What is the name of a mammal with a blowhole?

A whale!  They learned many facts about the two different types of whales - toothed whales and baleen whales.  Did you know that toothed whales have one blowhole and baleen whales have two blowholes?  The K-Kids and I learn something new everyday :)  We used a Venn Diagram to compare the two different types of whales.  As usual, I was blown away by their connections to the learning and ability to organize their thoughts into the Venn Diagram.  The K-Kids also chose one ocean animal and wrote at least three clues about their ocean animal.  They "hid" the picture of the animal under a paper shell to create a fun and interactive riddle activity that is now displayed in the hallway.  Read the clues and take a peek to see if you are correct.

I am so impressed with the huge leaps the kids have taken in their writing!  They are really becoming independent and creative writers.  The mini-lessons during Writer's Workshop this week focused on story development and story ideas.  We read fiction books and discussed why we thought the author wrote those stories.  We shared ideas of what we can write about - things we love, things we imagine, and concepts that we are "experts" in (it is pretty funny to hear what the kids think they are experts in!!).  We made a brainstorming list of these topics and can now refer to it when there is a "writer's block" during Writer's Workshop.  The K-Kids also focused on creating interesting stories by incorporating problems or action in their stories.  They are really beginning to set the scene to stories, add interesting characters, and have a problem with a solution in their fiction writing!

Coins and bar graphs were the focus of math this week.  The K-Kids were split into math centers  to focus on coin skills - some children were playing a money exchange game with pennies and dimes, other children were creating amounts of money using different coins, and some children were making change from a dollar.  By differentiating the activities in the centers, I am able to ensure that every child is appropriately challenged without being overly frustrated.  We also did some more work in gathering data, graphing the result, and analyzing the results.  Thank you for completing the homework to further reinforce these concepts.

Thank you to all of the families who were able to attend Literacy Night this week!  The K-Kids had a lovely time sharing their classroom with you and were so excited to spend some extra time with just Mom and/or Dad.  The following morning we had a group discussion and recap about Literacy Night.  One child raised his hand and said he felt so "warm and happy" being with his parents at school.  I told him that feeling is called love, and he just gave me a huge smile.  It made my heart melt!  Enjoy the pictures below.  If you would like a digital copy of a photo, please let me know!

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