Kinder-Whale Tales Dear Kinder-Whale Families, I hope you are having a spectacular weekend! First of all, I would like to give a HUGE and HEARTFELT THANK YOU to Ms. Stephanie (Marissa's mom), Mrs. Sonali (Aashni's mom), Mr. M./Mohamud (Ahmed's dad), Mrs. Monique (Bruce's mom), and Mrs. Savita (Pranav's mom) for taking time out of your busy schedules to volunteer and help out in the classroom this past week! We greatly appreciate your help and the students enjoyed spending time with you! Than you from the bottom of our hearts!!! The Kinder-Whales had an extremely hectic, busy, and productive week, learning all about ... CLOUDS!!! We have been in school for 139 days! That means only 41 days left of school, and still so much to do and so much to learn! Featured above in this week's news is a video of the students singing a song that we learned about different types of clouds, including cirrus, stratus, cumulus, and nimbus clouds. Also featured above in this week's news are the cloud buddies that the students created, along with cloud profiles of their buddies. Students were able to choose which cloud buddy to create: cirrus (high and thin clouds), stratus (low and layered clouds), cumulus (puffy, fluffy, white clouds), and cumulonimbus clouds (tall and large storm clouds). Then they completed a profile for their cloud, including naming their cloud and describing the cloud's features, as well as creating a background story about what the cloud likes to do (i.e. make storms, make thunder, give people good weather, watch animals, watch families having a picnic, etc.). They all did a marvelous job! On the left side of this week's news will be all of the activities that we did on our SEAL unit on weather and climate. On the right side will be any other activities, as well as a recap of the week's events. Please read through the weekly news and let me know if you have any questions! SEAL Unit: Focus on Clouds Last week, the students started a clouds inquiry chart and came up with statements about what they know and what they wonder about clouds. Students were encouraged to speak in complete sentences, following the sentence frames, "I know..." vs. "I wonder..." Throughout the week, we kept adding and editing our inquiry chart as we learned new information. At the end of this week, we were able to answer many of our own questions about clouds! We were even able to add more to the left side, what we know about clouds! One of the biggest questions that students had about clouds was whether or not we could touch/feel a cloud. After doing some investigations, we found out that clouds are made up of millions of tiny droplets of water. When you try to touch a cloud, all you will feel is droplets of water. Please scroll down for more information. Below is a snapshot of all of our clouds charts that students can refer to throughout the rest of our weather unit as well as throughout the rest of the school year. Please right click on the picture below and Open Image in New Tab to see a close up of the snapshot. You can also scroll down to read about each item in detail! SEAL Chant/Cloud Song: Oh When the Clouds Go Floating By To help the students learn the different types of clouds, the Kinder-Whales learned the words to the following song (video featured above in the weekly news). First, we recited the words and added pictures of each cloud type to help us remember their features--which clouds were thin, which clouds were puffy, etc. Then together as a class, we came up with movements and gestures to help us remember what each type of cloud looks like. For instance, for cirrus clouds, which look like wispy hair or a feather; the students twirl their fingers in their hair or in the air and draw a feather in the air to demonstrate what wispy means. We also added little doodles to the clouds song to help us track the words, and memorize the song. Thanks to learning this chant/song and applying the other SEAL strategies, the Kinder-Whales have been using more advanced vocabulary in their daily conversation. At recess time, I often hear the students saying things like, "I see cirrus clouds! That means nice fair weather!" or "When are the clouds going to be heavy with precipitation? I really want to see a cumulonimbus cloud!" My teacher heart sings with joy when I hear students applying what we are learning in the classroom to outside of the classroom! I am so proud of each and every one of them! SEAL: Draw and Label: Cloud Types To provide the students with a more visual representation of the four different types of clouds, we did a Draw and Label on Cloud Types. The Draw and Label shows the shape of the different clouds as well as the elevation/location of each cloud type. See if you can find it in the Draw and Label below! Cirrus clouds are high and thin, and look like a feather. Cumulus clouds are high and fluffy and look like heaps (or piles of cotton candy). Stratus clouds are low and layered and look like a large blanket of gray covering the sky. Cumulonimbus clouds are intensely tall and large and often lead to rainstorms with thunder and lighting. Fog is a cloud that has come close to the ground. We used the words from the song to add more words/descriptions to the clouds that we labeled. The Draw and Label coupled with the clouds song, provided the students with a firm understanding of the different types of clouds and what seeing each kind of cloud means about the weather forecast! SEAL Categorical Matrix: Clouds & the Weather! We took all of the information that we learned from the clouds song and the cloud types draw and label, and we organized it all into a clouds categorical matrix. We organized the clouds according to cloud type, description, elevation/location, and the kind of weather we should expect, depending on the clouds that we see. Cirrus clouds are high and thin and look like wispy hair or a feather. They are usually seen 16,500 feet to 45,000 feet in the air. When we see cirrus clouds, it usually means nice fair weather, but there could be a storm the next day. Stratus clouds are low and layered and look like blankets of gray. They are found about 6,000 feet up into the air and they usually bring light rainy weather. Cumulus clouds are high and fluffy and look like cotton candy. They are usually elevated at 3,300 feet - 20,000 feet. When we see cumulus clouds, that usually means nice, warm, fair weather. Cumulonimbus clouds are dense and dark and are really tall--some can be taller than the mountains found on earth! These clouds can go from 6,500 feet to 75,000 feet into the air. They usually bring heavy rain, thunder, and lightning. Nimbus clouds are storm clouds. Then there is fog, which is low to the ground and looks hazy or misty. This means that there is lots of moisture or water in the air. We will continue to refer to this information when we learn about the water cycle next in our SEAL weather unit! How Do Clouds Form? The Kinder-Whales were briefly introduced to the water cycle, where the sun heats up the water, causing it to evaporate and go up into the air. That water vapor then condenses to form clouds. When the clouds get heavy enough, they get darker, and precipitate, or rain/hail/snow, bringing the water back down to the Earth again. To find out how a cloud forms, we watched a few videos to investigate how it all happens, starting with what happens to the water when you leave a cup of water out on the counter for a week. The students watched a sped up video and were surprised to see the water level dropping, even though the cup of water was left alone the entire time. Even though we can't see it, the water in the cup is evaporating slowly and going up into the air. The same happens when you are cooking and water is being boiled in a pot -- the water evaporates and turns into water vapor (looks like steam), and if you keep boiling it, eventually there will be no more water in the pot. To get the students thinking, we asked students if they have ever wondered what happens to the puddles after it is done raining--where do the puddles go? The students turned to a partner and had a collaborative conversation. Then students watched a sped up video of a puddle evaporating outside in the sun. The water from that puddle turned into water vapor, which eventually collects and condenses and contributes to the water droplets that turn into a cloud. We tried an experiment in the classroom (not pictured) where we heated up water. We watched what happened after water was heated up and students shared their observations that you could see the water turning into water vapor because we could see the steam. Then we wondered, what would happen if we trapped the water vapor, and didn't let it escape into the air/atmosphere. We repeated the process and heated up the water, then quickly put a lid on it. After a few seconds, we looked closely at the cup, and we could see water droplets forming along the sides of the cup. Because the water vapor has nowhere to go, we are able to see the droplets clinging to the sides of the cup. Next, the students were asked, "Because clouds are made up of water droplets, do you think we can sit on a cloud?" The students shared their thoughts and predictions with a partner and then aloud with the class. Then we watched a video of some sky divers jumping through the clouds, and just as some of us expected, the sky divers went right through the clouds, and some water droplets were collected on their face helmets. So long answer short, no, we are not able to sit or grab and hold a cloud; you would just get a fistful of water droplets. Students were encouraged to try and touch fog the next time the weather gets foggy! Stuck in a Storm Cloud! We also watched a video about a pilot named William Rankin, who was the first man to ever get stuck in a storm cloud for 40 minutes (due to wind and other factors)! Please watch video below to see what happens! Rain Cloud Experiment! After watching the videos and all of the sped up videos, the students were asked, "Where does rain come from?" Students made a prediction and I was impressed that many of them were able to recall and retell how rain comes down from a cloud because clouds are just made up of water droplets. We used a cup of water, shaving cream as the cloud, and food coloring to conduct our experiment. After making our predictions, the students were asked to observe their "cloud" (shaving cream) and to describe it (white, fluffy, etc.). Then the students were asked to identify the cloud: CUMULUS cloud, which is a fair weather cloud. The next step was for the students to use food coloring and a pipette to add water droplets to their cloud. The students kept doing this and watched to see what would happen. Students described the process and said that the cloud turned darker and it also got heavier (it's turning from a fair weather cloud into a nimbus cloud or a storm cloud)--As the cloud got heavier with water, it began to rain (you could see the food coloring going through the other side of the cloud). When we finished making it "rain", we discussed how in this instance, everything was controlled in the classroom. But, if we were outside, how would all of this be able to happen? We came to the conclusion that the sun heats up the water found in puddles on the ground or in large bodies of water, such as the ocean, and when the water gets heated, it goes up (evaporates) and turns into water vapor. The tiny water droplets condense and form clouds, and when the clouds get heavy, it precipitates (rain, hail, snow, or sleet), just as it did when we did our experiment. Storm Cloud Collector One of our stations this week was to look at the clouds and to try and identify them, according to their features and characteristics. However, we did not have the best timing and we had just missed the best days when the sky was filled with clouds. On the days when we had the clouds stations, the students mostly saw cirrus and cumulus clouds and a few stratus clouds. As a result, we watched videos of various clouds and used these videos to record our observations of each cloud type in our mini storm cloud collector books. If the clouds are not present, we have other means of watching them! :) Clouds Stations: Below are pictures of the students and our wonderful parent volunteers in action, as they completed their cloud stations. Ms. Stephanie helped students as they created their cloud buddies (featured above in this week's news). Ms. Sonali helped the students to make cloud observations using our cloud watcher as a reference guide. Students recorded their observations and described each cloud's features. Mr. M. helped the students use different art materials, including white paint, black paint, shaving cream + glue mixture, and cotton balls to form the four different types of clouds that we have been learning in class. At another station, I worked with students as they did their rain cloud experiment and then students worked on an art project where they filled in the blank: Clouds on the _____ and created a corresponding picture. Please see pictures below! Cirrus, Cumulus, Stratus, Cumulonimbus! Oh My! The Kinder-Whales did a wonderful job on their art project, where they created the four different types of clouds that we have been learning about in class, including cirrus, cumulus, stratus, and cumulonimbus clouds. Check out their amazing projects below! Thank you to Mr. M. (on Day 1) and Ms. Stephanie (on Day 2) for helping the students at this station! They look fantastic in our classroom! Clouds on the ________. The students enjoyed coming up with different ideas for backgrounds that they could create underneath the clouds. Students came up with the hills, mountains, school, trains, airplanes, trees, rainforest trees, and roller coasters! An Adorable Cloud Video! The Kinder-Whales enjoyed watching this adorable cloud video last Friday, and they asked if I could put it on the website so that they can share it with their families -- here it is! Vocabulary in Context: Temperature Our new vocabulary word for the week was temperature. Students were asked if they had ever heard of the word before and we recorded that on our vocabulary chart below. Next, the students said the word temperature aloud many times to the ceiling, to their elbows, to their shoes, etc., to give them that immediate use of the new word. Then, students listened and used the word temperature in a sentence: When the temperature is too hot, I turn on the air conditioner. I also used, When the temperature is too cold, I turn on the heater. The students read the sentence aloud with me a few times, before turning to discuss what they think temperature means with a partner in collaborative conversations. Together, we came up with a final meaning: Temperature is how hot or cold something is. Not pictured below: For our language arts extension, we will be doing syllabication, or how many syllables are in the word temperature. SEAL: Narrative Input: Cloudette This past week, we also read aloud an adorable story called Cloudette by Tom Lichtenheld. The story is about Cloudette, who is a little cloud that is smaller than most clouds and as a result, she can squeeze into small spaces, is great at playing hide and seek, and always has a place to watch the fireworks. One day, all of the other clouds decide to create a huge storm front. This made Cloudette want to do big and important things, too. But when she tries to find something to do, she finds that she is not big enough to help out. A big storm hits her neighborhood and she gets blown far away from home. There, Cloudette makes lots of new friends and hears a strange sound she has never heard before: Ribbit! She looks down and sees a frog in a puddle of mud. This gives Cloudette an idea -- she puffs herself up and holds her breath until she lets it rain and pour and pour until she turns the puddle into a pond. At the end of the story, Cloudette searches for other important jobs that a little cloud can do. On the first day of the narrative input, the students listened to the story for enjoyment, and the pictures were placed on the cloud background. On the second day, the pictures were passed out to the students, and as I read aloud the script, the students got up to place the pictures on the cloud background, in the correct order. Students had to be listening closely for when it was their turn. A few students also helped me read aloud the script. On the third and fourth day, we added word dialog bubbles to the script. By now, the students knew the story really well. On the fifth day of the narrative input, the students were ready to act it out! The narrative input SEAL strategy is a great way to help students retell the main idea and supporting details of a story. SEAL Dramatic Play: Weather Station While we are learning all about the weather and what meteorologists do, our classroom now has our very own weather station! Students have the wonderful opportunity to BE meteorologists in the classroom, and are able to use different meteorologist tools, including a thermometer, an anemometer, a weather vane, a rain gauge, and a barometer. While students are in the weather station, they have our meteorologist tools categorical matrix to refer to, as they are using the tools. They also have cloud watchers and cloud observation sheets that they can use to make weather forecasts. I am excited for the students to use this station more often throughout the remainder of our SEAL weather unit! | Reminders & Updates Next Week:
RECAP Letter of the Week: Ww Our letter of the week was the letter Ww. This can be a tricky letter for some students because when we say the letter Ww, we hear a /Dd/ sound at the beginning, which causes some students to mix up those letter sounds. However, the students did an amazing job coming up with many words that begin with the letter Ww or have the /w/ sound. We continued to add words to our Letter Ww circle map all throughout the week. Sight Word of the Week: Play Our sight word of the week was the word, play. The students practiced using the word play in a sentence, and came up with numerous sentences with their partners during collaborative conversations. In addition to completing the worksheet with the word play, the students wrote their own sentences using the word play. What Time Is It? Calendar Time! The Kinder-Whales have been doing a wonderful job with our daily calendar routines. We have learned that when the big hand (minute hand) is at the 12 or at the top of the clock, that means "o'clock", which is written as _:00 in digital form. We learned that we always look at the little hand for the first number when telling time. Then we practiced moving the small hand (hour hand) and having it point at different numbers to tell the time (pictured below is nine o'clock or 9:00). We will continue to practice learning about telling time during daily calendar, and will soon start to introduce students to telling time to the half hour in addition to the hour. Math Meeting! The Kinder-Whales have really enjoyed having math meetings, where they can work together to practice their number sense and math skills, including skip counting. In the video below, you will see a warm up snippet of what we do during our math meetings. The activities will continue to become more challenging as we dive deeper into the math curriculum. After whole group counting, the students would usually partner up and practice the skip counting again, taking turns. Pennies for Patients As mentioned above, the last day for us to collect money for Pennies for Patients is Friday, April 1st, meaning next week will be our last week. Thank you so much to everyone who has donated and contributed so generously to this great cause! I will have an updated total of the funds raised during Week 2 for you very soon! Please keep the change coming! Thank you for all of your support! Counting Collections! Since we are working with numbers up to 100 (and beyond), we decided to do counting collections with the money we have raised! First, the students helped to sort all of the coins into boxes of pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and other (dollar bills, dollar coins, etc.). Then the students worked in their table groups to group sets of ten. We went around and had students carefully count their groups of ten to figure out how many pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters we had. Our total from week one was $151.30! Please scroll down lower to watch a quick video of the students counting by 10 to 100 or even 200+! Happy Birthday, Norah! On Monday, March 21st, we celebrated Norah's 6th birthday. We sang Happy Birthday to Norah, and then each student created a book for Norah with drawings of her and her favorite things. The students also came up with things to say about Norah and why she is so special. Thank you to Norah and her family for celebrating Norah's birthday with the class with some fun Frozen/Elsa/Olaf goodies/treats! Hope your birthday was wonderful, Norah! Happy Birthday, Marissa! On Friday, we celebrated Marissa's 6th birthday. We also sang Happy Birthday to Marissa and read aloud the book that was made by our class -- each student created their own page to put in the book and wrote about their well wishes for Marissa on her birthday. Marissa loved having the book read aloud to the class, and she was very sweet about thanking each and every student for their hard work on her book. Hope you're having a super fun birthday weekend, Marissa! Happy Easter! THANK YOU AGAIN to Ms. Stephanie, Marissa's mom, for donating white paper bags to our class. We used the white paper bags to make Easter bunny baskets for our egg hunt! However, because we didn't want our bunny baskets to rip during the Easter egg hunt, we decorated white paper bags and used those to hunt for the eggs. What ended up happening was, the students had the eggs from their Easter egg hunt AND their bunny baskets were also stuffed for them, ready to take home at the end of the day! A HUGE THANK YOU goes out to Ms. Stephanie, Ms. Monique, and Ms. Savita, for being our secret Easter bunnies, and hiding all of the eggs for our class! The students had a blast when it was our turn to go look for their Easter eggs! Easter Treats! The students made their own Easter bunny treat for Easter (or Spring), using a marshmallow bunny Peep, some cadbury chocolate eggs, and a chocolate pudding cup! Thank you, Ms. Nancy, our lovely instructional assistant, for helping the students make their Easter treat! Thank You, Shannon & Family! In addition to our other Easter treat, our class also got a special treat from Shannon and her family, Mrs. Jennifer, who made Easter nest cookies for the entire class! They were delicious and they looked adorably awesome!!! Thank you for sharing and for being so thoughtful! Chicks in Disguise The Kinder-Whales LOVED creating their little chicks, hatching out of an Easter egg! They also loved adding on the bunny ears to create their chicks in disguise! Check them out below! Easter Cards! Our week was jam packed with clouds activities as well as Easter/spring activities. Another one of our Easter activities was to create an egg shaped card for the family to wish them a Happy Easter or a Happy Spring! The students did an amazing job decorating their Easter egg cards! Please look for it if your child hasn't given it to you yet :). They had a lot of things to carry out on the Friday before Easter. Story Time with Mrs. Doi! Mrs. Kathy Doi came to read a story aloud to our class! The students listened as Mrs. Doi read aloud, Peep and Egg: I'm Not Hatching by Laura Gehl. The students did a wonderful job of listening intently and discussing the story's events with Mrs. Doi. They did such an amazing job that Mrs. Doi gave them all a treat afterwards :). Spring Pictures! On Thursday, March 24th, we had our Spring picture day. Students came dressed to impress! Once we receive the pictures, all students will get to take home the package and decide what they would like to purchase. Whatever you don't want to purchase should be sent back to school. I can't wait to see how they turn out! Starfish of the Week: Denise! Our Starfish of the Week was Denise! Even though she is usually a pretty shy student, Denise did a magnificent job of helping to keep the noise down in Room 8, and of helping the students to stay focused on their work, especially during our center activities and on the Friday before Easter. She was a wonderful assistant all throughout the week, and spoke up to find out ways that she could help out in the classroom--for that I am so grateful! On Tuesday, we read aloud one of Denise's favorite books called Potter the Otter, A Tale About Water, by Shalini Singh Anand. It was a wonderful little book about an otter named Potter, who gets all of his friends to give up their sugary drinks for water, the healthier option. Potter the Otter helps Toada give up Soda and Goose and Moose to give up sugary juice. Here is a link to the online version of the story if you would like to read it! Click HERE. Reading the book led us into a lively discussion about why drinking water is so important, and about how we should drink sugary drinks, like soda, only in moderation. On Wednesday, we read aloud a letter from Denise's parents, who shared what a blessing it is to have Denise as a daughter. She is sweet, loving, and always has a smile on her face. Her parents are proud of Denise, who often takes the initiative to get ready for school and to also start on her homework, without ever needing to be told. Her parents also share how helpful Denise is at home--she helps with the laundry, dishes, and anything else that needs to get done. When Denise isn't busy working, she loves reading, drawing, watching cartoons, going to the mall, and calling her cousins in the Philippines to share jokes or stories. Her parents encourage her to stay beautiful and kind and to keep up the great work! These are all qualities that we definitely see in Denise, and she adds so much kindness to our wonderful class of scholars! On Thursday, we met Denise's favorite/special item that she received as a gift from her auntie, who bought it for her from the Philippines. The class was very amused when they found out that her stuffed bear was named Maya! On Friday, Denise had her Starfish Talk Show. She did a fantastic job of introducing herself, before she presented the rest of her poster. She introduced us to her mom, dad, and older brother, and she shared that when she grows up she would like to become a teacher (she would either be called Ms. Denise or Ms. Diaz). Denise also shared that she would like to visit Disneyland because it is fun! A few of her favorite things include drawing, playing in the park, and riding roller coasters. Denise did a terrific job as our Starfish of the Week! Next Week's Starfish: Boa! Thank You! Thank you for taking the time to read through the weekly news! Thank you also for your patience as it took longer than usual to upload all of the pictures and videos plus there were way more pictures this week, since we accomplished so much last week! Last week, our primary focus was on our SEAL weather unit, with our clouds week. Because we were focusing on that, we did not have enough time to finish all of our Easter activities. Since it is still Easter, we will be incorporating more of our Easter activities throughout the coming week, and I will do my best to upload those pictures as activities are completed. With all of that said, we have had quite a week! I am so proud of each and every one of our dear Kinder-Whales. They have come so far and will only continue to do amazing things as they get older! I hope that they will remember me and everything that we have learned and will learn, as well as I remember each of them and their sweet smiles, bright faces, and loving hugs! It certainly warms my heart whenever a student takes what we have learned and takes it a step further by doing their own learning at home! Pictured below are a few photos of Maya and her clouds project. She took a cardboard box and flattened it to make the base of her poster. Then she drew the different clouds, complete with rain, wind, and my favorite, labels--she labeled each of the clouds! I just wanted to share her work with the class! For this week's news, please please please leave a quick comment on the weekly news. It does take a long time for me to write these weekly news letters, and I would really appreciate just knowing that the weekly news are being read :). Thank you for your help with this! Please leave a quick comment just saying you've read the news, or about your child's favorite cloud and why: cirrus, stratus, cumulus, nimbus. You may also leave a quick comment with a fun fact or something new that your child learned about clouds or the weather. I look forward to reading those comments and seeing how well students are learning all of the academic content! As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for your endless support and continued partnership! Have a terrific week ahead! Best wishes, Mrs. Lorenzana |
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Mrs. LorenzanaKindergarten Teacher at Spangler Elementary Archives
June 2016
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