Special recognitions- January 21-24

Several of our students have had special recognitions this week! Two were on the morning announcements sharing their dreams like MLK. 

Mrs. Reid and Ms. Wages came to give out Perfect Attendance awards! Way to go for being present every day during the 2nd 9 weeks!! Hip hip hooray!! 

Segmenting syllables

In this 3rd quarter we began segmenting words into syllables, or word parts. When we segment a word we are listening for how many word parts it has. To figure out how many syllables a word has we clap words out, we put our fingers beneath our chins to see how many times our chin drops down, and we also use our robot voices.

To practice segmenting, we brought in our favorite stuffed animals and segmented their names. For example, bear is 1 syllable.

We also brought in our favorite toy to practice segmenting words. Several boys brought in Transformers. We clapped it out and found out it has 3 word parts: trans-for-mer!

Measurement Unit

In January, we began our measurement unit in math. We have learned about weight, capacity, and height so far.

Weight

To begin thinking about weight and what it is we read the book Weight by Marh Counts. 

We learned that when weighing objects we can use scales. Students chose different objects to weigh and compare on the balance. We used the vocabulary words of heavier, lighter, equal to tell about the objects. We passed around different objects for students to feel and think about their weight. We then "weighed" the objects. We found out a block weighs more than a package of M&Ms.

 We found out a can of play-doh was heavier than a marker.

The next day we used a form of nonstandard measurement (bears) to tell how much different objects weighed. We put an object in one side and filled the other side up with bears until both sides were equal.

Then, once the 2 sides were equal we counted the bears to see how much the object "weighed".

We compared the objects and discussed which one weighed more/less and why!

Capacity

To learn about capacity we read Capacity by Matt Counts. 

We learned that capacity is the empty space inside an object. We looked at different containers and talked about their capacities. We chose 3 objects to focus on- a bucket, a coffee mug, a bottle top.

We filled the containers up with bears and compared them, looking at not only the size of the object, but also the amount of bears there were when we poured them out. 

Height

To begin learning about height we read the book Sizes by Math Counts and  lined ourselves up from shortest to tallest.

 We compared pictures of objects using the vocabulary words- shorter, taller, equal. We used another form of nonstandard measurement (cubes) to measure different object's heights. We filled in a recording sheet to match.

Catching up! New Year and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Happy New Year!! Our first day back we wrote about what we wanted to do this year!

One of our Kindergarten Social Studies standards is learning about national holidays. We learned a lot about Martin Luther King, Jr. We read several books about him and created an anchor chart to help remember what we learned. 

We did a directed drawing of MLK. They turned out so good! 😊

When I first started talking to my students about MLK and how unfair people were treated I did an activity to show them. I gave all the boys candy just because they were boys. I told the girls the couldn't have any just because they were girls. The girls did NOT like it! "That's not nice! That was rude! Girls need candy too! No fair!" were some of the comments I heard from the girls. (Meanwhile, the boys were laughing and eating candy.) At this point, we stopped and talked about how it made the girls feel. I linked that activity to how people were once treated based on the color of their skin. 

We looked at 2 eggs- a brown egg and a white egg. Students made observations about the outside of the eggs and then they predicted what they thought the inside would be like. After cracking them open, we talked about how even though they were different on the outside they were the same on the inside, just like us!

We learned that MLK had a dream and listened to some of his "I have a dream..." speech. We discussed what some of our dreams were and in writing, we wrote about our dreams.