Bat Cave

The children have decided they want to have the Bat Cave for another week so we are keeping it as part of the Dramatic Play area. The children have really enjoyed going into the bat cave with a partner, using flashlights and reading the nonfiction books about bats. Ryker told me he loved the bat cave so much he has made one for he and his brother at his house. That truly shows the great learning that is taking place and he has made a connection between school and home in order to further his learning.

I hear the children discussing what bats eat, they don't have a beak and they hang upside down.

They have also learned that bats are nocturnal. Gregory shared that he thought he is nocturnal like a bat because he doesn't like to sleep at night just like them. This opened the door to explain this means they hunt for food all night and sleep during the day. The children have decided they don't like to sleep (go to bed) at night, but they are not nocturnal. The children were able to tell me that, skunks, raccoons, possums, and owls are some other nocturnal animals and why they are.

Wonderful learning is taking place all because of a bat cave and bat books!

 

Mathematics

 

Students are going to learn about and investigate traditional and non traditional 2 dimensional shapes. I don't want the children to just be able to name the shapes, although this is important it is more important they be able to describe and compare shapes using number of sides, length of sides, and number of vertices (corners). Have your child explore shapes at home. Try this activity at home. Imagine that your backs are drawing boards. Take turns using a finger to draw shapes on each other's backs. Try to guess the shape that the other person is drawing. Talk about what the different shapes feel like . Do they have straight sides or curved sides? Do they have vertices (corners). Now draw the shape on paper and talk about what it looks like. The shapes the children are expected to know are triangle, square, rectangle, and circle. However, to challenge the SK's and prepare them for grade one we will also investigate hexagon, trapezoid, and rhombus.

Some of the children's learning will be to be given a circle and in the circle cut pictures from magazines and flyers that are a circle in the real world. We will do the same with a square and rectangle this week.

 

 

By Heart Words

 

For this week the By Heart Words are:   here    blue

 

The children will be creating We like books this week. I bought two small packages of animal stamps from Winners this weekend. I thought they would be good for the JK children because they could print:  We like  and then stamp an animal. The SK's will continue to print We like print the word of what they like and make the picture.

 

I have created a new game to reinforce the use of these words. The game is called Spin a Word. On a sheet of paper there are six by heart words. The children take a little spinning top and spin it. The word the spinning top lands on the children print that word on their sheet. The first word to get all 5 spaces filled wins.

 

 

Reminder about Friday Novemer 16th

 

 

Friday, November 16th is a P. A. Day. This means there is no school for the children on Friday. For the children who attend Kindergarten in the morning and go to Day Care after Kindergarten, the pizza lunch will be on Thursday, November 15, 2012 instead of Friday. That means the order forms will be going home on Wednesday, November 14th this week.

 

 

Construction Area

 

Dinosaurs have been added to the construction area. For this week the challenge for the builders will be to build a structure that will keep 10 dinosaurs safe and the children must build something that the dinosaurs are not able to escape from. There must be a door and a window so the dinosaurs have can look out at the world around them. The boys and girls love a challenge and very eager to build and design something. This is a wonderful opportunity for team work and cooperation. When the children are pleased with their design their will recreate the design by drawing it in the journal and I will write what they want to say about the design. 

 

Thank You

 

I want to thank all the parents for their kind comments about the blog. To answer your question it is not a lot of work because it helps you and I to be connected with the learning that takes place in the Kindergarten classroom. I try hard to update the blog once a week and it is usually on a Sunday afternoon. So be sure to visit the blog once a week so you are up to date on what is happening in the classroom.