Category Archives: KOWL Chart
Leaves 2009
This week, we are learning about leaves and trees:
I copied several pages from the back of Leaves!, Leaves!, Leaves! and Leaf Man and the children compared the leaves they found on our leaf walk to them and tried to identify what kinds of trees we have on our school campus.
The Alphabet Chart that you see in one of the pictures is something I learned at a workshop I attended today. I’ll share more about that and several other things in a few days–need to review it and process it a little more! 🙂
Kristen 🙂
Bats Day #1 and Day #2 2009
This week, we’ve been learning all about BATS!! We have several students in our school who do not celebrate the fall holidays, so I always try to keep things neutral and not offend anyone. In October, we learn about bats, spiders, pumpkins, and leaves, all kind of tying into the holidays, yet we do not discuss ways in which they might relate–these are just things you might see in our area in October! Some pictures which are probably self-explanatory!
This is our Big Book this week! I also created a PDF file to help re-tell this story. There are 5 bats and an equal and minus signs to help the children understand the math.
These are some other Big Books we will be reading this week.
This is the “-at” cave (not the bat cave mind you!). We made a list of -at family words in our morning message on Monday and then made bats today and they seemed to belong together–so the “-at” cave was born!
I’m in the process of finishing it, so I will take new pictures once it’s done.
Kristen 🙂
Pumpkins Day #1-#3
We’ve been learning and reading all about Pumpkins this week…even though I was out 2 days this week (my son was sick). Â We started off the week by taking a picture walk through the Big Book Pumpkin, Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington. Â Then the children heard the story read aloud. Â On the second day, the children re-read the story and then re-told the story using their own words. Â Today, we looked at the pictures to help us re-tell the story and then we played Guess The Covered Word. I covered the words pumpkin, seeds, pulp, flower, and sprouts. Â We would read the sentence and when we got to a covered word, we would try to guess what the word was. Â If the first letter was correct, we sounded out the word we thought it might be and would figure out if it fit. Â If not, we needed a new word.
Then later in the afternoon, we cut open our pumpkin and checked out the insides. Â I scooped out the pulp, we observed it and I put it in a plastic baggie to take home and roast the seeds. Â We also have a few smaller pumpkins in our room that were donated by parents (THANK YOU!!!) so we could observe them. Â And observe them we did and wrote our findings down on our KOWL chart. Â
Kristen 🙂
The Wheels on the Bus Day #1
This week our big book is titled, The Wheels on the Bus”. Â Today we took a picture walk through the story and then I read it aloud to the children.Â
We also started a Predictable Chart titled, The bus…”
During our Science time, we created a KWL chart about busses. Â We listed things we knew about busses in the “K” column, and things we want to learn about in the “W” column. Â I’ll update more on this as the week goes on.Â
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My student teacher is in the process of slowly taking over responsibilities in our classroom, so I will post the great ideas that she has as well.
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Kristen 🙂
Monkeys
Hi Everyone!
I’ve been too busy to post regularly, what with the end of the school year and the start of the summer of learning for me! 🙂 Here’s what June looks like for me (already–and it’s not even here yet!!) June 1-5 and 10-12 Science Academy (I’m returning for a 3rd year) June 8th is open and June 9th, I’m learning about Open Court and the possibility of using it in our schools next year for Interventions. June 15th, I’m presenting a workshop, June 16th, another one-day workshop offered by our district and then June 17th-19th and June 22nd-26th, I’m taking a General Economics Workshop for 3 credits. Oh, and on May 29th and 30th, I’m taking International Bacculeraute (sp?) training so that I can incorporate it into my classroom (we’re going k-12).
In the meantime, this week, we’ve been reading 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed–why did I choose this book?? Because we’re all so excited about the end of the school year, we’ve been acting like a bunch of Monkeys! 🙂
Monday, we took a picture walk and then read the story, we also started a Predictable Chart titled…Monkeys…
Tuesday, we listened to the book on tape and played some games and sung some songs that were on the reverse side of the tape. We also started a KWL chart about Monkeys. The children knew a little bit about Monkeys, and ended up with some great questions that they “Wondered” about.
Wednesday, we were supposed to go on a field trip to our local park, but it got rained out, so instead we watched A Bugs Life! 🙂 It was a fun time!
Thursday, we read another book about Monkeys, filled in some of the “l’s” on our KWL chart and then we read a book about Lemurs…which led to Madagascar…which led to me agreeing to watch it tomorrow afternoon! 🙂 In the morning we are having our Kindy Olympics.
We have 7 different stations set up and the children (with the help of LOTS of parents) will play their way through the events–just for fun, no competition!  We will have a parachute, trikes, relay races, bean bag tossing, jump ropes, obstacle course, and kickball. We’ve never done it this way before–we usually have the Kindy 500 (since we’re here in Indiana!), but we wanted to change things up a bit for us and them this year!
Kristen 🙂
Seeds
We are reading a big book this week titled “Seeds”.
Because there are a few students who will be leaving early this week to head out on Spring Break, we did not do a Predictable Chart, however we did do several neat Inquiry Based things in Science. Â I like to begin almost all my themes/units with a KWL/OWL chart to asses where my children are at and what they are interested in. Â We completed the “K” portion of this chart first, then after Observing the seeds (see below) we completed the “O” portion and the “W” (wonder) section. Â I like to change the “W” from “What we WANT to Learn” to “What we WONDER” because it gets the children asking questions of the “I Wonder…” variety, something that is holding them back from exploring the world! Â At this young age, they know what they want to learn about somethings, but they have no basis to draw from for many Science concepts (some do!!). Â Asking “I Wonder…” questions sets the ground work for them to wonder, so ALL of my KWL charts are either KOWL or OWL charts.Â
This is the “Wonder” section continued…
I gave each table of children a random container of seeds that I had leftover from previous vegetable plantings:
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Today, Tuesday, we planted all kinds of vegetables in Containers. Â My kids took such an interest in the Seeds book that I went and got many of the seeds mentioned in the story.
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The next few months (until the end of May) will be spent on growing things/plants/bugs/insects/Monarchs/Jack and the Beanstalk/and anything else that fits in to one of these categories! 🙂
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Kristen 🙂
Kristen's Kindergarten 