Living Things: Ocean Animals

Oh my gosh, this week was SO fun! The kids are loving learning about ocean animals and it's one of my favorite units!

On Monday, we learned about fish and made our own Rainbow fish after reading "Rainbow Fish."

"I can share like Rainbow Fish! I share my pool."

On Tuesday, we learned about sea turtles and painted our own sea turtles. We made tree maps to write about sea turtles and I am SO PROUD of how far their writing has come along! Hellooooo multiple sentences! :)

On Wednesday, we learned about dolphins and we labeled the parts of a dolphin before writing about them!

On Thursday, we learned about whales and made another tree map! The kids love making tree maps because it's a great way to organize their thoughts before crafting their sentences. It's almost like a formula for them, so they can just "plug and chug!"

On Friday, we learned about sharks! We read "Clark, The Toothless Shark!" and then made our own Clarks before we read an informational text on sharks so that we could compare sharks and dolphins. We created a double bubble map and then wrote sentences comparing the two!

I wanted to (okay I did!) jump around and yell, "WOO!" after seeing some of their writing! Not only are they crafting their own pieces, but they are really taking letter combinations to heart. Look at all of those digraphs and vowel combinations! :)

Friday was also Earth Day so we snuck in "Curious George Plants A Tree" and talked about ways we can help the Earth every day! We also had PBS day Friday afternoon, so it was a jam-packed week!

Ask Your Child About:

-Writing: Explanatory writing- Can you write to explain the differences between sharks and dolphins? What can sea turtles do? What are the parts of a dolphin?

-Content Connection: What makes a sea animal a mammal? Do sharks have blowholes like whales and dolphins?

-Phonics/Phonemic Awareness: We finished our letter combination poem, so we are reviewing sounds and finding letter combinations whenever we write or read. They are getting so good at this! One of our literacy centers this week was Sea Sounds:

-Reading: Main topic and key details- If we're reading a book about sharks, what is the main topic going to be? What are details?

-Fluency: Our poem this week was- "Once I saw an octopus in the deep blue sea. I called, "Mr. Octopus, won't you swim with me? Then out came his tentacles, so very long and straight. One and two and three and four. Five and six and seven and eight."

-Math: Numbers base 10- Place value! Can you make a T-chart to show me how many tens and how further ones are in 17? 19? 11?

One of our literacy centers this week: Ocean Write The Room (She's writing jellyfish from the card by the calendar)

One of our math centers: 3d Magnetic Builders! These little faces love to build and construct. I love the problem solving and teamwork that happens at this center! :)

Reminders:

-If you have not signed your child's report card and sent it back, please do so ASAP!

-Save the date: Our End of the Year celebration is Friday, May 20th from 9-10 AM. Please make arrangements so you can celebrate how amazing your child's kindergarten year has been!

-Our baby chicks are due on Wednesday!

Enjoy your weekend!

With SO much love,

Ms. Ham

Disclaimer: I have written permission from parents to post photos of students from parents/guardians.