We had quite a busy week in our classroom! Early in the week, we looked closer at Rememberance day and what it means. We explored the elements of peace, and the role of poppies in thinking about people who are in the military and working for peace. Students created their own poppies using paper, scissors, glue and tissue paper. We read the books "A Poppy is to Remember" as well as "The Peace Book". We talked about how when countries or people get into conflicts, there goal is often to have peace and when we wear a poppy, it is both to remember those who helped countries stay safe, as well as to think about those who are no longer with us. Later in the week, we continued our interest and themes with rocks, minerals and fossils by bringing in a special guest who is a geologist. He show the students a collection of different types of rocks, minerals and fossils. Students had some great comments about the rock features "What are the pockets and holes for in volcanic rocks? "Why are minerals shiny?", and had some good questions about fossils as well "Did scientists have to dive to the bottom of the ocean to collect the fish fossil?". We talked about observation and how scientists look closer through observation and draw what they see. Finally, we had a caterpillar brought into the classroom by one of our students as well as some dried plans and seeds. This was of interest, since we know the weather has gotten colder with snow on the ground. How do plants start to change?
A new month brought some new themes to look at more closely, specifically colors, color mixing, and shapes. The topic of color comes up alot in Kindergarten, as it is a bit part of our world and something many learn about from a very early age. This week, students had a chance to explore the primary colors: Red, Yellow and Blue. We read quite a few books exploring how with these three colors, we can make new colors. We used diluted water colors, eye droppers and petri-dishes as materials so students could control the amount of color and area for their experiments. Some students started asking about how to make colors lighter and darker, and discovered how all the colors together make dark brown or black. Students also had a chance to make some designs and patterns with geometric shapes, do some number and quantity matching, letter matching, and look closer at some different rocks and fossils. By the end of the week, some students discovered how some rocks have materials that can be seen and used--fragments mixed with water made a sort of paint material, while the coal had a dark powder that could be used with a pencil. More to come with this new investigation into rocks and minerals!! For now, here is a look at our week in pictures.
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Welcome to Kindergarten!This is our class blog. Monthly Archives
February 2016
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