Last week we began a project with our reading buddies, creating a board game focused on each child's nature name.  We continued this again on Thursday and on Friday kindergarteners were excited to  spend time playing their games.  While they vary in complexity and specific procedures, they are all based on getting the animal back to its home, and all involve rolling a die and moving game pieces along a numbered game board.  Some of these are still works in progress, but eventually they will be laminated and sent home for you to try!

With the return of snow and cold we stuck with a winter theme for ECO on Wednesday.  We began the morning talking about different sled designs, contemplating which design would be fastest. Children then had an opportunity to design and build their own mini sleds using materials from the recycling bin.  Everyone was impressively engaged during this task and we ended up with a variety of imaginative sleds.  Several had covers for protection and one is meant to be steam operated. Unfortunately it remained to cold for us to test the sleds outside, but hopefully we will have a chance to do that before the snow is gone for good.

We spent time reviewing animal gaits, focusing on waddling, walking, hopping, and bounding, using yoga mats to try out the various gaits.  Ask your child which gait is most challenging!  Children also worked in groups to set track trails down the hall leading to the animal that would make that particular track.  Each group then had a chance to follow a different set of tracks to its corresponding animal.   While half of the class was "tracking"  the other half began working on a tracking story background that will eventually be used in a short shadow puppet show for each child's nature name.  (We didn't have time to complete this today, but will get to it next week.)   Despite not being able to go outside we had a fun morning.

On Friday as a formal conclusion to our science unit on pushes and pulls students were given a challenge to design a way to move 5 rocks from the floor up to a table.  They worked in teams and had a variety of materials available for their use.  Pulleys were quite intriguing so most chose to incorporate a pulley into their design.  This was a great opportunity to practice team work and persistence and also lots of fun.  While we are officially done with the science unit I have had many requests to keep using the pulleys and other materials during choice time.

For the last several weeks in math we have been exploring geometry, with a focus on two-dimensional shapes.  Children have engaged in many activities to help them learn the defining features of specific shapes (circles, rectangles, squares, triangles, and hexagons) and recognize similarities and differences between shapes.  One game we played is called the barrier game.  Partners each have a 3X3 grid, hidden from view of the other partner.  One partner uses specific directions to tell the other partner where to place shapes on the grid, trying to create two matching grids.  This activity provided practice in naming shapes and also using position words such as above and below.  It's also a great exercise in speaking clearly and listening!

We wrapped up our exploration of 2-D shapes by working with partners to create a poster about one particular shape.  Children used a variety of materials to create several examples of their assigned shape and also included two non-examples.  We have now moved on to three-dimensional shapes, with emphasis on cones, spheres, cylinders, and cubes.  We have been having lots of fun playing a game of recognizing a 3-D shape by feel.