Fire Safety was the theme for the week in the Kindergarten classroom. We started the week with a visit from some firefighters from the Litchfield Fire Department. They came to teach us about fire safety. We also got to look through one of the fire trucks and practice shooting water with the fire hose. We spent the rest of the week learning about fire safety. First we reviewed what to do if the fire alarm goes off at school. We practiced quietly lining up and walking out the door and down the sidewalk to our meeting place. Now that we have an escape plan at school, we talked about the importance of having an escape plan and special meeting spot at home. We also identified several different fire safety tips such as have 2 ways out, stay low and go, stop, drop, cover your face, and roll. We each had to write and illustrate one fire safety tip. Then we turned them into a new class book, Fire Safety Tips. At the end of the week, we had some fun making a fire picture while learning about mixing paint colors. We put a blob of yellow paint and a blob of red paint on a piece of paper. When we mixed it together, it turned orange. We made it look like flames. Once our paint was dry we added a house and a fire truck to our paper. A highlight of the week was making fire truck crackers. We took ordinary graham crackers and decorated them to look like fire trucks. Then we got to eat them! We ended the week with Chip and Dale, the Rescue Rangers, teaching us about fire safety.
Monday:
Our morning routine was changed today. We started our morning by coloring a picture of Sparky the Fire Dog. We had to finish it before our special visitors arrived. Then we outside for flag and to the Assembly room.
This week is National Fire Prevention week. In honor of it, we had some special visitors from the Litchfield Fire Department visit us. We got to meet 4 different fire fighters. First, we talked about all the different ways to stay safe if there is a fire and the importance of having a special meeting spot at home. Then we got a chance to see some of the gear they wear. We found out firemen are just our friends all dressed up. We watched fireman Mike put on a mask and funny air tank. When he took a breath, it sounded like Darth Vader. We found out that even will all of the gear on, it was still our friend Mike. Then we headed outside where we met with Josh and Terry. We started by looking at all of the different supplies they keep on the main fire truck. Then we got to walk through the truck. Finally, we got a chance to act like a firefighter by spraying water at a target. We ended by taking a class picture in front of the truck and by giving them the Sparky Thank You pictures we colored.
In reading, we reviewed all of our letters and letter sounds. Then we listened to our Mm song, identified words that began with the /m/, and practiced “air” writing the letter n. Then we practiced writing our capital and lowercase Mm’s. Next we reviewed all of our sight words. Then we were introduced to our newest sight word, see. Next, we talked about words, how words are made up of a group of letters, and the difference between letters and words. Using our new emergent reader, I See Firefighters, we identified the number of words on each page before we read them. Next, we listened to the story, Firefighter Ted. It was a funny story about a boy pretending to be a firefighter. At the end of the story, we were able to not only determine the main character of the story, we were able to identifying what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story.
In math, we worked on patterning. We each started with a bowl full of pattern blocks. Ms. Torborg called out a shape and we had to locate that piece in our bowl. After reviewing the shapes, we created an AB patterns with our shapes. For our first AB pattern, we had to use 3 triangles and 3 trapezoids. We found out that some people started with a triangle and other people started with a trapezoid. We discovered it didn’t matter which shape we started with to create our pattern. For our next pattern, we used 3 triangles, and 2 hexagons. This time everyone started with a triangle. We discovered that we couldn’t create a AB pattern using all of the shapes if we didn’t start with a triangle. For our third AB pattern, we used 4 rhombuses and 3 trapezoids. Again, we discovered that we needed to start with the rhombus in order to create an AB pattern. We determined that when we have unequal groups, we had to start with the group that has more pieces. Next, we worked on growing patterns. We used 10 triangles to make a pattern. The 1st row had one triangle. The 2nd row had 2 triangles and so on.
In religion, we talked about the importance of saying thank you. It is not only important to say Thank you to those who help you, but also to God for all of his amazing blessings. On the front of our booklet, we had to find some hidden objects. While some of them were easy to find a few were a little trickier just like our blessings. Sometimes it is easy to see God at work and other times you really have to work to notice his gentle hand. On the next page, we helped tell a story of The Teddy Bear Picnic. Then Ms. Torborg told us the story of the 10 Lepers. In each story, only one bear remember to say Thank You. On our final page, we worked together to identify who needed help in each picture and then we brainstormed a list of people who could help them.
Tuesday:
In reading, we were introduced to a new letter sound and letter, Hh. After singing our H song, we created a list of words that began with the /h/. We also practiced writing capital or lowercase Hh’s. Next, we explored fire safety. We started by reading the story Miss Mingo and the Fire Drill. In our story, the class learned what to do if they caught on fire and they had a fire drill. We learned about primary routes and secondary routes. We practiced lining up and going outside by our primary route the front door and then meeting at our special spot. We also found a secondary route. We practiced going out the back door of the school and walking to our new meeting place. Next, we discussed several different ways to get out of your house. We even pretended to be sleeping in our bedroom and practiced what to do if the smoke alarm goes off. We also practiced what to do if our clothes catch fire: Stop, Drop, Cover Your Face, and Roll! And what to do if their is lots of smoke, Stay Low and Go! Finally, we learned a very special number 911. We talked when we should call 911 and about what happens when we do.
In math, reviewed some of our quick look cards. Then we were introduced to a new game, Match It. Match It is similar to memory. Today we played with dot cards. Instead of the cards matching exactly, they had to have the same number of dots on them. We were able to play several different games with our partner.
In religion, we talked about the rosary. October is the month of the rosary. The rosary is a form of prayer with prayers recite in a specific order. After looking at a rosary and talking about, we watched a video, The Rosary: A Special Way to Pray. We heard Brother Francis explain the rosary to us.
Wednesday:
In reading, we were introduced to a new letter sound and letter, Bb. After watching our B video, we created a list of words that began with the /b/. We also practiced writing capital or lowercase b’s. Next we worked on identifying the difference between letters and words. First, talked about the difference between a letter and a word. Then we watched a short video about it. Next Ms. Torborg held up a card and we had to decide if it was a letter or a word. Finally we completed a sorting worksheet. We had to sort the squares out into different letters or words.
We have read many different books and watched a couple of videos about fire safety. Each one taught us different safety tips. Today, we took all of those tips and made them into a book. We each had a chance to write a safety tip and then draw a picture representing our tip. Ms. Torborg helped us to write our words. We had to write down all of the sounds we heard in the word. It was really important to listen for the first and last sound in each word. We also completed a fire safety worksheet. We had to cut out a group of pictures and sort them into two different groups, safe or not safe. Once they were sorted, we glued them down.
After completing our calendar binders, we put our number cards 0-5 in order. We had to make sure that the number zero started on the left side just like when we read. Then Ms. Torborg gave us 5 more cards 6-10. We had to add them to our number line in order. Next, we Worked together to complete a dot-to-dot drawing on the SMARTboard. We took turns locating the next number and drawing the line. Together we were able to create several different monsters. The we completed a dot-to-dot worksheet. It was a firemen’s hat. Then we had to draw a face and color the picture.
In religion, we continued our discussion about emotions. Today we worked on expressing emotions. We started with the story, How do Dinosaurs Say I’m Mad? We identified all of the different ways the dinosaurs acted when he was mad. Sometimes we act the same way when we are mad. Next we worked on making good choices. Ms. Torborg read us a short story with two different endings. Our job was to decided which reaction was more appropriate. Our last activity was to create a story from a picture. After dividing up, each group received a picture card. From the picture the group had to identify the emotions of the person/people and create a story about why they might be feeling that way.
Thursday:
We started our morning getting ready for snack. We had to create our own snack today before we could eat it. We made fire truck crackers. We started by reading a book about fire trucks, Fighting Fires. Then we identified all of the different parts of a fire truck or the equipment on the truck. Next, Ms. Torborg told us about the materials we were going to use to represent the different parts of the fire truck. Finally, we had to gather our supplies and create our own truck. We started with a graham cracker and frosting. We could choose to have a red or white fire truck. Once we spread the frosting all over it, (No licking your fingers!) we added the details. We made a ladder out of pretzel sticks, add a Cheeze-it square window, and mini-oreos wheels.. The last thing was to add mini-m & m lights and a gumdrop siren. Finally, we got to eat it and mmmm.... it was delicious!
In reading, we were introduced to a new letter sound and letter, Pp. After watching our P video, we created a list of words that began with the /p/. We also practiced writing capital or lowercase p’s. Next we reviewed syllables. After practicing with a few words, we completed a worksheet. We had to cut out the pieces at the bottom of the page, determine if word (of the picture) had 1 or 2 syllables, and then glue it in the correct bathtub.
In math, we played a new game Top-It. We used the same dot cards we early this week. We started by dividing the cards equally between the players. Then we each took a turn flipping over a card. When we flipped our card, we had to identify the number of dots. Then the person with the bigger card got to take both cards. If we had equal amounts of dots, we both got to take a card. When our pile of cards was gone, we had to count how many cards we “won”. The person with the most cards was the winner.
Today, October 13th is the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. In honor of the feast day, we watched the video The Day the Sun Dance. We found out that the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima celebrates when Mary appeared to 3 children in a field. She told them to pray the rosary for those people who need help.
We ended our day by making a cool fire picture. To make the flames in the back of the picture, we squirted red and yellow paint in the middle of the paper. (We found out that mixing red and yellow paint created orange!) Then we took a piece of plastic wrap and laid it over the top. Next, we patted it all over to mix it together. We had to move the plastic wrap to different spot on the paper to move the paint around. When we were done, our picture looked like a big fire.
Friday:
In the morning, we attended Mass, enjoyed snack & played at recess. Then we started our reading lesson. In reading, we were introduced to a new letter sound and letter, Cc. After watching our C video, we practiced writing capital or lowercase C’s. Then Ms. Torborg wrote a bunch of words on the board that began with the letter c. We worked together to identify if the read started with the hard c /k/ sound or the soft c /s/ sound as Ms. Torborg read them. We also reviewed the sounds for the letters S, T, & M. Then we completed a beginning sounds sorting worksheet. After identifying the beginning sound of the picture, we had to glue it next to the letter that makes that sound.
After lunch, we completed our calendar binders and finished our beginning sounds worksheet before going to library. Then we had our hearing and vision checked.
When we got back to our classroom, we finished the fire pictures we started yesterday. We started by coloring and cutting out a house and a fire truck. Then we glued the house of on top of the picture of fire we created yesterday with paint and we glued the fire truck next to it. We also had to add a few details to our picture including the special meeting spot. The special meeting spot could be a tree, neighbor’s house, or special object in the area.
We ended our day by watching a short fire safety video with Chip and Dale, the Rescue Rangers.