We love teaching others!

Today, we wrapped up our Animals in Winter unit and are ready to send  our answers back to the Park Ranger.  Based on our research, we created anchor charts, 4 square informational sheets, and informational videos to teach the Park Ranger what his 5 animals were supposed to do in the winter to survive. 

 

Remember, our animals were the Eastern Box Turtle, Hedgehog, Bird, Rabbit, and Monarch Butterfly.

 

Below are our informational videos that we created.  The groups were required to say the name of their animal, whether it hibernates, migrates, or adapts, why it does that particular survival method, and one cool fact that they learned through research.  Please use our video's to learn even more about each of these five animals:

 

Eastern Box Turtle: Jayden, Sheron, Austin, Daniel, and Hayden

 

Hedgehog: Nicholas, Ciarra, Brandon, and Lake

 

Bird: Jaylen, Joshua, Emma, and Isabella

 

Rabbit: Jayla, Shyann, Cecilia, Sage, and Bella Grace

 

Monarch Butterfly: Lexi, Landon, Katelynn N., and Katelyn M.

 

Monday morning, we will gather all of our information and put it in an envelope to mail back to the Park Ranger.  Your kindergartners have worked so hard to solve this problem and I am so proud of each of them!

Wonder #4

Why are all snowflakes different?

This was a short video I recorded of my students after I asked them their thoughts about if all snowflakes were different.  I hope you enjoy this and that it makes you excited to begin research!

Frosty The Snowman brought snow to OES!

Thank you to everyone who brought in donations before Christmas for the resource center! Because of the generosity of OES students, we had the privilege of playing in the snow today at school! Each child was given a cup of hot chocolate, snow colored cotton candy, and the chance to play in the snow! Please enjoy pictures from our fun time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had so much fun!

Shapes Shapes All Around!

Today, I gave the students lots of different shapes and colors and asked them to create a picture using only those shapes.  The students were so surprised how much easier this was from their assignment yesterday (to create an illustration using no shapes at all). 

I loved the dialogue I heard going on in the classroom while they were creating their masterpieces:

"I need one more big yellow circle."

"Can you please hand me the small green triangles?  I need them for my grass."

"Our table has extra pink squares.  You can have some of ours."

"I need three more light green diamonds."

Our students were practicing shapes, colors, counting, sharing, kindness, showing friendship, creativity and so many more important lifeskills.

 

 

Below are our masterpieces:

 

After everyone was finished creating, we took a walk around the classroom to observe everyone's finished products.  I heard lots of "Oooh's and Ahhh's" during this walk through.  The students were amazed at everything that was created using only shapes.

What If There Were No Shapes?

This was the question I asked the students prior to reading the following book:

After reading, I asked the students to create their own picture without using any shapes at all! They could not believe how difficult this task was. Below are a few of their shapeless creations.

I believe this was an eye-opening experience for all of the students. I overheard one student say, "I sure am glad that we have shapes that we can draw."

Wonder #3

Can you freeze a bubble?  Explain your answer.

Wonder #2 Research and Investigation

We used an article off of Wonderopolis.org to aid in our research. It taught us a lot of information! Below is the link:

 

http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-do-birds-survive-the-coldest-winters/

This afternoon we continued talking about the important things that keep birds warm. We cut out a template of a bird and glued it on construction paper. Next, we glued feathers on our bird to remind us that the bird's feathers keep them warmer in the winter.

Next, we added oil to our birds to remind us of the oily coat that some of their feathers develop to keep them warmer.

We have had so much fun researching this week. Thanks again to all of the parents who participated on our blog!  The students loved reading and responding to your posts.

Wow!

Lake and Bella Grace reached 400 lines! Great reading!

Spacing With Marshmallows

We are continuing our unit on narrative writing this week.

This morning, I wrote my morning message without using spaces. The students could not believe how hard it was to read because they could not figure out where the words started and ended.  For your enjoyment, below was my morning message:

As a class, we re-wrote our morning message including spaces to make it easier to read. 

In writing, the kids enjoyed applying the importance of spacing to their writing. We used marshmallows as our spacers.

Please view a few samples of our writing below!

Notice the difference in her spacing from Tuesday (left side) to Wednesday (right side).

I really believe the marshmallows helped the students clearly see the importance of spacing in their sentences.