Presenting our Animal Facts

Initially our discussions helped us craft a driving question of "What can I teach others about animals that live in the zoo?" Our Lowry Park Zoo visit served as field work to kick off our projects on zoo animals. Each child was asked to choose their favorite animal to research. Although, investigations continue both in our classroom, the library, and on the computer, next Monday, May 2nd, each child will share an unusual fact during the 8:10 Town Meeting. We would love to have you join us as each child presents their individual teaching poster accompanied by their non-fiction writing.

Writing Letters to Other People

In addition to writing our Small Moments stories, we have begun a unit on letter writing. Two weeks ago we wrote thank you letters to our P.E. coaches for organizing field day for the lower division students. The coaches were very pleased to receive our letters and complimented us on doing such great job. Last week we wrote to the Morean Art Center thanking them for our interesting trip to their museum. We received an email of appreciation for our thoughtfulness.

Today we will two more letters, thanking our visiting artists who helped make the Celebrate the Arts day so special. Mrs. O'Mullane, second grade teacher here at Shorecrest, presented an interesting introduction to using our bodies to dance in many fun ways. This was followed by Mr. Rim Carnivicus, an opera singer, who explained about opera. He demonstrated various opera characteristics, such as high and low sounds, and loud and soft ones. We watched a cute Bugs Bunny cartoon which was done in an operatic style.

At other times we will write letters to Dr. Bianco asking her questions or commenting on different areas. Writing letters to friends here at school and to our parents will be fun, too.

Copies are made of all the letters that we are writing so they can be bound together for individual books for each student. We are talking about the various purposes of writing letters and the different components of a letter.

How about encouraging your child at home to write letters to family and friends that live far away?

Meet Our New Student!

Alissa Simkin joined our class today , coming from Jamerson Elementary School in St. Petersburg. We are excited to have another girl in our classroom. Now we have ten boys and nine girls. We had fun interviewing Alissa and learning lots about her. Her favorite food is pasta, and apples are her favorite fruit. She like ballet and to go swimming. She has a pet hamster. At school she likes art and to draw pictures. Alissa's favorite flowers are daisies, and she likes the colors pink, purple, and blue. Alissa is very outgoing and excited to be at Shorecrest. She lives in Clearwater and speaks both English and Russian at home. Welcome to Shorecrest, Alissa and her family!

Researching Zoo Animals

Yes, we are conducting research in kindergarten! Our kick-off to learning more about zoo animals was our fabulous trip to the Lowry Park Zoo. Next, the class explored a variety of information books about exotic animals that are located in the new Kindergarten Research Station at the center of the kindergarten common area. They recorded four or more animals that each student found interesting. This list is a possible resource for selecting the final animal that each student will research.

Once all the animals have been selected, we will find out what each child already knows about his or her chosen animal, and what we want to learn about each animal. Each child will answer the basic questions of what their animal usually eats, where it lives, what is its body covering, and how it moves. Using parents, teachers, and reference books as resources, the children are challenged to learn at least three other facts about their chosen animal.

Finally, each child will answer the question, "What can I teach others about my animal?" At school, each child will demonstrate their new found knowledge in a presentation format of their choosing. This week's Kindergarten News Calendar assigned each student to gather three additional facts other than those previously mentioned.

From a shared experience to research, and on to learning from each other, each child will present of project of their choice to share with their classmates. These will demonstrate the new information we have learned about our animals, and also our new appreciation of them.

Yes, kindergartners can be involved in research!