Presidents Day

I know this post is a little late- but better late than never! In honor of Presidents' Day we did some really fun activities. We learned about Lincoln, Washington, and Teddy Roosevelt. We also learned about Mt Rushmore and how it was made. The students helped color a life size drawing of Abe Lincoln! Boy was he tall! Some of the awesome projects we made were George Washington pictures using cotton balls, American Flags, and a delicious snack: George Washington Cherry Pies! Check em out:

Love Day!

We had so much fun celebrating Valentine's day with the kinders! We did tons of fun activities including: candy heart math, love note mad libs, conversation heart sentences, and my favorite- crystal hearts!

I found a wonderful post on Pinterest about making crystals using two simple ingredients- borax and boiling water. I was a little skeptical about whether or not this would work, but it worked wonderfully!

Each of the students shaped a pipe cleaner into a heart. Then the tied a string to their pipe cleaner and the other end to a Popsicle stick. In a large cup we mixes the solution of borax and boiling water. We used 3 TBS borax per cup of water. When the solution was mixed we places their hanging shapes into the cups. This is the best part- they only had to sit for one day! The next day the students ( and myself) were surprised at how many crystals had formed on their pipe cleaners! Our cups were not quite big enough to put the entire pipe cleaner into the solution, so each one is only partially covered with crystals.

Take a look out how they turned out!

Sugar Rush

Today we learned about junk food and how unhealthy it is for you. We decided to check out our own lunches to see how much sugar is in our junk food. I was very surprised to see some of the results.
We used the measurement that
4g=1 tsp.

Graham cracker- 1 g
Poptart crisps - 5 g
Watermelon - 9.5 g
Fruit by the foot- 10 g
Fruit snacks - 11 g
Marshmallows - 16 g
Lunchable - 17 g
Yogurt raisins - 18 g
100% juice - 22 g

Penguins!

This week we are learning all about those cute, tuxedo wearing Penguins! We read several Tacky the Penguin books by Helen Lester. The students discussed how it is okay to be different than everyone else. We got out our abstract abilities and made some adorable penguins out of cardboard tubes. They students had a blast gluing feather, beaks, feet, and eyes to the tubes to make some delightfully TACKY penguins!

100 Day!

Today marks our 100th day of kindergarten. We have had a blast doing many 100 day activities today. The students drew a picture of what they will look like when they are 100, played race to 100, made a necklace out of 100 pieces of cereal, and made 100 day hats! They also wrote a prompt," I would like 100 _____ but I don't want 100 ______!"
My favorite part of the day was our 100 day museum. The students all worked hard to being in 100 items from home. They were so creative with the projects- no two were alike! You can check out all of their hard work in the photos below!
Happy 100 Day!

Hibernation and Bears!

This week we are learning all about bears and hibernation. We have read tons of books on these subjects. I think the favorite so far has been More Bears by Ken Nesbitt and Troy Cummings.
The students have also participated in my projects and activities. We have built a class cave, made snow caves out of paper plates, an made some cute beats.
On Monday the students tried bear food- strawberries, honey, and tuna fish. Then we created a class graph of our favorite type of bear food. Honey was our winner! An surprisingly strawberries and tuna tied for second place!
Today the students wrote poems about hibernating animals. They did a really great job. You can check them out below!
Friday will be our hibernation day. We will all wear our pajamas and bring on our favorite teddy bear!

Happy new year!

Happy new year everyone! I am excited to get back into the swing of things and start the second semester! This is going to be a good one! I am really going to try to update the blog at least once a week- but let's not get out hopes up too high!
Last week we started DRA2 testing and have seen amazing progress from all of the kids! For the month we are learning about all things winter- snow, penguins, and bears- oh my! You can check out some of the fantastic books we will be reading below. You can even have your child get some theme related books from the library( hint: Eric Carle is a great read)!