Happy Saturday! It’s a beautiful day here in Nashville!! The sun is shining…it’s warm…it makes me want spring really really bad. But of course, tomorrow it rains and they’re even saying a chance of freezing rain Monday morning…for reals…just get warm and stay warm!
Here is the Saturday Kindergarten Post for this week. A full day week with assessments, running records, report card data to collect and the end of the 9 weeks art party! Yowza was I exhausted last night! The mister went to dinner and I slept in the recliner! People, my life as a kindergarten teacher is exciting….it doesn’t get much more exciting than a Frida night in a recliner. And…AND…get this..my hips are sore. My hips. I was on my feet all day yesterday (no guided reading or math groups so I didn’t sit down all day…) and my hips are sore. Geez. I’m old. That is all.
Now, here’s what we did this week…Pigs, The Three Little Pigs, wind and weather, addition and subtraction, and we measured St. Patrick’s Day and we had an art party.
This week we read and compared different versions of the three little pigs! We had a blast with all of the different stories. We also researched pigs and completed our pig research journal. We were amazed at all of the things we learned about pigs. Did you know pigs are smarter than dogs? And pics are actually very clean animals? If you bring a pig into you house it will be super clean? I’m not sure I can eat pork again people. Pigs can do tricks. Poor piggies.
(Click the pictures to see more about my Here Piggy Piggy creation!)
To accompany our three little pigs adventures, we started our study of the weather. What better weather to discuss than the wind? Ya know, with all of the huffing and puffing. We kicked off by making a chart of all of the weather words we could come up with!
Then we talked about the wind and how the wind blows and and can even blow things around. Then we got to be the wind! Seriously, we had a BLAST!
We pre diced how far we could blow a feather if we were the wind. Then we used a straw and blew that feather as far as we could! We recorded our answers and compared them to our original estimates!
We also learned about clouds. We read The Cloud Book by Tomie DePaola and discussed four types of clouds. We learned how clouds formed from water and ice. We learned how clouds got full of water and made rain or snow. And we made cloud people!
I love these cloud people! The hands-on and visual reminder is great for helping the ‘staches remember the four cloud types we learned!
We also did our Mad Science Friday science experiment with clouds. We made our own cumulonimbus clouds and made it rain!
To do this experiment you need small cups filled with water about 3/4 of the way up. Then you put a cloud of shaving cream. The thicker you made the cloud the longer it takes for the rain to happen. Next, add “water” to the cloud. The water is just blue food coloring. And then you wait. This is a great discussion on how the clouds need lots of water and it can take time for the clouds to fill up with water. Eventually the food coloring soaks through and makes it rain. When this happens, it’s an instant OOOOOH AND AAAAHHH moment. Seriously, the ‘staches were blown away! Cheap, simple and memorable, people!
We also did a little measuring! We measured St. Patrick’s Day! I love that we have measured so much this year that: A) they ask for more! B) they know where to put the ruler and how to measure and record their answers C) We know height and width! I love these measuring packs as a way to spend 1 math lesson learning about measurement.
(Click the picture to see my Measuring St. Patrick’s Day creation!)
We also made pigs in blankets for Foodie Fun Friday! We used crescent rolls and little smokies! We rolled the pigs in the blankets, cooked em up and just like the big bad wolf, we chowed down on some little piggies!
And no Mr. Greg did not put a piece of paper in the toaster oven and almost start a fire. That never happened. Allegedly.
We also learned about the letter X this week so of course, we made X-ray hats!
And we celebrated the end of the nine weeks with an art party! We had three rooms and each kindergartener signed up for their 2 choices. They could paint on my room, make a shamrock in one room or do free art in another room. We had a blast! I just love the paintings that they created!!!
I also love that one of my TBFFs used my green noodles and GLITTER! to make shamrocks! Glitter makes it all better!
And that my friends was our week!