New Symbol for Valentine's

Now this was a challenging assignment for them. We talked about how the heart was established those thousands of years ago to be where emotions stemmed from and how now we know it's the brain. So what other symbol could we use to stand for Valentine's Day?

It could be a butterfly because it's not a heart....:)

My favorite one: "could be a circle because to me it's love"

star-because to make a wish

flower

stairs-we did just read the Langston Hughes poem about the crystal stair, I wondered if that was his inspiration.

H. Mountain-because it starts with the same letter as "heart". Hey, it's reasoning! :)

Heart Art

So you know I'm a big fan of divergent art-where kids take a shape and imagine what they could turn it into. However, this year my kiddos didn't seem to be getting it. We had a little lesson plan debacle when they took leaves and made them into...you guessed it--leaves. :) I was a little hesitant to do this tried-and-true activity that I've had a lot of success with before. Apparently my emphatic instructions that I did not want a "heart" as an answer worked.

They will surprise you sometimes! I got a lot of different, very creative responses:

butterfly

whale

necklace

crab

mushroom (apparently a hairy mushroom...interesting :)

T.V.

we are in rodeo season :)

helicopter

dog

cupid (first of all-I love that she spelled cupid with a "Q" and secondly, look at the face of the boy getting shot with the arrow--is that priceless or what?!

bird

chocolate chip cookie

Walrus Art

Admittedly, this project did not come out the way I had envisioned. :) It looks like the kids were painting with chocolate pudding and not paint. We had been talking about different arctic animals and the characteristics they have to live in the conditions that they do. I asked them before we went over the "real" reasons, "why does a walrus have tusks?" They actually came up with some pretty accurate answers.

Projects with Community Service

We adopted a nursing home this year. Every month the kiddos make some kind of craft for them-Thanksgiving placemats, penguin ornaments, we're a little behind in our Valentine's Craft; kind of snuck up on me. But throughout the year, we've been learning about research and looking up different facilities, viewing pics of different rooms.

Well, their project was to design a room in their nursing home taking into consideration all that we've learned about the residents so far. Let's face it-life can get lonely and boring. They came up with some wonderful ideas. My favorite was the Family Photo Room where they can come in and look at photos on the walls whenever they get lonely for their families.

We also have the pet room: the kids got a little crazy with the clay and feathers. I think somewhere in there is actaully a zebra! :) Kinders kiddos are not very practical. But their reasoning was that pets make you happy, so it would make the residents happy.

New Groundhog Day Legends

Let's face it-the current legend has been scientifically proven to not be very accurate in predicting the weather. Certainly here in Texas we've already been having summer weather (not to rub it in for any of you northerners dealing with blizzards right now or anything). :)

 So I asked my kiddos to create a new legend for the groundhog to use in making predictions.

If the groundhog stays in the den it means it's going to have babies. (Now this one may have more of a chance of being true). I love her groundhog!

Not exactly a legend I know, but very true.

If the groundhog eats 100 popcorns it's going to be 100 days of summer break. Now this one would make teachers everywhere go out and feed lots of popcorn to groundhogs! :)

Looks more like a beaver, I know-but cute, nonetheless!

Poetry Journals

Every week we practice a poem for fluency. I read it aloud Monday/Tuesday and we discuss unknown vocabulary. The rest of the week the kids read it with me. On Fridays they put it in their poetry journals. I have made more challenging questions for them to answer, but since this group wasn't really writing in the beginning, I made it just an illustration they have make to show what the poem means. We do funny ones like "Princess Soup" and "A Polar Bear in the Frigidaire" (Silverstein). But also more thoughtful ones like Robert Frost and Langston Hughes.

Just some examples: