Thursday, October 12, 2017

Fire Safety Month

The firefighters came for a visit today, and what a gift that was to a group of kindergartners!  


They give the kids a tour of the fire truck and show them all of the important tools.


They make sure to show the kids that the firefighters and just regular guys inside of their suits.  They want the kids to know that in an emergency, the firefighters are not someone to be afraid of, even if their suits look scary.



It is always an awesome presentation and we feel so lucky to have the firefighters come every year.  We always learn so much!

Ok, friends, now go change those smoke detector batteries.






Baking Chocolate Chip Cookies in Kindergarten


Our first baking project was completed this week!  The kids make chocolate chip cookies and they tasted AWESOME!  

A few years ago I posted a project on Donors Choose.  Donors Choose is a website dedicated to helping teachers raise funds for classroom projects.  I really wanted to buy a convection oven for projects in the classroom.  I spend a lot of time in the kitchen with my own children and wanted to provide the kindergartners with some of those same experiences.  I had an oven in my former building and loved the curriculum tie-ins that happened in our cooking/baking unit.  Well, I'm happy to say that our cooking cart was funded within a week!  The oven was delivered to our classroom and we've been baking ever since.





Both of our full day kindergarten classes made chocolate chips cookies this week.  We tasted (in small quantities) the different types of sugar.  We smelled the vanilla.  We measured, mixed, scooped, and baked.  There were some new vocabulary words introduced and we read books about cooking.  We even dove into real cookbooks and looked for different text features.  At the end of the day, kids wrote how-to's telling how we made the cookies.  WOW!  That's a lot of work for a 5 or 6 year old!

Here's the recipe, if you want to try making these with your kids at home.


1 Cup Crisco shortening (original, not butter flavor)
3/4 Cup brown sugar
3/4 Cup white sugar
Mix until soft and fluffy.

Add:
2 Eggs
1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla
Mix just until blended.

Dry ingredients:
2 and 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
Mix it up and add a package of chocolate chips.

Bake for 10 minutes (or less) on 350 degrees. My home oven is a standard oven, not convection, and this is what I do.

True confession time:  I make these at least once a week at my house.  (I can't believe I just admitted that!)

Happy baking!

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

We Need Pressed Leaves



Fall is in full swing and the leaves are showing off a bit.  I really love the beautiful leaves... but who doesn't?  Driving through the mountains this weekend reminded me that it's time to start leaf collecting.   We use leaves in the classroom for math, art, science, and literacy connections.  When I ask kids to bring leaves to the classroom, they are usually GREAT collectors, but the only way we can use these leaves for our projects is when they are pressed.  Pressing leaves is very simple and doesn't take up a lot of space. (Flower petals work well too, if you happen to be the owner of a flower shop or have flowers in your yard.)

I usually start with a couple of paper towels on the table, and then I set a few leaves on top.


Next, you set a paper towel on top of the leaves and another layer of leaves is set on top of that towel.


I keep layering as many paper towels and leaves as I can, and then put a big stack of books on top.  They need to sit like this for several days so they become dry and flat. Once they are pressed and dry, I store them in an OPEN container or ziploc bag.  There will still be a tiny bit of moisture in the leaves, so you don't want to close them up and grow mold.  That's a science experiment I'd rather not do right now.  


I would love it if each child could collect and press 50 leaves.  We are looking for a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors!  Thanks for your help!

Monday, October 2, 2017

Busy Kindergartners

We have been so busy in kindergarten over the past 3 weeks.  We have spent a lot of time building, creating, exploring, learning rules, and learning how to take care of materials in our classroom.


The kids have been so creative and we are really learning what it means to be a member of a community.


Sometimes we need to work together to create things we couldn't have done alone.



We've been working on getting our hand muscles ready to work.

Droppers are awesome to use as little pinchers.


We practiced cutting skills and just cut as much paper as we could.


We used tweezers to pick up toys from the sensory bins.


We used our lacing cards to practice fine motor skills.



Clay is my favorite tool for building muscles in our hands. It's much harder to work with than playdough and gives your hands a real workout!


We've been practicing writing our letters and numbers too!



As I said, we've been busy in kindergarten.  The activities of the day move quickly and we are learning SO much every day!

Happy learning!