Mrs. Garrabrant's Classroom: Treasure Blocks, Workstations, etc.

We had a very busy week in Kindergarten! Take a look at what we did! We started our name game by sharing our treasure blocks with the class. I shared mine with the class first and as I was doing so we created a web to show important facts that I shared about myself.

After I shared my treasure block, I modeled how to cut my name apart and glue it back together. Then they had to do the same and draw an illustration of something I shared from my treasure block. We discussed following directions, using appropriate colors, adding details, and producing quality work by slowing down.

After everyone creates their illustration, we put them in a book and the person who shared their treasure block gets to take it home. We put the cover page on it and they get to see their friends illustrations of something they shared from their treasure block. We will keep the illustration that the particular student did of themselves for their portfolio so when you get your child's All About Me book don't be concerned when you don't see theirs included in their.

We did the same process for Ms. Wagner in sharing her treasure block. We will start having the students share their treasure blocks this week!

Our class is really enjoying our outdoor exploration time. They have had a great time exploring with the balls, climbing equipment, hula hoops, and garden.

We found these pumpkins on the playground from a plant that started growing in our garden area and the students were fascinated! I'm thinking that it might lead to an inquiry in the future!

They also found a caterpillar and were amazed by that as well! They wanted to put in on a leaf so it had something to eat and made sure to put it back in the tree so it didn't die.

We also came up with things that we should be doing in our class and promised to do them. We all signed the class promise including myself and Ms. Wagner. This is what our class came up with: be kind to others, follow directions, use walking feet, keep your bubble in your mouth in the hallway, don't talk when you're not supposed to, included everyone when playing, use soft touches, have fun, learn, stay on the silver line in the hallway, do your work, be safe, use your manners, push your chair in, and respect friends, teachers, self and materials. These are all great rules for us to go by and we will refer back to them often when discussing how we should behave in the classroom.

We also talked about feelings and how we control our emotions and feelings. We drew how we were feeling that day and we put their work in the hallway. Here are a few examples of them being happy and sad.

Here is our completed letter "B" alphabet card that our class completed. We will be working on making one for every letter of the alphabet!

We also went to literacy lab with Mrs. Ball to hear a story and discuss the rules and expectations for them in literacy lab. We will be starting this week with some name activities.

We also explored in our literacy and math work stations. For the literacy work stations, they explored styrofoam letters, wood pieces to make letters, pattern blocks to make letters, water bottle lids with letters on them, and glass letter tiles.

For our math work stations, they explored measuring with paper clips and different sized paper, explored shapes, different colored marker lids, frogs, and creating patterns with marbles.

We spent a lot of time working on our names. We worked on recognizing our names, practiced writing them, as well as how many letters were in their names. We made a list of how many friends had the same number of letters in their name. Ms. Wagner was the only one who had 3 letters in their name and we had the most friends with 7 letters in their name!

We completed a graph together to show how many friends had different numbers of letters in their names.

We have been working a lot on the "red" color word song! The kids have now mastered the song so we sent it home with them on Friday. We also sent the letter "B" book home with them! We will continue learning more color words and letters this week.