Captivating children's attention and engaging them in learning a week before Christmas is a work of art! The busier the week is the less time it leaves me to worry about the ants in their pants. Thank goodness for some beautiful weather! We were able to go outside four of the five days in 60 degree sunshine before a cold front moved in.
We worked on man lose ends this week as I was finishing up some mid year assessment. We listened to one of my holiday favorites, How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Initially, we were going to compare how the character changed from the beginning of the story to the end by describing those changes. Once we began talking about the book, they compared events in the story rather than describing him. We made Grinch kabobs after listening to the story. A friend who used to teach came to help. It was a great recipe to help them follow multiple step directions. We still struggle with this.
Snowflake was busy too! We had a school wide assembly Tuesday morning and she wanted us to know she was watching!
She even found a friend from another kindergarten room to play with. They loved it! Fourth and fifth graders had all kinds of theories about where the elves were the next day when they made it back to our classrooms.
The gingerbread man finally reached the North Pole! We had a Polar Express day to celebrate. We decorated our kindergarten wing with railroad tracks and signs. We also made tickets before hoarding the train.
Choo! Choo! This might have stressed out the custodian!
I wish I could take credit for this. The idea was mine but the artwork is courtesy of my team mates.
If you are interested in these tickets, you can find them here.
We also finished labeling our gingerbread man and our story map! The story map was a huge success. I am thinking about another unit of study where I can do something similar because it really strengthened their comprehension skills by allowing them to make connections.
This was probably their favorite elf antic. They came in Thursday and thought she was nuts! It was a hit. They were not as excited on Friday when she had balloons and a sign that said It's Party Time!
We also have been working on giving reasons for our opinion. The past two weeks, we have worked on this both orally and in writing as we wrote a letter to Santa. I introduced the word because to help them give a reason first by just drawing a picture of why they were asking for that gift. We talked through this and we revisited it by having them write their reason. I gave them a template both times to help. If they were unable to write their reason then they were accountable for sight words and I helped them with the other words. It was interesting because it offered the opportunity for me to see just exactly where all my learners are, even if I already knew it. I had some who were completely independent, some who could write their reason with some help, and some who needed help with the whole letter. I put the letters together in a class book after making a copy of their final letter and sending it home with their parents. They loved listening to the book class book read aloud. Click here for the prewrite template and here for the final letter.
I go back to work on January 2nd, a Thursday while many neighboring districts do not go back until the following Monday. A little sad...so I need things to make those two days busy and full of learning so they fly by!
My alma mater and the university of the town where my kids live is playing in the Sugar Bowl that Thursday evening. I was thinking about how to bring my love of football into a learning experience. I love graphs but I love the conversations promoted by the data more. For me, that is where the learning occurs. Originally, I thought about using the graph as a prediction but the more thought I gave to it, I just didn't love that idea. First, the team they are most likely rooting for is a two touchdown underdog last time I checked. I am going to talk about predictions using the sports pages leading up to the game. Second, I have a competitive little group. I am still trying to teach them that life us not always about winning. It will be interesting to see the learning that takes place on Thursday.
I have seen some New Year's Eve graphs on Pinterest but did not love them so I modified this one to fit my class. I also bought some party hats and blowers because we are going to revisit our hopes and dreams from the beginning of the year as we talk about new year's resolutions. I am also going to tie in a little football as we set our super goals around the time of the Super Bowl.
I am thankful for sweet friends to come help make the hectic week run smoothly.
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