Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins!

We finished our Pumpkin Books and sent them home today so I thought I would share some of our activities.  I was so happy to get them out on time! My team has been using these pumpkin literacy based activities for the past several years.  We all have our own take on them but each page includes an activity that directly relates to a story we have read for the month of October.  My friend, Lana, makes an October science book about bats, spiders and owls.  I will try to post some photos of her book.  They are looking good!  My photos are a little out of order, I just didn't feel up to duking it out with the blogger format and the way the photos upload.  It's Friday...








Michele, Maisha and Susan read Dem Bones and incorporate a lesson on our skeletal structure into the book.  We also read Don't Look at It, Don't Touch It! and the children make predictions about what Sara finds behind the door.  This year I included the Big Green Monster and a cute, surprisingly easy paper plate art project.  I got this idea from Suzan at  http://krazyforkindergarten.blogspot.com.

In our Math Journal, we measured the circumference of our pumpkin. 

Everyone got to estimate how much yarn it would take to reach around our pumpkin.  With the help our Peer Mentors, Kennedy and Kionna, each child measured how many Inchy the Inchworms it took to reach the end of their yarn. 

I made the Inchy rulers using clipart-each Inchy is of course, one inch long.  We will graduate to rulers by the end of the year but I wanted to give this method a try-it seemed more concrete.



We made pumpkin pancakes!





Thank you to Kerstin's mom and Brianna's mom for coming and helping us with our projects!



We stamped an AB pattern in our Math Journals.

We used adjectives to describe our pumpkins.



The apples will come down and we will add turkeys to our scene for November.




Of course, the best part was going to Tate Farms!



We wrote about our trip to Tate Farms and will include this in our Kindergarten Scrapbook for the end of the year with some of our pumpkin artwork.


Now on to turkeys, the Mayflower, Squanto and Thanksgiving!

50’s Day!

 Yesterday was our 50th day of school so …

we had 50’s Day!

It was so much fun! We practiced counting to 50, of course! We played with toys boys and girls played with in the 50’s-slinkies, Tinkertoys, Lincoln Logs, Playdoh, Etch a Sketch, Jacks and Mr. Potato Head!

We used Silly Putty to transfer Peanut comics strips, watched a slideshow showing what people wore, how they watched movies, listened to music, what cars they drove, how they shopped, etc. We compared and contrasted life in the 50’s to our lives now.

We dressed they way boys and girls dressed during this time and visited our own “Soda Shop” where we listened to music on the “jukebox”, ate Jell-O and drank Cokes out of glass bottles! We even watched an episode of “I Love Lucy”-the famous candy episode! 

People used to listen to records or as one student noticed, "big CD's"!



We had fun at our Soda Shop!





We write about how life was different in the 1950's
and include this in our Kindergarten Scrapbook.



We used this Compare/Contrast chart to recognize many of
the differences and similarities between the 1950's and today.

Boys and girls met at the Soda Shop on the way home from school
instead of going to Chuck E. Cheese on the weekend.  Wow!

TV shows were in black and white!  There were only three channels
and you had to GET UP to change the channel! 
Holy Smoke, times were tough!

We learned that Mr. Potato Heads were real potatoes!



We even read Dick and Jane!

Such a fun way to meet an ALCOS for Social Studies!



Weekly Newsletter #11

October 25-October 29, 2010

From Mrs. Hicks' desk…   This Weeks' Focus We will continue our study of pumpkins this week but will also include our study of the 1950's time period. We will discuss what it would have been like to live during this time-what did children play with, how did they dress, what did they eat, what did they read, how did they get to school, etc. It will be an exciting week of activities! We will have daily rotations in the afternoon where the children will be able to play with slinkies, jacks, Mr. Potato Heads, Playdoh, Lincoln Logs and Silly Putty. We will read Peanuts comic strips, Dick and Jane books and Little Golden books like Nurse Nancy and The Poky Little Puppy. On Monday we will have our own Soda Shop where we will enjoy music, Jell-O and Coca-Cola in bottles! How exciting! Language Arts We will continue our study of animal habitats with our story Bear Snores On this week. Ask your child about the ocean, orange grove and grasslands habitats we have studied so far! Amazing Words sleep, winter, cave woods, storm, blustery Sight Words we, my, like

Important Dates 10/25- 50's Day! 10/25 Family Reading Night at 6:00pm 11/11-Veteran's Day **no school**     Homework All written homework is due on Friday. 1. Practice reading Sight Words. 2. Read Family Times magazine. 3. Complete Letter Naming Page. 4. Complete 4 Day Homework Page. Math * practice making ABC patterns using a variety of items * practice recognizing coins and their amounts * practice place value and counting by tens * practice measurement of everyday items * identify and count to the number 50

Letter of the Week

Our Scott Foresman Reading series introduces a new letter each week. When I saw what my good friend, Suzan was doing over at http://krazyforkindergarten.blogspot.com/ for her letter of the week, I had to get busy! Well, my husband had to get busy to build this amazing mailbox for me first. Thank you to Mr. Hicks! This is the third week my class has received their package from The Alphabet Garden and they are loving it!

Thank you, Suzan- you inspire me into exhaustion!  :)



I wonder what the letter is this week?



Our "letter" is from the letter Pp!

Our envelope had a pumpkin in it!

...and a pencil

...a tiny little piglet

and a popsicle stick!
Now we will look for the letter Pp
all over our room this week! 
Where will we find him next?!

We are also learning how to sign all of our letters and a word beginning with that letter.

Pp looks like your fingers are walking and your thumb is trying to hang on! 

I've got it!

This one is a little tricky!

Now we are playing the piano!




We sound out words with the /p/ sound in it using "fingers and a notebook".
Does /p/ come at the beginning, middle or end of  the word?







We stand under the Coconut Tree from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (see the letters on the tree) and act out the Read Well Alphabet Chant. 

 A says /a/
 Ant on a Apple
 A   a    a



 T says /t/
Turtle on the Tightrope
T    t     t





All of our literacy centers for the week focus on the letter of the week -computer (Starfall), handwriting, phonics, comprehension and fluency. We do create some of our own activities for the literacy centers but the majority of our work comes from these websites:

http://www.scsk12.org/SCS/subject-areas/Kindergarten-Kove

http://web.mac.com/donna.glynn/Kinderglynn

http://classroom.jc-schools.net/waltkek/

The activities from these websites integrate necessary skills that directly correlate to Scott Foresman.  The work connects the letter of the week, the sight words for this unit and target skills such as recognizing the characters and setting in a story or distinguishing the difference between real and make-believe.  



We also make a letter Pp page for our Alphabet Book. We use the Read Well Alphabet Chant for our Alphabet Book patterns.  Our Pp page will be Policeman in the Park. 





P says /p/!





I've got it!