Week of January 26

4 Winds: We learned about 3 different kinds of squirrels.

Grey, red, and flying squirrels can all can be found in VT.

The children enjoyed looking at close up pictures of the tree kinds of squirrels.

Flying squirrel

Grey squirrel

We also looked at squirrel tracks compared to other animal tracks (All this time I thought that the tracks on the right were bunny tracks! Come to find out they are squirrel prints!)

Skulls: Mink or squirrel? Carnivore or herbivore?

It was a highlight to feel squirrel fur.

The children are working hard to learn letter formation of upper case letters.

We are working our way towards the end of the alphabet :)

Spill 10 Beans is a new Math Work station where children drop 10 beans and count the red and white, and identify the combination that makes 10.

The Butterfly Race is another new math work station where children practice working with doubles 10 frames.

In Writer's Workshop we recently started a new kind of writing: How To Books. We've talked at length about different kinds of writing, and that authors write for many purposes--not just for telling stories.

Before we embark on a new kind of writing, we look to expert writers and study examples of the kinds of books we are learning how to write. The kids are LOVING our bin of How To mentor texts.

How To writing tells what you need, then lists the steps to tell how to make or do something.

It turns out that we have kindergarten kids who know how to do LOTS of things! I'm learning a ton from them :)

How To Make a Pirate Ship

Using mentor texts for inspiration: How To Wash a Dog

This is a quick math activity where I work with 10 unifex cubes. I cover an amount with a bowl, and the children have to figure out this amount based on how many are left OUTside the bowl. Great practice for working with combinations to 10.

A recent example of great reading, writing and math in the Morning Message.

We are still working hard on combinations to 5 and writing corresponding number sentences.

We played a quick game that focused on this important reading strategy.

Another rich Morning Message!

The Writing Station is a new place in Work Board. This writer is 'writing around the room'. He is walking around writing words from our classroom, or writing a list of objects in our room.

Working with water colors and crayons to create winter scenes.

It's like magic!!