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Saturday, November 21, 2015

Our Thanksgiving Poems

We read poetry every day in our class. I use it as an activity to practice reading fluently as well as for introducing new vocabulary and literary devices. This was our first foray into writing them ourselves! I asked them to use a very simple format-write a title, decribe your family traditions for Thanksgiving by using adjective/nouns and then a sentence to sum it all up. We are still working on things like handwriting and better word choice-but you can see their writing skills really developing. We turned them into our class book for November.


good turkey
green broccoli
cold ice cream
yellow fruit
happy family
We sit at the table.


Colors
pretty tablecloth
green vegetables
red leaves
brown leaves
yellow corn
Cooking family

good ham
turkey leg
pretty mom
strong dad
funny sister
At my house we eat a lot.

Share Food
good turkey
squishy potatoes
good apples
yellow bananas
together family
I feel good.

My Turkey is Yummy
crazy corn
soft mashed potatoes
melty cookies
good squash
juicy lettuce
I feel thankful.


Turkey Day
soft fish
hard carrots
caramel apples
thankful family
cute clothes
It is a happy feast.

I like Thankgiving
chewy meat
bright lettuce
heavy presents
dazzling fireworks
cheesy pasta
The moon is dazzling in the night.

Yummy Food
squishy potatoes
hot turkey
hard corn
potato pie
pretty family
We look nice dressed up.

Skinny potatoes
swirly lettuce
flat chicken
happy family
pretty decorations
All the food you like.

We Celebrate
rough turkey
black beans
hot sauce
crunchy carrots
hard cookies
We go to my mom's house.

I Love to Eat Turkey
Mushy mashed potatoes
loud family
round pumpkin pie
dazzling clothes
It is sweet and yummy.

Giving
spicy chicken
yummy turkey
face squash
nice family
nice cousins
Celebrate.

I Eat Chicken for Thankgiving
pretty world
pretty Bianca
pretty school
yellow corn
pink apples
My chicken smells like turkey.

Good chicken
yummy turkey
delicious lettuce
good mashed potatoes
nice family
It is fun.

A Family
Good turkey
Squishy potatoes
Good waffles
Candy lollipop
Family nice.
Fun.


Friday, November 20, 2015

Thanksgiving Community Service

A big focus for us throughout the year is on community service. I think it's important to help develop those empathy skills and it's easy because little ones are very good at making cute things! :)

We made Thanksgiving placemats. We will give half to a local nursing home that we have adopted this year and the other half will be delivered to Meals on Wheels recipients.

I very much believe in open-ended products. I'm not one to cut out the pieces and then tell the kids where to paste them. So I demonstrated how to cut out squares and suggested maybe a pattern around the frame, asked them to draw something Thanksgiving-y in the middle. They really enjoyed making them and put a lot of love into these simple placemats. (P.S. I took the pics before I laminated them).















(for some reason this one reminded me of Where the Wild Things Are :)






Sunday, November 15, 2015

Brain or Heart-What is More Important?

I'm reading the Wonderful Wizard of Oz to my kiddos right now-a chapter per day. So Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman have a very interesting conversation. They debate what is more important to have-a brain or a heart? I do this activity with every group I read this book too (I read different chapter books different years). And it's very telling to me what kind of group I have. A few years ago almost everyone in the class chose "heart"-they were a very sensitive, empathetic group. This group, interestingly enough, mostly chose brains. I wonder if that's because we have so many boys this year!

Anyway, I asked them to choose which one they thought was more important and to tell me why. I stressed that both organs are required to live, so brain/heart keeps you alive was not an answer I was looking for. It's more about what's more important-being able to think or being able to love?

A brain because if you are in Kindergarten then you wouldn't be able 
to do writing assignments.

Heart-you need to walk.




Heart-so you can stay with people.


brain because you need it to pass your test.

Brain because you have to think about math, science and social studies.





Heart because you have to care for other people.

Brain to do math problems.

brain to say hello

Brain because you need to learn about butterflies.

Brain because you can be smart.