Mmmm.... our Kindergarten classroom smelled wonderful all week. We started our week with gingerbread. We read several different stories about a gingerbread man. We compared and contrasted each of the stories with the original story. We also created a gingerbread class book, completed a gingerbread science experiment, and did some graphing and patterning activities. Gingerbread week wouldn’t be complete without trying different kinds of gingerbread including Gingerbread cookies and cake. Finally, we made gingerbread ornaments out of applesauce and cinnamon. They made our room smell really good. We have to let them dry for several days. Then we will decorate them with some glitter glue.
Monday:
Smile! Today was picture day. We started our morning off by getting our picture taken.
This is the first week of Advent. We started the morning by talking about Advent along with some of the different symbols of Advent including the Advent wreath and the Jesse Tree. We found out that Advent is a time to get ready for Jesus’ birthday. In our classroom, we found a bin of wrapped gifts under our tree. Each day we get to open one of the gifts (books) and read the Christmas story. Today our story was No Room at the Inn. Henry D. got to unwrap our story. We will also hear a message from Brother Francis each day.
During reading, we were introduced to our new letter and letter sound, Hh. We listened to the h song and then identified words that began with the short h sound. Next, we were introduced to a new sight word, little. Then we completed both our letter H sorting worksheet and our little sight word worksheet. Next, we read two stories. They had the same title, The Gingerbread Man, but they were by different authors. After each story, we wrote down different story elements like the characters, setting, problem, and solution. Then we compared and contrasted them. We found out that the main character (the gingerbread man) was the same along with the problem (no one could catch the gingerbread man). The stories both ended the same way with the gingerbread man being eaten, but the journey was different. Then we completed a story elements worksheet identifying the characters, setting, problem, and solution.
In math, we played the spinner game. First, we played together as a whole group with a giant board and people as game pieces. One person spun the spinner and the game piece had to move that many spaces on the board. Then it was the next person’s turn. We kept taking turns until one person make it to the end. The second time we played with a partner and a small game board.
Tuesday:
For Advent today, we heard Brother Francis tell us about the Christmas Tree and asked us to do kind things for people. After August unwrapped the book, A Time of Miracles, Ms. Torborg read it to us. We also set up our nativity scene. It looks a little different from the ones we have at home. In our stable, we have a cow, donkey, and the manger. “Up on a hill side”, we have the shepherd and sheep. The 3 wise men are scattered around the room since they haven’t started their journey yet. And Mary and Joseph are travel across our room on their journey to Bethlehem. Each day they get a little closer to the stable.
In reading, we were introduced to 2 new sight words, he & she. Then we completed our completed our sight word worksheets. We also received a new emergent reader, The Little Cookie. We read through our story together. We decided that the last page of our story needed a picture of us eating a gingerbread man, so for snack we had gingerbread cookies. Ms. Torborg took pictures of each of us taking a bit of a cookie for our book.
After taking our bite, we had to set our cookie aside. Our cookie was for snack, but before that we had to create a graph. We each identified which part of the body we took a bite from, the head, arm, or leg. As the information was being given, we had to mark it on our graph. When our graph was finished, we had to analyze our data. Finally, it was time to eat the rest of our cookie.
We also completed a gingerbread science experiment. We have read several stories in which the gingerbread boy didn’t want to get wet? So our question was “What will happen to a gingerbread cookie if it is put into water?” We started by drawing a picture of what the gingerbread cookie looked like before he got wet and we think it will look like after he gets wet. After our pictures were drawn, we put the cookie into a cup full of water and let him sit. We observed what happened to him after just 5 minutes, 20 minutes and 60 minutes. Then we recorded our observations. Our gingerbread boy crumbed to pieces!
We ended our day by putting a gingerbread house together. First we had to cut the pieces. The put the numbers in order counting by tens. Finally we glued them down and colored the picture.
Wednesday:
Today, Brother Francis told us why the color purple is used for Advent. Not only is it the color of kings, it is also reminds us of repentance and when we repent we are filled with joy. Tara unwrapped our story today, Cricket at the Manger.
In reading, we reviewed our letters sounds and letters. Then we watched our letter video, identified things that began with the /h/, and completed our letter h worksheet. On our worksheet, we had to write capital and lowercase h’s, identified the letter h from a group of letters, and discriminate between words that began with the /h/. We also listened to the story, Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr and the Gingerbread. Throughout the story, we worked together to identify the big words. We also identified the characters, setting, and details from the beginning, middle and end of the story.
Finally, it was time for snack. We made our own snack today, gingerbread (It’s like a cake). We started by mixing 3 scoops of gingerbread mix in a Dixie cup and then we added 1 scoop of water. Next, we had to stir it up. Then Ms. Torborg baked it in the electric fry pan. It took a long time (20 minutes). It made our classroom smell really good. After it cooled for a bit, Ms. Torborg added a scoop of cool whip to the top. Finally, we got to try it. And mmmm.... it was good. Two thumbs up!
After snack we started working on a gingerbread story. On the top of the page, we used our adjectives (descriptive words) to describe gingerbread. We could only use each adjective one time. In the middle, we had to write a sentence about gingerbread. It could be about a gingerbread boy, girl or animal, making gingerbread, eating gingerbread, or whatever we wanted.
In math, we played a new game roll and record. We had to roll the dice and then record that number on our graph. Once one of the columns was filled, we had to analyze the data. Then we could play again on the back of our paper. We ended by creating three different patterns by coloring the gingerbread men on our paper.
Thursday:
For Advent today, we heard Brother Francis tell us the story of the how John the Baptist got his name and he asked us to make a card for someone to brighten their day. Cooper unwrapped our story today, On This Special Night.
In reading today, we watched a -op family video and created a -ot word family flip book. We also completed a secret word worksheet. After unscrambling the letters, we found out that all of the words ended with at or were in the at word family. We also finished our writing project from yesterday. Today we had to draw a picture to match the sentence we wrote. Finally, we completed a sequencing worksheet. We had to put the steps in order to make a gingerbread man.
In math, we played a new game, Monster Squeeze. You play monster squeeze on the number line. Today we used the number line from 0 to 10. We started with one monster in the beginning and one monster at the end. One person picks a number from the number line. They are the leader. The rest of the group tries to guess the number. After each guess, the leader had to tell them if the number is higher or lower. Then they move the corresponding monsters to the right spot. If the guesser picks 4 and the leader says no, it is higher. The leader moves the beginning monster to 4 and so on. We played together as a whole class several times. Then we broke up into groups to play.
In the afternoon we made gingerbread ornaments. There are just two ingredients, applesauce and cinnamon. You have to mix equal parts applesauce and cinnamon together in a bowl. Next Ms. Torborg rolled it out. We each got to pick out three different cookie cutters shapes for our ornaments. After the shapes were cut, we had to stick the end of a straw in the top to make a little hole. Now they are drying. It will take a while for them to dry. Our whole room smelled good for the rest of the day. While we were waiting for our turn, we played with the play-doh. We were able to row out the dough and use the cookie cutters to make different shapes.
Friday:
For Advent today, we heard Brother Francis tell us about Christmas ornaments and asked us to make the people around us feel welcome the next time we go to Mass. Henry J. unwrapped our story today, The Story of Baby Jesus.
In reading, we completed a worksheet on which we had to identify the ending sounds of the given words. Then we completed a reading station.
In math, we were introduced to the attribute blocks. Attribute blocks are blocks with 4 different features, shape, color, size and thickness. After talking about the different attributes, we used our attribute blocks to build a matrix together. First, we had to figure out what our rows and columns would look like. We decided our rows would be the same shape and our column would be the same size and color. Then we took turns placing the pieces in the rows and columns. Once we had it done, we took it apart and build a completely different matrix.
We heard at Mass that today was the feast of St. Francis Xavier, so we took some time to learn about his life St Francis Xavier was established the Jesuit order of priests. He went to Japan and India to baptize people and tell them about God. His feast day is December 3rd and he is the patron saint of missionaries. As we watched the video we colored his picture in our saint books.