Mapping Unit

Last week, we wrapped up our unit on mapping. We spent time learning about map features and why maps are important. We read the book Me on the Map and created our own version of the book, which helped us to understand our place in the world. Our favorite part of the unit had to have been the culminating activity, when we found a pirate map and followed the map to find some special treasure!

We worked as a group to build a town out of blocks and then drew maps of our towns.

Pirates on the move!

Shiver me timbers!

Seed & Sample Day

On Friday, we were lucky enough to be a part of the annual Seed and Sample Day here at H.C.S. This day provides students the opportunity to sample a variety of foods grown right in the school garden outside of our classroom windows! We then helped to plant spinach and marigolds, which will eventually be transplanted to the garden. What a fun way to kick off our plant unit!

Fun with Dr. Seuss!

We spent a wonderful two weeks engaged in an author study about the amazing Dr. Seuss. Students were so excited to read and reread these popular books. We started our unit by reading a biography about Dr. Seuss and learned some interesting facts about him. Throughout the unit, we had theme days and got to dress up and focus on one Dr. Seuss book each day. We were also lucky enough to see an amazing performance of The Cat in the Hat at the Flynn Theater! Even though the unit has ended, students are still begging to read Dr. Seuss' books....and some are beginning to read them to themselves, too!

Students work on putting the words of our Dr. Seuss poem in order.

Students go fishing for red and blue sight word fish on One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish day.

Students identified the main characters and the setting in The Cat in the Hat.

We graphed whether we were wearing silly socks or not on Fox in Socks day.

   

 On Green Eggs and Ham day, we rewrote our own version of the book and also opened green eggs with CVC words inside of them. 

Our directed drawings of The Cat in the Hat.

 

We became Thing 1...and 2....and 3....and 4.....

Kindergarten Teachers 1, 2, 3 and 4 on Twin Day!

Enjoying our Dr. Seuss movie and our "Hop on Pop-corn!"

We voted for our favorite Dr. Seuss book....Fox in Socks was the winner!

Meet Miss Rushton!

We are so fortunate to have a student intern from the University of Vermont working in our classroom this semester. Jill Rushton, a junior education major from Springfield, Vermont, will be in our kindergarten class on Tuesdays (half day) and Thursdays (full day) as a part of her program. We are all enjoying getting to know Miss Rushton. Please feel free to stop by and welcome her to H.C.S. if you get a chance!

May the Force Be With You!

On Friday, we wrapped up our exciting unit about force and motion. Throughout this unit, students had the opportunity to be scientists and investigate how things move. We asked questions like scientists do, we made predictions, we observed, and we made conclusions based on what we saw. We started our unit by creating a schema chart, thinking about what we already knew about force and motion. We read many informational texts and added to our chart as we learned new information throughout the week. We did several experiments, including a Toy Truck experiment, where we tried to move a toy truck with a metal ball, a rubber ball, and a foam ball, as well as Surface Safari (thinking about friction), and Roll or Slide? Our culminating event was the Shoe Box Car Derby, held on Friday afternoon. Families were invited to work together to create a shoe box car. The hope was that students would incorporate what they had learned during our unit as they designed and built their car. I was so amazed with the impressive cars that students brought to school and we had SO much fun at the derby! I hope you enjoy these pictures of the Shoe Box Car Derby!

Valentine's Fun!

We had a wonderful day on Friday celebrating Valentine's Day and our friendships with each other! We spent the day immersed in learning, with a valentine twist. During literacy, we played Valentine Bingo with CVC words, wrote valentine's letters to our families while working on fine motor skills, sorted real and nonsense CVC words, read and colored a valentine emergent reader and listened to a valentine story book on tape. 

During math, we visited various valentine centers, including "Heart Breaker," a game in which partners built teen numbers in tens frames and compared their sets, "Valentine Bump," a game where partners added the dots of two dice and tried to bump each other off of the numbered hearts, we sorted and graphed candy hearts, and we estimated and counted how many candy hearts we could hold in our hands.

We ended our day with a fun celebration, complete with fruit salad, cheese and crackers, pretzels, and juice, all served on fancy valentine plates! Thank you to everyone who contributed items for our party. We all had a super time together!