This week in Kindergarteners explored the wonderful world of Clifford the Big Red Dog. Clifford teaches us many life lessons including being a good neighbor, being yourself, and using manners. As we read through each book, we identified the parts of the story, made predictions about what might happen, and discovered the “lesson” in each story. We also talked about the author and illustrator, Norman Bridwell. We identified his job and how he got his ideas for the stories. Finally, we wrote our own class book about Clifford the Big Red Dog and made Clifford picture with descriptive words in the inside.
Monday:
We finished our bible story about Ruth and Naomi. Today we heard about Ruth’s marriage to the kind farmer Boaz.
Last week was National Fire Prevention week. In honor of it, we had some special visitors from the Litchfield Fire Department visit us. We got to meet 3 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 Martin 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 Martin. Finally, we got to take a look at a fire truck. We started by looking at all of the different supplies they keep on the 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.
This week our theme is Clifford the Big Red Dog. Clifford is an oversize dog that finds himself in the middle of many fun adventures. Clifford is a good role model for us. He teaches us to be fair, honest, and helpful. We read several different books about Clifford. We found that Clifford was the main character in each of the stories. We were also introduced to the setting. The setting is where and when the story took place. We tried to identify the setting for each of the stories we listened to. Plus we reviewed some of the details from the story by identifying things that happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the book.
Along with learning about different positive character traits Clifford portrays, we also learned about the author, Norman Bridwell. We found out that Norman likes being an artist more than an author. He was going to name the big red dog Tiny until his wife convinced him that wouldn’t be a very good name. And that the little girl in the story is named after his own daughter.
We also made a new class book. We discovered that Clifford likes to help people, so wrote a story about Clifford helping us do something for someone else. (Clifford and ______ like to help ____________). When we were done with our words, we illustrated our pictures. We had help with Clifford. He was already on our paper.
In the afternoon, we listened to the story, I’m Not Scared…I'm Prepared. Then we talked about it. We learned all about what to do if a wolf or intruder enters our school. We would follow our ALICE training. A- Alert, L-Lock Down, I-Inform, C-Counter, E- Evacuate Today we focused on evacuate. We talked how we would evacuate from our room and where we would go. Then we practiced it. We practiced going out the back door and the side door and meeting at our special spot (Father’s front steps).
After that we broke up into two groups. One group worked with some math tools while the other group made Clifford ears. Then we switched. The math group played with the pan balance. We had to find an object in the room and then figure out how many blocks or bears it took to make it balance. We also played with the counting pumpkins. We had to put the pumpkins in order by their number and then fill them. To make our Clifford ears, we had to trace an ear pattern on red paper. We had to make two of them because Clifford has two ears. Then we cut them out. Ms. Torborg helped us staple them together on a headband. Now we look just like him.
Tuesday:
In reading, we listened to the story, The Little Red Sled. We identified the main character as Clifford. We also identified some of the other characters along with the setting. Then together, we recalled details from the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Next, we did a big writing project. We created Clifford the Big Red Dog’s head. When you lift the cover, you can read all about Clifford. We started by meeting with Ms. Torborg to work on our words. First, we had to write words that describe Clifford. Next, we had to write things Clifford can do. We ended by writing one thing Clifford is good at. When everyone was done with their words, we worked on creating the picture. Clifford’s head was already traced two different pieces of red paper. We had to cut them out. We also had to cut out our words, and Clifford’s eyes. Then we had to draw/trace Clifford’s facial features and glued his eyes on his paper. The final step was to glue our word on the back and attach the front. When you lift the flap, you can read the words.
Before music, we had a meeting with Mrs. Kramer in the library. She did some safe environment training with us. We watched a short movie and then talked about the importance of feelings and being safe and who we should tell. We also talked about being safe on the internet.
During religion, we talked about St. Luke. St. Luke wrote part of the bible. He liked to tell people about Jesus. His feast day is next week, October 18th. We colored a picture of him that we will add to our Saints coloring book.
During math time, we completed several different fall themed activities. Pumpkins: We had to put the numbered pumpkins in order and then put that many popsicle stick inside it.
Spiders and Spider Webs: We had to put the numbered spider webs in order and then put that many spiders on it.
Acorns: We had to match the top and bottoms of the acorns. The tops had a number on it and the bottoms had different representations of the number (tally marks, tens frames, pictures, tens blocks, etc.)
Fall Leaves: The tree was full of two different color leaves. On your turn, you had to roll the dice and take that many leaves off of the tree of your color. The first person to get all of their leaves off, won.
Wednesday:
Field Trip to the MN History Center
Thursday:
No School
Friday:
No School