Background information clips

Here are some video clips of our background knowledge weeks for you and your child to review together. I apologize for the delay in posting our ninja video!

Rainforest

Ninjas and Japan

Literacy centers

We are working so hard at our new centers this week!

Look and remember, the rainforest version.

Observing our class pet, Sweetie.

Making props for our classroom rainforest.

Melting science lab

Today we did an experiment with ice cubes during our science lab. We made predications with our partners about which would melt quicker- an ice cube on a bare hand or a nice cube on a gloved hand. Most of us predicted that the ice on the gloved hand would melt quicker because a gloved hand is warmer than a bare hand. Here's what happened...

Some new centers!

Here is a peek at some of our literacy centers from last week.

Experimenting with how to use chopsticks- was this easy or hard? Why?

Meeting the ninja master and becoming one with nature!

A sight word game- one child hid a carrot nose beneath a snowman, and the group had to guess where the nose was by reading each trick word and checking below the plate! A very tricky game to build self-regulation. It's much easier to reach under as many plates as possible!

Make a book center!

Slide a word- words are hidden in sleeves and the partners slide the word out one letter or word pattern at a time, guessing what the word could be. For example, one child might slide out the card and it says "n." The partnership might brainstorm words that start with n- nut, noodle, night, etc. they then slide out the card further, and it might say "ail." Nail!

Write along

We are mixing up our write along each morning with tongue twisters and riddles! Here is one riddle from this week:

What do you call a bear with no teeth? 

A gummy bear!

Math centers

This is a new partner game involving sorting, tallying, number writing, and number sentence writing. 

Ask your child how to play jack and Annie's secret pattern message!

Kindergarten Yahtzee! This is a game of combining numbers to make a larger number. We are shifting from the strategy of counting fingers to the strategies of counting on from a number. If you roll a 5 and a 3, you could count up from five without starting at 1. A tricky concept but a good thing to practice!

Bump! Another game of combining numbers with the ability to "bump" your partner!

Literacy enters

This week, we have started working on our learning goals at 8 literacy centers, 2 each day! Here are some of our center this week:

Calling base camp- ask your child how to play this new game! It builds fluency, phonemic awareness, and self-regulation. 

We are camouflaging our ninjas to blend into the scene outside our classroom, and then we write about what we did. 

Look and remember, the ninja version. This game builds working memory, self- regulation, vocabulary, and literacy skills. 

Ending sound bingo

All about Japan

During background knowledge week, we learned about ancient Japan and Japan today. We learned about a tea ceremony, Boy's Day and Girl's Day, different food people eat, clothes people wear for fancy occasions, and what some houses look like. We learned that legends about ninjas are stories told over time, and some of them are true while some of them are not. Ninjas were spies and probably wore regular clothes to blend in with people around them. They may not have looked like the stories and tv shows we see today about ninjas! We learned that ninjas train in ninja schools to learn how to control their bodies, build muscles, and learn swimming and climbing skills.

In the photos below, we found a spot in the classroom where would could be like ninjas and camouflage ourselves! 

On Friday, we made some Japanese carp kites, which were symbols flown on Boy's day. We also made decorative Japanese lanterns. 

We have also turned our dramatic play area into a ninja training camp! 

Happy new year!

Welcome back! Here are some photos from our gobstopper candy science lab today. We predicted what would happen when we dropped 4 colored gobstoppers into a dish of water. Most of us thought the color of the candy would come off, and some of us thought that candy would change colors. Ask your child what the results were!