writing like scientists

Kindergartners spent the week leading up to February break thinking and writing like scientists! We began this informational writing unit by looking through some of our science teaching (nonfiction) books. The children explored these books with their science partners and used sticky notes to record what they noticed. We found real information, details, glossaries, tables of contents, and zoomed in pictures.

Kindergarten scientists then looked through their own science journals to find evidence of science writing. Again, we noticed details, labels, and real information. Realizing that we have already been writing like scientists, kindergarteners were set up to have a great week of exploring and learning more about what it means to write like a scientist!

We applied our knowledge of writing labels to pictures from a mentor text for this unit, Animals in Winter, by Martha E.H. Rustad. Writing labels is not something new for the kindergarteners, as they have done it in many other ways (like in narrative writing and labeling our blocks, legos, and small building structures). But thinking like scientists, we had to be sure to label the important parts of the images to give as much information as we could.

The following day, scientists were given a spot to spread out, either in our classroom or in the preschool, where they could look out the window and draw what they saw. Using our eyes, we thought a lot about details. We defined details to be "noticing the small things" and "adding a lot". We began these observational drawings with pencil, trying to include as much detail as we could, before adding color. And of course, we had to add labels.

 

In another writing workshop, kindergarteners were excited to draw and label objects from nature that we had collected on the playground. Among the many things we had to choose from were sticks, pinecones, and rocks. In our mini lesson that day, I invited kindergarteners to really think like scientists and write labels that taught lots of information. We asked ourselves questions like what does it feel like? What does it look like? What does it smell like? We added descriptive words to our labels (such as color and texture words).

By the end of the week, we reviewed all we knew about science writing. Scientists write about real information. They add details and labels that teach. I shared with the children that scientists also do research. They choose something they want to learn a lot about, and they research it. We defined research as collecting a lot of information. We used our science teaching books to make lists of animals we could find in Vermont/New England with our science partners. We shared our ideas and created one big list together. From that list, each kindergartener chose an animal they were interested in learning about. This will carry us into the upcoming weeks, in which we will become animal experts and continue to think and write like scientists!

community collaboration

This past week the third grade writers invited us to be part of their persuasive writing process. Working in partnerships the third graders interviewed the kindergarteners, asking what is going well in our school, what they love, and what we need to work on. This was an authentic opportunity to practice essential skills; speaking and listening, responding to a question, collecting information, and engaging in dialogue.

At the end of the year we will write persuasive pieces and can reflect on this experience to help us prepare for that kind of writing. We can remember the notebooks and the visual that the third grade writers used to help them gather and record information, we can remember the language they used and the questions they asked. We can learn from our older peers just like they can learn about school from us.

We enjoyed having the third graders in our classroom and will welcome them back next week to hear their pieces and share a community snack. This writing experience provides meaningful collaboration and community building across classrooms!

 

 

 

 

 

 

100 days

We have been counting by 10's and exploring numbers within the range of 0-100 during Number Corner and Math Workshop. On Tuesday we celebrated 100 days in school. The children used different colors to show 100 dots on 10 ten frames. They counted the 10 squares within each frame, making sure that each square got one dot. They counted forward by 10's and some children took on the challenge of counting by 1's. 

 

 

During our morning meeting we used our classroom to find 100 words. This challenge connected to our celebration of counting and our important literacy and problem solving work.

We know that our classroom environment is another teacher. We can use the environment to find words, from classroom labels to the many books on our shelves. The children were given 5 sticky notes and set off to find 5 words. When we counted how many we found, the children realized that we needed 6 more. We quickly wrote 6 more words! Later in the day Nora helped to organize our words into a book of 100 words, gluing 10 words on each page. How many pages does our book have? 10!

During our movement break we did 10 of 10 different exercises, from ski jumps to lunges. It was a day full of counting in different ways and making connections between all of our work, learning, and play. 

 

 

 

 

exploring vowel sounds

The Kindergarteners have been working with Megan to explore vowel sounds. They are learning how to differentiate between a stretched vowel and a vowel that sounds like its name. They have explored sounds in many different ways; listening for the sounds in words, saying words, reading words, making visuals for our classroom, and sorting vowels as a community and in partnerships.

At the beginning of the week the children listened for short and long vowels in different words and helped make a visual for our classroom- vowel charts! They shared their visual during Fundations and worked together to use their visual to sort new words.

This was an empowering learning experience and connected to our work stretching and writing words in writing workshop. We have been making sure that every word in our writing has a vowel. Vowels are important!

 

 

 




As the week progressed Megan invited children to work in partnerships to sort words based on the vowels they heard. They had a list of pictures and a T-Chart with a short vowel visual on one side and a long vowel visual on the other. They were expected to use one pair of scissors and one glue stick as their tools.

We observed as their work strengthened every day. Partnerships made plans; Who would cut first? Who would glue? They practiced the important skill of collaboration. They had to check their work, listening for the vowels they heard in each word. They practiced using scissors and glue sticks in successful ways. They used picture power, sound power and partner power, further connecting to our work in reading and writing workshop. We observed partnerships work for an extended amount of time, engaged in conversation and hands on learning as they read, debated, cut, and glued.

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, 2-6-20

What is your plan? What is going well for you and your partner?

RD- It's really good. We are doing a pattern, I cut and she glues, then I glue and she cuts. Like, cut, glue, cut, glue. 

NF- We're taking turns. It's really great! 

ZM- Well, my partner is really good at gluing, really good. So she is gluing and I am cutting. 

BP- It's pretty good. We are listening together and I am helping when I can. But, my partner helped me hear a short O. I guess we didn't know this stuff before, like the other day. Now I feel like I know more. 

LD- We're taking turns, cutting and gluing, cutting and gluing. But, I also had to keep telling him that those are short vowels. I told him though. So, that's good!