May 27, 2024
J is for JEEP Day!
In kindergarten, we love to celebrate in style! Each year we countdown to the last day of school along with the alphabet - but, we go backwards! From Z to A we have themed days for the kids planned and so far it's been such a great time and it's something that helps keep the kids engaged right up to the last day.
Today, we're celebrating with the letter J and it's a JEEP drive-in! The idea took a minute to come to fruition, but I'm so glad my teammate suggested JEEPs for this day. Here's what we're up to!
Planning for JEEP Day
A few weeks after sharing the Countdown to Summer calendar with families (it outlines all of the themed days for the final 26 days of school), I sent home a separate flyer that gave student families the directions to creating their cardboard Jeeps along with ideas to get them started. Giving families enough of a heads up is vital and helps with participation.
This is our first year doing this and I have to say how impressed I am with the JEEPs that came in!
JEEP Day
To start, I designated an area of the classroom a "Parking Lot" where the JEEPs can be stored and kept safe. When it was time for our movie, I arranged the JEEPs so the kids could see without being blocked. I decided
JEEP Duckies
The phenomenon that is "getting ducked" by JEEP enthusiasts is something I shared with the class. I wanted to give them some background knowledge about the duckies and where it started. I found this news segment that explains the ducks and keeps the explanation short and sweet for my students.
We chatted a little afterward about the significance of the ducks and how the act of "ducking" is out of kindness to strangers - and how it took off to be a global movement!
Next, I gave students a blank duckie template where they designed their own JEEP duckie. When they finished coloring, they cut them out and glued them to their JEEPs.
It ended up being such an easy way to take part in the fun that is being a JEEP owner!
Fun Jeep Read-Alouds
Of course we can't have JEEP Day without fun read alouds! Here are a few of my favorite titles to read:
Sheep in a Jeep
My Daddy's Jeep
This is a fun story that explores vintage Jeeps all the way to more modern models through storytelling from around the world. The reader gets to see how Jeeps have evolved over time and enjoy seeing them go on different adventures!
The Little Jeep Who Couldn't Beep
This is a special story inspired by real US Army Jeeps that were driven during the war in Vietnam. After the war, and the Jeep's job was done, it was left to rust in a cold, dark shed....that' is until someone rescued him. It's such an endearing story and one I enjoyed sharing with my students.
There are so many cute ways to bring JEEP Day to life and I'm so happy with how it turned out! Here's to just 7 days left of school!
May 25, 2024
Graduation Directed Drawings
As I prepare for our end-of-year kindergarten graduation, I begin to prep all of the things students will be presenting to their parents on the big day. There's a writing portfolio I assemble using work samples from throughout the year, their monthly self-portraits and name writing, and other fun pieces from the year.
In addition, students create watercolor self-portraits of them in their caps and gowns. This is an activity where I direct them (no YouTube required) and each year they come out so well! I display them in the hallway for a couple of weeks before I laminate them and present them during our class party.
Why Directed Drawings?
All year long I guide my students to become familiar with themselves. Call it a little SEL mixed with identity. The reason why I incorporate this activity each year is because of a moment in time when students would draw themselves, but not the way they actually looked. Everyone's skin would be "peach" regardless of their actual skin color. Hair would be drawn straight even if they had big curls. Or students would omit things like their glasses.
Flashback: While teaching kindergarten at the French school a few years ago, I was enamored with how my French colleagues (from preschool through elementary) emphasized drawing human forms (known has "bonhomme"). This showed me just how capable students were when given opportunities and direction.
Since then, self-portraits and directed drawings have become a mainstay all year and eventually become something the students present to their families on graduation day.
BOY Directed Drawings
Since the beginning of the year is all about welcoming students and beginning those classroom community lessons, self-portraits are a great way to get students to begin seeing themselves as they are. In kindergarten social studies, students even learn the concept: "I am alike, I am different." This lends so much to what I love to build within my students!
I use personal handheld mirrors (provided initially for phonics/sound wall time) for students to observe their features. During various lessons we use them to focus on things about ourselves that make us alike and different. For example, we all have eyes...that's what makes us alike. But, our eyes can be different shapes or colors...that's what makes us different. We continue with this for a few lessons and then begin practicing self-portraits.
Graduation Directed Drawings
For this activity I model for students each step to creating their directed drawing. We all begin with the same features, then I tell them to add their own to make their pictures reflect what they look like.
General Guide:
- Draw a large oval for the face
- Add straight lines for the neck, a curved line connecting the sides of the neck
- Add diagonal lines to shape the shoulders to the end of the page. Add additional lines to make it look like a graduation gown
- Add facial features such as: eyes, nose, mouth, ears, eyebrows etc.
- Draw a triangle shape at the top of the head. This will be part of the cap
- Guide students to drawing a slanted square as the top of the cap. Add an optional tassel to the side
From there, I guide students to think about how they would draw their own personal features such as hair. Are they wearing earrings or glasses? They are to add these things to their own pictures.
Then I have them use skin-colored crayons to color their face and neck. Crayons also help keep the watercolors from bleeding onto the areas of their skin. When ready, students will finish off their drawings by coloring with watercolors. I tell them their cap and gown has to be blue, but they are to color everything else how they want. Finally, they are to pick a background color and done!
Each year our class receives so many compliments on their graduation drawings. They also make for such a cute keepsake for families. It's fun to see how students incorporate the different illustration skills they've picked up from various directed drawings throughout the year (those "cute" eyes!). I'm always so impressed in how they've all grown as illustrators and it's my hope they'll continue this growth throughout their educational journeys.
I hope this was a helpful and fun idea for your own end-of-the-year celebrations!
May 20, 2024
End of the Year Reflections
It's almost time to say goodbye to this year's group of kinders! I can't believe how much time has just flown by, but I'm very excited for the summer ahead (and so are they!). So, to get in the summer spirit in these last couple of weeks we spent a moment thinking about what we're most excited for.
I found this cute sunglasses template online and created a quick worksheet. After reading our story (see below), we brainstormed the various things we're excited to do over summer break. Many students thought about the traveling they'd do or simply being able to sleep in. From there, they drew pictures in the frames reflecting those ideas.
I did a quick modeling of how to turn the body template into features of myself. Luckily we've done a ton of self-portraits this year, so students were very familiar with how to do this.
And Then Comes Summer
The read-aloud I chose for this activity was the story And Then Comes Summer by Tom Brenner. It is such a beautiful story about a group of kids and their experiences during the summer break. Simple things like enjoying popcicles from the ice cream man, playing tag, or going to the beach. It was a great way to help students visualize their summer plans and make connections.
This was such a simple activity and perfect for those end of the year days with students. I hope this inspires you as you enjoy your last moments with your own class!
April 17, 2024
Researching in Kindergarten | Part 2
Welcome to part two! In this post I'm going to share with you how the researching stage of this unit looks like in my classroom. If you haven't already, be sure to check out my last post where I discuss how I introduce the research unit to my class.
For this part of our unit my class will begin their research to answer the following questions:
- what does my animal look like (diagram)
- where does my animal live?
- what does my animal eat?
- what is an interesting fact about my animal?
They will utilize the various sources that we've introduced and explored. These sources include NF books from the library, Epic Books, and an online database called Pebble Go. I typically have students spend one day for each of the questions they must answer. This allows them to have ample time to locate the information and copy it onto their planning sheet.
Once their planning sheets are complete, students are now ready to begin creating their published non-fiction books. This stage is completed during our reading and writing blocks because we focus on both reading and writing TEKs.
Diagrams
For this lesson, students have the opportunity to review key text features of non-fiction/informational texts. The one feature we focused on was diagrams. We explored different texts and reviewed how diagrams help the reader understand the parts of something.
I found this awesome video that explores diagrams, too (although, we didn't watch the whole video). It was a great supplement to my lesson. I loved how it included various examples of diagrams and made planning this lesson easier.
Student-Made Diagrams
Now, students were ready to explore Epic Books or the books they checked out from the library to hunt for diagrams of their animals. I provided them their publishing paper where they were to copy the diagram from their source and include at least three labels. I was so proud to see them navigating their sources with such ease.
Preparing for misconceptions or confusion...
One aspect of this lesson that I had to make sure students understood was that they were not so much reading to find information, but rather perusing the pictures to find a diagram. I also wanted them to know that not ALL non-fiction books include diagrams. This meant they would have to look through a variety of books to find this text feature. Luckily, they were pros and were able to find some pretty great examples of diagrams to use for their books.
In part three of our research unit, I'll share how students transfer their information from their planning page to their final non-fiction books. This will be a 2-3 day process where students complete a page that answers the questions: what my animal eats, where they live, and their interesting fact.
Feel free to get my full research unit on TpT!
See you then and happy teaching!
April 16, 2024
Introducing Research in Kindergarten | Part 1
One of my all-time favorite units in reading/writing to teach is research. Year after year, my students find it to be highly engaging and I see them gaining so much confidence through each of the components. By the end of this unit, my students have truly become experts in their chosen animal and the best part is they've equipped themselves with a multitude of research skills. These skills include:
- identifying what sources are/their use and logging into those sources
- guiding their research through questions
- recording their findings with a graphic organizer
- sharing their findings with a culminating writing project and poster
It is always a joy to see the benefit of this research unit and just how engaged students are. Here's what our research unit looks like in my classroom!
Introducing Research
The first week of this new unit our class spends a lot of time building up their schema around the foundations of research. We discuss things such as:
- The purpose of research
- Steps to research
- Facts vs opinions
- Sharing our research with others
This helps students begin to conceptualize what research is and how they'll be moving through this process throughout the unit.
Exploring Sources
This year I changed up my introduction to research to include a day where students get to explore different sources. We discuss what sources are and how we plan to use them throughout the unit. The sources we use in our class include:
- Non-Fiction books (checked out from our school library)
- Pebble Go
- Epic Books
I spend a day or two for students to engage with and explore these different sources. At this point we haven't jumped into research just yet, but rather giving students the chance to explore and get excited about the work that's coming ahead.
We discuss the features of each source and students get a feel for the source they prefer and discuss why.
Pebble Go
PRO: In kindergarten, we love using Pebble Go (our district has a subscription) because it's an online source that's easy to navigate and the site reads to the students.
CON: One of the downsides to Pebble Go is that there is a username and password. For my kinders, this is tricky because they're only beginning to read/write. To help with this, I print our username and password for each student and tape it into their supply boxes. This helps me a lot because my more capable students get really good at logging in themselves and that frees me up to help my other students to log in.
So, after I model and they practice logging in, students have time to explore around the Animals section to decide on the animal they're most interested and excited to research about. By the end of this lesson, my students have chosen their animal and have experience logging in to the source they'll be using most often during this unit!
Asking Questions to Guide Research
Building upon their understanding, students then learn all about the steps to research: planning, researching, recording, and sharing. I simplify it into these steps to provide an easy-to-follow outline for my students. Furthermore, I explain that as they become experts they will be researching to answer four main questions:
- What does my animal look like?
- Where does my animal live?
- What does my animal eat?
- What is a fun fact about my animal?
First, we discuss how we already come to our research already knowing a little bit about our animals. We take a moment to share out one thing they already know. After this, students then begin to think about the questions that will guide their research in the four areas outlined above (a diagram of their animal, its habitat, its diet, and a fun fact).
I love sharing this video with my students which covers this exact topic:
Now that students have a strong understanding of the purpose behind their research and have guiding questions, they're ready to begin!
I use a simple graphic organizer that helps students track their research. This organizer is already broken into sections for each question students will answer. I collect this organizer after each lesson and pass them back out the next day for the next lesson.
Check out my next post to see what the researching stage looks like in my classroom! And feel free to get my full research unit on TpT!
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