Animals in Disguise!

We had another wonderful Nearby Nature lesson this month! This month we learned about Animal Disguises and how animals can use their patterns, colors, and shape to blend into their surrounding. Some animals use camouflage to hide from predators while others using bright colors to scare predators away!  We watched a fun puppet show and learned how certain animals and insects protect themselves and then we went outside to use our "eagle eyes" to find objects that Jane and Jess had hidden outside in our gardens.  The brightly colored objects were easy to see, but the ones that were the same color as the grass, dirt, and branches were hard to find! Thanks to Jane and Jess for another great lesson!  Hard to believe that we only have one more Nearby Nature left this school year!

In math, we learned two new games this week that focused on estimating, writing numbers in the teens, counting objects in ten frames and double-ten frames and compare numbers using the greater than and less than symbols. Be sure to ask your child about Capture the Number and Measuring Handfuls!  We found making estimates (making a reasonable guess) kind of tricky!  If there is anything you can ever estimate at home, the practice would be great!

During Reader's Workshop, we continued to strengthen our reading powers through our literacy stations. It is amazing to see the progress everyone is making in their independent reading!  We practiced making predictions before we read and getting our brains ready to think about the story before we read.  This helps us when we come to an unknown word in the book.  We also read another Scholastic News book about spring.  As we read this book, we identified sight words and practiced using our sound power, pointer power, and pattern power.

This week during theme we learned about clouds.  We first did some observing of clouds and outside, and, unfortunately, this week we kept seeing the same type of clouds...gray, rain clouds!  After reading Clouds by Anne Rockwell we learned that there are many different kinds of clouds and they can help people predict weather.  Although there are more, we focused our attention on cirrus, stratus, and cumulus clouds.  We found out that cirrus clouds are light, feathery clouds. They occur with sunny weather.  Cumulus clouds are big, puffy clouds that we see on sunny days.  They are found in the middle of the sky.  Lastly, stratus clouds are low in the sky and look like a blanket.  Seeing those in the sky means rain is coming!  See if your child can make some cloud observations at home!  In order to try and understand what happens with clouds when it rains, we did an experiment.  We used shaving cream to represent a cloud and food coloring drops to represent the water droplets in a cloud.  When too many droplets are in a cloud, it starts to overflow and that's when we have rain.  We forgot to take a picture of our rain cloud experiment, but here is a picture from a website to show what we saw! We also had two chances to "make clouds" this week as well.  We made clouds on our tables using shaving cream and then we made the different types of clouds using cotton balls.  We loved learning about clouds, but we hope to have a little more sunny weather soon!

In writing, we are just about finished with our opinion writing unit.  Next week, we will do some editing and revising and then we will publish some of our persuasive and opinion letters! During this week's writer's workshop, we talked about adding solutions to our opinion writing and feelings.  In order to get someone to agree with our opinions, the writer should share some of their feelings about the topic or offer a solution.  For example, if the Kindergarteners want more choice time, they need to explain in their letter how often they would like it or if they would like choice time to be longer.  We are getting very convincing with our opinions! Some students even chose to write to their parents about changes they wanted at home!! Oh boy!

Lastly,  we have a Spirit Week next week.  Please see the note in your child's Friday Folder for more information.
Monday- PJ/Comfy Day
Tuesday-Tropical Day
Wednesday- Wacky Hair
Thursday- Outdoor Learning
Friday- Inside-Out-Day
 As always, participation in Spirit Weeks is optional.  Have a great weekend...yea for sun and warmth!