K Friday- Duckworth

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The Friday in Which We Gave Our Grass a Haircut

 
 
Hello! I'm sorry for the late posting for Friday Class. I was traveling to Virginia again. Our son-in-law and daughter (and grandson) were moving into the parsonage at Pecks Baptist Church near Bedford, Virginia. He preached his first sermon as their new Lead Pastor on Sunday morning. It was a special blessing to be there with them and meet their new church family. Brandon is the youngest pastor in the history of their church. (He's 29.) We are so proud of them and know they'll enjoy a great ministry there.
 
Jess Callis covered my class again and did an excellent job. Here's what they did:
 
 
For Morning Work, students sorted out pictures according to which r-controlled vowel they had: -ar, -er,-ir,-or,- -ur. 
 
At Morning Meeting, Jess read one of the Parables of Jesus. Then she put up color copies of the activity everyone had completed for Morning Work. She placed cards with the five r-controlled vowel sounds in the pocket chart, then asked students to place the picture cards under the correct category. They brainstormed other words that have those sounds.
 
Jess read Eric Carle's Today is Monday. This fit in perfectly with our Math for this week, since we are studying the Calendar. She gave students some word cards with the names of the days of the week and asked them to put these in the correct order. Then they used cards with pictures from the story to re-tell it. Jess played a video of a song with lyrics taken from this book.
 
After Snack, the kids colored little circles I had cut out from coffee filters. They used markers. After coloring, they sprayed these with water, then let them dry. Once dry, they hung these up on the window to make a caterpillar. Jess added the head to it. 
 
They read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, then re-told it using little fabric pieces on the felt-board.
 
I had gone around my flower beds and plucked a variety of leaves and put them in a flower press. I asked Jess to spread these out on a table, along with some full-color pictures of the plants. The kids matched up the leaf to the correct plant, then Jess told them the name of the plant.
 
After distributing plates to everyone, Jess handed out edible leaves you guys had sent to school. The kids had a chance to taste these, then give their opinion. Jess recorded the data on the board with tally marks. 
 
Jess read the book Harriet's Haircut: A Grass Growing Adventure by Lori Song. This realistic picture book shows two little girls who grow grass in pots, then later give it a "haircut." After reading the story, our kids got to give their grass a haircut, too! I had meant for the students to bring their grass home, but I guess they decided against it, because it was still there on Monday! We'll send it home on a Blue or Red day, so they don't have to tote it around at Friday U.
 
After cleanup and Lunch, students prepared to dismiss for Friday U.
 
 
That's all for today!
Until Next Time,
Mrs. Duckworth
 
 

Coming Up, etc.

 
Thank you! for the great response to sending in edible leaves!
 
Friday, May 3, we will celebrate Wyatt's birthday and will begin our last Science Unit on Dinosaurs & last Author Study on Mo Willems!

The Friday in Which We Made a Pollinator

 
Hey, Friday Peeps!
 
We started our Friday by cutting out parts of a flower and gluing them together . I had posted my example on the front board, along with the sentence, "My flower has ___ tiny seeds!" I gave them sharpies and asked them to draw seeds in the center of their flowers and to count them. 
 
I asked each student to glue a cotton ball onto one end of a craft stick. They left these on their desks to dry.
 
At Morning Meeting, we read the Parable of the Lost Son ("The Prodigal Son"). We discussed what kind of emotions each character may have experienced. 
 
For Math Review, I reminded them that we had been working with our Bean Counting Mats this week to show "tens and some more." I taught them a new way to show "ten and some more" with Base Ten Blocks. {I just found a site online where you can play with these: https://www.coolmath4kids.com/manipulatives/base-ten-blocks} I used sticky putty to affix these to the board and showed them how to build 10 - 20.
 
We used Partner Cards to pair up, then I gave each team a set of cards with flowers in a pot with a numeral on them, cards with pictures of Base Ten Blocks depicting each numeral, and some actual Base Ten Blocks. They had to match up the flower pot card with the Base Ten Block card, then build that number with their Base Ten Blocks. They enjoyed working on this together.
 
After Snack and at-table play with manipulatives (geoboards, foam blocks, links, teddy bear counters, and pattern blocks), I gave each student a little cutout of a bee. I asked them to glue these on the craft stick with the cotton ball from earlier. We came back together at the carpet to read Eric Carle's The Tiny Seed. We discussed what happened to a lot of the seeds to keep them from growing (eaten by birds, mice, or other animals, scorched in the sun, shaded from sunlight by weeds, crushed, plucked, etc.).
 
We discussed what plants need in order to make food. I drew a large leaf attached to a stem on the board and wrote the word "chlorophyll" on it. I introduced the vocabulary words "nutrients" and "photosynthesis." To my leaf drawing, I added three cards that pictured sunlight, air, and water. I showed some other cards and asked the students if plants needed any of the things pictured on these in order to make or get food: milk, animals, people, fruit, a kitchen, a mouth, juice, insects, snow. 
 
I showed them the pots with the grass seed they had sowed last Friday. All of them have blades of grass growing about 1" tall. I asked what would happen if we left the grass in the dark, or if we didn't water it, or if we covered it in plastic. We agreed that it wouldn't grow without sunlight, water, and air.
 
I read them two scenarios about people taking care of plants. They had to tell me whether the plants would live or die, according to the details given about each. (Marigolds would not live if the girl and her Grandma neglected to water them. A palm tree would not live through the winter cold and snow on a patio.)
 
Next, we began to talk about how a plant reproduces. Plants need pollinators to carry pollen from one plant to another in order to produce new seeds. The seeds, then, can start new plants. 
 
I asked everyone to place the flowers they had made for Morning Work on the front table, along with their bee-sicles. I showed them some corn starch and told them it resembled pollen in a plant. I put a spoonful of corn starch on each flower, then I called up two students at a time to let their bee land on everyone else's flowers and carry the "pollen" from one flower to another. We even got some pollen on the floor and carried it around the room! We cleaned off our flowers and our bee-sicles, then put them in folders to take home.
 
Finally, I gave the class a sheet on which they traced the path of the bee and traced words that had to do with pollination.
 
We gathered at the carpet to debrief the day. The class came up with 7 things we had done together. We cleaned tables and chairs, then ate our Lunch. 
 
The Pink Panther was the entertainment of choice up until Friday U Dismissal.
 
 
That's all for this week!
Until Next Time,
Mrs. Duckworth
 
 

Coming Up, etc.

 
Leaves! Next Friday, we will be talking about all the different kinds of leaves that can be found on plants. Would you kindly help your child make a small collection of leaves to bring with them? If you would identify the type of plant in some way, that would be helpful. Also, if you have some edible leaves we could try (kale, chard, spinach, cabbage, parsley, mint, watercress, arugula, etc.), please send those, too! Shoot me an email if you want to send an edible one, so I can fill in some that we don't have. Thank you!
 

The Friday in Which We Sowed Seeds

 
 
Happy Weekend! 
 
Jess Callis filled in for me yesterday and followed the lesson plan I laid out for her. She sent me this picture of the Science Project for the day. More about that in a minute.
 
Our Friday scholars had a busy day of learning. As they entered, they set to work on a sheet sorting items that are “living” versus “nonliving.” They saved this for later use.
 
At Morning Meeting, Jess read two of the Parables of Jesus from our devotion book: “The Lost Sheep” and “The Lost Coin.” 
 
To review our Math for the week, we read How Many Feet in the Bed? by Diane Johnston Hamm. It reinforced the concept of counting by 2’s. The students are still getting the hang of this, so it was a fun, practical application!
 
After Snack, everyone came together to hear a story by our Author of the Month, Eric Carle - Little Cloud. I had hoped to read it last week, because it went with our Weather Theme, but we ran out of time. 
 
Jess asked everyone to get their Morning Work and bring it to the front carpet. They looked at several mini-posters together and decided whether the things were “living” or “nonliving,” such as sharks, plants, a truck. She showed them the definitions of “living” and “nonliving,” then some picture cards showing the 5 characteristics of living things: they can grow, they can change, they can take in nutrients, they can move, and they can reproduce. Then, they discussed the Morning Work and talked about why they had classified each item as “living” or “nonliving.” This was the first lesson in our Science study about Plants.
 
Jess asked a student to come to the board to draw a picture of a plant. As the student drew, Jess asked him to add the part of the plant that holds it up (stem), the part where it draws up nutrients from the soil (roots), the part that attracts bees and butterflies (flower), and the part that turns sunlight into food (leaf). Jess called on different students to come to the board to add picture/word labels. 
 
As students had arrived in the morning, Jess had taken their seeds brought from home and affixed them to the front board. Now, they looked at these and tried to identify what type of plant they had come from.
 
Following this, Jess gave out sheets that had a plant to color and labels to trace for each of the parts. Everyone went to their desks to work on these. Then she gave everyone a copy of an emergent reader called, “Plant Needs.” She used my example that I had drawn and colored on as they read through the pages together. The students then drew and colored illustrations to match the sentence on each page. 
 
All the students then got a planting pot and a sharpie. Jess asked them to draw a funny face on the side and write their name on the pot. {Results above} Everyone got to add potting soil and grass seed, then water their seeds. We’ll put these in a mini-greenhouse so the seeds can germinate and grow quickly. The students will get to use the water sprayer when they are at school over the next couple of weeks to keep their grass hydrated.
 
Jess’s email to me after school just said, “Whew! We tried to fit it all in!” We do cram a lot into a day of school!
 
 
That’s all for this week!
Until next time,
Mrs. Duckworth

The Friday in Which We Reported the Weather

 
 
Hey, it's Friday!
Since we didn't have school last Friday, I felt like we needed an extra day to wrap up our Weather unit. So today was all about Sunny and Cloudy Weather. 
 
For Morning Work, I asked students to finish the sentence stem, "When it is sunny, I like to ..." and draw a picture. I got a kick out of Wyatt's sentence. He said he likes to "sun bathe." He drew a tiny picture of himself and didn't color it. I asked him to add some more detail so I could tell where he was sunbathing. At first, he replied that he was at church. Hmmm... then he changed his mind to be at the beach. Whew! Several kids said they liked to play in the pool. Noah said that he likes to "play in it." Then he showed me that he had written the same sentence for the windy and the rainy days! In other words, no weather keeps Noah from playing outside! That's good to hear.
 
When students finished this assignment, I asked them to find the landscape they had drawn and colored last time. I gave them cotton balls to make the four different kinds of clouds we had learned about. On the board, I had a sample and some real-life pictures of the types of clouds. 
 
We gathered for Morning Meeting. I told them that Ms. Masters had invited our class to join hers later in the morning to meet a missionary family who serve in Turkey. They are friends of hers and she has done short-term missions with them. I showed them where Tennessee is and where Turkey is on our globe. We brainstormed a list of very good questions we'd like to ask the Missionaries. 
 
We read the Parable of the Good Samaritan. They told me how much they liked that one. It is one of the easier ones to understand; plus, it's familiar. We did the Pledge, prayed, practiced our April Bible Verse, and added to our Days in School chart.
 
After a quick Water Break, we got out our Wind Flags and took them outside to get our Wind Data. Gusty to steady wind was the verdict. We came back inside to chart our Data. 
 
Ms. Masters said they were ready for us to come over for the Missionary Friend visit. We joined her class on the carpet. Miss Samantha, her daughter Cora (2nd grade) and son Beziah (Kindergarten) told us about Istanbul, Turkey, where they live. The kids asked questions about what their house looks like, what their school is like, what their language is like, what kind of clothes and toys they have, and much more! It was fun to watch and listen as our students made connections about things that were similar and different. Samantha told us about the Turkish people, who are overwhelmingly Muslim. She showed us some clothing, pottery, and a tea glass and saucer. She talked about the Muslim god, Allah, and how the people stop and pray five times every day. And how the loud music echoes from the minarets of the mosque. Our kids wanted to know why they didn't just try to use an arrow or a rock to stop the music. ...Interesting, the minds of kids, right?
 
When we came back to our classroom, we ate Snack. As kids were finishing up, I began to teach about how to read a thermometer. Since we had been learning to count by 2's, a thermometer was the perfect practical application! I looked at my weather app and found that it was 42 degrees outside (but felt like 39!). I used a large laminated thermometer on the board to show them how to record 42 degrees. Students then took the laminated thermometers that were on their desks and recorded the same. I helped them count by 2's to find where 42 was, then to fill it in with color. 
 
I took out two of my husband's t-shirts, both heavy cotton. One was white and the other was black. I walked around and let each student compare how the two felt. I wanted them to notice that the fabric of both was identical.
 
I asked which of the two t-shirts might be the most comfortable for Mr. Duckworth to wear working in the yard when it was hot and sunny. I explained the experiment we would do to find out. I had two identical thermometers (real ones). I read the temperature on each of them. They both registered 70 degrees, since we were indoors with the heat on. I told the students I would place one thermometer inside each shirt then we would take them outside and lay them on the ground in the sun and set a timer for 15 minutes.
 
Well, it was freezing and quite cloudy outside! I set the timer and told the kids they could play on the playground until I sounded my Duck Call.
 
When the time was up, we gathered by the t-shirts and read the thermometers in each. The white shirt read 54 degrees; the black shirt read 64 degrees! Wow! Even when the sun wasn't shining strongly, our experiment gave great results.
 
We went back inside and recorded our results on a Data Sheet for our experiment. We drew a picture of what we did, traced the words of two sentences that explained our experiment, then circled whether dark or light clothing would be more comfortable to wear in the hot sun.
 
This was the final page for our Weather Journals. I asked everyone to bring their Journal pages to me so I could staple everything together. I'm so proud of how their Journals turned out. We did a lot of great work!
 
I gave out the Weather pictures everyone had painted on the first day of our Weather Unit. I got out my handheld microphone and showed students how I could give a weather report like a meteorologist. I showed Everett's painting (a hurricane) and pretended I was telling my audience that a hurricane was in the forecast, that they should find a place to shelter their families and pets. We talked about the temperature, the clouds, and the wind conditions. 
 
Then I let each of the students come up and take a turn giving a Weather Report about the type of weather they had illustrated. We had a tornado, a blizzard, hail, fog, sun, rain, wind, tsunami, and all the things. They did a good job and enjoyed giving their reports. Things unraveled a bit when Graham's report about Windy Weather turned out to be caused by an enormous number of chickens flapping their wings! Oh boy! You never know what you're going to get around here!
 
It was a day packed with action. I had hoped to read Eric Carle's great book Little Cloud, but we ran out of time.
 
 
That's all for this week!
Until next time,
Mrs. Duckworth
 
Assignment for next Friday: We will be starting our unit on Plants by learning about seeds. Would you please save seeds from some veggies or whatever you've got about your house? Send them in a ziploc or container and label them with the type of seed and your child's name. Thank you!

The Friday in Which We Blamed it on the Rain

 
Fortunately, it was a cloudy and almost rainy day... said no one ever. But for our Kindergarten Kids, it was just what we needed ... in our study of Weather! Cause today was all about the rain.
 
Actually, there were a few other things.
 
Like our Morning Work. I wrote the "secret word" on the board and asked students to write it in all the predictable sentences on their sheet. The word was "will." "I will read on a boat. I will read with a goat." 
 
I just realized I forgot to circle back and read through those sentences with the class. Maybe you could do it with them. I asked them to put it in their folders. (Sorry. Minor fail.)
 
I gave everyone a sheet of watercolor paper and a sharpie. I asked them to draw a curvy line horizontally across their page, then color the bottom brown and the top blue. We set these aside for later.
 
We gathered for Morning Meeting. I read two Parables: The Wicked Farmers and The King's Banquet. We had lots of discussion time so everyone could tell me what they're doing for Easter.
 
After a quick stretch and water break, I read If You Were a Minus Sign, our Math Review book of the week.
 
I asked everyone to get dressed in their Rain Gear (I brought several extra raincoats!), gave out their Wind Flags (we had made last time), and led them outside. We held up our Flags to detect the intensity of the wind - light and gusty. We also concluded that there was no precipitation at that time. We discussed what we would wear in the rain to stay dry and what to wear if we wanted to get wet!
 
We came back to the classroom and recorded the Wind Data on our Charts. 
 
As students finished Snack, I gave them a sheet that had the sentence stem, "When it is rainy, I like to ..." I asked them to complete the sentence by Smarty Spelling, then illustrate it. Emerson said she liked to rescue worms and put them back in the grass. Brooklyn said she and her sister, Avery, liked to jump in puddles.  
 
Then I asked everyone to turn to the poem "Weather Here, Weather There" in their Weather Journals. We recited it two times, with hand motions.
 
I called everyone to the carpet and told them it was time to conduct our experiment. We wanted to find out what would be the best fabric for making a raincoat. I showed them the setup for the experiment: five clear plastic cups, rubber bands, pipettes, and fabric squares. I showed them a square of cotton fabric. We decided it would be what a man's button-up shirt would be made of. I rubber-banded the fabric around the top of the first cup. Next, I had a square of polyester fleece, then a square of wool, a square of nylon, and a square of rubber. I rubber-banded each of these to a cup, too.
 
I used the pipette to drop five drops of water onto each square. I invited the scientists to come closer to make observations and predictions. 
 
Everyone went to their desks and I brought them a tiny square of each of the five fabrics. They handled and compared them. They refined their predictions. I added five more drops of water to each fabric square in our experiment. After a few more minutes, students took turns coming up to observe the progress. 
 
We noticed that the water soaked into the cotton and into the nylon. The polyester got a bit wet, but most of the water was staying in place on the top. The water on the wool and on the rubber never moved. I added more drops of water until each square had 20 drops. Our results didn't change. We kept observing throughout the morning.
 
Meanwhile, students glued their five little fabric squares onto a sheet labeled "Raincoat Experiment." I wrote the names of the five fabrics on the board and asked everyone to label them, then circle the fabric they thought would make the best raincoat.
 
I asked the class to meet me on the back carpet to read our Author Study book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Most of them had seen one or more versions of the movie and some had read the book. As I read it to them, they were noticing lots of rhyming words and were quietly concentrating on the story.
 
We went to the front of the room to "Make a Thunderstorm." We used Body Percussion to make rain and thunder sounds. We began by swishing our hands back and forth, like soft rain. Then we switched to snapping fingers, light clapping, and slapping our thighs, as the rain got stronger. Finally, we stomped our feet to make the thunder sound. The rain got quieter and quieter as we went back through each of the sounds, then stopped and the sun came out!
 
I showed everyone illustrations of four types of clouds and asked if they had seen each type: cirrus, cumulus, stratus, and cumulonimbus. I had planned for them to make each of these types of clouds with cotton balls glued to the landscapes they had colored during Morning Work, but we ran out of time. We will finish that next time.
 
It was a tornado of activity this morning, but all good!
 
That's all for today!
Until next time,
Mrs. Duckworth
 

Coming Up, etc.

 
Thank you! For sending the rain gear! We had fun getting suited up and being Meteorologists outdoors.
 
No School Next Friday! It's Good Friday. So I will see my Friday "peeps" again on April 5.

The Friday Which Was Gone With The Wind

 
 
Happy Friday!
 
And this day (week, quarter ...) is GONE like a whirlwind! 
 
Students arrived for Friday Class to my Weather Playlist. I asked them to decorate the cover page of their "Weather Journal" with sunshine, rain, clouds, tornados, etc. and write their name on it. When they were finished, they could pick out the color of construction paper they wanted and glue the cover page to it.
 
We met for Morning Meeting. I read two short parables: The Mustard Seed and The Yeast. We took Prayer Requests then prayed, practiced our March Bible verse, added to Days in School, and looked at Calendar.
 
Next, we learned a chant/poem called, "Weather Here, Weather There." We tried it once with their repeating me line-for-line, then all together using motions. Maggie and Brooklyn gave everyone copies of the poem and a highlighter at their desks. We marked the word "weather" with the highlighter, then illustrated "rain," "sun," "wind," and "thunderstorms." We stood behind our chairs and recited the poem again. I asked them to put their poem behind their Journal cover page and place these on the back table.
 
I called everyone to assemble on the front carpet to discuss what activities we can do in the wind. I had a list of some sports and activities on sentence strips on the board. I showed video clips of: a kite festival, surfing, parasailing, sailing, paragliding, kitesurfing, and windsurfing. These clips spurred lots of memories of seeing/doing some of these activities at the Beach.
 
We took a brief break for Snack. As students finished eating, I handed each an index card with a type of weather printed on it. I laid out watercolor paper, paints, and water cups, and asked students to paint the weather that was on their card. That's what you see in the picture at the head of this post. 
 
I gave them little flags made of paper napkins stapled to a cardstock "pole." They got out markers and decorated these and wrote their names on. I asked everyone to bring these to the front carpet. 
 
We had a discussion about how we could use these "Wind Flags" to detect how much wind was blowing outside. I showed them a "Wind Data Chart" with columns for "None," "Light," "Gusts," and "Heavy." We brought along our flags to the Courtyard so we could detect today's Wind Conditions. After some discussion, we decided that the wind today (at that moment) was "Light, with some Gusts." They really wanted to check more than one box on their charts! We came back to the classroom, gave out the charts, and let everyone mark their data. I explained that we will save the flags and will repeat this process each Friday of our Weather Unit.
 
Finally, I gave out a writing sheet with the sentence starter, "When it is windy, I like to ..." I asked them to trace the words, complete the sentence, and illustrate it. Many of them used the list of wind activities we had discussed and viewed on video earlier (yay! I was hoping to spark their imaginations with these!). We got some good Smarty-Spelled sentences and some lovely illustrations.
 
All the pages we completed this morning will be a part of their Weather Journals. We'll add to these each Friday. We have some fun experiments to do with this unit! It's a fun one to teach.
 
That was the Science (with some Reading and Writing cleverly woven in). Next, we turned our attention to our Author, Dr. Seuss.
 
I read the Big Book (a large-format read-aloud book) of Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book. It's rather long, but we found lots to enjoy on each page, what with the tongue-twisters, the crazy critters, and the endless personal connections (who knew that so many of the kids had sleep-walked or sleep-talked or snored? ...).
 
When we finished, we played a round of "Find the Cat in the Hat." He was hidden behind #36 on the 100 Chart. I gave a couple of clues (even number, less than 60) and after everyone had a turn, Everett got it on his second-round guess. (Oh, snap! Some more cleverly-disguised Math!)
 
We said goodbye to the Early Dismissal crew, then had our Lunch. Everyone enjoyed watching some Pink Panther until time to go to Friday U.
 
 
 
That's all for today!
Until next time,
Mrs. Duckworth
 
 

Coming Up, etc.

 
Friday, March 22 We will be learning about Rain. Would you please send your student's rain coat, umbrella, and rain boots (if they have even one of these, please send)?
 
In search of an old nylon or rubber rain coat of any size that I can cut into pieces. Or any 100% wool fabric that I can cut up. I'm going to search at KARM, but if any of you have such a thing lying around, would you consider donating it for an experiment? Just email me!

The Friday in Which It Got Smelly in Here

 
Happy Friday!
 
I'm ready to cozy up with a hot cup of tea and write about some of my favorite people. We had a great day together!
 
As everyone entered, I got them started on a review of last week's surgery on those internal organs. They did a cut and paste matchup of six of the organs we operated on. Then they got out their Fine Motor Journals. I showed them my sample page, on which I had affixed a large sticker of the letter "K," traced around it several times with different-colored colored pencils, drawn a picture of a kite, and wrote, "K is for Kite." The students got to pick out their own letter to do.
 
They brought their Organs matching sheet to the carpet. We reviewed their answers and made sure we knew the function of each organ. I read two parables: "The Vineyard Workers" and "The Seeds." I took Prayer Requests, then we prayed. I taught the new Bible verse and its motions for March. We counted the straws in our Days in School Pocket Chart, then discussed the Calendar for the new month. We ended with a Joke of the Day.
 
We had a discussion about how God made our bodies to be so amazing. Then I gave everyone a sheet with a sentence starter to trace and complete. It read, "My body is amazing because ...." 
 
We ate our Snacks then played together with toys. Following this, I called everyone to the carpet and turned off the lights. (The kids were excited it was finally dark enough to see the glow-in-the-dark stars left over from our Space study!) I told them we were going to finish up our study of the Human Body by learning more about the senses. I had about 20 sounds for them to listen to and identify. A waterfall, geese, an airliner, desert wind, crickets, a clothes dryer, a cat purring, wind chimes, a boat on the water, etc. Some of them were stumpers, but they did guess most of the sounds.
 
Next, I said, we would test out our sense of smell. Our assistant, Jess Callis, had helped me out by prepping some "Smell Jars" for us. She placed orange slices, lime slices, cinnamon, garlic powder, vanilla extract, perfume, coffee beans, and chocolate chips in separate cups with coffee filters rubber-banded to the top of each. We placed three of these on each table and asked students to start at their own table to try to identify the smells in each cup. After they did this, they were free to travel to the other tables to identify what was in all the cups.
 
I gathered all the cups onto a tray and asked students to meet me at the front to reveal all of the Smell Jar items. As I removed each coffee filter top, I told students what was inside the cup. Then, of course, they wanted me to pass everything around again so they could see and smell each. 
 
Finally, to wrap up our Human Body study, we did an activity that would activate all five senses - we used an air popper to make popcorn. Miss Jess helped us again by measuring in the popcorn and starting up the popper. The kids started out sitting nicely on the carpet, but erupted into cheers and hugs and screams (yes, it got pretty wild!) as the popcorn began to pop and fall out into the big bowl! Everyone gobbled it up and asked for more! We described how it sounded, looked, smelled!, felt, and tasted. 
 
We played a little game where the kids did thumbs up or thumbs down for how various foods smell then how various foods taste. Then I asked everyone to share their favorite food. Pirate Booty, Corn Dogs, McDonalds, Blaze Pizza, Mellow Mushroom Pizza, Hot Dogs, and All the Candy in the World were some of the responses.
 
We cleaned up, then I read our last book by author Audrey Wood, illustrated by her son, Bruce. This one was called, Ten Little Fish. I almost didn't read it, because I thought they might think it was too "pre-school-ish." It's basically a counting down from 10 book. But they enjoyed it, said, "Hey! this rhymes!" and said, "That was really short!" I told them it was a good subtraction story and that we are starting to get more into subtraction in Math.
 
After Lunch, we watched some Wiley Coyote and Tasmanian Devil Looney Tunes. 
 
 
That's all for this week!
 Until next time,
Mrs. Duckworth
 
 

Coming Up, etc.

 
Shout out! To Cassy Willis for loaning her air popper for our delicious popcorn treat! These kids can eat some popcorn!

The Friday in Which We Shaved the Tables

 
May as well go ahead and lead with that, because that's what your kids are going to tell you about school today. I'll explain what that's all about in a minute.
 
Playing on my playlist today: the soundtrack from My Fair Lady. 
Back story: This is my Dad's favorite movie. As I was getting dressed for school today, I was listening to his favorite song from the movie, "I'm Getting Married in the Morning." It's uber-peppy and set the tone for a relaxed kind of day.
 
For Morning Work: Sense of Touch. 
Assignment: Look around the room. Find and draw something that is sharp, something bumpy, something smooth, something soft, and something hard.
 
We kicked off the Morning Meeting by discussing the things the kids had drawn. For our devotion, I read the Parable of the Net and we had a deep discussion about where heaven is located. I took Prayer Requests. This time rather than just asking God to help with things, the kids discovered that they could also pray and thank God that He answered. That was neat to see!
 
Our Would You Rather: have very stinky feet or have hair that smells like lasagna?
 
We did a review of phonics skills by using our Magnetic Alphabet Tile boards. I called out a C-V-C word and the kids used their Alphabet Tiles to spell it. This was good practice for picking up the difference in the vowel sounds, which several of them are still struggling with.
 
Since we were talking about the Sense of Touch today, I decided to do a very tactile activity. I gave everyone a plateful of shaving cream. They could opt to use a finger or a paintbrush to write in it. They enjoyed smoothing all their shaving cream down, then writing their name in it. I just let them enjoy squishing it for a little bit. I asked them to use words to describe how it felt. They were very good about following my rules about keeping it on their plate and only using one hand in it.
 
But then, I upped it a notch. This is the crazy part they all loved! I said they could dump all their shaving cream onto their tables to clean them. Wow! You can imagine what that level of energy was like. But they didn't get out of control. They just had a really good time. I gave them squeegees and asked them to scrape the cream off, then wipe it all off the tables with paper towels. 
 
The Barber Shop scent lingered through the rest of the morning. Everyone who walked in said, "What's that that smells so good in here?" The kids happily shared what they'd done.
 
Everyone washed up and helped clean up, then we had a menthol-scented Snack time.
 
After a very quick Snack, we jumped into Science. Today, we learned  about organs in the human body. I had some realistic pictures of the organs that I placed in our Pocket Chart. We matched these to descriptions of the function of each organ. The kids enthusiastically shared their impressions of what each organ looked like. A bean. A snake. ...
 
I told them it was very important for us to learn what the organs do and what they look like, because we were going to perform surgery on someone this morning. "Who is it?" "Why would we cut someone open?" "Won't they bleed?" "Is it somebody in our class?" 
 
"You'll see!" I said. "We have a sick patient we need to help!"
 
First, we did a Handwriting sheet where we traced a sentence about organs. The students had to figure out which two organs to write into the empty boxes. Everyone colored the organs using pinks and browns to match our realistic picture cards. We read through the sentence together and revealed the two missing words: lungs and stomach. I asked students to identify all the other organs in the picture at the top of the sheet.
 
I prepared our surgical theater. Everyone prepped by putting on their masks. I put on my gloves. I brought in the patient and laid her on a sheet on the operating table. It was an exploratory surgery. We had to identify and remove all the patient's organs. First, we opened her up. Then, each student got to ID and remove an organ. Next, students replaced the organs and we sewed her up. She was miraculously cured. We all gave her hugs and wished her a quick and full recovery!
 
Pictured above, mid-surgery, is our surgical staff, a.k.a. a study in the many ways to wear a mask. And I sadly surgically removed half of Ellie from the picture. (Boooo!)
 
I whisked our patient off to Ms. Masters' class for yet another surgery. Poor thing!
 
Miss Jess was in the room and consented to read our Author Study book for the day: The Napping House.
 
We cleaned up the room and had our Lunch. Tom and Jerry and The Pink Panther were our cartoons for the day.
 
 
 
That's all for today!
Until next time,
Mrs. Duckworth
 
 

Coming Up, etc.

 
Next Friday, we will wrap up our study of the Human Body by describing Freshly-Popped Popcorn with all five senses. I have bought the Arrowhead Mills Organic Gluten-Free Yellow Popcorn kernals. I plan to pop it at school, since part of using the senses will definitely be smelling it while it's cooking. 
 
I'll use organic Avocado Oil to cook it and real butter and salt.
 
If your child needs an alternative, please send a substitution.
 
Also, does anyone have an air popper we may borrow?
 
 

The Friday in Which We Investigated “Dem Bones”

 
Happy Friday, Friends!
 
Coming to you LIVE from South Central Virginia, on the road to visit our parents. Five hours in, and I’ve just seen the first ray of sunshine of the day!
 
Other than the rays of sunshine that are your kids, of course!
 
We began our Friday morning with an I Spy activity. Students were to search around our classroom and draw pictures of items of five colors. I labeled everyone’s drawings so we could remember what they had drawn. I asked them to save these sheets at their desks so we could share them later. Maggie gave out whiteboards and I allowed the kids to have a free draw time with their dry erase markers.
 
At Morning Meeting, we shared our I Spy papers, then did our Pledge and read two Parables. I asked for prayer requests, then we prayed for those. We added a straw to our Days in School pocket chart, did our Build a Sentence, Would You Rather, and Joke of the Day.
 
We reviewed the Math concept of addition with my calling out an addition expression and the kids’ writing the sum on their white boards. Following this, we had a break for a snack and some free play time in the classroom.
 
Turning the corner to our Science, we continued our study of the Human Body.
Miss Brooklyn had helped us by placing some photos in our big pocket chart depicting the five senses. We reviewed the senses, then I called on students to find pictures that illustrated each. They placed these in columns in the chart.
 
I showed the class a two-page spread of the skeletal system in our anchor text, Me and My Amazing Body. We discussed how many bones are in the body and how they hold our bodies up. We also talked about how our muscles help us move.
 
I put a long sheet of butcher paper on the floor and asked Noah to lie down so I could trace around his body. I didn’t realize how tall he is! He barely fit on the paper! Once he had moved out of the way, we all stood in a circle and took turns placing bones on the body. I didn’t give any instruction or make any corrections. I let the students reason it out. They all had a couple of turns putting bones on, then a turn moving around bones that thought had been incorrectly placed. Jess Callis had stopped in to assist for a bit, so she and I helped make a couple of corrections at this point. Pictured above is what the kids came up with. 
 
Back at their desks, students traced two sentences and chose the correct word to insert in each - either “bones” or “muscles.” Then they cut out an “outside and inside my body,” colored what their body looks like on the outside (I required them to add clothes!), and stapled these together.
 
We cleaned up the room, then met at the front carpet to read Alphabet Mystery by our author Audrey Wood and illustrated by her son, Bruce Wood.
 
After Lunch, we watched some Pink Panther, then dismissed for Friday U.
 
 
That’s all for this week!
Until next time,
Mrs. Duckworth 
 
 

The Friday in Which We Celebrated the Lunar New Year

 
 
Happy Friday!
 
It was a slow-motion kind of morning, what with the rain and all. Traffic was moving slowly, our bodies really just wanted to stay in bed...
 
It's hard to overcome the inertia, but we succeeded in having a wonderful Friday in class.
 
The class started the day with a color-by-number (incorporating addition) Lunar New Year picture. I was excited to show them the new book I had just purchased to use for our Friday Class Devotions. It's The Parables of Jesus, written and published by the same company (Lithos Kids) as our Little Pilgrim's Big Journey books. We read the first chapter, which included the Parable of the Seed and Soils and the Parable of the Wheat and Weeds.
 
I asked for volunteers to say our Bible verse of the month by themselves. Everyone ended up taking a turn.
 
We had a Joke of the Day in the theme of Human Body, our Science Topic for this month. Following this, we did a "Would you rather" question: Would you rather have ten fingers on each hand or ten toes on each foot? I asked students to raise their hands to vote for one of these, then defend their choice to an elbow partner. I called on various students to voice their opinions and reasonings in front of the class. They had some good explanations, such as, with ten fingers on each hand, they could walk on their hands or they could carry more things. With ten toes on each foot, they would have better balance.
 
Quick water break, then back together to learn about Lunar New Year. I explained that in Asian countries, people celebrate their New Year at the first New Moon of the year. One of the ways they celebrate is to exchange Red Envelopes (hongbao). I gave each student one of these and asked them to take it to their desk to open it. Inside, there were three coins - a penny and a dime, and either a quarter or a nickel. We looked closely at each coin, talked about the value of each, what "minted" means, and the year they were minted. The kids got excited to see that some of the coins were shiny and new (some were minted in 2023!) and some were much older than the kids. The oldest coin anyone had was Everett's 1977 Quarter! They were excited to take these home.
 
We took our Snack and Play Break for about 20 minutes.
 
Ms. Masters brought me some more Red Envelopes that were so pretty! She grew up in China, where her parents were missionaries, so she's our resident expert on all things China/East Asia. I decided to use these for a little reading and writing practice. On the board, I had written a few things you might wish someone when you wished them a prosperous New Year in Asia. Laughter, Fun, Family, Sweetness, Love, Vacation, Gifts, Money. We brainstormed and wrote other ideas until the board was full! Most ideas were practical, such as Wyatt's "extra pairs of socks" or Jack's "a back yard with a trampoline."
 
I put two small index cards at each desk, allowed students to choose one of my colored pens with which to write, then asked the students to go to each person's desk and write one of the words from the board on their index card. After everyone had a chance to write a New Year happy at each place, I asked them to bring their own index cards to the carpet. One at a time, students brought their cards to me so I could read their good wishes aloud. Then I placed the cards inside the Red Envelope with their name on it.
 
I introduced our new Author for this month, Audrey Wood. I explained that her husband did the illustrations for a lot of her earlier books and her son for some of the later ones. I had a Big Book version of King Bidgood's in the Bathtub, which is perfect for observing all the detail in Don Wood's intricate illustrations that look like masterpiece paintings! We enjoyed reading this and talking about each two-page spread. 
 
We turned the corner and did an introduction of our Science Topic. We talked about the Bible verse we had learned, "I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." (Psalm 139:14a) I read a few pages of Me and My Amazing Body by Joan Sweeney, the pages that dealt with the brain. 
 
We talked about how big humans' brains are versus other animals and why that is, which animals have the largest brain (sperm whale), what is controlled by our brains, and the Nervous System that sends messages to and from the brain. We read an emergent reader called, "My Amazing Brain." I showed them a picture of a healthy brain so they could see what color it is, then they took the booklets to their desks to color the pages.
 
Finally, we used Q-tips as our Art Tool to paint a dragon mask. 2024 is the "Year of the Dragon." 
 
After Lunch, we watched some Pink Panther cartoons.
 
 
 
That's all for this week!
Until next time,
Mrs. Duckworth

Kindergarten News - February Friday Edition

 
So far, it seems Punxatawney Phil is correct! He did not see his shadow this morning and we are definitely having a very Spring-like day! I'd be happy with that. Let's see if his prediction holds up!
 
I put the finishing touches on our classroom Planetarium just as students arrived this morning. Erica Moore had purchased a set of inflatable planets from my Wish List at the beginning of the school year. I finally got around to getting them inflated and suspended from the ceiling, along with a few glow-in-the-dark stars contributed by Jess Callis.
 
More than this, the kids were impressed that I had finally been able to remove one of those red sticky hand things that had been adhered to the ceiling tile since 2020! THIS is what they noticed. Ah well... Just goes to show, you never have the least idea what's going to impress kids! lol
 
On their desks was waiting a Space-themed Word Search for Morning Work. A handful of them knew how to do these and got right to work. Most of them had not encountered one before and needed explanation and support. I showed them the procedure of doing it without pointing out where the words were hidden. They were quite proud of themselves when they were able to find a word (there was a continual parade of students coming up to me, paper in hand, to show me which word they'd found!) and to complete the entire Search.
 
At Morning Meeting, we recited the Pledge to the Flag, then read a devotion from God's Big World about a newly discovered planet in another solar system. After Prayer and February Bible Verse, we added to our Days in School chart. We did our silly Build-a-Sentence, Joke of the Day, and a Question of the Day. The Question was, "What planet would you like to visit?" This opened up the flood gate for a solid five minutes of their sharing ideas. Most students shared several ideas. This devolved into made-up planets. I told them to hold on to their thoughts about made-up planets, because we were going to be doing that later.
 
I read the Math Picture Book of the Week: 1 to 20 Animals Aplenty by Katie Viggers. It's a pretty simple counting book, but the silly rhymes and crazy illustrations (dogs with frogs, sharks on their marks, birds getting the last word, etc.) had everyone hooked. Most of the illustrations of the various animals were labeled with the species. The kids all raised their hands on every page to tell me which animal was their favorite. So, it took us a good while to read it. But, hey! If they were that into a book, who am I to shut that down?
 
We had Snack and a little Free Play time, then watched a recording of Punxatawney Phil from this morning making his proclamation of an early Spring! I gave out a groundhog labeling activity and helped everyone complete it. 
 
Next, I gave everyone a sheet of watercolor paper and their paints and asked them to draw and paint their own planet. Miss Jess helped me go around and write each student's planet name and description. I asked them to cut out their planet when it was dry and glue it to a large-format construction paper sheet. I had already prepped these sheets with a project we had done several weeks ago about going to the moon. 
 
Ms. Masters brought her class over to enjoy our Planetarium with us. We switched off the lights and gazed up at the planets and stars. I pointed out the Sun and each of the planets. We discussed which ones were terrestrial and which were gas giants. Students talked about planets they'd like to visit.
 
I read the book Owen by Kevin Henkes. The boys were glad there was finally a story about a boy mouse, since we had read Chrysanthemum and Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, where the itty bitty protagonists are female. Owen was a little mouse who had had a favorite blankie since he was a baby. Since he was getting ready to start school, his Mom and Dad were trying to break him of his dependence on the blankie. We discussed whether we had/have favorite blankets or stuffies or other things we sleep with. 
 
We put away all our supplies and then did a very thorough cleaning of the room - tables, stools, chairs, counters, Mrs. Duckworth's desk!!!, floor. 
 
 
That's all for this week!
Until next time,
Mrs. Duckworth

The Friday in Which We Found Lilly's Purse

Hello, Friday!
 
We had an interesting time attempting to help Lilly (the mouse; more about this later) through a maze to find her Purple Plastic Purse. It seems quite a few of our students found the maze quite challenging. Several said they hadn't done one before.
 
In Morning Meeting, we read our devo about NASA's planned trips to space in 2024 and 2025, including a lunar landing. We did and Opinion Question (Do you believe aliens are real?) and a Joke of the Day with a Space Theme. We built a silly sentence and searched for the hidden Snowman on the Hundred Chart.
 
Twenty Big Trucks in the Middle of the Street by Mark W. Lee was our Math Picture Book of the Week. The large format and detailed illustrations were very engaging. For a counting book, we thought it was very entertaining.
 
We had Snack and Free Play time, then met in our Author Study reading area to read Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse. We enjoyed comparing Lilly to the main character of our prior Kevin Henkes' text, Chrysanthemum. Everyone went to their desks, where they flipped over their Morning Work maze to reveal a large picture of Lilly. I read the 6 instructions at the top of the page, as the students performed each task. Then I gave everyone a strip of paper with six words, which they had to cut out and then glue on their paper in the proper order to make the sentence, "Lilly loved her purple plastic purse."
 
At the front carpet, we gathered to learn some facts about the Sun. I had written "What is the Solar System?" on the board and asked students to tell me what they already knew about it. I wrote what they said. I used a Space Encyclopedia to show some pictures of our Solar System and read some information about the Sun.
 
Hollis and Wyatt helped me out by passing out materials to everyone. I demonstrated how I could tear open a cone-shaped coffee-filter, place it over a circle on a paper labeled, "The Sun," and trace the shape onto the filter. I cut out the circle shape, colored it with Yellow, Orange, and Red markers, then glued it onto the circle on the "Sun" sheet. I placed my exemplar on the front board so children could walk up front to copy the words for the sentence, "The Sun is a star."
 
We finished the day by making some cards and decorating them with stamps and ink. 
 
 
That's all for this week!
Until next time,
Mrs. Duckworth
 

The Friday in Which we Dreamed of Flying to the Moon

 

Happy Friday, Y’all!

 

"Fly me to the moon

Let me play among the stars

Let me see what spring is like on

Jupiter and Mars"

 

As kids arrived for Friday morning, I had my "Moon Songs Playlist" going. We began the day with a Connect-the-Dots picture of Lily from Kevin Henkes’ Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse. This was very challenging for them, as the numbers went up to 58! I had placed one Domino on each student's pencil box to be used later.

We convened our Morning Meeting and read our God’s Big World devotion about an international team of scientists and engineers who were preparing to go to the International Space Station for research. We did the Pledge, the Prayer, the Bible Verse, Days in School (90 today! We got to make a ten!), and Calendar. We enjoyed the Sentence of the day ("A dragon ... was sliding ... in the oven.") We added a Joke of the Day with an Outer Space theme! Then we did a quick poll with an Opinion Question: Would you like to walk on the Moon? Everyone put their Snowman Card in the appropriate column - yes or no. Above, the girls wanted to tabulate the results.

For Math Review, we read Domino Addition by Lynette Long. Everyone liked following along with the addition facts on the Dominos and finding the Dominos on each page that depicted the sum that matched the equation. I showed them on the board a drawing of a Domino and the equation I could write to go with it. I sent them back to desks to look at the Domino I had given them earlier. They were thrilled to do this! They were all blurting out to the other kids which Domino they got. I gave them a sticky note and asked them to draw their domino, write the equation to match it, and write their name. 

We took a break for Snack and Indoor Play.

I read Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, our Author of the Month. They were very attentive and enjoyed the humor of the story! We completed a graphing activity showing the length of the names of all the students in Chrysanthemum’s class. Then we made a flower project using the letters of our names on the petals. 

Our Science Theme for the Month is Space! To kick off this unit, we learned about the Moon! I read Moon’s First Friends: One Giant Leap for Friendship by Susanna Leonard Hill. I asked each student what they would like to do if they went to the Moon. They got some good ideas from the text, but I also did this activity so I could see what background knowledge they had about the Moon. I wrote their responses on a sentence strip and handed it to them. Seeing the stars, looking out the window, jumping, playing tag, getting Moon rocks, exploring, and putting a flag were a few of their imaginative answers. Then, they picked up a paper with a little rocket, which I asked them to color. I saved the rockets and sentence strips so I can make a Space-themed display on the wall in our classroom. 

We ended the day watching a video with a song to help remember the order of the planets in our Solar System: "My Very Excellent Monkey Just Served Unicorn Noodles." It's annoying and silly, but helpful. (Thanks to our Friday Assistant, Jess Callis, for introducing this to me!) 

The kids were pumped for their new Friday U classes. I saw them off safely to their first stop, then we called it a day!

 

That's all for this week!

Until Next Time,

Mrs. Duckworth

The Friday in Which We Were F-1 Engineers

 
Happy (beautiful!) Friday! Our last for the semester!
 
We started the day by cutting out a big Christmas light and drawing a picture of how we could be a light to someone. Everyone chose their favorite color card stock to use as a background.
 
Miss Brooklyn and Miss Hollis were my helpers in handing out materials to make our Race Cars and our Hedgie the Hedgehogs. I asked the class to go ahead and color and cut out their Race Cars (they could choose between Batmobiles, Lightning McQueens, a Porsche, and a fancy F-1 racer).
 
Everyone straightened their desks and gathered for Morning Meeting. I read an article about an "octopus garden" that was discovered near an undersea volcano. Octopuses had laid eggs there and were protecting them while waiting for them to hatch. The water there near the volcano was warm enough to speed the process from FOUR YEARS! down to 21 months. 
 
For our Math Reveiw, I read a fun book: If You Were A Plus Sign by Trisha Speed Shaskan. Very silly! But a great introduction to what addition means.
 
Next, we did our Handwriting page. There were two labeled pictures at the top of the page. We had to use these labels to help complete the sentences at the bottom of the page.
 
We took a quick break for Snack and Partner Games. 
 
Rather than reading an Author Study book, I reviewed the titles by Jan Brett we had read - The Gingerbread Baby and The Mitten. I told the class that Brett's favorite animal is the hedgehog and that she often includes one named "Hedgie" in her books. She also has several books with dedicated Hedgie plots. I gave everyone a small brown square of brown construction paper and asked them to cut the paper into slivers to look like Hedgie's quills, then glue them on the hedgehog picture Hollis had handed out earlier. Many students labeled these with the name "Hedgie," but some named their hedgehogs other names.
 
While everyone was working on the hedgehogs, I taped a large paper clip to the back of their Race Cars. We cleaned everything off the desks except their Race Cars.
 
I taught a mini-lesson about bar and horseshoe magnets. I told them about the powerful electro-magnet in my husband's lab! I demonstrated attraction and repelling of the poles, then let them try. I gave everyone a Magnet Wand, a Bar Magnet, and a magnetic marble. We passed around some horseshoe magnets. They used the various magnets to try to make their Race Cards move. In the picture above, they are all trying to move their Cars by using the Magnet Wands beneath the table. They experimented and devised lots of ways to move the cars around.
 
A Middle School Girls Choir came and sang "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" for us! Then we went down to Miss Smith's 4th Grade classroom to hear the Recorder Concert, directed by Mrs. Wolfe. At the end, Mrs. Wolfe asked us to sing a song for the 4th graders. We chose "Away in a Manger." 
 
Upon re-entering our classroom, I directed the students to continue experimenting with moving things with their magnets. We put all these materials away and sat down on the front carpet for a sweet book my Mom gifted me. ("Your Kindergarteners will like it!" she said.) And they did! It's called, The Christmas Owl by Ellen Kalish and Gideon Sterer. It's about a tiny owl named "Rockerfeller" that is discovered in the Rockerfeller Center Christmas Tree. She was hungry and dehydrated. She was taken to a Wildlife Rescue Center for rehab, then released into the wild. It's adorable! Jake was excited to see some scenery in NYC he recognized from his visits with his aunt, who lives there. Graham recognized some things from the movie "Elf." 
 
We cleaned up, ate Lunch, then ended our day with some "Tom and Jerry."
 
 
 
That's all for this week!
Until the New Year!
Mrs. Duckworth

The Friday in Which We Got All Mittened Up

 
Happy Friday ... Happy Friday!
 
(I have the tune, "Happy Holidays" in my head as I write this.)
 
Our Friday Morning started out with coloring and cutting out some "filthy animals!" Just kidding! The Home Alone discussions were rampant all morning. Just had to get my two cents in there. But we really did color and cut out a sheet of Jan Brett animals, then hid them safely beneath our Pencil Boxes for later enjoyment.
 
At our Morning Meeting, I read a devo called, "Swim With Frogs in Bogs." I chose this story because our AAR Reader story this week was "Lost in the Bog." Ellie helped me lead the Bible verse and do the motions (John 3:16). We counted by 10's and 1's to see how many days we have been in school, then we made updates and corrections to the Wall Calendar. We had a bit of chat time to give everyone some time to talk.
 
For our Math Review, I read the Picture Book of the Week, Ten Flashing Fireflies. They picked up right away that this was a counting down from 10 story. They asked if they could take turns coming up to count the fireflies on each page, so we did that.
 
Next up was a Partner Activity reviewing shapes. They asked if I would do Partner Cards, which I did happily. Each pair had a little stack of cards that had shapes made with Gingerbread or Gum Drops. Each student had a recording sheet to write the appropriate number of sides and vertices in each shape. 
 
I had programmed some large foam mittens with CCVC (i.e. spot) or CVCC (i.e. moth) words. I told the class that since we are studying Magnets this month for Science, we would use Magnet Letters to spell their words on the front board. Each student read us their mitten word (then some rhyming words on the back side of the mitten), then arranged the needed letters on the board for us.
 
Mrs. Callis came in and read Jan Brett's The Mitten. The students realized these characters matched the animals they had colored for Morning Work. Hollis was arranging her animals on her desk in the order they appeared in the story while Mrs. Callis read.
 
I gave each student a large cardstock mitten and asked them to decorate it however they wished. I showed them mine, which had kind of an argyle pattern. Mrs. Wolfe had prepared these with holes punched around the perimeter. We had also tied a long piece of yarn to the first hole. I asked everyone to "sew" their mitten front and back pieces together. (This took a pretty good while.) We had some interesting combos of stitches, but they were all successful with it. I was impressed with how diligent they were with this! Everyone worked quietly (well, there was still a lot of Home Alone 1, 2, & 3 talk), and seemed to enjoy it a lot. When they finished, I asked them to place their animal characters inside. You may want to ask them to retell the story to you using their mitten and animals.
 
I talked to them about what "magnetic" means and how we can categorize items as "magnetic" and "not magnetic." We did an experiment where we tested a host of items with magnet wands and recorded whether or not they were magnetic. 
 
We said Goodbye to our Early Dismissal Friends, then cleaned the tables and floor (everybody got Cherries for helping out!), and ate Lunch.
 
Tom and Jerry, then Fist Bumps and a few surprise Hugs to say Goodbye and Happy Weekend!
 
 
That's all for today!
Until next time,
(Fist Bumps and Hugs to all!)
Mrs. Duckworth