Color Investigation

Last month, we finished our first investigation: an exploration of color. 
We began by talking about what we knew about colors and what we wondered. 
We set out watercolors to explore mixing and observing how they changed. Did we form new colors when we mixed two? What if we mixed more than two? 

It was fun creating new colors. We decided to freeze some of them in the ice trays we used to mix and save them to paint with colored ice! 

We explored color science! We predicted what we thought might happen when we dropped food coloring into milk. Unlike the water, we discovered the colors danced and moved!

 We learned about primary colors – red, blue, and yellow – and spent time exploring them further. What happens if we mix two primary colors? What happens if we mix more than two colors? We had ample opportunity to test our theories and find answers through various art explorations.

We used primary paints and mixed colors to create a color wheel. After we painted each section, we glued loose parts onto their appropriate section. 

We also explored a box of 64 crayons and determined which colors belonged where on the color wheel. It’s not always an easy determination when looking at a pinkish-purple or periwinkle crayon! 

 We spent time talking about the various shades of colors. We examined paint chips and worked to mix paint colors to show lighter and darker shades. 

We know that blue and yellow mixed together make green. We know that red and blue mixed together make purple. We learned that adding white or black can change the shade of a color. We took our learning and went on to create our very own colors. We mixed, tested, and mixed some more until our color was finished. After creating our very own color, we gave it a name. 

 All the while, we noticed the colors were changing all around us outside. We brought some of those colors in to explore and paint. 

 Throughout this exploration, we learned new vocabulary, answered questions we wondered about, tested our predictions, made beautiful art, and discovered just how much our world is full of color! 

Learning the Ropes

September was a great month for getting to know each other and get familiar with our various routines.

We got started right away with our learning center routine and have now had several weeks to practice and see how much we can learn during this time. During center time we focus on literacy and math concepts, but also have the opportunity to practice following directions, sharing, taking turns, and working together, as well as independently.  

As teachers, this has been an invaluable time to observe children in their ability to work in a group and also see their math and literacy skills.

~September Math Centers~

We spent some time exploring the math manipulatives we will be using this year.  Working with unifix cubes led us to counting, patterning, and using lots of great mathematical language, such as, "you have three more than me", "mine is equal to hers", "this tower is the longest". 

We love playing games as a way of learning math. We are working on subitizing (the ability to know how many just by looking without counting), which led to some great games with dice, dominoes and other dot patterns. 

In addition, we worked on recognizing and writing numbers one through 10.

~September Literacy Centers~

Our literacy focus has been all about letters! 

We have been writing our names and naming each letter in our name.  We also can’t help but learn the letters in our friend’s names.  

We have been spending some time reading ABC books and creating our own.  This helps us build our knowledge about the beginning sounds of words.  

We are very proud of our Kindergartners and how well they have adjusted to a new routine! 

Our First Day of Kindergarten!

Welcome, Kindergarten Families! 

Just in case the extent of what you heard about our day was what we had for snack, here are a few photos to give you a peek into our first day together!

We started the day by exploring our surroundings. We painted coffee filters individually that will become a part of a group project later. (Learning to work as a group!)

We had our first morning circle where we learned about our weekly jobs and played a name game with Ms. Sara. (Discovering our community.)

For centers, we explored all the materials available to us from the art shelves, dramatic play area, and block area. We spent about 15 minutes in each space before moving on to the next.

Right away, we observed rich conversations, and connections being made. We held a meeting after centers and discussed what went well and what may need improvement. (Creating a sense of ownership in our classroom.)  How did we feel in each space? Our little group had some great ideas to share. We found it might not be a great idea for everyone to be in dramatic play at the same time. (There are only about 8 inches in the dramatic play area and 100 in the block area!) 😊What should we do about that?  These were the first steps to developing an agreement on how to best learn and be safe in our classroom. (More of that in the coming weeks.) 

We started working on our first self portraits of the year! Today, we had our upper bodies traced and added details to make them look like us!

We even have a friend who's first day of Kindergarten  landed on his Birthday! 

We were quite eager to get outside and move in big ways! 

We foraged for an extra snack in the garden and on the vine! 

We had a great first day in Kindergarten with these wonderful kiddos. We hope that's the story you heard too. 😊

What's going on?

It's certainly been a busy spring! And here we are, going into our last week of school. Sometimes time flies, and other times, time FLIES! Speaking of flying ... 

We spent much of April reading about, researching and writing about birds. What amazing skills we covered through this process. We discussed as a group what we knew about birds, then what we wanted to know about birds. 

We each chose a bird that we wanted to learn more and write about. We looked through books and found the facts we needed to write about where our bird lived, what it looked like, what it ate, and other interesting facts. We illustrated our pages and created a book, which we shared with our classmates and families.

We spent time investigating bird nests and bird parts, drawing and labeling the parts of a bird, gathering materials and making a nest, observational drawing and bird painting.

We made bird feeders and hung them outside our window. We really enjoy watching the various types of birds come around to our feeding area!

For three weeks, we eagerly awaited the hatching of our chicken eggs in the incubator. It was wonderful to hold them and feel their soft feathers. 

We really enjoyed our bird investigation! It even triggered a week or so of more interest in flight and the making of MANY paper airplanes, which carried over to our outdoor learning where we tested their flight capabilities!

Since we end our day in the outdoors, we rarely share what's happening out there and how much learning (and expending of energy) is occurring outside. 

So much teamwork, sharing, imagining and discovery is going on all of the time.

 We are busy building and/or trying to break through dams in Colin's creek, creating elaborate games of freeze tag, meals of mud cakes and grass and leaf soup. 

 We are soothing friends who have fallen down, we are planting a garden and caring for it each day. 

We challenge our abilities constantly through climbing, running, lifting and moving. 

We are treasure finders and sometimes, treasure sharers. We practice carpentry by sawing and hammering wood. 

We collect flowers, write with "chalk made from wood", and discover, and discover, and discover. 

Playing outdoors presents such amazing opportunity to learn more about our friends, share our ideas, work together, and explore our natural world. 

 Our days are so rich with learning, from start to finish.