Something pretty special happened this week. Our learning goal was to understand what a setting is and identify the setting of a text. I chose a book called, "The Lion Inside".
We have read this one before and the kids have recently been requesting to read it again. Because of our previous experience with it, I knew our kiddos could focus on the setting this time around rather than the story (and it is a fantastic one). We got to a page that showed clearly where the events were happening.
One student suggested that the setting might be the woods, because she saw trees. We like to explore multiple ideas in our class so I asked if anyone was thinking anything different. Another student shared that he thought it might be the Savannah. He explained that lions don't live in the woods they live in the Savannah. We went back to the original student to see if her thinking had changed. She decided that it had not. On another page another student suggested the jungle because on this page they saw vines. Thus began the great setting debate...
(Pardon my terrible picture quality)
Everyone was on the edge of their seats(literally) trying to see if they could find clues in the illustrations or words that would tell us exactly where this story was happening. There was such rich discussion it was uh-maze-ing. I could not believe how these kindergartners, who still need sometimes need my assistance to help them share toys, listened to each others ideas and respectively disagreed and shared different ideas. It was a beautiful, safe discussion where it was okay not to know. By the end of the lesson that day we were a class divided. Some thought jungle and some thought the Savannah. And everyone was okay with that. There was no arguing or complaining. And even more amazing is that the first student who had originally thought the woods had listened to others ideas and changed her thinking. I couldn't just let it be a toss up and we surely weren't done. So the following day, we looked at two pictures.
One picture was of a real life Savannah and one of a real life jungle. I purposefully chose pictures that didn't include a lion or a mouse so they could look for more clues. And wow did they ever. Those amazing 5 and 6 year olds, compared the pictures to the text, discussed the clues, shared ideas, rejected ideas, confirmed ideas and came to the agreed upon conclusion that it had to be the Savannah. (Which by the way I was super impressed when someone suggested that as a setting in the first place!) It was such a cool thing to experience. What began as a lesson to learn that the setting of a story is where a story takes place turned into a deep thinking, life learning kind of an activity. I could not be more proud of those little people and I would bet they will be looking for clues about setting in other books too!
Were doing lots of measuring in math. We've measured with cubes and paper clips. We've compared objects to see which is longer. We made snowmen with a snowball for each letter in our name. We will use these snowmen to compare the length of our names. I will post a picture of the final product next week!
During our Daily 5 literacy time we used magnetic letters to make words. Some of us even used them to practice alphabetical order.
We are learning that good writers add sentences to tell more. Everyone has worked really hard to dig out more details of our experiences and tell them in writing.
Check out our fun during choice time this week!
Always a popular choice!
These two used roads pieces made out of jeans and blocks to build a city for their cars.
A princess!
We added toss tic tac toe this week to our choices.
(They asked me if I could put a picture of the Eiffel tower up so they could build it. I'd say they did an amazing job.)
We have a new student in our class and we adore her already. Welcome friend!
On Friday we celebrated two of our Beulah Ralph expectations with hat day and matching colors day. Here's a little cutie with her hat on!
Check out our matching colors with our buddies!
And just because... here are couple pictures of fun at recess.
General Announcements:
- This week we needed to choose for our citizen of the month. And it was such a busy week that we didn't get a chance to do this in class! To do this, I ask each student who they believe should be recognized for this honor. Then each student gets a vote. The student with the most votes is recognized at an assembly. Since we didn't get to do this in class, I created a survey to have your child do at home this weekend. Please follow the link to this survey so that your child can cast their vote. Students who have already won this honor are not included in the survey. Please read the directions to your child and allow them to choose! Thanks for helping us support each other and be proud of our classmates.
https://goo.gl/forms/kaM1QMW5NTzd5AUy1
- Our first brown bag lunch will be on January 31st. Thank you to those that have returned your RSVP.
- We will celebrate the 100 day of school on February 2. We will be dressing up as if we are 100 years old! Please see note in the Friday Folder for more information.
- We are continuing to collect toothpaste to donate in honor of Beulah Ralph's would be 90th birthday. Thank you to those that have already sent them in!
Have a great weekend!
