Trees, Turkeys and Technology

In Kindergarten, we love playing, learning and exploring.  We work hard and love sharing what we have created.  With the help of various apps, we are able to make our ideas come to life and can be shared here on our blog.



After reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, we used the Stop Motion app to animate the letters in our names to climb up our own coconut tree.  First, we designed a palm tree on paper and found the letters in our name.







To get the letters to move, we worked with a partner.  One friend would slowly move the letters onto the tree while the other friend took the pictures.



It was a super big job, but as you can see we did it and we are so proud of our work!!

               

               






Chatterpix is a super fun and easy way to make drawings and objects come to life.  When our turkeys came back to school in disguise, we wanted to make sure that everyone knew that they weren't turkeys anymore.  We took a picture in Chatterpix, drew a line where the mouth was, then recorded our message.

Not a turkey in sight!

                  



We have also made three different books with the Book Creator app.  After we finish drawing our picture, Ms. Dowd takes a photo and adds it to Book Creator.

We can share our ideas by writing them on the paper, typing them on the iPad or recording our voices as we read our writing. 



                             

                        

Book Creator has recently added a new feature called "Read to Me." As the story is being read, each word is highlighted.  This is a great for beginning readers as it help them, track the print and focus on each word.

 Here is our kindergarten "Read to Me"  We Can See Monsters book.  

                          

Let's Go On A Nature Walk!

In the Morning...
With the weather being so beautiful, we have decided to go for a few nature walks.  On our first walk, we were given a mission to find "treasures."  A Fall Treasure could be a interesting leaf, rock, stick, pinecone or anything else that catches our eye!

We had some great helpers leading the way!

Walking with a buddy is so much more fun!

We also took along some painted rocks to hide.  On the back of each rock, we wrote #linwoodrocks on Instagram.  We hope that when someone finds our rocks, they will brighten their day and make them smile!!  And when they find the rocks, maybe they will take a picture and post it to Instagram with our hashtag. (#linwoodrocks)

We had a little pit stop at a park and had lots of fun running, swinging, climbing and playing with our friends.  When we got back to school, we used all the treasures we collected to make a picture of a tree.

 

   

                        

On our next walk, we went to look for things that we see in fall. As we were walking, we noticed lots of rainbow colours in the distance.  When we went to investigate, we saw that it was another play structure.  We did what all good scientists do...we tested it out!

Looking at all the colours in fall

We see something over there....

One of our classmates told us that she could see her house from the park.  Ms. O suggested that we go on a sneaky mission and take a class photo on her front step!  

In the Afternoon...
We started our first walk by looking for interesting fall treasures, and collected them in bags.

We took along some more painted rocks and hid them when we got to the park.  We thought we might see some of the rocks the morning class hid, but someone must have found them.  We hope someone posts the pictures on Instagram with our hashtag.  #linwoodrocks

After a good play in the park, we returned to our schools learning circle and created a special fall tree with our treasures.

  

   

                         


On our next walk, we brought along some imaginary cameras and took lots of pictures of things in fall and all the beautiful colours.

As we were walking, we found a huge pile of leaves. We had to play in them!  So much fun!!

When we got back to the school, we each drew a picture of what we saw in the fall.  

                     

Buddy time - A Kinder-Buddy Production

We love working with our buddies!  When it is buddy day, sometimes we play inside and sometimes we play outside.  We go for walks together, read together, make art or make videos together.  For our first Kinder-Buddy Production, we used the Stop Motion app to animate a forest of fall trees we made created together.

It is great to work with our buddies because they are such great helpers!! 

After everyone finished designing their tree, we started to brainstorm what we are thankful for.

As the big group worked together brainstorming, small groups came over and added their trees to what would soon be a beautiful fall forest. The trees were slowly moved onto the page.  After each small movement, a picture was taken.  Soon there were over 100 pictures and a collaborative piece of art!  As a final touch, we added our ideas to our stop motion forest.  We are so proud of our work!

The following day, some of our grade 2/3 buddies came to interview us about specific things and people we are thankful for.

We are thankful for our buddies!

A Chicka Chicka Challenge

Learning about letters and numbers is something we work on all year in kindergarten. We could sit in desks and complete worksheet after worksheet or we could make learning more meaningful by playing with the alphabet and numbers.

In our class, we choose to PLAY and have FUN while we learn!

After reading the story Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, we were challenged to work together as a class to make our very own coconut tree.  We looked at the book and quickly figured out what our coconut tree would need.

                          

The Afternoon Kinders created an island first out of our tree cushions and then added a trunk out of some big cardboard tubes. When it came time to add the palm leaves, they noticed that they would not "stick out" like they did in the story.  The poster paper was too heavy.  

To get some more design ideas, we googled a picture of a real palm tree and noticed lines going down the middle of each leaf.  We thought we should add veins to our leaves too.  After some trial and error, with blocks, rulers, tubes, markers and dowels, we finally got our leaves to "stick out" just like in the story!

The Morning Kinders were given the exact same challenge.  They quickly got to work and started building.  Unlike the Afternoon Kinders, they decided that they wanted to make their own trees, or a tree with a few friends.

      

     

While the Afternoon Kinders were creating their Coconut tree, someone spotted a role of tickets at the craft center.  It was decided on the spot, that the coconut tree was going to be for a Chicka Chicka Movie Theatre! We made a sign, handed out the tickets and even had movie theatre security!

As we were watching the movie, our tree took a little tumble and came crashing down.  We were very surprised, but learned a lot.  Next time we need to use more tape!!

 

The Morning Kinders were inspired by the Movie Theatre idea. It was decided that cozy corner would now be called "Coconut Corner" and should look like a beach complete with an ocean, palm trees and letter fish!!

    

        

Now the stage is set for learning all about the alphabet in a creative and engaging way!

Everyone did such an amazing job on our first kindergarten challenge.  We celebrated by making our own Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree out of cookies, apples, grapes and cereal!   

Now we can say, "We ate a tree today and it was delecious!"