Category Archives: Classroom

Raising Monarch Butterflies

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IMG_1201We started the year with some very tiny monarch butterfly caterpillars. They ate and ate and ate all the milkweed leaves we had for them. We observed the caterpillars as they grew bigger and fatter. We read many books to learn about how the caterpillars would change. We learned that the monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico in the fall and stay their until spring.Screen Shot 2015-10-17 at 9.40.45 PM

When our caterpillars were ready, they shed their skin and became a green chrysalis and after a week or so, it changed IMG_3040to black. We could see the wings inside. We even got to see one butterfly emerge from the chrysalis.

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When the wings were dry, the butterflies were ready to fly and we released each butterfly so it could fly to Mexico.

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Describing, Making and Combining 3-D Shapes

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We looked for 3-D shapes around the room and learned to name them – sphere, cube, rectangular prism, cone and pyramid. We used Geoblocks to explore various 3-D shapes. We looked carefully for 2-D faces on the 3-D shapes. Our favorite 3-D activity was combining 3-D shapes to make a block that looked the same as the largest Geoblock. We worked carefully to find as many combinations as we could. Take a look at some of our work.

Our First Days and Weeks

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Our days and weeks are filled with lots of activity. The KinderKids have adjusted well to their classroom schedule. There is a variety of work through the day. Here are some examples of the work we do. As you can see, we have very busy days.

Read to Self

Read to Self

Everyone does Read to Self

Everyone does Read to Self

Read to Self

Read to Self

Writing Workshop

Writing Workshop

Math activities – sorting and counting

counting counting junk boxes IMG_5454 jewels more counting sorting sorting rocks more sorting

Science

caterpillar science more science science

Outdoor Time

new friendships in the woods IMG_4664 more woods  and Lunch Lunch

Activity Time

blocks2 drawing getting ready to paint2 IMG_4636 IMG_5624 multilinks    Sand    tech    white shelf 3

Welcoming Incoming 2014 2015 KinderKids

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It is time to set up the classroom and get ready for the new school year. Mrs. Knee and Ms. Knowlton will be working at school this week. We want the room to look good for our Open House on Monday, August 24 from 4:30-6:00.

If you are wondering what it will be like in kindergarten, these are some pictures of things we have done in past years. We hope you like what you see. 

A Skype Call to Afghanistan

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Ms. Smith asked her friend Chris, a soldier in Afghanistan if we could meet him on Skype. He said yes and stayed up late to talk with us. We had lots of questions for him and we loved talking to him. You can watch and listen to some of the things we talked about.

After our skype call with Chris, we read a book by Phil Cummings and Owen Swan about an Australian soldier from long ago. He was far away from his family and in a war. His wife and daughter made Anzac Biscuits (cookies) and sent them to him.Anzac biscuits

Anzac Biscuits were baked for soldiers, especially the Australian and New Zealand soldiers because they were nutritious and could last the journey to the other side of the world. They reminded the soldiers that the people back home were thinking about them. Anzac Biscuits have now become a common cookie in Australia.

We decided to make some Anzac Biscuits for Chris to remind him that we are thinking about him. We also drew pictures and wrote stories to send in the package.

IMG_5084          IMG_5091        cookies for chris

These are the pictures we made for Chris.

From Moose Jaw to Deerfield

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We have a new friend who is interested in our classroom and what we do. She is working with Mrs. Knee and us to learn about how to use technology in kindergarten. She sent a video to us so we could learn more about her.

We used Google Earth to learn more about Moose Jaw. It is kind of far from Deerfield. It is in a different country. It is in Canada, not the United States.

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We skyped with Deanna and told her about the things we like. We had Canadian flags. She told us about Mac the Moose and we showed her Mrs. Knee’s little moose from Moose Jaw.

Flags

      Deanna

Then, Deanna sent us a video of Mac the Moose. We loved it. We think you will too. 

Mrs. Knee made a video of us watching Deanna’s video so Deanna could see our reaction. We thought that Mac was really huge and humongous.  It was the real color of a moose and it’s antlers were bigger than his body. Thank you Deanna, for showing us Mac the Moose.  We can’t wait to talk to you again!

The 100th Day of School

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We’ve been counting the days we’ve been in school since our first day. Today was the 100th day of school. We made special hats that 100 things on them. We used 10 strips of paper and glued 10 things on each strip. When we count each strip, we count by 10’s. We can also count everything by 1’s but that takes longer. It took all day to put 100 things on our hats. We love our hats.