5 for Friday - 11/15

This week we did the theme of food in Kindergarten, perfect timing to introduce vocabulary like feast, delicious, combine, etc.  Along with this theme we teach The Little Red Hen & then {of course} we make wheat bread:

 To align with our food theme, we learned all about cranberries.  This was a unit gifted to me from a teacher friend - it's from "the 80s" but has 5-7 different stations.  We taste cranberry products, sink/float cranberries, balance cranberries and blocks, shake and listen to cranberries, & then we bounce them:

Tuesday seems like a lifetime ago - because of 2 late starts & 3 mornings of 10 degree weather {or less}!   We had an amazing assembly to honor veterans - many have the day off, but I like that we have school & create a special assembly to recognize those who serve, have served, or will serve in the military:

I introduced the "Retell Center" {aka: Felt board} and my students were SO.EXCITED. to retell The Little Red Hen *proud teacher moment*!!!!  I love these super inexpensive sets from Lakeshore:

Look who got to go home on 11/12:

Mom & baby are doing great!  I'm counting down the days 'til Thanksgiving...when I can snuggle with this cutie day & night.

Happy FriYay,

Miss Kristan King

Pocket Chart & Graph the Room

So, I had so much fun introducing some great centers this week - pocket chart & ____ "the room."  I left the ______ open because I plan to use it for writing, graphing, & reading.

I found a super fun pocket chart I made my 2nd year of teaching, rhyming poems about kinds of trees/leaves. The kiddos enjoyed matching the riddle & pictures.  Along with a rhyming match game, the pocket chart center became "open" and the children loved practicing with it.

It went so well, I described that Graph the Room center was like "I Spy" & the kids were so excited to give it a shot!  I randomly placed leaves around the room, of different colors, and the kiddos used clipboards & crayons to create an autumn leaf graph (the leaves were from The Dollar Tree).  They thought it was so great:

I can't wait to see how excited they get to write the room, finding letters OR read the room, finding farm animals.  I also have an exciting rhyming lesson, so maybe they'll rhyme the room in a few weeks too!

We learned all about fall, seasons, & a tree's life cycle - then we went on a leaf hunt.  The children had to find a leaf, fill in it's color & size, then measure it - using unifix cubes, paperclips, & crayons.

Lots of fun things & all kinds of new learning going on...the kiddos are gaining so much independence & it's exciting to see their progress in 6 weeks - man it's flown by!

Miss Kristan King