Special student, rotations, and Sukkot!

As I mentioned before, the start of kindergarten is all about building community! We had so much fun getting to know one another as each student got a day to be the 'special student' and bring in a few items that represent things about him/her. As he/she is telling the class about the items, I am creating a web map about the student. 

Then during our writing time, we are learning that we can tell stories through pictures. The students think of a story involving him/her and the special student. It can be something real, such as playing baseball in the park together, or something completely made up, like becoming aliens in outer space.

We have been working on including details that tell the reader whether the story is outside (grass, trees, sky, and sun) or inside (floor and lights) and using the correct colors--Does she have bright purple skin?? Blue hair?? No way! :)

Recently, we have been noticing that illustrators sometimes put labels in their pictures so the reader can know what it is. A few students have been trying to incorporate labels into their own writing!

During Rotations, in the Look Closer station, the students decided to use the clipboards and paper to document what they were noticing by tracing the objects and then adding details!

This pair noticed a star in the middle of the starfish and documented it! 

Some of the students wanted to be able to document the colors they noticed on one of the rocks so they asked to use crayons. 

Check out the labels these students used for each thing they were observing! 

(hair, leaf, nut, seashell)

(Spiral)

At the math station, the students are using materials to create their own patterns--I was so impressed with the patterns they created!

This one created a Hebrew letter using a pattern! How complex!

Another math concept we are practicing is sorting. I give them a box or bag of objects and it is up to them to decide how to sort them--by color? Shape? Size?  Clearly it is very exciting when they get them all sorted :)

Sorting requires they be problem solvers as well; especially when there aren't enough spaces for all the categories. I love hearing the students communicate with each other about which groups can be combined and provide reasoning about how they decided to sort them. 

In math, students are also practicing identifying numbers and 1-1 correspondence by counting out and connecting the correct number of links. I love the focus!

In the Construction area, this student regularly creates amazingly tall towers, and even when the tower falls over (as they all inevitably do) she always smiles and sets to rebuild it.

Also in the Construction area, this student went through a lot of trial and error before he came upon an approach to creating a sturdy building that didn't lean to one side. Such perseverance! 

I introduced clipboards, planning paper, and pencils in this area and explained that construction workers and engineers (the people in charge of creating buildings) often plan out what they want to build on paper before they start building. 

Check out the plans this student created before starting his tower!

In the Literacy station, students are working their finger muscles by using tweezers to sort letter beads into the letter boxes. 

Students are also working on creating uppercase letters with the gems (Did you notice she created patterns with the gems??)

In the Clay station, students are using their strong hands as well as rolling pins, dough tools, and dough scissors to shape the dough (this isn't soft playdoh--it's actual artist's clay) They have been loving hiding gems and rocks in the clay and then using the tools to help them find them! This student used the tools in a way that I never would've thought of: 

"Look, I'm shouting!" Too funny ;)

At the start of the school year, the students were each given a blank book to create a 'Birthday Book'--which is a book filled with pictures and words from their 5-6 years of life so far. All of the books that have been returned are available in our classroom library for the students to read (these are some of their favorites!). If they want to read someone else's book, they need to ask the person first--there have been so many opportunities for using polite words, sharing, and accepting when someone says no. 

Finally, this past week, we celebrated Sukkot. We had a blast learning about and eating lunch in different sukkahs!