S is for Snowman
We have had snow much fun the last 2 weeks learning about snowmen and enjoying our snowmen books! It's be snow much fun, that the children didn't realize they were learning snow much more than just about these great characters and stories.
Having it snow this month and learning about snowmen, provided me with the perfect opportunity to teach about putting events in order and using sequence words in our writing; first, next, then, last (finally). The children watched a slide show on how to build a snowman, put picture cards in the correct order, and even created their own snowmen using a glyph.
Math
Using our snowman glyph turned into an great math lesson where we learned more about each other, and it gave the students an opportunity to collect and analyze data! Each student decorated their snowmen according to a glyph legend and then we used individual data recording sheets and class sheets to record and analyze the data! We depicted this data through writing, using tally marks, and finally by creating a graph. Did you know only 2 of our kindergarten friends don't like hot cocoa.
Reading
Using Deanna Jump's snowmen activities, we made many text-to-self connections and learned when we should use the words this and these. We also talked about the different story elements in each book like characters, setting, problem, and solution. We will continue to work on this throughout the school year.
Writer's Workshop
The joy of building a snowman provided us a great opportunity to write about it. First, we labeled the parts of a snowman together. Next, we read about and watched videos showing how a snowman is made using all those parts. Then, we discussed the steps involved in building a snowman. Finally, it was time to write about How to Build a Snowman using our sequence words.Word Work
And who knew that learning about snowmen would provide so many opportunities to study words. We spend a huge part of our kindergarten days listening and stretching our sounds to read words; specifically CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words. Building a 3 part snowman into a CVC or sight word made practicing this skill fun.
And did you know the word "snowman" is a compound word?
Snow + man = snowman
Well your kindergartener does...and after this week he/she knows many more compound words. They made compound words during their Daily 5 centers and were eager to point out any and all compound words they saw and/or heard. LOL We even danced and sang along to Dr. Jean's Compound Boogie. Feel free to listen at home: http://www.schooltube.com/video/f5c7ac9c83488d690a2a/
The Compound Boogie
Take the word "rain"
Take the word "rain"
Take the word "coat"
Put them together and get "raincoat."
The compound boogie is easy to do.
You make one word out of two!
And now you can join in the fun.
I'll say two words and you make them one.
Put them together and get "raincoat."
The compound boogie is easy to do.
You make one word out of two!
And now you can join in the fun.
I'll say two words and you make them one.
We had so much fun creating and illustrating our own compound words that we decided to make Crazy for Compound Words flip books using our favorite compound words. The children did a fantastic job! I am so proud of them!
