!

A tiny snail!

A frog!

A blue sky with clouds!