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!

Creative Play

At first glance we see that the Grand Prix has come to room K-3. In reality the track built by Lucas, Fin, and Noah is a fine example of creative play. This team effort took planning, cooperation, and self-discipline.

While all this fun might be called "free choice" time it actually helps build a critical cognitive skill called executive function. Executive function has a number of elements, such as working memory and cognitive flexibility. But perhaps the most important is self-regulation — the ability for kids to control their emotions and behavior, resist impulses, and exert self-control and discipline. Executive function — and its self-regulation element — is important. In fact, good executive function is another predictor of success in school as well as a child's IQ.

Everyday Math Is Everywhere!

While our scheduled math lessons are first thing in the morning before our P.E. class at 9:15, math related concepts are frequently integrated through-out the school day, and beyond. Just look at the math related activities the class has been involved in today.

*Reading and rereading Monday's schedule, noting the times on the classroom clock
*Finding page 55 in our handwriting books so we can practice printing the letter "e"
*Counting and comparing answers on the "Question of the Day" graph
*Traveling in number order with a new line leader each week
*Using our time wisely when given two more minutes of snack or work time
*Recognizing where to sit in both Art and Music according to our classroom seating locations
*Writing with the sequence of time that spans morning, afternoon, and night
*Using the digital cameras to take pictures of things with shapes on campus
*Creating working partner pairs, which led to counting by twos, and recognizing we are an uneven group when one is absent
* A brief discussion of odd and even numbers, and what that means
*Looking at the clock for when the long hand lands on 6, it is 30 minutes after the hour...12:30...recess!
*Counting the seconds backwards from 15 as we watch for recess time to begin
*Counting by tens the marbles in our "Do the Right Thing" jar (341 marbles!)

Revising Our Small Moment Stories

For the past several weeks in writers' workshop the children have been learning how to make their good writing even better. We have talked about extending our stories, inserting words in the middle of sentences using carats, and using talk bubbles so our characters can speak. All of these revising techniques add more detail to our stories and make them more interesting. Each student used a purple felt-tipped pen to add their revisions to their stories. Using the purple pens was very motivating and the children eagerly looked for ways to add to their stories.

We have talked about what we need to do to complete a whole three page story, including the illustrations and the writing, in one writing session. Everyone agrees that concentration is the most important skill needed; but, it is also important to limit erasing and to focus on the story you are writing about. Most of the class is able to write a new story each day.

This Friday will be our celebration for the end of the revision unit. Each child will select their best story to "pretty up." We have invited Mrs. Cameron's second grade class to come down to share our celebration with us and to hear our stories. We will begin at 12:30. Parents are also invited to join us. Please let me know if you plan to attend. The children are very proud of their great stories and are eager to share them.