Modes of Transportation and Space Shuttles

We had another jam packed week in kindergarten.  Here are just a few things we have been working on: Writing non-fiction books about maps, adding paper mache to our modes of transportation, painting our modes of transportation, tie-dying shirts for field day, studying space shuttles, beginning to create a space shuttle, watching 5 plays, and much more.  

This is just a short list of what our week consisted of! 

Below you can see students working with paper mache to give their modes of transportation a "skin."

Then the students painted over the "skin" of their mode of transportation.

We also began studying space shuttles.  The students saw a model/future exhibit at the air force museum and wanted to learn more about them.  They decided they wanted to make a large version of their own shuttle after reading several books and watching a couple short video clips about space shuttles.  One student then suggested that we make groups for specific parts of the shuttle then explore before they began.  I couldn't have put it in better words myself!  The students chose between the groups:  body, wings, and engines.  Below you can see the "Project Engineer" showing pictures of that specific part of the shuttle to their fellow "Engineers".

These are our "body" Engineers."

Below you will find our shuttle "engine engineers".

Finally, you have our "wing engineers."

Then we documented information we learned about the specific part of the space shuttle. 

Below you will see that the students have chosen the body of the shuttle to be made from two large cardboard boxes.  They insisted that the body be white just like all other shuttles. 

Also this week, the students tie dyed shirts for field day.  Below you can see the students removing the rubber bands from their dyed shirts. 

Another awesome thing the students did this week involved watching Mrs. Gores friends put on a play.  There were 5 individual plays.  They did an amazing job!

I hope everyone has had an amazing long weekend.  These next two weeks will be very busy with a lot of events!  I look forward to seeing everyone. 

Mrs. Julie Atkin

P.S. I almost forgot to mention...  

We are very close to making it to 10,000 page views for our classroom blog.  Tell all your friends and family to view our blog so we can make it to 10,000 by the end of the school year!

Cartography

It was another very busy week in kindergarten. This week the students completed the map of our playground. They added details such as: the logs in the discovery garden, the bike track and the Hop Scotch board. They worked hard completing the key and adding the numbers
that correlates to the label on the key.

In addition, we spent some time looking at compasses. We looked at the compass on Google Earth as well as the compass app on our iPhones. We went outside and sketched the compass with the appropriate direction. The children were thrilled to learn the fun ways to remember direction. "Never east sour worms!" 

In Mrs. Pinto's art classroom the students began creating a mode of transportation out of recycled materials. The students brought their projects back to our classroom and continued working on them throughout the week. Take a look at some of their creations thus far. 

 

 

The students chose the mode of transportation of which they would like to become "experts". The chose the space shuttle. We found this very interesting because there wasn't even a full size space shuttle, just a model and small exhibit.  In addition, we checked out a few books from our library trip. We are excited to see how they would like to document and share their learning.

Speaking of the library, the children loved our trip. They each brought home a summer reading club brochure to work with this summer.

We will continue their recycled materials project as well as our quick look at space shuttles throughout this upcoming week. You can see their final products at our upcoming open house.

Our upcoming open house is May 30th from 8:15-9:00am. Please stop by so your child can share their learning with you. They will have their playground map, non fiction writing, sculptures, and more to share with you. We know the students truly enjoy sharing their learning with you.

Have an amazing week!

Mrs. Julie Atkin

Air Force Museum and Mapping

Friday we visited the Nation Museum of the United States Air Force.  

Here is a group picture of the class before we explored.  

 

The student's task for this field trip was to help us make a list of all the different modes of transportation.  Next week, we will review our list and choose one to study and become experts.  The students will be making a plan of how to share what they learn with their peers and families.  

A lot of the students enjoyed looking at the Air Force chopper from Orange County Choppers.

We were very busy this week with adding items to our playground map.  Here are a couple pictures of the climbing area of our playground.  We looked at Google Earth, printed a photo and worked from that.  As you can see, this is the shape of the climber from a "bird's eye view". 

Below you can see Tyler drawing the shape of one of the three slides on our playground.

Next week is another busy week.  We will be finishing up or playground map and will begin becoming an expert on a specific mode of transportation.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Julie Atkin