Eric Carle Painting

Books by Eric Carle are perfect for Kindergarten!

We love:






...just to name a few.

Over the past few weeks, we've read at least 25 books by Eric Carle.  Last week, we decided to try our hand at painting like Eric Carle.  Here is a link to Eric Carle's website, where he describes how he "makes" his own paper. 

We use washable paint and lots of different painting materials to get our fabulous texture.  I love Lakeshore Learning, and have purchased most of my painting supplies there.



We used brushes, sponges, and painting stamps to add just 3 colors to each paper. 



We looked at lots of paintings by Eric Carle as inspiration.

It was messy, but so much fun!

Most of the kids had never painted with anything except brushes or hands. These painting combs are amazing, when you paint an entire paper and then drag them through.  Although I suggested that kids try this, many wanted to try it their own way.  I love letting kids explore with art materials. 

The new techniques were exciting to try.

We'll be using our painted paper to create a class book in December.

Happy painting!

Gardening Books and Pinterest

I know several of the parents in my class are already on Pinterest.  If you haven't already discovered it, it's a great way to find fabulous activities to do with your kids.  We've just started reading books about growing gardens in kindergarten.  I started a Pinterest board with some of my favorite garden themed books for kids. 

You can check out my Pinterest boards by clicking here.  I have lots of educational activities, books on different themes, and even a bunch of sewing projects and recipes.  I'd love to follow you, if you are on Pinterest.  Please let me know, so I can add you to my list!

For now, I hope you'll take a look at some of my Favorite Gardening Books for Kids. You can find most of them at the public library, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon.  We've been reading many of them in class and I know the kids would love to explore them at home as well.

Happy reading!

Pop! Blowing Bubbles in Kindergarten

I absolutely love the month of May, in kindergarten.  The kids are becoming confident readers and writers. They know they expectations of school and work hard to do their best.    Poetry writing begins in May as well.  It's a time for kids to have fun and write!  I have always found that this unit is the most freeing for young writers. 

Today's poetry experience involved this book:



and these bubbles:

The book came from Barnes and Noble and the bubble set came from Lakeshore Learning, in Bellevue (and online).

Before reading the book, I asked the kids if they had ever had any experiences with bubbles.  Of course, their hands shot into the air.  They all wanted to share their bubble stories. We took time to share and time to "turn and talk" to tell their friends about the stories.  I reminded the kids that because they had played with bubbles before, they had schema for bubbles.  We read the book and kids shared lots of connections they made.

Then came the fun part.  It was a gloriously sunny day, so we went outside for some bubble blowing fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a little bit of free exploration time, I asked the kids to do the same activity, but this time use their writers' eyes.  We talked about using our senses (but not tasting the bubbles) as we made observations.  There were comments about how you could see a rainbow inside of the bubbles, and how far away some of the bubbles floated before popping, and the different sizes of bubbles we were able to make.

When we went inside, the poetry began spilling out. 

"BIG bubbles started into small bubbles.
All bubbles
Pop on the roof"

"Bubbles are shiny.
I like popping bubbles.
I like chasing bubbles.
I like to blow bubbles."

I can't wait to share more of their poetry as kids continue working on these pieces.

I'm so happy to be back in the classroom.  I've been home resting for quite a while.  I won't know for 3 more months if I have any permanent kidney damage, but for now, I'm just thankful to be feeling better every day.  Thank you for your support and understanding while I've been in and out of the classroom and recovering from my surgeries. 

Three Days Off

Hello Families!

It's conference time, and I've been busily meeting with a few families today.  While, I'm here working, many of you are at home with your kids.  What will you be doing on these days off?  (If you're stuck at work, like me, just keep thinking that it's almost the weekend.)

If you do happen to be at home with the kids, and you're looking for something fun to do, I always recommend the zoo, aquarium, or science center.  If you're looking for something a little less expensive, like FREE, then I'd like to suggest a trip to Bothell Feed Center. (by Fred Meyer's at Thrasher's Corner)  We have a pet bunny at home.  This is Cookie.


I buy everything we need for Cookie at Bothell Feed Center.  I'm a farm girl at heart, so making the trip to the local feed store just feels better than going to a big chain pet store.  Anyway, I was at Bothell Feed Center last week and can you guess what they had there?  BABY CHICKS!  I was soooo close to taking a few chicks home and telling my hubby he had to build a chicken coop. 


Heading to Bothell Feed Center would make a GREAT field trip over the next few days.  As an extension, here are a few questions you might want to ask your child:

What is something that you can do that a baby can't do?
What are some ways we take care of babies until they can care for themselves?
How do you think you would care for a baby chick, or another baby animal?  (This would be a great question to ask at the feed center too.)
Where did you sleep when you were a baby?
Where do baby animals sleep?
How do animals stay warm at night?
Where do you think a bird might sleep?
How do you think birds make their nests?
What do you think they use to make their nests?

The conversations could be endless!  I love to talk with curious kids.  They are full of wonder and excitement about learning.  Turning a simple trip to the pet store into an inquiry project is really exciting for kids.

Here are a few books you might want to track down too:









Here's a great idea for helping the birds too!



And here is the link to the original post, if you'd like to read more about it.  By the way, Bothell Feed Center has an excellent supply of wild bird food, if you're interested in feeding the birds.


Have your kids create a stuffed animal play area in your house.  Encourage them to show what they know about how animal parents care for their babies.

The possibilities are endless!  I hope you're enjoying your time with your kids and finding some wonderful learning experiences to fill your days!  We'll see you all on Monday, and I hope you have great stories to tell about your days off. 

Happy Field Tripping!

Warm Cookies, On a Cold Winter Day

Is there anything better?

We've been cooking in kindergarten. Today is cookie day. Our AM and PM kindergarten classes will be making chocolate chip cookies.

We spent the morning browsing through cook books, looking to see how the authors use pictures, words, and numbers. Several kids noticed that the directions were numbered in a few of the books. We talked about how this is a sequence of events.

Our new cereal-box-writing-books are a hit! We need a few more empty cereal boxes, if you are able to send some to school. Today we wrote about something we love to cook, or have cooked for us at home.

I hope you'll continue to cook and bake with your kids at home. It's wonderful to build their background knowledge through hands-on practice!

Happy baking!

Gingerbread Friends

Kindergarten teachers love collecting different versions of The Gingerbread Man. Maybe we love it because we take the kids on a hunt for the Gingerbread Man on the first day of Kindergarten. Whatever the reason, when December rolls around, we break out the books.

The Gingerbread Baby, by Jan Brett, is one of my all time favorites. If you haven't seen it already, Jan Brett has a terrific website with lots of great activities and games for kids.

Recently, we read Gingerbread Friends, also by Jan Brett.

I think Gingerbread Girl is my #1 favorite. This little girl is smart and sassy. My daughter loves this book too. I think she has a lot in common with that smart and sassy Gingerbread Girl.

Our kindergarteners made some gingerbread friends of their own.  We invited families to help with this project at home.  The kindergarten gingerbread friends are SO much fun to see!

Thank you for helping your kids with this project!  We love encouraging projects that families can do together. 

Homework for Parents

Am I allowed to assign homework to parents?  If I could, I'd assign THIS book for all parents to read.

I read a lot of books on early childhood education.  It's my passion!  As you know, I have kids of my own and 50 kindergarten students who rely on me to have a firm understanding of how they learn.  This is the SINGLE BEST BOOK I've read about early childhood education.

Mariah Bruehl is the author.  I purchased my copy of the book from Amazon.com.

This book is brilliantly written for parents with young children.  Mariah briefly discusses developmental stages in reading, writing, math, science, and social awareness.  She explains what parents will see when they work with their children.  The best part about the book (in my opinion) is the fact that it is all about learning through play and life experiences.  It's not about sitting down with a workbook.  It's about real life.

Mariah also writes a blog and offers online classes for parents and teachers.  I have taken her Playful Learning class online and it was fabulous. My kids took her writing/photography class  over the summer and enjoyed it as well.

Happy reading!

Miss Bindergarten

You just can't call yourself a kindergarten teacher if you don't read Miss Bindergarten to your students during the first week of school.

 

Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten is destined to be a kindergarten classic! We read this story to our classes this week and we'd like to encourage you to read it to your kids at home too. You're probably wondering why we'd ask you to read a story they've already heard. The reason we'd like to you read it again, is so your child can share their schema. Schema is all of the "stuff" you know about, have experienced, seen on tv, or read in books. It's everything you know about a topic, rolled up and stored in your brain until you need it again. Miss Bindergarten provides the perfect opportunity for kids to share their kindergarten experiences with you.

The pictures in this book really tell the story of what happens in a kindergarten classroom. Kids will be able to picture read with their parents and make connections to their own experiences. If you don't already own this book, I'd encourage you to find it at the public library. I promise, you and your kids will love it!

Letter Writing

Over the past few days, we have read several books about gardens.  The story The Gardener is written in the form of letters.  The little girl writes letters to her mother, father, and grandmother, while she is helping at her uncle's shop.  The kids were really fascinated by the format of the book.  Several kids commented on the way the letters actually tell the story. 

Sometime, over the next week and a half, I'd love it if you could have your child write and mail a letter to someone.  Letter writing is a fun and exciting way for kids to communicate, especially if they receive a letter in return! I told the kids that they can bring the letter in to read to the class first, if they would like.

Happy writing!

A Peek Into Easy Readers

Last week I shared a boxed set of books that I'm in love with. The Ready, Set, Go series is perfect for beginning readers.

 

 

 

I love the simplicity of these books. They have a simple sight word and the picture clearly matches the text. When you are reading simple books like these with your kids, they will memorize. That's ok! Just have them practice pointing to the words as they say them too. One to one correspondence of print is a learned skill. All of the books in set one have just two words on each page. My daughter loves these because they are only 4 page books! She feels like a reader and it's quick!

Set 2 has full sentences. Still, the text is predictable enough that kids can read on their own or with minimal support. Key sight words are used, which helps develop fluency in reading! Again, have kids point to the words as they read. Make sure your child understands where to start if the sentence is broken into two lines. That return sweep is sometimes hard for kids to understand. This is a perfect time to talk about the words on the page, punctuation, and the way authors write with mostly lowercase letters.

 

 

 

Set 3 contains books with much longer sentences and more pages in each book. My daughter hasn't been able to read these books without support yet, but she keeps trying. Sometimes I will read these books to her and have her point to the words for me.

 

 

Our new literacy program does have little books that we will be sending home. These will not start coming home for several more weeks. If you have had a child in kindergarten and still have the pre-decodable and decodable books that we used in years past, feel free to have your child read these. The Lynnwood Library has many easy readers too. I LOVE the Wright Group books. They are kept in tubs in the children's area. If you are looking to purchase books, Barnes and Noble carries the Ready, Set, Go series and the sets by Nora Gaydos. Wrightgroup.com has fantastic books for early readers too!

Happy reading!