Hi guys!
I'm here to share 5 things from this week. I hope these ideas will be helpful to you! Please scroll to the bottom of the post to grab the freebie!
1. Jack-o'-Lantern Barrier Game
I have heard about barrier games and was wanting to incorporate it into my centres.. and remembered that I had these pumpkin cut-outs from last year! I grabbed some black foam and cut out a variety of mouthes, small/big circles, small/big triangles and small/big squares.
One student builds a jack-o'-lantern first and then has to explain what they did using only words. When they think they are done they lift the file folder and see if they got it right! We talked about how we need to use lots of details when we explain each part so that your partner can make the same jack-o'-lantern.
This activity was great for oral language, using spatial awareness language and to also review shape names and size words!
2. Halloween Hunt
This is a simple but fun activity! I put a variety of Halloween items in black and white beans and had the students hunt for them. When they found the item they checked it off and I encouraged them to colour it to match the item they found.
3. Halloween Play Dough
My kids love play dough so I'm always looking for new ways to use it! First we made pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns. I set out orange play dough with pumpkin shaped cookie cutters, googly eyes, black and green pipe cleaners and black beans.
We also set out white play dough and encouraged them to make ghosts and skulls! We set out the white play dough with ghost/skull cookie cutters, googly eyes and black beans.
4. 5 Little Pumpkins STEM Challenge
My kids really loved this challenge! First I read them "Pete the Cat: Five Little Pumpkins" (any Five Little Pumpkins book will work!) then I told them the challenge "Can you make a fence for the five little pumpkins?" I set out popsicle sticks and clothes pins and showed them this example but told them that there are many other ways to make a fence and encouraged them to try and find new ways. Some of the kids came up with some really creative fences! I loved seeing them think hard and share their work with others.
I'm trying to incorporate more STEM type activities. If you know any great Kindergarten friendly STEM activities please let me know in the comments!
5. The Winter Dressing Song
We had our first snow pants this week so we taught (review for our SK's) The Winter Dressing Song and created this presentation board together! I had the kids colour the clothing pieces and we worked in a small group to glue the pieces down.
The song is sung to the tune of "London Bridge".
Next week we will be adding kids pictures to the "Zipper Club" so that friends who are still learning will know who to ask for help if they need help with their zippers!
You can download the printables to make this board for your classroom by clicking here or on the image below:
I'm linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teachings for her Five for Friday linky. Click on the image below to read more Five for Friday posts!
That's it from me this week!
Have a great weekend!
I look forward to reading your posts - makes me more creative when I think of centres.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your pumpkin STEM challenge. I'm going to try this with my students in October. I'm a K-5 STEM teacher (new position this year after 14 years of teaching computer), and my kindergarteners have loved making spinners out of snap cubes (https://thecuriouskindergarten.wordpress.com/2015/02/08/snap-cube-workshop-the-spinner-project/) and creating bridges to go over a paper river. For the bridges, I gave them totes of Legos, snap cubes, craft sticks, blocks, medium-size paper binder clips, and clothespins. We had some very creative bridges!
ReplyDeleteI just checked out your blog post about your spinner challenge! That is so cool! I'll have to try the bridge challenge too. I'm trying to bring more STEAM into our room so thank you so much for the great ideas!
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