How We Began We’ve been dipping in and out of a study on matter for the last couple of months. Our first conversation began with the book, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. The children commented on the snowball Peter put in his pocket saying that it was going to melt. I asked them how […]
Exploring Precipitation (and Going Deeper with Snow!)
While I know most of you are so OVER snow at this point, I still wanted to share with you our explorations around this topic in case the process we went through would be helpful to you as you begin to plan your spring inquiries. And of course, there is always next winter! We began […]
Christmas Kindness Countdown Calendar
It’s so easy to find yourself at the end of December asking, “What did we actually accomplish this month?” So this year, I decided to be a bit more intentional about the holiday hullabaloo and created a Holiday Kindness Countdown Calendar that would encourage kindness and a season of giving. Preparing for the Countdown During […]
The 100th Day of School: How it All Began
The First 100th Day of School Did you ever wonder how the 100th day of school began? Many years ago, I had the pleasure of connecting with one of its originators while writing a book about this time-honored tradition. Here’s what I found out. Back in 1979, Lynn Taylor, along with her colleagues David Cooper […]
The Envelope Project
We recently did an engineering and design project that was inspired by a child who came to school with a homemade envelope containing his Scholastic book order. I invited him to share it with the class and he told us how he came to make the envelope because he couldn’t find one in […]
Welcome the New Year with a Fresh Start
Inside: Welcome back your kindergarten kiddos with these New Year activities for a fresh start to January. Note: Some of the links in this post are Amazon affiliate links. If you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. The links are included to provide […]
A Kindergarten Inquiry: Investigating Winter
Our class has been participating in a year-long inquiry that explores the changes that occur in animals, plants, weather, and people across the seasons. The goal for this study is to help children see the patterns, cycles and interdependence of the natural world. This post continues and builds upon the work we began with our […]
A Peek Inside January Discovery Centers
This January, the invitations offered at our Discovery Centers included many that reflected our science unit on weather and our study of precipitation. In addition to exploring content, the centers allowed children time and space for being creative, inventive and using their imaginations. Makerspace Center The Makerspace Center was a new option for Discovery Workshop and was hugely […]
