Baking 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.

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!

STEAM - In Kindergarten

I'm sure many of you are familiar with STEAM.

STEAM is an educational approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics as access points for guiding student inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking.

I've been taking some pictures to document our learning in a few of these areas.

The kids learned about painting with warm colors in the Fall.  Now that Winter is here, we are learning what cool colors are.  

Kids created cool backgrounds with watercolor and then we painted snowmen on top of our cool backgrounds.  One of the biggest reasons I do this lesson is to instill independence.  We talk about all of the different materials we will need, where to find those materials in the classroom, and the proper way to clean up after ourselves when we are done.  Not only does this save a lot of time for the teacher, but kids are also able to take care of their own needs during our Center Time or science work when they need these materials to show their learning.

In math, we are working on combinations of 5.  This game, called Buttons on a Snowman, has the kids dropping 5 buttons onto the snowman.  Then they say an equation representing the number of buttons on and off of the snowman.

This week we introduced some science observation stations.  We are working on observing closely and drawing what we see.  I modeled using the correct colors, really looking carefully, and trying my best (without getting frustrated) to draw what is really there.  (Often times, when kindergartners draw, they will put smiley faces on their suns and rainbows over their turtles.  We want to point out that when we observe in science, we are only drawing what we actually see.)

Rock slices on the light table... so cool to see colors come through.

I've been collecting rocks since I was in kindergarten.  My mom always said, "What will you ever do with all of those rocks? You really don't need to save an entire box filled with rocks"  Well, I showed her!  I still collect rocks.  I look for new additions to my collection when I'm on vacation.  Souvenir shops tend to sell some really cool rocks and I always seem to find them at craft fairs or local outdoor markets.  The kids LOVE looking at all of the different types of rocks and are always shocked that they are not painted or man made.  This was one of their favorite observation stations.

Our stickbugs have been amazing to observe.  Big Steve is about 5 inches long now.

We've had so many stickbug eggs hatch, I've lost count of how many are in there.  As of today we have big Steve and 4 little Steves.

The day they hatch, they have red heads.  The red fades to brown in about a day or two.  The kids always know if we have a new baby, just by observing color.

This drawing is unbelievable!  Can you believe this was done by a kindergartner?  If you look closely, you can see the red head on the teeny tiny little guy.

You can see that we're busy in kindergarten!

Happy learning!

Paperwhite Bulbs

We've been growing Paperwhite bulbs in the classroom.  These are so much fun to observe! We put water in the bottom of our cups and used toothpicks to keep our bulbs in place.  We've been drawing and writing about our observations.  In kindergarten, we've been working on careful observation.  We noticed that our bulbs were brown, with white roots, and a little bit of green coming out of the top.  We talked about the fact that even though we LOVE the color purple, there is no purple on our bulb.  So, we decided that we wouldn't draw with purple.  Observing and drawing exactly what we see is hard work in kindergarten.

Our Paperwhite bulbs will be coming home today, so kids can observe them over the long break.  I would encourage parents to have kids do some careful observation and draw and/or write about what they see.  I'm sure there will be lots of changes over the next few weeks!

A Few Literacy Stations

There is a time every day when we practice some of our literacy skills.  Eventually, when kids are able to work independently, I will run some small Guided Reading groups.

At the beginning of the year, all of our stations involved letters and letter sounds.  This is a fun game where kids say the letters and their sounds to Mrs. Lewis and then get to toss the bean bag in the bin.  Some kids love the tossing part and others choose to just have the bin close by.

One of our newest stations is Little Books.  We are making sentences with sight word stamps. We also have some animals stamps and word cards to copy.  

One of my personal favorite is our Storytelling station.  I love using the felt board in class.  I usually start by reading a story and then we do a retelling with the felt board.  Sometimes, kids just tell the story with the felt pieces, and other times one person reads the book and the other puts the pieces up.

We have several other literacy stations that we use, but I wanted to give you a peek into a few of the activities we are doing to enhance our reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Art as Morning Work

Every day, as kids walk into classrooms, teachers have "morning work" for kids to do.  It has to be something that kids are able to do independently, so that teachers can take attendance, gather any notes, and talk to the kids about things they are excited to share.  In our classroom, I try to change up the morning work assignment, depending on the day.  One day we might have our alphabet boxes out to work on.  Another day we might have a variety of puzzles to do with a partner or small group.  Last week, we introduced the art stations.  

We rolled out a big long sheet of white paper and added some markers for collaborative drawings.

We used the book Snowmen At Night as inspiration and used oil pastels on blue paper to draw snowy scenes.  We even added glitter for a special touch.

I love collecting drawing books.  This guy was so excited that I had a book showing how to draw cars and trucks.

I try not to do too many coloring books because I think that takes all of the creativity away.  But, this Christmas design coloring book was a fun addition.

My favorite art station is the solar system station.  A few books about space, some black paper, and oil pastels can inspire the kids to draw their own solar systems.

We have our Center time (free play) in the afternoon, most of the boys in our class gravitate toward the stations that involve building or imaginative play.  Most of the girls go toward horses, the doll house, or art.  By setting a theme each day for morning work, it encourages kids to try something they might not realize they enjoy.  There are a few kids who don't enjoy drawing because it's hard for them.  This is an opportunity to take the marker and make big marks on the paper or try loopdie loops.  This is the time to play with art.  On days when we do building stations, it encourages the kids who usually do art projects during free play to try out Marble Works or building a tower with blocks.  I love providing kids with this wide variety of opportunities.  We never know what they might LOVE to do!

Math Workspaces

We have been working hard to learn routines and independent work habits, so far in kindergarten.  I'm happy to report that kids LOVE our independent Work Spaces in math and they are really learning how to focus on their task and stick with it.

This week we introduced our Number Racks, also called Rekenreks.  The game they play involves pulling a Ten Frame Card and then moving the correct number of beads to the opposite side of the rack.  At this time, we are only using the top rack.

We have been working on subitizing, or seeing a set and knowing the number right away.  The ten frame  helps us to see the number.  Kids are starting to recognize a full ten frame as 10, a half full ten frame as 5, etc.

We have been working on creating and extending patterns.

One of our favorite Work Spaces involves the pattern blocks, putting shapes together, and creating shape pictures.  

Continuing with our number work, we have some number and ten frame matching games to play.

I've been so impressed with the independent work skills the kids are learning.  As a school, we work to take care of ourselves, take care of our school, and take care of each other.  By working independently, helping their friends when they need it, cleaning up after themselves, caring for our materials, and consistently working hard, they are certainly following our school guidelines!

I'm so proud of their work!

Connecting Experiences to Reading and Writing

I wish you could watch me unpack my car, when I get to school, on Monday mornings.  It's pretty hilarious!  Sometimes I'm hauling in 20 pumpkins.  Other times I have my arms full of flowers.  This week I had Peanut, the turtle and all of the books I love to read to the kids in November.  The reason I'm always carrying random items is that I love to provide experiences for the kids and every single experience leads to our literacy learning.

When we drew sunflowers, pumpkins, and apples we learned to draw by looking at detail and drawing what is actually there.  This ties into our Writer's Workshop time, when we want to be sure our illustrations show what is actually happening and we add detail to our drawings.  Those details will eventually end up in our writing.  Our goal is for our pictures to become more developed and recognizable while students are also able to communicate their story before beginning to write.

When we made applesauce, it connected to books we were reading, but it also served as a springboard for some of our writers!  Several kids chose to write about making applesauce.

One of our kindergarten standards is to use a combination of drawing, dictating, and

writing to compose informative/explanatory

texts in which they name what they are writing

about and supply some information about the topic.

I love having pets in our classroom.  The kids love to watch Steve and Peanut.  They're always doing curious things.  

You can imagine my excitement when one of our kindergartners draws and writes about our pets during Writer's Workshop.  I'm just thrilled when one of our experiences becomes writing or when we read a book and the kids run over to one of our pumpkins to show me what the book is talking about.  This is why I haul in a bunch of random things on Monday mornings!

Another of our kindergarten standards is to participate in collaborative conversations about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.  This is what we do all day long in kindergarten!  When I set these experiences up for kids, I want them to talk, discuss, think, share, and question. Often this talk will lead to writing and then some further reading.  It's so exciting!  This is something to think about when you're out and about with your kids.  Every single experience your kids have will contribute to their literacy lives! 

If you'd like to read a bit more about experiences and my inspiration for bringing them into the classroom, please check out this post on my early childhood literacy blog.  http://lovelaughterandliteracy.com/reggio-inspired/

Happy learning!