Kindergarten FUN!

We have had some fun in the kindergarten class this year! The first snowfall gave us a good excuse to go outside in the afternoon and build a snowman.  My 'curricular justification' for this activity was that it was a lesson in cooperative learning! (We couldn't just do it because it was fun, now could we?)

On the afternoon of December 15, we bundled up and went outside to build Mr. Snowman. I had intended to bring a carrot with me to school that morning for his nose, and forgot! Sophie's mom came to my rescue and brought in a carrot, after I told her my tale of woe!  During lunch, Levi didn't eat all of his raisins, and gave the remainder to me to use for the snowman's eyes. Good thinking, Levi! So, armed with facial features stashed in my pockets, we went out to play.

Travis rolling the bottom into place.

Sophie, Travis, and Rachel getting it just right!

Lincoln starts to roll the next layer.

Steven helping Sophie pack on more snow.

At morning recess, several of the students got a head start on Mr. Snowman by rolling a huge snowball for his base. 

The snow was a bit too powdery to be really good 'snowball snow', but the children weren't concerned about that - they just kept rolling! (and rolling and rolling!)

Rolling (Sophie in front)

and rolling (Sophie and Rachel in front)

and rolling!

It took a while to get the second layer of Mr. Snowman made. Every time we placed it onto the first layer, it looked too small! We resorted to packing more snow around it to get the middle nice and round.

Sophie and Lincoln trying out the second layer.

The head also needed to get rounded out with packed snow, but in the end, Mr. Snowman was completed! The next step was to give him a face. I took the carrot out of my pocket, and we did everything we could to get that carrot to stick onto his face. Unfortunately, the snowball for the head was too icy and we couldn't dig into it far enough to get the carrot to stay. Packing snow around the carrot wasn't strong enough to support it, so we ended up abandoning the carrot idea, and went with Levi's raisins!  We gave Mr. Snowman a happy face, perched my wool hat on his head, and then added some stalks of dried grass for the arms!

Adding the finishing touches

Mr. Snowman gets a grin and a hat!

By the time we were putting the finishing touches on our creation, some of Mrs. Smith's students had joined us. We welcomed their help - the more, the merrier!

Mr. Snowman is finished!

(After school that night, when I left the classroom, I gave the carrot to the bunny who lives under Mrs. Bueter's classroom! I couldn't waste a perfectly wonderful carrot!)

 

Catch Up Time

Wow!  Time has flown since I last posted.  Sorry for that - I'm hoping to get more on schedule with the blog!

So, what has happened at CCS in the kindergarten since my last post?  Lots!  Here is a brief overview:

In December, we learned about lots of visits made by angels!  First, we learned about the angel that visited Mary to tell her she was going to have a baby.  Then, we learned about the angel that came to Joseph in his dream.  Next, we learned about the angels who came to the shepherds on the night that Jesus was born.  And finally, we learned about the visit of the three wise men and how they were warned by an angel in a dream not to tell King Herod about the baby.

In reading, we have now worked with the letters through Q. Before Christmas vacation, we learned that Queeny Quail and Umber Umbrella Bird are good buddies.  In fact, Queeny never goes anywhere without Umber!   

The children are continuing to blend sounds together into words, and are very proud of their accomplishments!  Knowing that 'ck' says /k/, and that 'qu' says /kw/ helps immensely.

We read picture books to go along with the letters we study each week. While we are reading the stories, the children are also learning to sequence events, and increasing their vocabulary. How fun is that - to learn while you think you are just listening to a story!

In math, we investigated the concepts of more, less, and the same. We made one to one correspondences between things, and we had fun playing with our egg cartons to make comparisons.

Academically speaking, this is where we were at the end of 2010, before our Christmas vacation.  Now, how about all of the fun we had?  See the next post for an update on that!

Travis working hard.

Sia concentrating on coloring.

Hunter helping Rachel!