Squishy Circuits

On Wednesday May 14, we attended a special presentation put on by the University of St. Thomas Engineering Department.  Ann Marie Thomas, a professor in the engineering department at St. Thomas, taught us a class on "Squishy Circuits".  We learned about what a circuit is and used play dough, wires, light bulbs and battery packs to create our own circuits.  It was a great experience!

Ann Marie Thomas

   

   

   

   

It is so great for the Kindergartners to actually have hands on experience with an event like this.  Many thanks to the University of St. Thomas Engineering Department, Mrs. Carl and the Northview PTO for sponsoring such a great science event.  If you are interested in more information on this or want to try it at home, Ms. Thomas said you can google "squishy circuits" for directions.  Have fun!

Learning About Author's Voice and Point of View

In our read alouds this week, we have been discussing and learning about author's voice and point of view.  We read three versions of the story about the three little pigs.

The Three Little Pigs by Paul Galdone

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf by Mark Teague

We had some incredible discussions about each of these stories.  We talked about the characters, setting and whose point of view the author is telling the story from.  We discussed the problem in each story, decided what was the climax or most important event of the story, agreed on the turning point of each story and determined the lesson in each.  We made some pretty amazing story maps, too.

I continue to be amazed at the discussions we are having and the knowledge your children have gained this year.  They have become such great thinkers when it comes to literature.  I am so excited for all they are learning and will continue to learn throughout the years!!

Poetry

We have been busy learning about and exploring poetry.  Did you know that you can write a poem about anything??  Well, you can.  We started out by listening to lots of poems written by Shel Silverstein.  Then Mrs. Hemsey chose some poetry books that we could just look at and explore.  They were really cool!

   

   

   

We loved exploring the poetry books.  We discovered that you can write fiction and nonfiction poems, too.  Then we decided to try writing one together.  We decided on a topic, which was Rainy Days.  Next we brainstormed ideas and shared anything that reminded us of rainy days.  Then we came up with this:

Next step is to think of our own topics and to write our own poem.  Stay tuned...

Frog Story Problems

This week we completed our frog story problems.  Much like the sea creature problems we created in February, the kindergartners created and wrote their own story problems about frogs.  We did the writing part of this just like we would do a Writing Workshop lesson.  Then we took it a step further by not just writing the problem…we illustrated it as well.  Take a look at some of our awesome work.  We have some pretty amazing writers and illustrators in this class!

   

   

   

Animals 2 x 2

We are getting started with our new Science unit, Animals 2 x 2.  Here is a little preview of the creatures we will be learning about.

We will learn about pill bugs and sow bugs.  This is new for us this year!

   

Goldfish and guppies as well as water snails are back this year.

And, of course, the ever popular incubator.  We are hoping to hatch 6 baby chicks on or around May 19.  We will keep you posted!

Learning About Opinions

One of the things we have been discussing lots lately is opinions.  In our Reading Workshop read aloud stories, we talk about the opinions of the author and even the characters in the stories often.  We are learning that people have different opinions and that is O.K.  We do not have to agree with the opinions of others, but we do need to respect them.

For example, take my friend Sophie and I.  Sophie happens to be an Iowa State Cyclone fan and everyone knows Mrs. Kurt is an avid Iowa Hawkeye fan.  We decided to have a little fun with our differing opinions and each wear our University of Iowa and Iowa State shirts on the same day.  We showed that although we may not agree on which team is the best, we do respect each other's opinions!

Thanks for being a good sport, Sophie, and for helping us learn that it is O.K. to have a different opinion!

Readers Theater

On Thursday afternoon, our class was invited to a Readers Theater performed by Mrs. Hanson's Third Grade GT class.  The story they read and performed for us was called Three Hens and a Peacock.  

It was kind of cool that they did this story since we have been reading different versions of The Little Red Hen.  The third grade GT students did a great job.  They read their parts with clear, loud voices so we could hear and understand what they were saying.  We loved it!  When the play was finished, the third grade students let us ask questions about the play.  It was fun for us to see and they did an excellent job!

   

   

  

   

Thanks for inviting us to see your play, third graders!