Chocolate Covered Strawberries Anyone?

In continuing our "How To" unit, we made chocolate covered strawberries this week. Students were shown how the recipe was taken from a magazine and how all recipes are essentially "How To's" In one magazine, we found how to repot a plant, how to do stretching exercises and our favorite "How to Make Chocolate Covered Strawberries." We followed the directions and they came out delicious. Hopefully, the children explained the process and they are making them at home for a lovely dessert.
Chocolate Covered Strawberries on PhotoPeach

Visiting the Baby Chicks

Today the students were treated to special visit to a fifth grade classroom to see the baby chicks that have recently hatched. Every year, fifth grade has the opportunity to see this life cycle in action. They explained to the kindergarten students how they they incubated the eggs and the care it took to finally get to them to the 28th day when they started pecking at their shells. The chicks will stay for a while longer and then move on to live on a nearby farm. Thanks 5th grade for the wonderful welcome and experience for the kindergarteners. They really enjoyed learning about the chicks.

Making Chocolate Pudding -- How to

The children are having a lot of fun in Writer's Workshop sharing their expertise in all that they know how to do. They have written "How to Make Paper Airplanes," "How to Skate," "How to Make a Shirt", and "How to Get Ready for School." During the Demo Lessons, they have been shown "How to Make Popcorn," "How to Make a Bear Valentine Box" and now "How to Make Chocolate Pudding." All the ingredients were laid out and the instructions were followed on how to make it. We poured, measured and stirred. It was another wonderful shared experience that they could all write about...and a tasty one too!

Functional Writing: How to Make Popcorn

Our "How To" writing is a lot more fun with shared experiences like making popcorn. Students watched as all the steps were demonstrated in this "How To". First the popcorn machine was plugged in and turned on. Then two tablespoons of oil was put in. Next a half cup of popcorn kernels were added. Finally the popcorn popped and was served. This was a first time experience for some students. They thought that popcorn was made in the microwave or at the movies. They watched several times so that enough was made for everyone and then they wrote about "how to" make it. We had a "popping" good time...except we forgot about the salt!

Valentine Memories in Kindergarten

Students have been bringing in their empty cereal boxes for our Valentine activity. This weekend the boxes were cut and painted brown. When the children arrived on Monday, they made their Bear Valentine Mailboxes. This worked out perfectly for Writer's Workshop. We are in the Functional genre which is basically "How to" writing. After they made their bear box, they wrote a "How to Make a Bear Mailbox" for Writer's Workshop. It was a great way to include the activity into writing and have lots of fun doing it.

Reading Fairy Visits Daily

You never know who the reading fairy may visit during Reader's Workshop. She looks for good readers who are focused on their books and using their strategies to figure out new words they encounter. These two students K and M were visited just the other day and you can see how happy they are when were "caught" reading a good book! Who will the reading fairy be visiting next? We'll just have to wait and see!!

Groundhog's Day in Kindergarten

After reading a few books on the folklore of "Groundhog's Day", students couldn't wait to make their predictions on whether the groundhog was going to see his shadow or not. Five children voted "Yes" and twenty eight children voted "No". On the morning of February 2nd, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and predicted six more weeks of winter.

100th Day of School

Celebrating 100 Days of Kindergarten on PhotoPeach

Celebrating the 100th day of school is a milestone in the year of a kindergarten student. We have been looking forward to this since the first day of school. Every day is logged on a sticky note and days are counted using straws bundled into groups of ten. For homework, students were invited to come to school wearing 100 of something. We had a hat made of 100 straws and one made of 100 silly bands. We had 100 gummy worms and 100 pieces of popcorn...there were even 100 ants on someone's pants! This also marks only 80 days left of kindergarten and we plan on making every day remaining in this most precious year memorable ones!! Happy 100th Day from the Mall-ards!