Learning About the Native Americans

We enjoyed learning a lot about the Native Americans last week. We made canoes, tipis, native american clothing and a totem pole!!! We had so much fun making out totem pole Tuesday morning. The kids brainstormed which animals they thought were the MOST important to the Native American people. After we had our list of animals each person got to vote on which one they would like to help create. The groups were split evenly and we went to work! I LOVE the way it turned out!!! It will be sitting outside our classroom for a long time! 

Here we are making our Native American clothing..

And the finished product!! We got to wear these costumes down to lunch one day to have a feast! (Chicken nuggets.. ;) )

Here is the buffalo group! They added lots of string and tissue paper to make it look hairy...awesome!! The buffalo are important to the Native Americans because they used their skin to make clothing.

Fish are important to the Native Americans because it was one of their food sources! I never would have thought of that! They are such smarties! This group used lots of colorful tissue paper and sparkly sequins for the scales. So cool.

These girls thought the horse was important to the Native Americans because they rode them to get from place to place, to hunt and to sell goods. I love the string the added for the horses mane!

The eagle is usually always at the top of a totem pole. This group got to make our eagle head and wings and did a GREAT job! They were so creative.

Here is the turtle group! We decided turtles were important to Native Americans because they used their shells as shields and turned them into bowls to eat out of. What great imaginations. :) This group worked hard gluing construction paper and tissue paper to make the shell look real. 

And here is our finished totem pole!!!!!! I am one proud teacher. 

I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!!! I am so thankful for such a great class and great parents who are supportive and helpful. Enjoy your time with these little guys at home. I will be excited to see them when we get back to school! 

How to Catch a Turkey!

In Writer’s Workshop we have been writing “How To” stories. In a “How To” writing we first think of something we know how to do. Then we think of the steps it takes to do it. When we have the idea we draw three separate pictures to show all of the steps and then add words! They have come up with some great ideas and they are becoming wonderful writers! Since we have been talking a lot about turkeys we brainstormed a class “How To” called “How to Catch a Turkey.”

 

 

We came up with some ideas together about how we could catch a turkey. They got to choose which one they wanted to write about. Here are some of our writings!

 

 

 

 

   

 

First put the trap up.

 

 

Next the turkey got in the trap.

 

Last I bring the turkey home.

 

 

 

 

First put the trap up.

 

 

 

Next trap the turkey.

 

 

Last the trap got the turkey.

 

First put up the trap.

 

 

 

Next put the turkey in the cage.

 

 

Last put the turkey in the house.

 

Owls

We finished Owls a week and a half ago and I am just now posting about it! Sorry! Here is a quick re-cap of what we did during our owl study.

We introduced owls by reading Good-Night Owl by Pat Hutchins. This story had

lots of colorful illustrations and we learned that owls sleep during the day and are awake at night. This is called nocturnal. We made our own owls with fun scrapbook paper. We made sure to include big eyes to remember owls have good eye sight.

 

   

We did a guided drawing with these owls and then used water colors to paint them. A guided drawing means I drew the owl step by step and they had to listen and watch my directions and copy it onto their paper. It definitely makes them focus! They did a great job!

 

We talked about four types of Owls during our unit. We made a class chart of each owl with what they ate, where they lived, how tall they were and how long their wings were. It was a good way for us to compare the owls and see how they were the same and how they were different.

Here are our Snowy Owls:

  

Our Great Horned Owls:

 

We also talked about the Barn Owl and the Pygmy Owl. Charles came to our class again and showed us what all of these owls looked like AND sounded like! The kids loved it and learned lots of fun facts.

At the end of our unit the kids got to pick their favorite owl to make with whatever materials they wanted. Lots of them painted, some used markers and some used construction paper. They made sure to make them look like the real owls would look!

50th Day Celebration

50’s day is my favorite!! We had such a fun,
crazy day. To start our morning we
compared pictures of what things looked
like in the 1950’s and what they look like
now.  It was fun to explain to the kids what
a jukebox, diner and record are.

   (2011 should be 2012 )







Then we chewed gum to see who was able to
make bubbles! A lot of us could not, but it was
still fun to chew the gum.
 
During math time we wrote our numbers all the way to 50 and then we played a game called “Race to 50.” The kids rolled a dice and colored in that many squares on their board. The first one to reach the number 50 was the winner!
 
 
During Writer’s Workshop we started our new unit on “How To” writings. Today we practiced our first “How To” writing together. Our topic was “How to Make a Soda Float.” This was a good incentive because after we were done we actually got to eat soda floats!
 
         
We had a sock hop with the whole kindergarten and had so much fun!! We did the hand jive, the limbo and the hokey pokey. It was fun to dance with everyone and listen to some 50’s music!
      
 
       
We had a great 50’s day!!