reader's theater - practicing and preparing

On Tuesday the Kindergarteners began to practice for their reading of I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen. We talked about welcoming the audience, introducing the book, and sharing a little about Jon Klassen's writing. We discussed transitions and what the children know about transitions;

transitions should be...

mindful
organized
quiet and careful

Our focus throughout the week has not only been on the reading of the story, but in how the story is read. The children have practiced (and practiced) projecting their voices and reading with expression. While our discussions about Reader's Theater and the importance of practice have been serious, we have celebrated the children's growth! I am not surprised by their self-control and patience, by their engagement and involvement. They truly are a community of avid readers - supporting one another, reading with fluency and expression, and thinking deeply about Jon Klassen's work. It is a true pleasure to support them as they prepare for sharing their love for reading and community with their families on June 1st.

On Friday morning I invited students to 'unscramble' and build the first two sentences from our book;

My hat is gone.
I want it back.

Following the cutting, building, gluing and reading of the sentences, each child used sharpies and paint to represent the main character in the story - the bear. Look for pictures of their final pieces as well as additional Jon Klassen inspired art in the coming days!

 

In the below photographs, children work to build the first two sentences from I Want My Hat Back during Fundations, connecting our literacy work to our Reader's Theater preparations! Later in the morning they represent the main character, the bear. 

 

 

 

chick work

Having eggs in our classroom provided authentic learning experiences - from our predictions and developing theories about egg size to actual measurement data and graphing. On Tuesday we had 14 chicks hatched and investigated two math problems;

We started with 26 eggs at the beginning and 14 eggs have hatched. How many eggs didn't hatch?

14 chicks are in the bin. How can you show this?

With the eggs hatching throughout Monday and Tuesday, we incorporated more language and representation into our chick work. Through our morning message, I invited the children to describe a chick using ONE word. We reread our collection of words in the form of a poem on Friday and the children drew a picture of a chick to go with our poem.

During academic choice, one of our new choices was to observe one of the chicks in a small clear bin and carefully draw it - following choice Inez and Whitney shared their "scientific chick drawings" with their peers.

 

 

 

 

 

hatching

On Monday morning we had three chicks hatched in our incubator with the remainder following close behind. The children eagerly watched the incubator, waiting for the chicks to be dry enough to move to our bin. On Tuesday we began to take chicks out on our oval rug, placing them between two children for close observation.

We talked about the importance of calm bodies and quiet voices. Toby shared that the chicks don't have any "mothers" in our classroom - so we had to be careful and loving! Some of the most powerful moments were later in the week, when small groups of children would sit still with a chick and then pass the chick to a peer - the passing of a chick was a big responsibility and the gentle passes and small smiles made for a collection of beautiful moments.

By Friday our chicks were bopping around the bin, ready for more space and less interested in the warmth of a child's palm. It was a little more challenging to hold the fluffy chicks, so during morning meeting we held a couple of chicks for the last time, before saying goodbye at the end of the day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

preparing for reader's theater

This week, the Kindergarteners voted for the Jon Klassen book they will be reading for our Reader's Theater on June 1st. It was a close vote, but 11 of the children voted for I Want My Hat Back.






We had important work to do following our vote. We choral read I Want My Hat Back multiple times, thinking about how the children would read the book to the audience; with expression, smooth reading, and ensuring mindful transitions. We counted and listed the characters and wrote a note to our Kindergarten families, asking for breakfast treats to share during our community breakfast following the children's performance.

The children will begin to practice reading specific lines in the coming days, as we continue to prep and prepare for our special end of Kindergarten celebration of reading, literature, and community. As an additional piece to our Reader's Theater, we will be sharing our study of Jon Klassen's style and craft - in his writing and illustrations - and asking a question of the audience;

What do YOU think happened to the rabbit at the end of the story? 

If you are not familiar with this story - or Jon Klassen's work - I encourage you to purchase or borrow the book and reread it at home with your child. The Kindergarteners love the humor in Klassen's writing and illustrations!

 

 

 

seeds and eggs - an update!

 

 

 


The Kindergarteners have continued to observe our seedlings and practice reading our seed poem - taking turns reading the poem to their peers and reading the poem together. This week, the children highlighted noticings in our poem; circling blends and sight words, highlighting punctuation, and finding words inside of words!


With the ongoing support of Lise-Anne and Anna, we candled our eggs for the last time. The children confirmed that egg number 8 does not have a chick inside of it - so we have the potential for 26 eggs hatching next week! We weighed the eggs for a third time, comparing the weight with our original measurements. Many of the eggs stayed the same weight, with only one egg - egg number 26 - going down in weight.

With the help of all of the children, we followed Avery's idea for determining the biggest egg. During number corner, we added each measurement for all seven of our biggest eggs, using unifix cubes of blue (blue being a group of ten) and orange. Based on our math work, egg number 26 is (officially) the biggest!