Congrats to....

Lake reached 300 lines in 100 Book Challenge! Great job!

The Mitten by Jan Brett

Yesterday, we read the book, The Mitten by Jan Brett. We are learning about the importance of the sequence in a story and how to re-tell. Today, we cut apart each of the animals that climb into the mitten and retold the story using those characters. 

The kids are bringing home the characters and mitten and are very excited to practice retelling the story to you! 

 

Below, I will briefly sequence the story for you to aid as the children re-tell the story:

The Mitten by Jan Brett

Nicki wanted a mitten that was as white as snow. 

Nicki lost his mitten in the snow! The first animal that climbed into the mitten was a mole.

A rabbit joined the mole in the mitten.

Next, a hedge hog entered into the mitten.

After that, an owl took up residence in the mitten.

Even though there wasn't much room, a fox moved into the mitten.

Just when we thought there would be no more animals, a bear joined the other animals in the mitten.

Lastly, a mouse climbed into the mitten on the bears nose...

Which caused the bear to sneeze and all of the animals fly out of the mitten!

Nicki was able to find his mitten before returning home!

I hope this short summary will help as your child re-tells the book, The Mitten.

Have fun!

Joshua was our Bucket Filler!

Joshua's mom, Mrs. Kanipe, surprised us as our Mystery Reader! We loved hearing her read the book, The Gingerbread Pirates.   

Thank you for coming to read to our class!

Sheron reached 200 lines!

Congratulations to Sheron for reaching 200 lines in 100 Book Challenge! I am so proud of you!

Our Sense of Smell

Today, we examined and tested our sense of smell.  The students each had the opportunity to smell 9 different things ranging from vanilla, cocoa, and apple cider to garlic powder, sage, and dog biscuits!  Here are a few pictures as we were smelling.

 

After the students were finished using their noses to smell different scents, they were asked to write about  and illustrate their favorite scent in their "I Wonder" journal.  Here are a few responses I recorded.

Isabella is informing us that apple cider and coconut are her favorite smells.

 

Sage's favorite smell were the leaves of an evergreen tree. 

 

We also discussed that our nose is the body part that helps us to smell different scents.  Through research, we learned that we all have small hairs on the inside of our nose and thats what traps the scents inside of our nose which causes us to smell.

Nicholas is teaching us that we use our nose to smell.

Joshua reached 300 Lines

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

Sheron reached 200 steps!

Keep reading!

We used our sense of taste!

Today, we continued our study of the five senses and focused on our sense of taste!  The students recorded their thoughts of each food item in their "I Wonder" journals.  We tasted a food that was bitter, sour, sweet, and salty.  The students had so much fun identifying the tongue as the body part that we use to taste.

The first type of food we tasted was bitter chocolate.  I knew that most of the students had tasted the regular chocolate that we eat, but I assumed not many had tasted the bitter kind!  Their facial reactions to tasting the bitter chocolate were unforgettable!  Get ready for a laugh!

 

 

Next, we tasted lemons that were VERY sour!  I videoed this response!



 

After that, the students were given salty chips to taste!

 

Lastly, we ended on a sweet note with ice cream!  The smiling faces in these pictures are much different from the faces that were made after tasting the bitter chocolate! 

 

We had such a fun time exploring our sense of taste! 

Isabella reached 300 Steps!

Congratulations Isabella! Keep reading!

Our sense of sight

Today, we learned about the sense of sight and what body parts we use to see! We discussed the importance of our eyes and how they help us.

To really understand what it would feel like if we didn't have the sense of sight, we paired with a partner and each had a turn wearing a blindfold. The child who didn't have the blindfold was the guide. This led to a discussion about the importance of guides and how dogs can even be guide dogs! I love how awesome kindergartener's imagination and creativity are!

Katelyn and Austin!

Hayden and Ciarra

Lake and Shyann

Emma and Nicholas

Landon and I were partners!

Jayden and Katelynn

Brandon and Jayla

Joshua, Isabella, Cecilla, and Daniel

We have a special visitor in our classroom!

When we walked into the classroom this morning, we had a special package addressed directly to our class! He must have been so excited to meet room 201 All-Stars that he couldn't wait to get out of the box!

We now have our very own elf at school!!

After meeting him, we read the book, the Elf on the Shelf A Christmas Tradition! In the book, it told us that we needed to give our new friend a name. We came up with the names Elfie, Snowflake , and Chippy. After a class vote, the name Chippy won by only one vote!

Everyone was so excited to meet Chippy today, and they are looking forward to searching for him in the morning!

Nicholas reached 300 lines!

Nicholas was the first student in our class to reach 300 lines! Way to read Nicholas!

We made our own butter!

Today, we continued learning about different things that the Pilgrims and Native Americans taught each other!  We learned how to make butter, just like they did in Colonial times.

 

We began by adding the heavy whipping cream and salt into our jar.  We each had some time to shake the jar.

 Adding the salt to the whipping cream.

 

Landon was observing the butter to see if it had hardened.

Lake was shaking the butter!

Brandon loved making butter!

 

A sweet video of everyone making butter.

 

After a lot of shaking, our butter was finally ready.  It was so cool to see the smile and excitment on the children's faces when they realized they had made their own butter, just like the Native Americans and Pilgrims.  Below is our finished product. 

Notice the whey that formed around the outside of our butter. How neat!

 

Here are some sweet reactions to their initial tasting of our homeade butter!  I brought crackers for them to taste with the butter.



Learning Club 3 was tasting the butter for the first time. 

 

Learning Club 1 loved the butter! I love the excitement in Landon's "yum!!" at the beginning of the video.

 

Learning Club 4 about to taste their butter!

 

Everyone had such a FUN time making the butter today.  They all wanted me to tell you guys how to make it so that they could try it at home with you!

 

What you need:

Heavy Whipping Cream

Salt

Jar with a lid

 

Directions:

Fill the jar to a desired amount with whipping cream.

Add a good amount of salt.

Shake the jar A LOT!

(Continue to add salt and shake until the butter becomes firm)

HAVE FUN! :)

Candle Dipping

This week, we are learning about different things that the Pilgrims and Native Americans taught each other. Today, we focused on the Pilgrims. We learned that Pilgrim children had the responsibility of making candles. To us, it is so easy to flip on a light switch or shine a flash light if we need light. However in colonial times, they did not have these luxuries. Children and adults were required to make the candles if they wanted light. 

Today, we attempted to make our own candles. The students were given a long wick and had the opportunity to dip it into the pot of wax. Everyone continuously made circles to re-dip their wicks. After a lot of dipping and patience, we were able to make small candles! 

We had so much fun learning to make our own candles just like the Pilgrims!