New Unit of Inquiry: Stories

The Stories unit of inquiry will be an ongoing unit. We will begin exploring the lines of inquiry now, and continue to deepen our knowledge and understanding through a variety of activities for the rest of the school year, often connecting to other units of inquiry. In this time, the students will have many opportunities to listen to, retell, and act out stories, as well as to create and share personal stories with others.

We will reflect on how stories make us feel, and why different people connect to different stories. We will investigate the reasons stories are told, and look into a variety of different stories. We will learn about the form of stories, recognizing the elements common to all stories (characters, setting, beginning, middle and end, a problem to solve), and inquire into the different ways stories are created and shared, for example through books, films, music, dance, and drama.

We invite parents and family members to come and tell/read a story to the class. We hope to have as many guest storytellers as possible! I will be sending a separate email discussing how to sign up for a time to come into the class.

We hope that the students come to understand that we are all storytellers and that through stories we connect with others to communicate ideas, feelings and beliefs.

Language Arts

Oral Language skills: The Stories unit is a great time to practice listening and speaking skills, as students will be asked to listen to, discuss and analyse a variety of stories. They will have opportunities to retell stories, answer questions, and tell their own stories.

Reading and Writing: We have introduced all of the letters of the alphabet, and students are applying their knowledge in writing and reading. In reading, we are practicing blending sounds, especially reading CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words correctly. Each student makes progress and his/her individual level.

In writing, students are encouraged to sound out words carefully, writing down as many letters as they can, and using a little line __ when they are not sure what letter to write. We continue to practice forming letters correctly, using the lower case. We are also introducing high-frequency and sight words to help the students in writing and reading. These include words that students are not yet able to sound out phonetically, and that should be recognized instead (e.g., I, the, like, play, my). These words will be added to our 'word wall' so that children can refer to them when writing.

Students continue to take home reading books each week. Please help your child read the books and return them to school promptly.

Mathematics                                                                    

In Maths we have been focused on developing understanding of numbers to 20, while learning and practicing strategies to add numbers. Understanding place value, i.e. that the 1 in 13 represents 10, is a big step for many Prep students, so we engage in a variety of hands-on, concrete tasks to build understanding. 

January Update

Unit

Since we returned from our winter break, the students have been busy exploring and learning!  The class continues to explore how our actions impact animals through playing, watching videos, engaging in discussions, and taking a field trip!

Throughout the unit, the students have reflected on choices people make.  The choices they document come from literature we read, personal stories they share, or actions they observe outside of school. They draw and/or write the action and then post it on our board of choices defending why they think it was a good choice, grey choice, or bad choice.

             Choices Bulletin Board

                                Building a stable for the horses

      Tallest Tower for the animals

       Drawing a representation of the koala's home

 

     Taking care of pets at the Vet Clinic

The Prep classes have new sensory bins in the garden.  Each bin represents a different habitat.  The students love exploring and playing with them!

            Ocean                                                           Farm

           Polar Region                                                   Desert



          Reflecting on the Learner Profile

Trip to the Bioparco

Last week we explored the zoo while reflecting on different animal needs.  The students used a critical eye as they looked at the different habitats. They learned a multitude of information about endangered animals, threats that exist, and ways to help.  One group made a digital photostory sharing their experience.  

Taking Action!

After several class discussion, several students decided they wanted to help the birds in our garden during the cold winter months by giving them food.  After researching different options, one group decided to build a wooden bird house.  Another child wanted to make one out of a plastic bottle and wooden spoons.  Both groups wrote a plan and then started working hard. The plastic bottle bird feeder was slightly more challenging than we originally thought.  We went through several bottles until we found one that had strong enough plastic to cut through without it crushing.  The student glued the wooden spoons in place, and filled it with birdseed.

      

The other group started by finding pieces of wood, painting them, sanding them, and finally assembling the bird house.  Then one student said, "What if the rain takes off the paint?"  So we investigated this question by running a piece of extra wood under water from the sink.  Sure enough, the paint washed right off.  The students came up with several ideas of how to solve this problem, and agreed to send the teachers to the hardware store to buy non-toxic waterproof paint.  They were excited to paint the birdhouse again!  This week, we will fill it with birdseed and hang it in our garden.

      Plan for building a birdhouse

         Sanding the wood for the birdhouse

        Hammering the base onto the birdhouse

       Hammering the base onto the birdhouse

        Painting the birdhouse 

The class also learned about animal shelters and how they can help animals in need.  We discussed the benefits of getting a pet from a shelter rather than a pet store.  In addition, we also noted although it is wonderful to save a homeless animal, the reality is most of us cannot adopt a pet, but there are still other ways to help.  We can teach others about animal shelters or donate food, bedding, and other items a shelter may need.

After this discussion, one of our students decided she wanted to write a letter to her friend to tell her what she learned about animal shelters.

    

Math

During our independent classroom learning time, we started exploring various concepts in measurement.  One child tried to build the longest cube train possible while another compared the heights of different people in the classroom to it.  We discovered that in order to measure accurately, each person had to line their feet up with the last cube.

      Measuring our height

Another student brought in a model of the Empire State Building from home and wanted to find items in the class that were taller and shorter than his model.  He made many discoveries!

      Comparing heights

To celebrate the 70th day of school, Zero the Hero left another note asking us to represent the number 70 in a creative using anything in the class.

Students are now focusing on practicing the numbers in the teens (11-19).  We develop number sense by using double ten frames to represent a number.  We also use place value sticks (bundle of 10 and extra ones).  You can reinforce these skills at home through play and finding them in the environment.


      Matching teen numbers with place value sticks

Language Arts

The students continue to develop literacy skills.  Through intentional teaching and independent play they make new discoveries about how sounds work together and make meaning.

 

A group of children worked together to write this morning message 

      Building CVC words on starfall.com 

       Playing CVC Bingo

         Sight Word Practice

      Writing words that begin with /z/

        Writing words that begin with /z/

     Practicing writing while making cards for friends

Ideas for your Home

Puzzle Play- Did you know that puzzles develop skills that are used in math, reading, and writing?

 Developmental benefits include:

-Learning that a whole is made of parts
-Developing hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills
-Building visual-perceptual skills
-Developing attention, concentration and thinking skills such as recognizing, remembering, matching, sorting, and problem solving
-Assisting language skills as the child listens and follows instructions and talks about what they are doing

       Zebra puzzle

Field Trip to Villa Pamphili- Digital Photostories

During our trip, the students took photos and recorded their findings.  Take a look at both videos to see what we discovered!

Choices- New Unit of Inquiry

Unit

During this unit the students will be exploring the impact (both positive and negative) that humans have on the environment. We will investigate how to care for and share the planet responsibly with other living things.

The central idea of this unit is that "humans make choices that have an impact on living things." We will learn about the needs of all living things, including ourselves, and how our actions can have consequences that affect them. We will discuss our responsibility both to animals we can care for, such as pets, and animals we have little direct contact with, such as wild animals. Finally, we will think of how we can have a positive impact on animals and the environment, finding ways to turn our thoughts into actions.

We started the first week by understanding what are good choices, bad choices, and those that fall in between. The students were introduced to the term empathy. We discussed the importance of putting ourselves into others shoes. It not only helps us better understand their perspective, but it can affect the choices we make.

Looking at images and role playing scenarios about choices we make

Starting our unit by discussing the concept of empathy and choices tied nicely into our Giving Back Bazaar.  Thank you for all of your help to make this a successful event! The children enjoyed decorating our trees at Via Jenner and placed their donated shoes under them.  Then we spent the morning of the bazaar at Via Tajani with our fifth grade buddies.  We took some time to get to know each other before we made placemats for the refugee center.  After our placemats were finished, we enjoyed a warm cup of hot chocolate.  Then we enjoyed shopping at the craft fair.  We wrapped up our trip to the bazaar by singing All You Need is Love with all the EC students and teachers in the atrium.

 

Decorating the tree upstairs

    Getting to know our fifth grade buddies

   Getting to know our fifth grade buddies

   Making special holiday placemats that will be given to the Refugee Center

   Making special holiday placemats that will be given to the Refugee Center

   Making special holiday placemats that will be given to the Refugee Center

   Enjoying a warm cup of hot chocolate after our hard work

   Enjoying a warm cup of hot chocolate after our hard work

Before our field trip to Villa Pamphili, we differentiated between living and nonliving things.  Then we explored the needs of living things: water, food, space, and shelter.  During our trip to the park, we noted all the living things we saw such as swans, ducks, trees, grass, dogs, flowers, a horse, and ants just to name a few!  We tried to identify how the park met their needs.  Along the way, we found animal shelters including three fox dens!  To help record our findings, we used Adobe Voice to capture images and record our thoughts.  When the videos are finished we will share them!  

 

Field Trip To Villa Pamphili

   Meeting the ducks

   Horse at the park

   Fox Den

   Lake

   Group Picture

When we returned, we worked in groups to identify how Villa Pamphili met the needs of the animals we saw.

    The needs for the dog we saw

    The needs for a fox

Reading

We are working hard to recognize sight words and to learn their spelling.  We participate in activities such as Rainbow Writing and Writing in Polenta that help reinforce the words.  We also make little sight word books.  At home, go on sight word searches through their storybooks.
In guided reading groups, we practice our letter sound fluency by saying the sounds of random letters as quickly and accurately as we can.  Each time we practice we improve!
We continue to learn more of the alphabet and then use these letters in our writing and reading.
New letters: l, j, h, k

   Spelling sight words in polenta

   Writing holiday cards

   Drawing pictures that begin with the /k/ sound

Math

We continue to play various games where we combine numbers and write equations.  We continue to reinforce counting and number recognition along with math vocabulary such as more than and less than. Check out this website for story problems:

http://www.abcya.com/kindergarten_word_problems_add_to_10.htm 

Visit this website to see a variety of games focused on different math skills:

http://www.abcya.com/kindergarten_computers.htm#numbers-cat 

   Increasing our speed with number recognition and one to one correspondence 

   Playing 'Roll and Record 2' where we combine numbers

    Playing 'Add the Room'

Special Visitor!

On Wednesday we had a special guest!  All of us brought in gifts and gave them to Santa.  He will take those gifts and make many children happy!  In return, Santa gave us a small sweet treat!