Letter J & Counting by 5’s Songs

Here is our letter of the week song. 

Below is a fun counting by 5’s song that we sang today. After singing the song, we made Jack and the Beanstalk counting by 5’s beanstalks. They will be coming home tomorrow! 

Insect Unit

We have concluded our super fun (and yet sometimes creepy) insect unit! Here are some examples of the work we have done and some of our favorite memories during the unit.

During our unit, we brainstormed FACTS that we knew about insects, asked questions about what we wanted to know, and wrote down what we learned. I used up TWO pieces of large poster paper with all of the things we learned. 

At the beginning of our unit, we went on a nature walk to look for insects. While we found quite a few chickens, we only found a few insects. :(

Luke and Jack worked together to try to find some insects. 

These boys found a dead fly (yup, an insect) in a spider web (nope, not an insect).

I think they may have found something!!

Landon had something crawling on him! Some of us might not have had such a happy face with a creepy crawly on us! 

Later, during the week, we worked with our Sight Word “said”. We made living sentences, which means each student became a word in the sentence and as we read the sentence, we acted out the quotation marks and comma with our bodies and we gave them special swoosh and click sounds. I should have taken a video! 

We created books using speech bubbles. This was such a hit!

Could you imagine a bug that big?!

We rolled two dice to find their sum in “Ladybug Addition” hanging on our windows. 

After learning about the body parts of a butterfly, we did a directed draw where the students followed step by step instructions on how to draw a butterfly. After they added details and colored it, the students added labels to each of the body parts. Many of the students were then able to record facts about butterflies. That video is coming... it is super tricky to get a video off of the iPad on to the blog :(

After reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar, we made very hungry LAST NAME caterpillars! They came out so cute! Some of the kids have verrrrrrry long last names which make for very long caterpillars. Also at this center, while the paint was drying, the students learned how to measure objects using a caterpillar inch ruler. In case you are wondering, the piano is 47 inches wide!

We had a great 3 weeks learning about insects and are continuing to enjoy observing out caterpillars transforming in to butterflies. Please check back to see our daily observations on a separate post.

Meet Our New Class Pets!

As the students of Room 1 came in this morning from a long and relaxing spring break, they noticed their morning message had a surprise to it. After figuring out the missing words, they got to meet their new class pets--- 5 teeny tiny caterpillars that will soon transform into beautiful butterflies!

We have named them: Steve, Freddy, Jerry, Amy and Rain

For the next couple of weeks, we will be making observations about how these caterpillars grow and change into butterflies (this process is called metamorphosis).

Day 1:

• One caterpillar is going towards the top (Layla)
• Some are on the side of the jar (Cayden)
• They are small (one of them is 1 cm, another is 1 1/2 cm) (Jackson)
• There are 5 of them (Sophie)
• They are black and spiky (Max)
• They might be molting because we see small black things (Mrs. Roll)
• They are going to become butterflies in 7 days after they go in to chrysalis (Landon)

Day 2:

• They are bigger! (Jack)
• Two are up at the top (Anthony)
• One of the caterpillars at the top is longer than the other one at the top (Sophie)
• They have 6 legs (Nikos)
• The caterpillars are not straight... they are wiggly (Matthew)
• I can see them moving towards the top (Jake)
• All of the caterpillars are 1 1/2 cm to 2 cm long now! (Mrs. Roll)

Day 5: 

• One of the caterpillars is wiggling! (Zacharias)
• Two of them are straight (Luke)
• 3 of them are trying to get to the top (Cayden and Jack)
• 4 of them are BIG! (Sophie)
• We measured them and the smallest one is 2 cm and the biggest one is 4cm!!!
• I think I can see the 6 legs (Peyton)
• I saw one crawl down and eat something and then crawl back up (Jack)
• They are longer than yesterday! (Layla)

Day 8:

• One is starting to make its cocoon (Jack)
• One is super straight (Anthony)
• One has its legs at the top and its head is dropping down (Nikos)
• One is making the letter J! (Peyton)
• The caterpillars are going to go through metamorphosis (Eva)
• One is shaped like a Nike symbol (Landon)
• The caterpillars are in silk (Sophie)
• 4 of them are very still, but one is wiggling to the top (Jake)
• It looks like there are spider webs in there! (Jackson)
• They have shed a lot (Anthony)
• 4 of them are hanging from the top (Matthew)
• They are all 3-4 cm long (Mrs. Roll)

Day 12: Our last caterpillar still hasn’t gone in to chrysalis, but the other four are in their cocoons. They have been very active shaking back and forth! 

Our Last Vowel! Letter U

Mystery Bag Homework: Please have your child find an item that has the short u sound in it (bug, hut, drum). Have them write 3 clues. (You can translate afterwards if needed :) )

The Very Grouchy Kindergarteners

After reading Eric Carle’s The Grouchy Ladybug, we wrote about what makes us grouchy and happy. After writing, we used the App “ChatterPix” to make a hilarious narration of the times we are grouchy! I bet you can’t keep a grouchy face while watching this silly video!!!

Dr. Seuss’ Birthday with Our Study Buddies

In honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday, earlier this month the Room 1 Kinders met up with their 3rd grade Study Buddies from Mrs. Shen/Mrs. Shaffer’s class. The 3rd Graders read classic Dr. Seuss books to the Kindergarteners. We love our study buddies--- and Dr. Seuss, too!

Birthday girl, Eva, and her study buddy, Sydney.

Roya reading to Sebastian!

Ricky reading Sneetches to Matthew.

Katie & Julia!

Wait! Did they plan this??!! Perfect match for study buddies!

Lexi & Jackson

I love Max’s expression while Chloe reads to him! 

After a fun-filled Dr. Seuss-y day, we watched the Cat in the Hat! I love showing classics like this to the kids! They LOVED it!

Finally, we had some 4th grade visitors come and read yet another Dr. Seuss book :)

Letter K & Insect Song!

Sing along and practice the letter K at home!

Also, check out this super fun and kind of icky video of Insects!