The Arrival of Autumn

Well, autumn has officially arrived in kindergarten. The days are cooler, sleeves are longer, and zip-up fleece jackets scatter the floor of our cubby area (those hooks can be tricky little buggers!). I'm a summer girl through and through, and winter is my arch-nemesis. But...... even I have to admit that fall is pretty beautiful here in New England.

Here's a little look at what we've been up to this past week:

We went on our first field trip as a class to a local farm! Leading up to this trip, we did a mini unit on the life cycle of pumpkins using the resources from Mrs. Hoffer's Spot . 

At the farm, we went through a corn maze, fed animals, and went on a hay ride. Each student got to pick pumpkin to take home, which they loved. Proving that kids will be kids, my babies' favorite part of the trip seemed to be...... the teeny tiny baby hay maze. HA! They could have gone through that thing for hours.

In math this past week, we ended our first module with a number fair! I paired my students up by ability to help ensure both students were doing an equal amount of thinking. Each pair of students got a bin containing a ten frame, a rekenrek, a paper containing a circle to make a "bracelet," numeral cards 0-10, dot cards 0-10, and ten of the following: red/yellow chips, leaf manipulatives, red and white beads, and linking cubes. Each bin also had a folded piece of green paper containing that pair's "magic number." 

On my go, each pair unfolded their green card to discover their "magic number." Then, they worked together to put both the numeral cards and dot cards in order from 0-10. Once in order, the students removed their numeral and dot card from the table.

Next, the pairs had to represent their magic number using all the materials provided. Students made the number on their ten frame, put beads on the bracelet, showed their number with leaves, made a tower of linking cubes, and represented the number with the rekenek. This is what one of the group's stations looked like.

Pairs had about ten minutes to create all of their representations. Once finished, the students put their green card and any extra manipulatives back into their bins. We then rotated through the stations. Students had two minutes at each station to look at the representations and decide what the magic number was. It was great to hear students explaining their thinking to me and their peers! Their reasoning and verbal skills are certainly coming along!

Before we knew it, it was Halloween! The other K teachers and I went all out with our costumes as a cat the tooth fairy, and a witch.

For snack, we made these adorable banana ghosts. I got the idea from Pinterest of course!

For centers, we did my Candy Corn Number Puzzles. You can snag it for free here!

Also....... I just posted my first paid product on TPT! It's focus is on letter-sound correspondence. Students work to match the feather to the turkey based on beginning sounds, beginning and ending sound, or by how the word is spelt. This activity containing "I can" statements and recording sheets for all three ways to play. Check it out here!

I'll be back soon with an update on our Thanksgiving fun!