This week the 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 a picture of Clifford with descriptive words on the inside.
Monday:
We started our morning by listening to the story, I’m Not Scared…I'm Prepared. Then we talked about it. We reviewed 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 Two different random times today, we practiced. The first time, we had to evacuate. We went out the back door and ran along the fence to Father’s front steps. The second time we had to lock down which means find a hiding spot and grab something to throw.
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.
In religion, we listened to the story of Adam and Eve. We listened to how they ate from the forbidden tree and hid from God. And how they were exiled from the Garden of Eden.
We started math by matching a group of objects to a number. Ms. Torborg put a group of objects in a pocket. We had to count the objects as they were going in and then show the number card to match the number of objects in the pocket. Then we worked on identifying one more and one less. Ms. Torborg put a group of objects in the pocket. Then she put either one more in the pocket or took one out of the pocket. We had to identify the number of objects left in the pocket. We also got out the big walking number line. We practiced identifying numbers on it along with finding one more or one less than a given number. We ended our math time with a Pumpkin counting worksheet. First we had to number write the numbers 1 to 10. That means we had to write our numbers 3 different times with 3 different color crayons. Then we had to cut out the pumpkins and glue the number in order.
Tuesday:
We started our morning out with the story, The story of Clifford. After listening to the story, we were able to identify the characters, setting, and some details from the beginning, middle, and end of the story. 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.
After recess, we were introduced to syllables. A syllable is a way to break up a word into parts. After watching a couple of video, we worked together to break several different words into syllables. For each syllable, we clapped our hands. We started to notice some of our words had 1 syllable and others had 2. We even found some words that had 3 syllables. Then we used the iPads completed a couple of activities on Khan Academy Kids.
In religion, we were introduced to St. Pope John Paul II. His feast day is October 22nd. He thought it was so important to make sure the young people especially teenagers connected with the Catholic church. He is the patron saint of World Youth Day. We watched a short video as we colored his picture in our Saint Book.
Wednesday:
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 snack, we had a safe environment (Virtus) training. We watched a short movie and then talked about our personal bubble and letting people into our personal space. We also talked about safe and unsafe touching rules and what to do if someone breaks the rules.
In the afternoon, we completed 7 different stations. 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.
M&M Trees: We each started with a tree outline. On own turn, we had to pick a card. Then pick that many leaves (M&M’s) from the pile. The first person to fill their tree wins.
Clifford Puzzles: We had to put together 2 different Clifford puzzles. Each puzzle was 25 pieces.
Finishing our writing project: we meet with Ms. Torborg to turn our writing from the morning into Clifford’s head.
Thursday:
No School-MEA
Friday:
No School-MEA