all about Germany!

It was a special Friday morning before April vacation. My mom visited to teach us all about Germany, connecting her visit to the children's work reading and writing all about books.

My mom, Beate, brought books, pictures, materials, traditional food, colorful stories and a little craft with her.

We learned about famous castles and old architecture, kings, cobble stone paths, fairy tales, and that Southern Germany looks a lot like Vermont!

Children in Germany do not eat a closed peanut butter and jelly sandwich, they eat an open sandwich with butter and jam. We modeled spreading butter and jam on a piece of bread and the Kindergarteners prepared and enjoyed their own German sandwich.

Holding their piece of bread, they spread a generous amount of butter from the middle to the edges. Then they chose between plum or rose hip jam. It was a sweet and delicious morning snack.

Of course, we can't learn about Germany without practicing vowel sounds. In the fourth picture, the Kindergarteners are practicing German vowel sounds. Their facial expressions look about right.

Below you can see children enjoying our snack of bread, butter and jam.

 

 

 

 

 

Using some of the details we noticed in German houses- and other loved and colorful symbols and lines- the children decorated wooden birdhouses my mom brought us. We tied up the birdhouses with a piece of forsythia for the children to bring home.

We ended our day celebrating warm weather and community by cleaning and raking our little playground and happily clutching forsythia branches!

It was a true joy to have my mom visit our classroom and share information and stories with us. While I don't have a picture of our lunch, my favorite image of the day was all of the Kindergarteners squished around my mom at the lunch table. She will have to visit again before the end of the school year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

nonfiction readers

The children have been learning new information in their nonfiction books. Using sticky notes they have continued to find interesting (wow) pages, make connections, and ask questions. They have done this important comprehension work independently, with partners, and in their nonfiction topic clubs.

To support the transition from talking about information in their nonfiction books to writing about information found in their nonfiction books, I modeled writing more on a sticky note.

The children were expected to record two interesting facts from one non fiction book and one question they still have. Their sticky notes fit in the boxes on an adapted exit ticket. The transition out of reading workshop that day included finishing their exit ticket.

 

 

These "tickets" are a valuable formative assessment, providing me with information to guide my teaching. Some children need support forming questions and some children need support answering their questions using information from their book.

What about the children that were unable to find the necessary information in their book? If given additional books about insects, would Ana find the answer to her question about ladybugs? A next step would also be to bring their questions to their topic club and investigate them together!

While independent (private) reading time is an essential part of our reading workshop, children continue to excitedly cheer when we transition into partnerships, reading playdates, or topic clubs! Reading in Kindergarten is a wonderfully social experience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

nature journals

Our Nature this month provided a rich opportunity for children to work in their journals, using what they know about nonfiction books and writing to record their knowledge and ideas. I invited the children to show the kind of habitat a specific insect would use camouflage in. We defined the topic words needed for this experience.

Topic Words

Camouflage- Blending in with the environment.

Habitat- Where an animal lives, the home of an animal.

Children chose one insect; a moth, stick insect, or grasshopper. Using what they know about camouflage, the scientists drew and labeled an environment for the insect. This work in their nature journal connected to our informational writing work, our nature focus for this month, and our ongoing learning about animals and their habitats. 

Directions

1. Choose your insect!

2. Write your name and the topic word; camouflage. 

3. Draw, label, and color a habitat for your insect.

4. Cut and glue your insect to your journal entry.

 

 

 

 

 

Nature-

animals HIDE and surprise!

Our journal work provided an introduction to the puppet show and hands-on learning experiences Janice and Kirsten facilitated. The children were given paper insects and matched them to a larger piece of paper, talking about how insects and animals move their bodies in an environment to camouflage as well as possible. We then went outside for a scavenger hunt, looking for objects hidden in the woods.

Why were some objects easier to find than others?

What was challenging? 

How does this connect to how animals use camouflage?

We then searched for bits of string and graphed the children's findings. It was easiest to find brightly colored string instead of tan or brown string. 

Why? Because the tan colors blended in with the environment!