The theme of the week was scarecrows in the Kindergarten room. We started the week by talking about living and nonliving things. We discovered that all living things need air (to breathe), food (to eat), and it has to change & grow. Throughout the week, we were able to identify many things that were both living and nonliving things. From there we determined a scarecrow is not a living thing. We found out that scarecrows are made out of old clothes, hay, and a pole. Their job is to scare away the crows. We wrote about an imaginary (make-believe) scarecrow. We had to write 2 things our scarecrow could do and one thing it couldn’t. When everyone was done, we turned our pages into another class book. (It can be found on our class website.) Along with our writing project, we created a scarecrow glyph, (A glyph is a pictorial form of data collection.), identified our color words by doing a scarecrow color by number worksheet, and we made a scarecrow with moving arms and legs.
Monday:
During reading, we were introduced to Stations. There are 7 different stations to do, Read to self, Listening to Reading, Ball Words, Writing Work, Word Work, iPads, and Math Work. Ms. Torborg explained where each station was located except for Ball Words. We are not quite ready for that one yet. After listening to how to do each of the stations, we got a chance to do them. Only 2 people can be at a station at a time. If the station we wanted was full, we had to pick another one. When station time was over and we cleaned it up, we had to put an X on our chart next to the station we completed. We have to complete all of the stations before we can do them again. Today we had time to complete 2 different stations.
In reading, we were introduced to our newest letter sound and letter, Ss. We listened to our s song, identified words that began with the /s/, and discriminated between word that did and didn’t start with the /s/. We also listened to two different books about scarecrows. After each story, we identified the main character and the problem and solution of the story.
Living and Non-living was the topic of the day during theme time. A living thing needs three things air (to breathe), food (to eat), and it has to move & grow. After reading a book and watching a couple of short videos on living things, we did a little experiment. We had to determine if a given object was a living thing or a non-living thing. First, we picked out an object. Then we asked our self some important questions:
Does it need air?
Does it need food and water?
Does it move and grow?
From that information we could answer our last question: Is it living? We also completed a worksheet. For each item in the chart, we had to answer 4 questions. Does it need air? Does it move or grow? Does it need food or water? Is it living? We worked together to answer the questions.
In math, we reviewed the number 0-5. We started by counting a group of objects and identifying the corresponding number. Then we practiced putting the numbers 0 to 5 in order. Finally, we played a new game, Steal the Number. We started by sitting next to our partner and putting the numbers cards in order. The object of the game is to guess the missing number. Player A covers their eyes while player B takes a number card and hides it in their hands. Player A then tries to guess the missing number. After they figure it out, they which jobs. We were able to play several different rounds before we completed the next page in our number book. Today we practiced writing the number 3. First, we wrote it in the air. Then we practiced writing it in our book.
Tuesday:
We started our morning talking about scarecrows. First we listened to the story Living and Nonliving. We reviewed what makes something a living thing. Then we listened to the story, The Shy Scarecrow. As we listened to the story, we identified the main character of the story. At the end of the story, we reviewed what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story. We also talked about the job of a scarecrow is to scare away the crows just like its name. We know that scarecrows are not living things because they don’t eat, breathe and grow. Today we imagined a scarecrow that could do anything we wanted. Some of our scarecrows could jump, run, job, hop, skip, etc... While not quite anything, there was one thing it couldn’t do (but we got to choose.) Once we had decided what our scarecrows could and couldn’t do, we wrote down our words for a story. Ms. Torborg helped us listen for our beginning sounds of each word. Once our words were done, we drew a picture of our scarecrows. Then we combined them into a new class book.
In reading, we reviewed our letters and letter sounds. Then we turned our focus to the letter S. We watched a letter S video, added words that began with the /s/ to our chart, and worked on discriminating between words that began with the /s/ and those that didn’t. We were also introduced to a new sight word, to. We each created a sentence using our word. Then we reviewed all of our word. Next, we read through our new decodable story, Scarecrow goes… We started by reading the story together. We used the picture clues to help us figure out some of the tricky words. We also made several predictions about where the scarecrow was going to go next in the story. The second time we read the story with a partner. First Ms. Torborg taught us how to partner read. It starts by sitting next to each other. Our elbows and knees should be next to our partner. Then we take turns reading the story. The first person reads the whole book before the other person takes their turn. We need to make sure we always start with the title when we read a story.
In math, we worked on subitizing numbers. Subitizing means a number or group of objects by sight without counting. We started with our quick look cards. We looked at the card for just a short time before we identified the number of dots on it. We tried to figure out the number of dots without counting them. Then we played a subitizing game, Find It! Today we played the game by ourself. The goal was to cover every square of the game board. First, we rolled a dice and identified the number on it. Then we had to find a square on our board with the same number of dots and cover it.
During religion, we continued talking about God’s creatures. Our focus today was on taking care of pets. After taking turns talking about our pets, we discussed how to take care of several different kinds of animals including a cat, dog, and fish. Then on our worksheet, we had to draw of picture of one way we could take care of each of the different kinds of animals. On the back, we said the little prayer together and then colored the animals.
Wednesday:
We started our morning by Lettercising. That means we exercised as we identified all of the letters and letter sounds. Then we reviewed our letters, letter sounds, and sight words. After watching a couple of video, we identified words that began with the /s/ and added them to our chart. Ms. Torborg also showed us the correct way to write capital and lowercase letters. Then we completed our letter Ss worksheet.
We also reviewed the characteristics of a living thing. We listened to the story, Living and Nonliving, and we watched a short video clip with Cookie Monster.
Next we listened to the story, The Silly Scarecrow. We identified the main characters, Clifford and Emily Elizabeth. Then we worked on creating our own scarecrow. Our theme project today was a glyph. Glyphs are a pictorial form of data collection. Our goal today was to make a scarecrow glyph. We had to listen carefully to Ms. Torborg’s directions. We had to decided which choice was right for us. (If you a re 5 years old, color your hat orange. if you are 6 years old, color your hat yellow.) After all of the parts were colored, we had to cut them out and glue them together into a scarecrow. We each made a unique scarecrow just like us.
In math, we worked on putting numbers 0-5 in order. Next, we worked with five frames. We each started with a five frame board and 5 counters. As Ms. Torborg showed us a number card, we had to put the corresponding items on the five frame. If the number card was 3, we had to put 3 counters on our board. Then we talked about where the counters where and how many open spaces we had. Next we played our game from yesterday, Find It! We ended our time by completing our number 4 page in our number book.
In religion, we talked about our loved ones. We each drew a picture on someone we love on the front of our paper. Just like God made the day and night, land and water, and all of the animals, He made us too. God made us in his image. He made us very special. On the back of the paper, we traced the words to the short prayer. “God made us. God loves us.”
Thursday:
We started our reading time by reviewed our letter sounds and letters. Then we watched a letter s video and worked with a partner to identified words that began with the letter s. Then we worked on discriminating between do and don’t start with the /s/. Then we completed a worksheet on which we had to color the pictures that started with the /s/. We also read the story, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. As we listened to the story, we had to make the different noises the clothes made as they followed the Little Old Lady. We also made predictions about what we thought would happen at the end of the story.
This week we have been singing and dancing to a new song, Dingle Dangle Scarecrow. It sure has been a fan favorite! Today we created a dingle dangle scarecrow. Ms. Torborg gave us two papers with all of the different parts on it. We started by coloring and cutting it out. Then Ms. Torborg helped us punch holes in each of the parts. Finally, she put a little fastener on it to keep it together. The arms, legs, and head move in many different ways.
In math we worked on describing shapes. First, we worked as a class to describe a shape Ms. Torborg had on her card. We identified what it looked like, the number of sides, the number of corners, etc. After working together for a while, we partnered up. We each got a shape card. Our job was to describe our shape to our partner. We ended our math time by singing our number song, air writing our numbers, and completing our number 5 page in our number book.
The feast of St. Matthew is September 21st. He was one of the 12 Apostles and he wrote the first gospel in the bible. He didn’t always do the right thing when he was collecting taxes, but he changed his ways and started following Jesus. We watched a short movie about him and colored a picture of him in our Saint Books.
Friday:
Our morning started out with a ride on the blue bus to Mass at the church. Then we had snack, recess, music class, and Spanish class before we completed our calendar binders.
In the afternoon, we completed our number 6 page in our number book after singing our number song and air writing our numbers.
We also reviewed characteristic of living things and colored a scarecrow. We couldn’t just color it any color though. We had to color it according to the color number. We had to read the words or match the letters to the color words on our wall.
We ended our day with our last Marathon rally. After praying for our intentions, we found out we have raised over $36,000. Then we completed an activity. We each received a letter with a flag in the corner. The team leader had to build a caterpillar by collecting all of the letters with their flag on it. Then they had to put the letters in order to create a word. The trick was our word was in the language of the flag on our paper. When each group was complete, we figured out that everyone one had the same special word: Love.