Our bulletin board for March and April showed off our writing. The students wrote "I can..." statements telling things they can do because they were just ducky!
This year I used cups rather than a water table for planting. The children were able to take home their cups prior to spring break, complete with a little sign. I used puffy paint to write every student's name. Waterproofing was a must.
The sign reads, "I have sprouted in kinder'garden.'"
Last time I made the Easter egg sight word puzzles, I used Sharpie. It didn't last, so this time I'm trying puffy paint. Hopefully, it won't get picked off!
We are in the process of moving, so pardon my bare walls. For our new bulletin board, we made flower bubble maps. The stem is the topic and the leaves are the describing words.
Today was our first day back from Spring Break. Last week, I only went in to my classroom once, to find our garden dead, of course. I decided not to discard the sad garden. Before break, the children and I talked about what a plant needs to grow and since our garden had no sunlight nor any water, I took this as a learning opportunity for the classes. We talked about why the plants died, what we could have done to prevent this, and the importance of sunlight and water. I gave the students a chance to feel the crunchy, shriveled up plants and we compared them to the soft, perky alive sprouts we once had. During recess, I wheeled the garden to our grassy area and dumped the plants out, where we touched the roots and discussed their job. Luckily, there were no tears over our "loss." (Sigh of relief.)
This week, we planted our own classroom garden in our water table. We have covered the life cycle of a plant and the parts of a plant, as well.
Our "Morning Message" was altered. I had the children stand up, pretend their feet were a plant's roots, their torso was the stem, their arms were the leaves, and faces were the flowers.
We worked very hard on large projects, showing a plant's needs.
Here's my example.
Here are some projects, showing the life cycle of a tree.
I hung them outside of our classroom.
We watched two FABULOUS www.brainpopjr.com videos:
1. Parts of a Plant
2. Life Cycle of a Plant
During recess, I roll our garden table outside to get some sun. The children are allowed to give each plant three sprays, then pass the bottle.
Here are the steps to making our Art Center project.
Above is my example for Art Center.
Day 3
We lacked sunshine for a few days.
Here is my post from our garden last year (and here and here).
We planted radish seeds today. They don't grow into radishes, but they sprout a stem and leaves, and they are pretty sturdy (even when stuck in a water table). We have been discussing the parts of a plant and they are perfect for showing children the roots, stems, and leaves!
Kindergarten is my "thing" and I adore teaching. In May 2007, I received my B.A. from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Elementary Education. 2017 was my tenth (and last) year teaching kindergarten. I taught full- and half-day (AM/PM) kindergarten, as well as taught tuition-based all-day kindergarten for two years. Using my scrapbooking and crafting skills, I prefer to make my own classroom materials and learning centers/stations. All of these materials are aesthetically pleasing to the kindergarten child. I create about half of my student sheets to cater to my students' abilities. I constantly self-reflect and modify lessons and tools to benefit my kindergartners. My students keep me on my toes.