100th Day

I really LOVE the 100th Day of school- it is always so much fun.  Here are some of the fun things we did to celebrate being 100 days smarter.

We made a huge gumball machine with 100 puffballs on it.  My students also filled out a gumball sheet with 10 machine hold 10 gumballs each found here.

My FAVORITE activity was making our 100 year old people.  While we were brainstorming what 100 year olds would look like, one of my students said "they have cracks in their face that might make their lips fall off!!  We made those "cracks" using torn paper.  They turned out so cute.

All of the kindergarten students worked together to make a 100th Day quilt.  Each student decorated at least one number however they wanted.

Winter

We have really done a lot of cute winter crafts that I just have to share.  Pintrest has changed my kindergarten crafting.

 We read The Jacket I Wear in the Snow and labeled people dressed for winter weather.  Pictures to come...

 After reading Snowmen at Night, we made this cute torn paper craft  with a writing extension asking students what they would do if they were a snowman at night.

I really ran with the "snowman theme" this year.  We did a writing activity saying what we would do if we lived in a snow globe.  We also made snowmen with their names on them.



Diversity

The cultural diversity in my school system is somewhat limited to religion and special needs.  Therefore, teaching diversity is always interesting and enlightening for my students. 

Our first lesson centered around David McPhail's book Elmer.  I love this lesson because it helps students celebrate differences.



For our next lesson, read This is the Dream by Diane Z. Shore & Jessica Alexander.  Next, we  examined the similarities and difference in white eggs and brown eggs.  We discovered that the only difference was the color.  One of my sweet students said "Hey, it is just like people.  It doesn't matter what is on the outside, it is what is on the inside that counts.

My favorite lesson comes from Martin's Big Words and teaches about the Civil Rights Movement.  I always love to see my students reactions- they just cannot seem to understand why people were treated differently based solely on the color of their skin.  After reading the book, the students picked 3 of Martin's big words to illustrate.



Happy New Year

We are welcoming in 2012 with New Years Goals and Resolutions.  We all decided on at least one thing that we could work on in the new year.  (So far my goal of going to bed before midnight each night is NOT going so well.)

We made these cute little guys for our bulletin board to show our New Years Resolutions and they turned out really cute.





We also made a book with a personal goal for the year so that we could really start 2012 off on the "right foot."



Happy Holidays

The holidays are a special time for many reasons.  I work in a school system where many holidays are celebrated this time of year which really leads to some interesting and precious discussion between five year olds :)  We have tried not to be too holiday specific in here and have had the opportunity to learn about and appreciate our differences.  Below, you will see some of the fun things we have been doing in preparation for the holidays.

Gingerbread Day

This is quite possibly may favorite day in Kindergarten!! We had a totally gingerbread themed day and we had a blast.  I cannot claim that all of these are my original creations thanks to my recent Pinterest addiction :)  They are all cute and purposeful regardless of which ones are my creations or adapted from the creative minds of others!

We started the day by reading two gingerbread books and listing similarities and differences.  My students did a really good job and were able to come up with way more than I expected.  They even called them text-to-text connections- so proud! 

       

We also made a gingerbread glyph (I think I have one of these for each theme in my classroom- I just LOVE them).  As usual, I found the idea on Shari Sloane's website.  There is not a glyph key linked to her page for this one, so you will have to create your own.

Next, we ate our delicious gingerbread snack to come up with adjectives to describe gingerbread.

We graphed our gingerbread glyphs to show how we ate our gingerbread men- arms first, legs first or heads first.  (Most people in our class ate the head first.)  We also made a book showing how to eat a gingerbread man showing him getting a little smaller on each page.

Last, we sang 5 Little Gingerbread (found here) and acted it out with our cute little gingerbread marshmallows.  They are really hard to find- but definitely worth the search :)

Reindeer Day

We discussed the differences between real reindeer and the special reindeer that are found only in the North Pole.  We made a venn diagram to compare and contrast the two.  We also made a really cute craft with our favorite fact that we learned about reindeer in their tummies.

We also enjoyed a special reindeer snack (thank you Pinterest) out of doughnuts, pretzels, icing and m&m's.

Last, we sang, danced (and mostly laughed) the Reindeer Pokey.

The Reindeer Pokey

(to the tune of The Hokey Pokey)

You put your antlers in.
You put your antlers out.
You put you antlers in,
And you shake them all about.
You do the Reindeer Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your hooves in....
You put your red nose in....
You put your fluffy tail in...
You put your reindeer body in…

Hot Chocolate

We discussed how we like our hot chocolate and graped it on a mug of hot chocolate.  We also made our own hot chocolate mugs with pockets for  a package of hot chocolate to take home and enjoy :)

Snow Globes

We made these out of small paper plates- they are cute and easy.  Perfect for a rainy afternoon.

Peppermints

These are also made from small paper plates and fit right into our patterning unit with an AB pattern :)

Lights

These also fit into our patterning unit and were just cute.  Once again, thank you Pinterest- you have changed my Kindergarten life !

Snowman Ornament

I make these every year as a gift to the Kindergarten parents.  I buy plain blue ornaments and put the students' hand prints on them.  Then, they decorate their snowmen.  They are just cute- I am a sucker for hand print crafts.  I always attach this cute poem to the ornament.