Hanging Loose with Mother Goose!

The boys and girls had so much fun learning about Nursery Rhymes this week!  We introduced Mother Goose and voted on whether we thought she was a person or a goose.  The entire class thought she was a goose!  The Mother Goose rhymes are a great way to introduce rhyming words, beginning sounds, and word play with similar sounds.  They are also fun to learn and chant together as a class!

Oh dear!

Humpty's wall

We started the unit with Humpty Dumpty.  The kids made guesses about why he fell off the wall.  Many kids thought maybe he was making "not-safe choices" or he was pushed by a bully (not a Roycemore kid for sure!).  We then made a small wall out of blocks.  We balanced a square and a triangle block on the wall, and those block shapes were able to "sit" on the wall without wobbling.  We placed a real egg on the wall, and it wobbled right off!  The kids came to the conclusion that Humpty was not pushed, he fell off because he was an oval and had no straight edge to sit on!  The kids loved watching the egg splat on the floor!  We also made a craft project of Humpty and tore small pieces of paper to create a brick wall and cut an oval to create the egg shape.  It was difficult to cut the oval shape, but the kids did their best work!  These are on display in the classroom.

We also had A LOT of fun with Little Miss Muffet!  As we all know, she was frightened by a spider while eating her curds and whey.  We talked about the word frightened and talked about things that frighten us.  I brought out a pretend spider and hung him from the ceiling.  The kiddos took turns sitting by the spider and making a scared face.  We have some very good actors and actresses on our hands! These pictures are in the hallway along with a writing activity that shows off the Kindergarten Kids great handwriting!

Our last nursery rhyme from this week was Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater.  We found the rhyming words in this one and clapped the rhythm of the poem.  The kids then thought about what they would keep in a pumpkin and drew a picture of it behind a "pumpkin door".  They also wrote the words using their phonetic knowledge.  I think I would choose the pumpkin with either the money or the candy :)

In math this week, the Kindergartners made complex patterns with beads; these are on display on our math and science board.  They also measured items around the room that were shorter, taller or the same height as themselves.  We played a fun concentration game that focused on counting on from a number.  Kindergarten math includes a lot of work with identifying coins, adding coins, and making change from a dollar.  This week, the K-Kids investigated the different U.S. coins and worked together in pairs to play a grocery store game.

More coin work!

The past couple of weeks, the Kindergarten Kids have been writing in their handwriting books.  The focus is on the strokes of the letters and forming the letters correctly.  Please take a look at the homework helpers in the O.W.L. folders and encourage your child to practice these correct strokes.  I am also encouraging the kids to write their first names "the Kindergarten way" - with an uppercase letter in the beginning and the rest of the letters are lowercase.  Again, please encourage this same format at home!