Yesterday we spent the morning with the Grade 1 class learning how to use the app Skitch. It is a wonderful tool for the classroom. It allows the Kiddoes to either draw, capture an image from the web or take a photo and annotate it. It is very similar to the program PWIM which we utilize in our classroom. This app allows us to practice our fine motor and our emerging writing skills.

All year we have been working on the proper way to ask permission, talk to friends and tell stories. This week, I have been concentrating on teaching the Kiddoes the right way to tell a story which includes friends. Usually, (which is age appropriate) when telling a story, a Kiddoe will say, "me and my friends", to which I now reply, "Who"? I will keep interupting and replying, "Who" until the Kiddoe remembers to say, "my friends and I".

I realize this is but a small piece of grammer, but I believe it to be an important part of speaking with care and manners.

Yesterday we were very excited to welcome to our room Susan (Ms. S's mom), a self-declared insect expert! Susan has spent some time in our room this year and we were all very excited to have her come and spend part of the morning with us. She spent an hour telling us about some amazing ladybug facts. We were enthralled! Once the presentation was finished, each of the Kiddoes had an opportunity to ask their pre-prepared question.

With all of the new information we learned, we were able to fill in the last section of our KWL chart and our ladbug research journal.

Today, armed with all the new information we learned about ladybugs over the past few weeks, we used our iPad's to draw a ladybug. The Kiddoes learned how to save and email Ms. S. their creations. Once they were printed, it was the Kiddoes' job to label their picture. I introduced rulers and the Kiddoes worked very hard to use them to draw straight lines on which they could write. I was so proud of their effort and the amazing job they did on labeling their ladybugs.

The Kiddoes were so engaged with the work as it was of their own making. The iPad's bring such amazing learning opportunities to our room.

During this research we were able to integrate and touch upon the following curricular objectives:

CRK.2 View and interpret the basic message of visuals and objects in a variety of texts including models, photographs, dramas, dance creations, and videos.

 LTK.1 Examine observable characteristics of plants, animals, and people in their local environment.

CPK.4 Create art works that express own observations and ideas about the world.

Over the past week we have been looking to books to try and answer some of the questions we had about ladybugs. Today, we utilized another source... the computer. We used Google to try and locate some information about ladybugs. We entered the National Geographic site for kids and learned all kind of new information (as well as discussing text features!). We also looked to Youtube to watch a few videos about ladybugs.

One of the videos talked about what ladybugs eat, which are aphids. The Kiddoes were asking me all different kinds of questions about aphids, so I turned the responsibility for learning back to them and asked how we could find out our answers. "Ask and expert", was the universal suggestion. Thinking on my toes, I explained a Farmer was a plant expert who may be able to tell us more about aphids. We were able to Facetime a friend of mine who is in the process of seeding. He was on his tractor, but took the time to tell us all about aphids, why they are pests, why ladybugs may be a Farmer's best friend and then he got out of the tractor and showed us all of his seeding equipment. The Kiddoes were fascinated. This is just another example of the way technology can enhance learning!!

Tomorrow, we have another "expert" coming into our room to talk about ladybugs. The Kiddoes homework for the night is to come up with one good question to ask our expert tomorrow. Please help them to write down their question so they can remember it.

Keep tuned for more ladybug research learning!

We went outside today for our writing practice. The Kiddoes each had their wipe board and took the opportunity to write about things they like. I really like the wipe board activity as it is able to challenge children who are at different writing developmental stages. Some children are practicing how to form letters, some are beginning to sound out words and others are capable of writing complete sentences. All of these stages are typical and students will develop at different rates. However, being able to provide learning opportunities across all levels is key!!

As we will be spending time learning outside, I would appreciate on warm days that you apply sunscreen to your child before they come to school. Also, if it is going to be hot, please send a hat to school as well. Thanks for your help!!

Spring/Summer is finally here!! Hooray! It is finally time for our Kindergarten class to explore the outdoor classroom. I believe we can  learn so much from our environment and use the outdoors to enhance our literacy and numeracy development. Yesterday we spent some time discussing the "rules" for this classroom. We decided our expectations should be the same no matter where we are learning. With this in mind, we headed outside. We began our learning using our individual wipe boards. We spent some time practicing letter formation and then practiced segmenting and blending words together.

After finishing this activity, we discussed some of the findings we have learned so far in our Ladybug research. We quickly remembered where we would find Ladybugs at this time of year. We decided to see if we could find some Ladybugs. Quickly, we hit the jackpot and the Kiddoes were tasked with taking clear pictures of a Ladybug with their Ipad for future use.

We had a lot of fun in our new classroom, but still need a few reminders that it is indeed a "classroom"!

Today started like any other day. However, one of the Kiddoes mentioned seeing ladybugs outside and I proceeded to tell the class about all the ladybugs I found on the weekend in my yard. I asked the Kiddoes why we were seeing so many ladybugs right now. No one had an answer. The Kiddoes looked to me to explain and I told them I wasn't sure. We discussed again how animals survive through winter (hibernate, migrate, adapt) and we talked about what we thought ladybugs did. However, as we have learned all year, if we have a question, it is our responsibility to find out the answer. I introduced the Kiddoes to a K/W/L chart. We spent some time discussing the difference between what we know to be 100% true fact compared to what we think we know! We quickly realized we didn't know very much about ladybugs. We came up with some pretty interesting questions to explore during our research.

(Can anyone find my spelling mistake??? I get to talk to the Kiddoes tomorrow about teachers making mistakes all the time too!)

Once we finished filling in the first two columns, I asked the Kiddoes how we were going to find out the answers to our questions. Here are their answers.

I will keep you posted on our ladybug journey!!

Our popcorn word of the week is "like". Instead of having a poem already written for the Kiddoes to practice this word, our class is going to create this week's poem about things we like. Here is a look at our first entries.