Hardy's Happenings
April 10, 2016
THE GREAT HORNED OWL TAKES FLIGHT
We have completed our great horned owl and she is flying through our woodlands habitat model. Thank you to Mary Handley's dad for helping us get our owl secured to a pulley system. She is now a center where the children can take turns making her fly towards her nest and eggs which are now in the branches of one of our trees. The children have been very proud to share their work and learning about the great horned owl with other kindergarten classes and guests that have visited our classroom.
SHARED READING
The week before last, we enjoyed an author study of Mo Willems. He is actually both an author and an illustrator. We watched several video clips of him describing how he writes and draws. As we read his books, we noticed interesting things about his illustrations--movement lines, speech bubbles, thinking bubbles, quotation marks, punctuation marks, and big words. We read many of his wonderful books: The Duckling Gets A Cookie!?, The Pigeon Finds A Hot Dog!, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Knuffle Bunny, Knuffle Bunny Free, There Is A Bird On Your Head!, A Big Guy Took My Ball!, We Are In A Book, and Can I Play Too?. The children really enjoyed Mo Willems' books and his humor.
Last week, we began another author study which we will continue into this week. We are learning about Eric Carle. We have visited his website and watched video of how he uses paint and collage to create his illustrations. We have learned that many of his books are fiction. As we have read his books, we have also read books on similar topics that are nonfiction. We are comparing to notice characteristics of both fiction and nonfiction books. Some of the books we have read include: The Very Busy Spider, Spiderlings, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, A Butterfly Is Born, Do You Want To Be My Friend?, Let's Be Friends, From Head To Toe, Let's Get Fit, and The Very Quiet Cricket.
During center time, we are trying to imitate Eric Carle's illustration techniques to create a class book of woodlands animals. We began by painting paper to create many colors to choose from. We then decided on an animal to draw. We cut those animals out. We then traced those animals onto our painted paper and had to piece them back together. We will continue working on our illustrations this week to complete our book.
MORNING MEETING/MATH
We have been working on comparing numbers and decomposing. We learned a math game called War to practice counting and comparing numbers. Decomposing is breaking a number into two groups that all together still equal that number (ex. what makes 5? 2 and 3, 1 and 4, 0 and 5). We learned to play a Spill & Count game to practice this skill. We also did some dot marker decomposing for even more practice. This is a skill that we will continue to revisit during these last weeks of school.
We continue to work through story problems daily during morning meeting time. Here are a few of the problems we solved with drawings, tally marks, and numbers this week:
- There are five rabbits in the garden. Each rabbit has two carrots. How many carrots are there all together?
- There are six kites flying in the sky. Each kite has three ties. How many ties are there all together?
- There are eleven birds in the tree. Three birds flew away. How many birds are left in the tree?
- There are ten flowers and two children. How many flowers will each child get?
THEME DEVELOPMENT
As we wrapped up our great horned owl study, we revisited our list of woodland creatures we would like to learn more about. We voted for our next area of study which will be another nocturnal animal--BATS! Last week, we began a K-W-L (Know-Wonder-Learn) Chart on bats. We read several nonfiction books to help us begin our learning. This week, we will begin writing in our fact books about our learning and decide how we will make bats for our woodlands habitat.
YEARBOOK ORDERS
You can still place your order for the first PRS Yearbook. The cost is $45.00 through Monday, April 11. That cost goes up to $55.00 after that. The deadline is Monday, April 18. No orders will be taken after that date.
FIELD TRIP
Our field trip to the Louise Kreher Forest Ecology Preserve & Nature Center in Auburn will be Thursday, April 14. If you have not sent in the signed permission form and payment, please do so as soon as possible. We plan to leave PRS at 8:15 a.m. and return by 2:00 p.m. Here are a few things that will be helpful:
- We will be outside so your child may need a light jacket or sweater for the cooler morning temperatures.
- We will be going on a hike for part of our experience. Please make sure your child wears closed toed shoes appropriate for walking through trails in the woods.
- If you are sending a home lunch, paper lunch sacks and throw away packaging is very helpful.
The weather is looking pretty good as of now with only a 20% chance of rain on Thursday. In case of rain, we will have to try to reschedule as all of our activities will be outside. Hoping for a beautiful day and a fun trip!
MONDAY, APRIL 25 -- PROFESSIONAL LEARNING DAY, NO SCHOOL FOR LEARNERS
PATRIOT GAMES
The PRS Patriot Games will be held on Friday, April 29. Coach Klinger and Coach Hines are organizing some fun games and competition for this day. They have divided each class into two teams (red and blue). Here are our teams:
Red Team--Kennedy, Kaylen, Cole Serenity, Braden, Aubrey, Carly, Paitlynn, Walker, Avery, and Teagan
Blue Team--Livia, Avery Grace, Joseph, Emily, Abby, Sophie, Mary Handley, Aleyna, Knox, Colt, and Dylan
Field Day t-shirt order forms came home to you in your child's red folder last week. These orders and payment are due by 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 13. Orders will not be taken after this time. Indicate on your form blue or red depending on the team. We are looking forward to a fun day of competition!
OUR CLASSROOM NEEDS . . .
With spring allergies and colds, we have gone through our kleenex and clorox wipe supply. Our classroom is in need of both. As always, thank you so much for your help and support!