​What an amazing year we had in Kindergarten. I cannot believe how quickly it flew by! Thank you for giving me the opportunity to teach this special group of Kinders. What a blessing this year was! If you find yourself nostalgic about our Kindergarten year, check out our end of the year video below! First grade here they come :)

​The Kindergartners have been learning all about maps, globes, and our world recently. We were able to explore all sorts of maps from maps of the world, maps of Minnesota, to maps of our school! We were even able to find where our school is on a Minnesota road map!
   One special thing that we get to experience during our map/world unit is having the opportunity to learn from a real cartographer! We had a Google hangout with Mr. Mike and he spent a morning teaching us all about how maps are made, what they represent, and even showed us a few of his favorite maps that he had made. We were then able to ask Mr. Mike a few questions that we had about maps and entertain him with the excitement and enthusiasm that Kindergartners have to offer!
    We also started a project of making our very own globes. We made sure that there were 7 pieces of land for the continents, blue for the oceans, and added labels to them this week! 
    What a great time it has been discovering our place in the world! 

Kindergartners have been busy learning all about the different parts of a plants and how different plants grow. It can be so hard to really understand all the parts by just looking at a flower though. We decided to step up as scientists and observe, dissect, and sort all the different parts of a flower. They could not believe that they were able to take a flower apart. Their teacher let them know not to try this at home without a parent's permission!

​After spending the week digging into insect information, we dove into a hands-on experience about pollination. Using our very own bees and "pollen" aka washable paint...the Kindergartners discovered how bees pollinate flowers and spread it all around. The room was buzzing with excitement and pretend bee noises!
   Along with buzzing bees, the Kindergartners took some time to discover what it would be like to have compound eyes like most insects. With our glasses in place, we went around the school, seeing the sights through the eyes of an insect!

The first few weeks of March are always a very exciting time in Kindergarten, it means that it is Read Across America week! That means a celebration of reading and Dr. Seuss! We spent a few weeks reading Dr. Seuss galore, had guest readers from the school in the classroom to read to us, celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday with Things hats, and even had a readathon with our favorite books!
  It was a time full of laughter, silly rhymes, and celebration. Check out a few pictures from our of fun and learning!

 We have been busy learning all about American symbols and some of our famous presidents. After President's Day, we spent the week studying George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. 
   The Kindergartners then brainstormed facts that they learned about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington and created a video about them! They worked together in table groups to share their knowledge and create some spectacular videos!

​Enjoy!

Over the past several weeks, the Kindergartners have been learning all about different animals that live in the Arctic and the Antarctic such as polar bears, walruses, seals, and penguins! We have learned a ton of exciting facts about these animals and how they have adapted to survive in the freezing cold weather and water. One fact that we learned is that these animals have a thick layer of blubber that helps insulate them and keep them warm. We decided to test this and see if blubber really does help keep us warm!
    We filled a container with water and a bag of ice and tested just how cold it was...BRRRR! We then put of our blubber glove (who knew ziploc bags and crisco could help with this?) and then we compared to see if we could feel the cold. 
     After our experiment, we all voted that if we live in the Arctic or Antarctic, we would definitely want to have blubber to help keep us warm! 

   Check out a few pictures of this exciting experiment below!

In Kindergarten, the 100th day school is a huge milestone! It shows just how far we have come in 100 days and it is a great time to celebrate all that we have learned! 
  On our 100th day of school, it felt like we did 100 things! We counted out 100 stickers and put them on remarkable hats, we wrote what we would want to eat 100 of, what we would like 100 of and even what we would do if we had $100!
   We practiced counting all the way to 100 by 5's, 10's, and 1's! We even wrote our numbers all the way to 100. We ended our day with a huge challenge. Kindergartners were split into 5 groups and challenged to build a tower as high as they could with 100 cups. The most important thing that was stressed was teamwork, communication, and problem solving. By the end of our time, there were cup towers that were nearly as tall as the Kindergartners building them!
     We officially can celebrate that we are 100 days smarter!

​The Kindergartners have become masters of reading. They are able to identify beginning and ending sounds like the pros that they are! In order to celebrate how far they have come, they were sent on a task. They entered the Kindergarten Hospital and needed to fix some words!
    There were CVC words all over the classroom and each one was sick and missing something important...their vowel! With their doctor coats on and their patient charts in hand, the Kindergartners spent the afternoon fixing each word and celebrating when the patient was healed!
     By the end of the experience, each Kindergartner proved to be an excellent vowel surgeon and all patients were fixed! This was a great way for the Kindergartners to practice their phonics, use their imaginations, hone their fine motor skills, and have a little bit of fun in the process!
     Look below at our slideshow of pictures to see us in action!

​Over the course of the year, there will be additional things added to the book bags but this is what we are starting with! Kinders will need your help with making sure that the book bags return to school each and every day! As the year goes on, it would be great to make this the student's responsibility but they will need a lot of help at first remembering. I gop that you enjoy the book bags just as much as the Kinders!