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Some crawl, some hop, some swim, and those are just the kindergarteners! We learned this week what makes insects unique. We kept an anchor chart going all week long to record facts as we read books during story time. We began the week with a rousing rendition of "The Ants Go Marching" starring myself, the PM class, and the very talented Ms. Blevins - who was filling in for Mrs. Taylor.
As I sang/read, Ms Blevins posted pictures of the ants on the board, adding on to either side of the "sidewalk". This served as an introduction to even and odd numbers.
The students used those same ants in the number work center this week. They ordered the ants from 1-30.
They also had ants marching all over their math paper that day.
The next day we read 'I Love Bugs"
We saw lots of different kinds and we sorted them onto our anchor chart according to how they "got around." This activity taught me that I don't know very much about bugs - but Mrs. Taylor certainly does. I had no idea so many bugs could swim, hop, and fly. So, I was having to make duplicates of each bug so I could place them under multiple categories.
Then the students selected their own picture of a bug and wrote about it in their journals. Just like last week, they got to use the picture in their illustrations.
The students got to work with many different kinds of insects in centers this week. In the writing center, the students reached into the mystery box to pull out a card with a bug on it. They matched it up to their worksheet and recorded its name.
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| This is a pic from last school year because I forgot to take a pic from this week. |
In the blocks center, the students had to build homes for various bugs. I had some fun with them on Monday, while explaining this center. I told them the bugs in the boxes were real-that they'd been alive since my first year of teaching. I gave them many warnings about how to handle them gently and make sure not to step on them. I told them they were fast little critters and might hop out of the homes they build if they don't build them high enough. I really had them going. But I went a little further. I asked for a volunteer to come up and hold one. Most of their hands shot up. I should have captured the moment on video, but I'll just narrate the pictures below instead.
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| I had Bradyn push his sleeves back so the bug wouldn't crawl up his shirt. |
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| Then I told him if he had eaten any sugar at lunch that the bug would try to crawl into his mouth to get the sugar off his teeth. He immediately puffed out his cheeks and pursed his lips....hard. |
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| He showed it to the class (they look pretty real -especially to five year olds.) |
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| Then I bumped his hand so it looked like the bug had hopped out and into the group of kiddos. Jakota's face says it all. |
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| Then I let them in on the joke. |
Here are some of the children playing with the cool bugs.
A few of our other buggy centers were Insect Estimation at the math games center. The students took turns filling up different shaped/sized containers with plastic bugs. They handed it to their partner who estimated how many were in the jar. Then they spilled and ordered them onto their counting mats to see how close their estimates were. Activities like this are great for teaching other math concepts indirectly. The students were also realizing how many they were off by (subtracting, adding), and were adjusting their estimates accordingly.
After the students ordered the ants from 1-30 in the number work center, they added with ladybugs
Meanwhile, they were cutting out pieces to make a ladybug (for our Fun Friday art project) in the fine motor center. If there was any time left when they were done, they got to play with bugs, naturally.
The word work center was not insect-related. The students played with sight word magnets and letter magnets.
On Wednesday. we read Eric Carle's book, "The Very Quiet Cricket." The students got to listen to the sound of crickets' chirping. Then we wrote more about insects on the anchor chart - telling about the special things that some of them do - like chirp.
We couldn't do Insect Week in kindergarten without reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar. On Thursday, we read the BIG book of it. We discussed the life cycle of the butterfly. But as a writing prompt, the students told what they would put (new sight word this week) in their cocoon if they were a caterpillar.
In other learning news, the students learned the two sounds of /oo/ this week. There are the lovebirds, that say "oo" as in "moon," and there are the bully brothers, who are always beating each other up, who say, "oo" as in "book." We sorted the sounds on Monday,
The next two days, we focused on one sound at a time, spelling words using their onsets and rimes. An onset is simply the beginning sound of a word. The rime is everything else (what sounds alike in words that rhyme). For example, in the word "book," b is the onset, -ook is the rime.
On Fun Friday, the students did a Write the Room actvity, looking for words with the most recent irregular vowel sounds we've been learning: ar, or, er, ir, ur, ow, ou, oo, and the other oo. I have said before that this is one of my favorite activities. If you watch this video of the PM class, you'll see why.
It is not an easy thing to get ALL students on task AND quiet at the same time for any extended length of time. But for this activity, they are just as quiet and on task from minute one to minute fifteen, and they are so proud of their work.
Another one of our Fun Friday activities was "Going to Work." Once again, I tricked the students into thinking taking a test is fun. I can't believe they still are into it (although I did hear two groans among the cheers out of one class when I announced it was on the agenda today). Today's paycheck was a chocolate chip cookie.
Our final item on the agenda was an odd and even project. First, the students gathered at the Smartboard where they worked with me to complete the page projected. Then they completed the same paper at their tables.
Next, we played this Curious George game from the pbskids website. The first four problems are great for teaching about even numbers, as you have to divide up the dog treats so the two dogs have the same amount. (But eventually, you must divide the treats among three dogs, which just confuses the lesson of odd verses even).
I stressed the importance of alternating between the dogs. Treat to the black dog, treat to the brown dog. Treat to the black dog, treat to the brown dog. I wanted them to use the same motion when adding the spots to their ladybug crafts - using the pieces they cut earlier in the week at the fine motor center. I wanted the students to easily be able to tell if their ladybug had an even or odd number of spots. (Though I did tell them that in the real world, ladybugs have an even number of spots - of course I had to check with Mrs. Taylor, the bug expert, first). They turned out very cute. If time permits next week, I'd like for them to add a (very) short writing piece to attach to it that tells if their ladybug has an odd or even number of spots.
That's it for bug week. I'll leave you with a few cute pics from a special lesson by Mr. B (our PE teacher) on the circulatory system.
