Our New Innovation Station

Last week we received our "Innovation Station". The Innovation Station is a complete station that consists of a cart with a Dell computer, wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, and a Lumens document camera. The Innovation Station system has a projector, that hangs from the ceiling, a large retractable screen, and an audio video system with microphones. Our innovation station makes teaching more flexible, allows for technology integration and creativity. The best part of the Innovation Station is that the students can use it in many ways. It is exciting to watch children read and track print on the large screen as it is displayed by the document reader. Students use the microphone as they read the daily message or calendar. During math lessons, students show their math thinking as they work with manipulatives under the document camera.

I hope you will visit the class and take a closer look at our newest teaching tool!

5 Little Pumpkins

5 Little Pumpkins

I registered our class for the fall CIESE Square of Life project. For this project, our class observed square meters of earth in the schoolyard. The students looked for and recorded items that were living and nonliving; they were assisted, during this process, by their big buddies! After our class completed this initial activity, we made a Skype call to another class in the project, to discuss our findings. This was the first Skype call of the year and the students were very excited and did a great job. CIESE's Square of Life online collaborative project is a wonderful activity for students in grades pk through 5. Working with big buddies makes this activity possible with younger grades and the Skype call gave the students an opportunity to discuss their understanding of living and nonliving. To add a literacy connection, the students discussed and then read questions that they had prepared for the Skype call. This process helps children understand how we communicate and collaborate with others in order to learn.

FOSSWeb.com

Our class went to the computer lab on Friday and the students used a new science website that supports our curriculum. FOSSWeb is the official site for the inquiry-based FOSS science curriculum. The website has grade level interactive science games for the students as well as information and resources for adults. Our class should work within the K-2 area and explore the many science units that include: force & motion, air & weather, plants & animals, plus much more! Enjoy!

Shadows

The Kinder Pandas are learning about the sun and shadows. This afternoon, the students measured their shadows and they will measure their shadows again tomorrow morning. We will compare the length of the shadows and how the position of the sun effects the length of the shadow.

Planting our Vegetable Garden

The Kinder Pandas planted their vegetable gardens today. Each child has two square feet of garden space where they planted their vegetable seeds. The children planted either lettuce, radishes, or turnips. Everyday we will go to the gardens to water, weed, and watch our plants grow.

Planting Seeds Inside and Out

The Kinder Pandas will begin planting our vegetable gardens tomorrow. So the children will know what is happening under the ground, they planted seeds (beans) in a baggie. They will be able to see the roots and sprouting process. We hope that the seeds will germinate within two weeks. The children will record their observations in a journal, as any good scientist would do. Once the seeds have sprouted, the children can plant their beans at home or in our garden.

Young At Heart Readers

Every Tuesday, from approximately 1:00 pm to 2:15 pm, Mr. Robert Smith reads to the children of the Kinder Panda classroom. Mr. Smith is the grandfather of a student in our class, and is a member of the Young At Heart Readers. He volunteers his time to help support the kindergarten literacy program at Oak Hill Elementary by helping create a love of reading in our children. All of the children look forward to reading with Mr. Smith! We are very fortunate to have him as part of our curriculum!

Learning About Horizontal and Vertical Lines

The Kinder Pandas are beginning a unit on shapes. Today, we began defining the different types of lines that are used to make shapes, such as straight, slanted, vertical, and horizontal lines. We looked at examples of artwork by the artist, Piet Mondrian and his use of lines, angles, and color. The students made their own Mondrian-inspired pictures as an extension activity.

Bite-Size Life Lessons

Your child may be talking about cookies with words on them! We have begun reading and studying a book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal,titled "Cookies, Bite-Size Life Lessons". The book gives definitions for everyday words, such as "fair" and "cooperation," which are presented to the children in a way that explains important life lessons with regard to social skills. I have a set of felt cookies, each with one of the words that are used in the book; I use these to draw interest and engage the children. We will be reading and rereading this book throughout the year to help the children develop understanding of how to work and play with others in the classroom. This is a beautiful book that is worth checking-out from the library!

Friday is Computer Lab Day

Today was our first visit to the computer lab and the students did a fantastic job! Today's task was to learn the rules of the lab, learn technology vocabulary, and begin learning how to access Starfall.com on the Internet. The boys and girls were engaged and respectful of the equipment. We are all looking forward to next Friday!

Our Favorite Day of the Week

As a culminating activity to our week's study of the calendar, a group of students surveyed the class to find the answer to this question, "What is Your Favorite Day of the Week?" The answers were recorded by tally marks and then the data was transferred to a graph for analysis. The students reported their findings to the class, and no one was surprised with the results! Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were our favorite days of the week. Everyone can draw their own conclusions! :)

Apple Song

Apple Song

Learning About Apples

This week's study of apples included the cycle of the apple tree, the parts of an apple, and classification of apples by their properties. The students learned a song about apples that helps them remember how to spell the word. Click on the podcast in the blog post above to hear the Kinder Pandas sing this song!

Exploring with our Senses

We are completing our study of the 5 senses and how we use them to learn about the world around us. Yesterday, we examined a fish, but were only able to use 3 of our 5 senses to do so. The children enjoyed this hands-on learning experience! We added their comments, and scientific drawings of the fish, to our class science interactive notebook.

Our Storyteller

Today we had a visit from Mrs. Jodi Picardat, storyteller extraordinaire. We are very fortunate to see her every other Wednesday. She reads books, poems, and brings puppets. Her visits are theme oriented; today our stories were about the jungle and safaris.

It's Raining, It's Pouring!

We didn't let a little rain keep us from our "appointed rounds". The Kinder Pandas made it to art, even though it was raining. I have several umbrellas, that the children enjoyed sharing. Other children had their own umbrellas or jackets. This experience fit well into our study of the senses. We used all 5 sense to experience the wonderful rain!

5 Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree

The students learned a fun chant today titled "5 Little Monkeys". This is an engaging and fun math lesson that helps children develop number sense. During the chant, the children learn to think about numbers as compositions of other numbers. As they develop this solid understanding of number, future math lessons will make sense and the students will have a foundation for addition and subtraction.

Workstations and Centers

The Kinder Pandas have had a busy week, and it's only Tuesday! After a week's worth of preparation, we began station work on Monday. Every morning, after the literacy lesson, the students work in Literacy Workstations. The children go to a different literacy station each day. There are 5 stations, so by Friday, each child has visited every station. They work in small groups and are learning to work independently. After our daily math lesson, the children go to math stations. It works like the literacy workstation except that the students are grouped differently. At the end of the day, the students go to a different type of center that is a bit more active.

Workstations and centers allow me to provide differentiation of activities and work with students individually or in small groups. The students enjoy the variety of activities and feel empowered by their independence. We're off to a good start!

Exploring the Playground

As the students have been exploring the playground, they found an interesting inhabitant. We have a Texas Spiny Lizard that lives in our playground and the children look for it everyday. This type of lizard varies by locality, but the colors and pattern typically serve as camouflage against the bark of the trees. It has been fun to watch for the lizard every day and the students have begun calling it "The Oak Hill Lizard".

Welcome to Kindergarten

As a parent, I always wanted to be involved in my children's lives. When my boys left for school each day, I wondered what they were doing, what they were learning, what books they read that day, what songs they were learning, etc. When they came home from school in the afternoon, I was excited to see them and anxious to hear about their day. When I asked, "What did you do at school today? What did you learn?" The answer was usually, "Nothing!" I have a feeling that many of you hear the same responses every day.

The goal of this blog is to keep you informed and share the special activities that you many never know about. Hopefully, this information will be a conversation-starter with your child; it will give you an idea of questions to ask so you can stay involved and informed.

As the year goes on I hope to get the students involved in helping with this blog as a means of reflection and review!