Sandhill Crane Video

The kindergartners really liked this Sandhill Crane video that we watched today.  They begged me to put it on their blog.  Do you know about one of the greatest and spectacular migration in North America?  The Sandhill Cranes congregate on the Platte River in Nebraska near Kearney, but they migrate right over Armour in a few weeks!  Keep your eyes and ears to the sky!  It is pretty amazing to see!

This is just a fraction of the Sandhill Cranes that 
were out near Matt DeWaard's farm three miles NW 
of town last year on March 21st.  I'll let you know 
if I see them out there again this year.  I'd 
love for the children to see them!

Problem-based Learning Project - Bird Feeders for the Lake

"Would you please make some bird feeders for the lake in town?  We would really, really like that!"

The kindergartners invited the high school students involved the Skills USA group to come over for a presentation. The kindergartners and I had a great idea! We were wondering if this group would build bird feeders for a new bird feeding station at the lake in town to help get more of our community interested in birds. I created a PowerPoint slideshow of some different kinds of feeders and what birds may be attracted by each one. The kindergartners took turns explaining each slide and as a group they named off the birds for the Skills USA kids. The kindergartners were a little shy, but they did great on their presentation. At the very end, the last two kids put their hands together as if in prayer and said, "Would you pleeeeeze build these for our town, so we can all see cool birds? Pleeeeze..." 

They older kids agreed to it, so the next step was for both groups to discuss it, so they talked and the big kids said that they will be coming up with plans for the shop and showing the k-kids what the plans look like. Then they will build the bird feeders. We will also need to buy a tube feeder, so we will have to find a way to raise money for that. Of course, keeping the feeders full will be no easy task and I can't do it alone, so later on we will be asking for people to please fill the feeders as needed or make a donation at Fairway Seeds, so that we can get some to haul out there. Now when the warmer months are upon us and folks go for a drive around the lake, not only will they be able to stop and view the turtles on the log, but they may also stop to watch the birds at the bird feeders! I think that there will be many children excited to watch the feeders too!

He said, "This would be really cool to make.  You drill 
some holes into a log and then fill it with suet."

These are some of the birds that might come to 
a platform feeder.  {The platform feeder was 
shown on the previous slide.}

"Some birds like to eat the seeds that fall to the 
ground.  Here are some birds that might come to eat that."

Here are the two groups talking over what 
happens next.  How nice of these high school 
students to do this!  That is impressive!  A big 
thank you to Mr. Barker too!

Valentine's Day Party

The Valentine's Day party was such a fun time!  A big thank you to all of the parents who organized it and helped out in anyway!  What a wonderful memory for the children!  Thank you!

The party was starting up!

First the kindergartners did an art project!

How fun for these bird-y kids to be able to make owl!

There were a lot of hearts on that owl!

Tic-tac-toe with candy kisses?!  Great idea!

For this game they took a colorful heart and tried to find the match.

There were smiles all around!

Who can make the tallest tower with heart candy?

Be careful!

The Valentine's sacks were full to the top!

The kindergartners loved opening their cards!

The party was a hit!

February Art

This "Name Art" is my favorite art project of the year!

"When I'm outside I like to..."

Instead of Valentine's Day boxes, we decorate sacks. 

Pretty painted Hearts for the Hallway

100 Days of School

We celebrated our 100th day of school on Monday, February 5th, 2018.  The kindergartners have learned so much since that first day of school!  I am really proud of them!  Today we did many activities revolving around the number 100.  Hopefully it gave them a better sense of what the number 100 is.
We had centers this morning where the kids went from table to table doing the different activities:

1. Assemble a 100 piece puzzle.
2. Illustrate a page for the 100 booklet.
3. Roll the dice and color in a penny for each dot trying to be the first to color in 100.
4. Design their own 100 headband. 

• Later we counted 100 pennies.
• Counted by 1s, 5s and 10s to 100.
• Measured 100 inches and 100 feet.
• Tried to be quiet for 100 seconds.
• Did 100 exercises.
• Wrote a list of 100 things they learned in kindergarten.
• I read books about the number 100 and 100 days of school. 
• Illustrated one more page and designed the cover of the 100 day booklet. 
• Then we ate a part of a giant, chocolate chip cookie! 

 

Crazy kids!

I almost forgot to take a photo of it!  Yikes!

Here the pates of one of the booklets.

Roll the die and color that many pennies. The first one done is the winner!

The winner!

Here they are focused on their booklet.

Assembling a 100 piece puzzle was not easy, but it was good practice.

I asked them to help me put a penny in each space before we counted to 100.  This did not end well. LOL

302 Birds!

I told the kindergartners that when they learned 300 birds, they would get a very nice prize.  On this day, they did just that, so they each got a very nice bird field guide featuring the birds of the Dakotas.  These books will remain in school to use as a resource in learning until the last day of school.  Oh my!  They kids were so excited!  They were looking thorough their field guide and shouting out birds they knew.  I was even being scolded at times for not teaching them a few birds that they saw.  Ha-ha!  They don't seem to understand that there are 10,000 different birds in the world and I couldn't possibly teach them all!

  

Penguin Book

During the cold month of January, I take some time to teach about penguins during story time.  I also have the students illustrate a non-fiction book I wrote about penguins.

January Journal Entries