Fall Lovin' in Kindergarten

Phew, I can't believe I haven't blogged since my classroom pictures in August.  I'm a terrible blogger.  I always forget how busy I am during the school year... ahhh, the freedom of summer spoils me.  Anyways, I'm still here and I am loving all of the fall activities with my kids.  Have I mentioned that I L.O.V.E. fall?!!  It's seriously my absolute fav!

Last week we focused on leaves.  We began by reading my big book "We're Going on a Leaf Hunt".

Then, we actually went on a leaf hunt.  My school has an environmental focus and sits on 17 acres of land so we had an ample supply of colorful leaves to choose from.  After each student had chosen the *perfect* leaf they put it in their Ziploc bag (labeled with their name).  Upon returning to the classroom we discussed our leaves and made observations.  Then we put all of our brainstorming about leaves onto a graphic organizer.  They really did great with this!  I collected the leaves in bags to keep safe until the next day.

The following day we reread "We're Going on a Leaf Hunt" and I pulled out the leaves again.  Each child dictated their sentence on the predictable chart.  "My leaf is __________."  We pointed and read all of the sentences once the chart was complete.

On the final day we once again reread my big book, read through the predictable chart, and then completed our pages for the class book.  Each student cut apart their sentence, glued it on their page in order, and then wrote their sentence.  We glued our leaves to the page and then I laminated them.

Here's the final product:

I just love the last page that says, "My leaf is dirty."  {It was indeed a very dirty leaf!}  This is hands-down their favorite class book of the school year.


A few other things we've been up to... we finished unit 1 of Kim Adsit's Reader's Workshop.  Here are a couple of our celebration projects.  They loved this!

Today we had the local fire department come with their fire safety house to teach the kids how to get low and crawl out.  This was so cool!  The trailer was actually set-up like a house-- a living room with fire place, kitchen, stairs, bedroom.  After learning how to get out safely the kids actually got to practice while a smoke machine and smoke detectors went off.  It was a great learning experience!

Next up-- APPLES!  Today we labeled an apple diagram, tasted, and described apples.  Pictures to come.  In the meantime, head over to The First Grade Parade for some amazing apple ideas!  :)