This week in Our Big Backyard…
We’ve learned so much about our Backyards. Now it’s time to head in different directions to explore our BIGGER backyard of Texas. First, we needed to learn which direction we were going…North, South, East or West. We got out compasses and our peeps and traveled in each of the cardinal directions. We talked about how useful maps are and how most maps have a feature called a compass rose. We crafted our own.
Then we thought about what’s important for all living things in our State so we looked at where the rivers flow and saw that most of them flow right into the Gulf of Mexico. We mapped out the regions so we know where they are.
We added a feature to our maps… a long line that starts around San Antonio then goes all the way up north past Dallas. It’s the Balcones Escarpment. An uprise in the land that separates the east from the west. In fact, it’s the beginning of the American West and we live right on top of it! Ever been to Mount Bonnell? That’s the Balcones Escarpment & so is Shoal Creek!
Then, we then traveled north and northwest to discover what type of land features, water, and flora and fauna we could find there. We found a great canyon, The Palo Duro with a river flowing though that’s been carving out the canyon for over 90- million years! It’s The Prairie Dog Town fork of the Red River. We also found The Great Plains that stretch on and on and on were home to millions of buffalo, and earlier than that ranging Mammoths. And, too, the Llano Estacado mesa. We met prairie dogs, prairie chickens, the sweet mountain plovers, and the second fastest land animal in the world – the pronghorns! (Ms. Eliza is in love with them).
One of the most important water sources of the Great plains, we learned, are Ephemeral ponds also known as playas. There are up to 20,000 playas in the region that provide resting and replenishing stops for the huge migrations of birds that travel through the area and also serve the water needs of the animals who make the Great Plains their homes.
Working on diagrams of the Great Plains food web
Building a diorama of the Panhandle Plains…animals…
Rivers and Emphemeral playas…
adding sage, scrub oak shinnery and short native grasses…
And Palo Duro canyon walls…
In Math…
Ms. Kim’s Mathletes hit the ground running! This quarter we are exploring geometry – we started with all the things that go into shapes like points and lines. We are also dialing down on some helpful Social/Emotional skills. This week we talked about how we can bring more curiosity to conflicts we find ourselves in. We played Emo-Charades to practice reading-facial expressions, and acted out how to handle accidental injuries when we are playing with our friends.
BE the point…BE the line….
Ms. Eliza’s Math Wizards had a full week! We started our money unit studying coins and their values. We brought out our magnifying glasses and looked at all the details we could find on pennies! What kind of symbols are on the penny? Who is Abraham Lincon? Where were our pennies minted, and in what year, what words could we find and what in the world does e pluribus unum mean?! A couple of the pennies in Ms. Eliza’s penny jar were almost one hundred years old (1935 & 1932!!)
Lucky 6 Penny Game
Penny Toss & How many drops of water can fit on the top of a penny?
We reviewed 10’s and 1’s place value and added 100’s…practicing with word problems, playing Place Value War…
& Chicken Foot Addition
In ELA…
Ms. Kim’s Mad Poet Society is up and running! Q3 is all about the poems – reading, writing, and using words to even illustrate! We are trying to figure out exactly WHAT a poem is this quarter! This week we thought it might be a form of fiction – especially because everyone’s favorite poet, Shel Silverstein, writes so many nutty poems – but then we talked about Robert Frost’s poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening and realized it came from an actual experience – so we are back to the chalkboard… We wrote two poems together using a nonfiction book and a fictional book as inspiration for each.
In spelling, we are learning LOTS of ending blends and having fun when w e complete our ELA tasks for the day, writing using fun photos for prompts!
From magical fairies, gnomes, and wizards to GIGANTIC (or not) robotic spiders!!!!!!
Ms. Eliza’s group is practicing consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words. We started this week with short a. We learned about magic c and all the letters that can be made from c including…a ,d, e, g, o, q, and s! We just can’t practice our handwriting enough! We’re discovering how fun poetry can be by reading poems written by other kindergartners, Shel Silverstein, and more. We created a class poem about Quilts and on top of all that we read a beloved fairy tale Goldilocks & the Three Bears AND then we read Somebody and the Three Blairs. We compared them and found so many similarities! We practice our reading everyday because we’re all working at becoming stronger readers!
& In Other News…
We met each other’s owls…there’s Snickerdoodle, Firespin, Owlet, Hoohoo Owl Pinky, Sparkles, Ollie, Willie, Gumdrop, Horns, Hooty, Owly, Whoo Hoo, Landon & Jeree Lee!
Releasing our worms to do their good work…
sharing a hand-drawn map of one of our neighborhoods…
and meeting a new puppy!
