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This week in Kindergarten we finished introducing the alphabet! It was a
very exciting occasion. We also monkey-ed around with measuring, practiced
counting by 1’s, 5’s and 10’s, introduced our number words for zero thru ten
with a Turkey counting book and learned about how to use tally marks!
First, Jacob was our expert for the letter Yy. He introduced us to the
letter Yy and taught us its sound and the proper way to make the letter. We
put yellow yarn on our reading wall and we ate yummy yogurt for a snack (it
was vanilla and we added sprinkles and everyone loved it!) Our puppet was a
yak and we glued yellow yarn to our Y cutout.
Our expert for Xx is Micaela. She brought a picture of a Xylophone for our
reading wall and taught us the correct sound of letter Xx and how to write it
properly. Our puppet was a fox in a box! We understand that “x” usually is
found at the end of words and that is where it makes its “ksss” sound. For
snack we made our cheerios into an “X” shape! Lastly, we cut up some old x-
rays and glued them to our “X” cutout.
Our expert for the letter Zz is Levi. He brought us a zipper and a “Z”
shaped crayon for our reading wall. Levi taught us the sound and correct way
to write the letter Zz. Our puppet was a zebra and we ate zebra cakes for
snack (Little Debbie makes them)! We used fancy scissors to cut out zig-zag
strips of paper and then glued them on to letter Z. Levi treated us to some
yummy fruit flavored zebra striped gum. It was a special day to have the
whole alphabet introduced!!
Wednesday was our wonderful Voyage on the Mayflower. Thank you to everyone
for helping your child pack their bags! We have been learning about why the
Pilgrims left England and chose to sail on the Mayflower to a new world. Our
classroom was transformed! There were no tables and chairs, but instead, a
ship! We gathered on the carpet and colored a map that showed where we
started and where we were going. We each got a ticket to board the ship.
Lined up in order of our numbers and got on with our bags. We were cramped
together as we shared the items we each brought and talked about why we had
chosen those things. We sorted the items by wants and needs! They were all
sorry to hear that toys fall into the want category. Luckily for us, some
children brought things we really needed, like a fishing net, and tools for
building when we got there. We had a couple compasses, lots of pillows and
blankets, lots of books and Bibles, some medicine and even some
underwear : ) The children just beamed as they talked about what they had
chosen! While on the ship, we went to sleep and woke up 65 times just like
the Pilgrims! We kept track of these days with tally marks and then used the
tallies to help us count by 5’s! We also had our snack while on the ship:
cold biscuits, beef jerky, and raisins, not their favorite. When it was time
to get off the ship in the new world, we were ready!
In America, we made our log cabin books and found out about the life of
Pilgrim children. They had many more chores then children of today, luckily
none of us had to fetch firewood or feed the chickens before we did our
school lessons. We wrote with chalk on “slates” to practice our sight words,
and sentence writing. Later in the day we met “Squanto” (who looked an awful
lot like Mrs. Logan) who taught us how to grow corn. Squanto gave us fish (
little paper ones) to put in the soil with our corn seeds… hopefully they
will grow. Please ask your child about our voyage and see what they have
learned about how this national holiday began.
I am truly thankful to be your child’s Kindergarten teacher. I try to bring
the curriculum to life each day and help your child to seek out opportunities
to learn and discover new things. Thank you for entrusting me with your
precious little children and thank you to the children for trying their best
even when it is hard for them. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Try this after your Thanksgiving meal to burn off a few calories!
Turkey Pokey
(Hokey Pokey)
You put your right wing in.
You put your right wing out.
You put your right wing in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the turkey pokey
And you turn your self around.
That's what it's all about.
Additional verses:
Left wing (left arm)
Drumsticks (legs)
Stuffing (tummy)
Wattle (head)
Tail feathers (bottom)
Turkey body (whole self)