Typical Day, Dental Health, and Teepee Update

Although our week was cut down to three days, we still accomplished a lot.  I would like to take a moment to talk about a typical day in our classroom.  On top of our Project Work Inquiry study, we have a very tight schedule and get a lot of work done in a short amount of time.  

Our morning is very busy, yet not long at all.  After the students have breakfast, we have our "calendar" time.  We work on multiple math skills including: counting to 100 several different ways, counting and identifying coins, adding numbers together, and much more.  We then work in small groups during our "Exploration Work Stations." Each student is grouped in a small group of 2 or 3 students, where the students practice their math and science skills.

We go to literacy lab at 10:30.  As you know, in literacy lab we continue to practice reading strategies, sight words, as well as comprehension.  When we return from literacy lab we have a few minutes to chat about our project work inquiry study.  We then find our way to lunch.  

After returning from lunch, we take bathroom breaks while reading a chapter book or a book from an author study.  As you know we just finished reading "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."  Today we began watching the original film, and have already begun to compare and contrast the book versus the film.  

After we read we take a break to explore  "outdoor learning" or, if it's too cold outside, "free choice."

When we return, we continue with our writing.  Last week we began working on autobiographies.  It has been a transition from telling facts about their lives versus writing a story on or about different forms of transportation.  The students are engaged with a "mini" lesson, work independently and between 4-6 students share their work everyday.

We then work in small groups on more literacy skills during literacy work stations.  Mrs. Garrabrant and I work with small groups on reading strategies as well as word wall work. Before we go to specials we have a little more time for project work as well as eating a fresh fruit snack.  

As you can tell, we have a very busy schedule.  On top of our busy schedule, last week my dentist husband, Dr. Josh, visited to speak about Dental Health Month.  He talked to the students about foods and drinks that are good for your teeth as well as foods that are terrible for your teeth.  

He brought a few teeth packaged in a sanitary bag that he had extracted the same day.  The students couldn't believe what the teeth looked like once they had been removed form someones mouth.  

He also shared a couple x-rays.  One x-ray was of a mouth that had healthy teeth, one was from a mouth that didn't have any teeth, and a third x-ray was s of a person with a few teeth missing.  

The students also had many great questions such as:  how do you fill cavities?  I think we may have a few future dentists on our hands!

We also took a look at a moose jaw from one of our trips to Alaska.  They looked at the difference between the moose teeth and human teeth.  

In addition to our busy week, we continued to work on our colorful teepee.  Mrs. Garrabrant's step-father donated several large branches for us to build our teepee.  We continued wrapping the branches.  This activity requires a lot of concentration, teamwork, and fine motor skills.  

This week we will continue our transportation study by taking a look at simple machines.  I look forward to sharing our experiences as we explore machines that help make our lives more simple.  Be sure to mark your calendar for Science Night on March 7th at 6:30pm in our schools gym.  Have a great week!  

Mrs. Julie Atkin

Friction, Kandinsky & Friendships

 In continuing our transportation study, we have been taking a closer look at the characteristics of force and motion.  This week the word “friction” came up.  We read several books about friction, and learned that friction is what keeps our feet from slipping out from underneath us.  Students made connections by rubbing their shoes on our classroom carpet as well as remembering what it feels like to slip on ice.  Students also experienced friction by rubbing their hands back and forth quickly with a little force.  The warmth they felt on their hands was created by the friction of rubbing their hands back and forth.  

Later in the week we explored the amount of friction that was created between several objects when laid on an inclined ramp.  We tested four objects: an eraser, a slice of wood, a tree nut, and an ice cube.  We used a piece of cardboard that had a rough side, and a smooth side.  We explored both sides of the card board.  We noticed that the eraser and the cardboard created the most friction.  We then of course documented our observations in our exploration journal.  

This week we celebrated our artistic sills in creating a collaborative piece of art for our art room.  The students wanted to invite Dr. Clifford (West Carrollton Schools Superintendent), and Mrs. Hall-Alt (school principal) to the dedication of our Kandinsky inspired art.  Mrs. Pinto chose the artist Kandinsky for the students to study because he enjoyed painting concentric circles.  He also liked that non of the circles were perfect.  Kandinsky is the perfect artist for students to be inspired by in knowing art is never "perfect." I like my students to know they can be an artist, scientist, mathematician, writer, reader, engineer etc...even in kindergarten.  The students were thrilled to see their work on the art wall and were excited to know that kindergartner's will see their creations year after year!

On the table below, you can see the students made Kandinsky inspired flowers as table settings.  We also had died icing and sugar cookies for the students to create their own Kandinsky inspired cookies.  There is always some kind of snack at all art dedications!

 Dr. Clifford visited and was extremely proud of the students creative asset building.  

All the students then received a certificate to honor the students 

collaboration of this Kandinsky inspired art instillation.  

To finish up, each student used oil pastel on black construction paper to 

create another Kandinsky inspired piece of work.  

This week we also celebrated friendships.  The students enjoyed bringing in "mailboxes or mailbags" as well as passing out valentines to their friends.  Thank you for sending in the yummy and healthy snacks.  The children sincerely enjoyed them all!

Stayed tuned to see more of our transportation investigations as well as our creation of our teepee.  Mrs. Garrabrant was able to have a family member find enough straight logs for us to complete our teepee.  The students will be so excited!  I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend and I'm sure the children will enjoy their three day weekend.  Take care and have a fantastic week.  

Mrs. Julie Atkin

Gravity, Natural Classroom and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

This week we also continued to study transportation.  We have been taking a closer look at force and motion for all sources of transportation have a force, which creates the motion for it to move.  We began looking at the invisible force called gravity.  The students realized that gravity is the force that keeps things on the ground, is what pulls us back down when we jump, and much more.  

We watched a short clip of astronauts in space floating and saw how they eat and transport themselves around their space station.  

Showing the students that gravity pulls the ball to the 

ground or until another force stops it from moving.

We explored gravity by rolling a ball down a ramp.  At the end of the ramp was a tied string.  The objective was to roll the ball down the ramp once, and adjust the ramps height each after each roll.  The students were very encouraging towards each other.  The teacher next door even commented that our students must have been having a great time because of all or their cheering and excitement!

Blake noticed that he needed to lower the ramp almost to where it touched the ground in order for the ball to come close to the end of the string - otherwise it went too far.

Atticus' ball ended very close to the end of the string.  It was just a little past!

To continue the students passion for making our classroom a "Nature Classroom" we continued working on our weaving.  We added tree slices and buckeyes to the ends of the twine.  We also added a piece of non-died brown paper behind the weaving.  The paper makes the weaving stand out.  

Here is a final photo.

The children have also been very interested in working with our natural wood slices in our "Engineering/Building" area.  This week they made Willy Wonka's chocolate factory in honor of the Roald Dahl's chapter book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."  The students have been encouraged to make a plan like engineers before building.  Here are a couple photos of their designs.

Also, we started working on our teepee.  Thank you to those who have sent in branches, yarn, and ribbon.  Here are a couple pictures of the beginning of a long process to create a teepee.  

Thanks again for stopping by our blog to see what we have been doing in our kindergarten classroom.  Next week we will be as busy as this past week.  We have a dentist coming in to share about dental health in honor of February Dental Health month.  We will be having our dedication ceremony for our Kandinsky work, as well as our "Friendship" party this Thursday.  Please send your child's Valentine's to school by Thursday in addition to their Valentine mailbox and/or mailbag.  Have a beautiful week.  Take care!

Mrs. Julie Atkin

100th Day of School and Kandinsky Art

Wow!  We had a very busy week.  It was so busy that I put everything in two different posts.  

As a little background information, this past summer I attended McMrf at the Montgomery County solid waste district.  Three days each year they save materials for teachers to use in their classrooms.  I happened to come across a lot of circular objects varying in size.  When I showed them to Mrs. Pinto, our art teacher, she was instantly inspired.  Together we decided that the students could help to create a piece of work for her classroom.  With the inspiration of the artist Wassily Kandinsky, we have been painting the circles and making our own works of art.

Two weeks ago, the students began painting small circles.  Each student received 3 circles, and  

they painted each with a different color.  

This week the students painted large circles during art.  They worked as teams to create a painting together.  

Lastly, in our classroom each child got two medium sized circles.  We drew circles and began painting with Tempera paint.  

Mrs. Pinto has been working on getting the circles on her wall in the art room.  It is not complete but here is a sneak peak.  This Wednesday we are going to be presenting the students with a certificate to honor their hard work that was dedicated to the beautiful Kandinsky inspired piece of art permanently int he art room.  

Thursday was the 100th day of school.  It just seems like yesterday that I was meeting the students for the first time.  Being able to count to 100 is one of the standards for the end of the school year.  So, we spent most of the day counting to 100 in many different ways.  We count to 100 by 1's, 5's, and 10's.  We had a lot of fun stringing 100 fruit loops by groups of 10 to make necklaces.

Each child also brought a collection of 100 items to turn our classroom into a 100th day museum.  Again, we counted and sorted our items into groups of 10.  We made exhibit tags with the name of the collection and the collections owner.  Enjoy the photos below!

We had a great day counting to 100 and understanding that we are 100 days smarter.  

Take a look at our next post "Gravity and Natural Classroom".

Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Julie Atkin