Happy New Year (Part 2)

December was a short month, but we managed to squeeze in a lot of fun, festivities, and learning. We began by exploring The Gingerbread Man. The predictable text and repetitive lines made this a fun and rewarding story to explore. Our investigation of the book, and variations of the story, really brought about some in-depth learning, especially in the area of literacy. 

We compared and contrasted what was the same/different in each book. We voted on our favorite version of the story, read a Gingerbread Man poem, and even built traps to try to catch the Gingerbread Man!

First, we drew our plan for our trap and thought about the materials we would need to build it before getting started. 

One of our goals in Kindergarten is to install the practice of making a plan for our work, even our play. Mapping out an idea is a very important part of learning how to prioritize, be intentional in our actions, and organize our thoughts and movements. It also helps us gain a sense of ownership in our learning. 

Once our plan was drawn, we went to work building. It's always great to see ideas put into action. Sometimes, we have to alter our original plans based on materials available, or to improve functionality. Revising a plan is another important way to increase our flexibility in our thinking, and to build onto an idea. 

It was fun to share our trap with the class and explain the thinking behind the design, and how it works. Some of us built our traps alone and some of us helped our friends build, paint and test the traps.

Our Gingerbread focus ended with a cook day baking... you guessed it... Gingerbread Man cookies! We rolled and cut the dough, then decorated and ate them once they were baked. We don't think any of them ran away. Taking a bite might have made us sympathize a bit with the Fox in the story. They were delicious! 

There is so much learning happening when we can "dive in" to a particular focus. Learning math is fun when you are playing a "build a Gingerbread Man" game or measuring a giant Gingerbread Man using various measuring tools. We feel confident as budding readers when we recall familiar text when reading "You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man". We explored our five senses by making a book, creating a page for each sense. We were also engineers, designing and building Lego bridges for the Gingerbread Man to get across the river!

December also found us getting ready for Christmas, writing Christmas cards and making gifts for our family, building countdown chains, exploring melting Christmas trees in science, and learning about the first Christmas when Baby Jesus was born so long ago. 

This month, our focus has been on Pete The Cat! We look forward to sharing the fun we are having and the learning that is going along with it very soon. As Pete likes to say, "It's all GOOD!"