Water Play: BUBBLES

I have noticed for the past two days that my students are noticing bubbles while playing at the water centre. I asked, "Where did the bubbles come from?" "How do we make bubbles?" The girls below believe that the rigorous movement of their hands in the water "when they shake the water" the bubbles comes.

The girls are pushing the water in one direction to form bubbles. They were asked to push the water in the opposite direction to see if they produced the same results.

Water slips through your hands but the bubbles stick

This student collected the bubbles in the container and "poured" it back and forth.

Creating a Picture Dictionary (PM CLASS)

Many students in the class often ask me how to spell words while they are writing. I am tying to encourage them to use the resources in the room to help them spell common words. We also have picture dictionaries in the classroom but we thought it was more meaningful to create a dictionary based on things the students wanted to know how to spell (e.g., their names, activities and objects in the classroom). The students decorated an old scrapbook and I wrote the alphabet inside. The students took pictures of things in the classroom they wanted to include in the dictionary and they are being encouraged to think of more things to include. Below is a look inside our class picture dictionary.

The outside of our dictionaries

 We had so many pictures and words for the letter Ss, we ran out of room!!

 

the Ww page...some of our pages need more words!

**The AM class will begin taking pictures soon.

Activities to promote Fine Motor Development

Asking your child to start writing before they are ready may deter them from wanting to write.  Children need good control of their hand muscles before they can begin the process of writing.  To help develop strong fine motor skills try these following activites.


This is a short article which explains why fine motor skills are important:
http://www.examiner.com/article/the-importance-of-developing-your-child-s-fine-motor-skills



This link provides activities to help develop your child's fine motor skills:
http://www.mpf.org/fine%20motor%20activities.pdf

Constructing a Road

Three students worked cooperatively together and used blocks to build a road for the trucks. They needed the road because "trucks drive on the road!"

Reading Buddies (AM Class)

Every Day 2, our morning Kindergarten class has reading buddies with a Grade 2 class. Each Kindergarten student is  paired with a Grade 2 student, who reads simple stories to our Kindergarten children. We usually begin our Reading Buddy session with a story or interactive activity. Today we talked about patterns and used the students to create a tall, short pattern.

 

The students then separated into their reading buddy pairings. The grade 2 students encourage the Kindergarten students to follow the story with their finger, and use pictures to talk about the story. The Grade 2 teacher and I walk around and talk to the different groups about what they are learning.