Fall is in the air. This week the kindergarteners explored fall and leaves. Did you know the job of the leaf is to make food? Did you know that leaves don’t really change color? They just stop making so much food, so the other colors show through. This week we learned all about how leaves grow, their job, and why they change color. We went on a walk to look for signs of fall and to collect leaves. We used those leaves for a little exploration and experimentation. We also created a new class book about a squirrel that visited us while we ate lunch outside. Finally we created a dancing leaves picture with our arm and hand as the tree trunk and branches and paint dots as the leaves.
Monday:
In reading, we were introduced to our newest letter sound and letter, Pp We listened to our p song, identified words that began with the /p/, and discriminated between word that did and didn’t start with the /p/. We also completed an P letter sorting sheet. Next, we listened to the story, Scaredy Squirrel Make a Friend. Together we were able to identify the characters in the story including the main character. We were also introduced to the setting. The setting is where the story takes place. We determined that this story takes place in a forest or a park.
After recess, we went on a nature walk. Our goal today was to look at the different trees and signs of Autumn around us. We each started with a clipboard, paper, and pencil. During our walk, we would stop to look around us. We had to try to find the items on our paper like leaves, twigs, squirrels, etc… Each time we found one, we would cross it out. We also collected leaves along the way for a project. We collect many different leaves. They were different colors, sizes, and shapes. We saw trees with brown, yellow, red, orange, and purple leaves. Many trees still had green leaves.
In math, we completed page 7 in our number book after singing our song and air writing our numbers. Then we collected some data on the leaves we collected in the morning. There were five different stations we had to complete with our leaf. First, we had to draw and color a picture of it and then determine its size. Next, we measured our leaf using the connecting blocks both the length and the width. After counting the number of blocks we used, we recorded our number. At our third station, we recorded how many pennies it took to completely cover our leaf. First, we covered it. Then we counted the pennies. Finally, we recorded our answer. At our fourth station, we had to predict if our leaf would sink or float and then test it. At our final station, we had to label the different parts of the leaf. We found out that since we all had different leaves, we had different information on our paper.
In religion, we were talked about some of the different people God created. We shared a story about something we like to do with our family. On our worksheet, we picked our favorite picture from a group of pictures and made up a story about the people in the picture.
Tuesday:
In reading, we reviewed our letter sounds and letters, watched a short video, and worked on discriminated between words that started with the /p/ or the /s/. We also learned a new song, Hermie the Worm. Today Hermie could only eat things that started with the /p/. On our turn, we had to identify something that Hermie ate. (He ate some pretty interesting items.) Then we listened to the story The Fall Festival by Mercer Mayer. We talked about the different characters in the story including the main character and the setting of the story. Next we reviewed all of our sight words then we were introduced to our new sight word is. After using our new word in a sentence, we worked together as a class to read our new book, Fall Colors. We had to use the pictures and the beginning letter sounds to help us figure out the hard words. We ended our reading time by completing our is sight word worksheet.
During theme, we learned all about leaves. We found out the job of the leaf is to make food for the tree. In fall, there is less sunlight for the leaves to make food. Plus the tree is getting ready for the long winter and doesn’t need as much food. Since it is not making food, the leaves change color and die. Then the wind blows them off the tree. The tree will make new leaves in the spring when the tree needs to eat again. We ended our time with a coloring sheet. We had to read the color word on each leaf and color it that color. We used the color words on the wall for help. We just had to match the letters.
In math, we sang our number song and practiced air writing our numbers. Then we completed our number 8 page in our number book. We also practiced writing our numbers on the iPad with a special app. Then we played a couple of different games with numbers. Finally we practiced writing our numbers in shaving cream.
In religion, talked about different ways to show God’s love. When we are helping the people around us, we are showing love. On the front of the worksheet, we had to draw a heart next to the items that show love. On the back, we had to draw some of God’s wonderful gifts around your house.
Wednesday:
In reading, we listened to the story Leaf Trouble. Throughout the story, we made predictions about what might happen next. Plus, we identified the characters including the main character and the setting of the story. Next we listened to our p song, identified words that began with the /p/, and practiced “air” writing the letter P. Then we completed our letter p worksheet. We practiced writing our capital and lowercase p’s and we had to identify words that began with the /p/. We also made a class book. Ms. Torborg started by telling us a story. It was about a squirrel’s visit. It started out with our class eating lunch outside one day because it was so nice. When we were eating, a squirrel kept coming closer and closer until it finally got close enough to grab something from us. Our job was to figure out what the squirrel stole from us. We each met with Ms. Torborg so we could write our words. Then we illustrated our story. We had to draw a picture to match the words and color the picture of the squirrel on our page.
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.
In the afternoon, we had a little iPad time. We worked on counting, ordering numbers, and patterning. If there was time, we worked on some letter sound activities.
We ended the day with an ice cream treat. The 3rd graders picked it was our 4th Marathon incentive for meeting our goal of raising $35,000.
Thursday:
In reading, we were introduced to rhyming words, listened to a rhyming word video, and tried to identify different words that rhyme. Then we listened to the story Fall Mixed Up. Actually, we listened to it 3 times. The first time Ms. Torborg read the story as the author wrote it. The second time, we tried to identify all the mixed-up things. The third time we listened to the story, we tried to identify the different rhyming words. Next, we worked with the -am word family. We picked different consonants to put in front of the letters am. Then we worked together to sound out the word and determine if it was a real word or nonsense word. Once we each had a turn to pick and letter and create a word, Ms. Torborg read through all of the words. We determined that all of the words rhymed! Finally, we created an am word family flip book. First, we worked on cutting out the pieces of our flip books. Then Ms. Torborg stapled the pieces on. Together we worked together to read each of the words. We put our books in our reading bins, so we can keep reading it during stations.
Throughout the day, we created a fall tree with dancing leaves. We determined that if you lay under a tree as the leaves are falling they look like they are dancing through the air. Ms. Torborg started us off by tracing our arm and hand. This became the tree trunk and branches. We had to cut it out and glue it on a big piece of white paper. Then we cut out and glued the words on the top “Fall leaves are dancing.” Finally, we used our fingertips to create leaves on our paper. We dunked our fingertips in paint and put dots all over our paper. We added green, red, yellow, orange, and brown leaves.
In math, we completed our calendar binder. Since we won’t be at school tomorrow to complete our calendar, we added some of our data to our calendars sheets for tomorrow today. Then we played 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.
Friday:
Marathon Day!