Two Hoots and A Holler

Hoot #1

We learned all about pumpkins last week.  On Monday the students walked into the room to see a HUGE pumpkin in their classroom.  We carved a pumpkin on Friday after reading Pumpkin Jack,  Pumpkin, Pumpkin, and reading non fiction texts on pumpkins.  The students loved getting to use their 5 senses to explore their pumpkin.  We got to smell, touch, see our pumpkin.  We tapped on the pumpkin to see what it would sound like, and the class determined it sounded like a drum.  I had a few that were brave enough to taste the pumpkin.  They decided that pumpkin pie tastes a lot better! 

We dug through all the pulp to get all of the seeds.  Our pumpkin had over 550 seeds!  Each student took home 20 pumpkin seeds to plant at home, and the rest were planted at school.

 We voted on what kind of face our pumpkin would have.  It was a tie, so we carved a two faced pumpkin!  One side was happy, the other was scary. 

After carving and planting, we did pumpkin brace maps.  The students could easily label the parts of a pumpkin and recall the vocabulary used because of this wonderful hands-on experience! 
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Hoot #2

Over the past week, we have had a lot of visitors!  We had the librarian from our town's public library come read to us!  They love listening to stories! 

We also had Ned's Kindness Adventure come to our school! 

 The Kindness Adventure assembly shows that kindness is the key to making friends and respecting others.  It was very entertaining for students.  The students were engaged and interested the entire time!  It had a very good message.  It allowed students to see schools and children from a different culture, and learn to respect others' cultures. We are selling "Kindness Treasures" this week in our school's snack store to help students to remember to be kind and pay it forward. 

GO OUT AND SPREAD KINDNESS LIKE CONFETTI!!  

ALL IT TAKES IS A SMILE OR SOME KIND WORDS! 

 

This Week's Holler...
This week we have been really focusing on our writing.  Students have had a very hard time with writing this year.  After stumbling across a blog about writing from Abigail over at Kindergarten Chaos, we decided to take a few steps back and start over.  We have been working really hard on our "Drawing Journal" and focusing on how important illustrations are when writing.  We have seen so much improvement in our students writing!  We are moving on to labeling and lists next.  We loved her character cards used to help students understand the importance of a setting and adding details.  Check out these illustrations from some of our kinders using the character cards! 

We literally went from scribbling on paper to actual pictures!  Hop over to her blog to read all about it!  Thanks Abigail for sharing your ideas!  You Rock!