Wrapping Up Giraffes

Hello family and friends.

This week we have wrapped up our study on giraffes. We really enjoyed this exploration and I was so surprised at how much everyone learned! We started the week with reading workshop. One thing we learned during our workshop that the kids were interested in was how giraffe’s drink water. We discovered that when a giraffe finds a waterhole, it has to spread its front legs out or bend its legs to drink the water. I think we were all impressed by how the giraffe moves its body just to get a drink of water.

While reading many of our nonfiction books we learned that newborn giraffes are six feet tall! The kids were so impressed by that number that we decided to get out our measuring tape and see exactly how tall six feet was. We discussed that everyone, including Ms. Rachael and me, were shorter than a newborn giraffe!!  Since there was no one in our room that was above six feet tall we decided to ask the entire school. We made a survey and taped it and the measuring tape up outside of our class. It says “Are you taller or shorter than a baby giraffe?” When you pick up your kids please mark your answer and we will check back Monday to see the results of our survey!!

Last week we got an invitation from the kindergarten Jewish studies class. They invited us to come play and eat snacks! Thursday was the “BIG” day that everyone was waiting for. We had a blast playing with the kindergarteners! They were great hosts and hostesses. We got to see what their classroom was like, look at all of the Jewish toys and games they had to play with, and we even got to eat delicious cookies made by the class. Next week we hope to write them a thank you for their generosity and for hosting us!

To wrap up our study on giraffes we decided to make our very own nonfiction book!! Since we have become experts on the subject of giraffes we decided that we should share that information with everyone. We discussed the different parts of the book and their function and also discussed the difference between fiction and nonfiction. In small groups we talked about all the different things we have learned about these friendly giants. We were careful to fill the pages with correct information. If we couldn’t remember something we learned, we dove back into our books and searched for answers. Then using our nonfiction library books as a guide we wrote down our very own facts and drew pictures to go along with the facts. We laminated the book and put it outside for everyone to see. I am so impressed with our very first book and hope you enjoy reading it!

Love,

Ms. Michelle


Approaches to Learning:

• Show creativity and imagination using materials in representational play.
• Show curiosity in an increasing variety of actives, tasks, and learning centers.
• Show increasing ability to maintain interest in self-selected activities and play despite distractions and interruptions.
• Understand that a task can be accomplished through several steps

Social & Emotional:

• Use classroom materials responsibility, most of the time.
• Recognize effect on others of own behavior most of the time.
• Display emerging social skills of trying to take turns and talk with others during play.

Language & Literacy:

• Distinguish between descriptions of story events and spoken words of characters.
• Retell one or two events from a story read aloud.
• Incorporate favorite parts of literacy texts into play activities.
• Incorporate information from informational texts into play activities.
• Display curiosity and interest in learning new words.

Mathematics:

• Generate conjectures based on personal experiences and simple reasoning.
• Use appropriate vocabulary to communicate mathematical ideas.
• Begin to show an awareness of numbers in the environment.
• Compare sets of no more than ten objects using the terms "more than" or "same as".
• Associate at least two measurement devices with their purposes.

We've learned so much about giraffes...

 

Hanging out with the kindergarteners for Jewish studies...