Weekly Round-Up: October 27

Hi friends! How was your week? I’m back to share some of the new things we have been up to in our classroom!

1. BIRTHDAY CHART

My kids have been asking me about their birthdays since the beginning of the year (When is my birthday? Is my birthday soon? etc.) so we finally made this birthday chart! First I had some of my SK’s help me write the months, the title and the numbers for the dates we needed and I outlined them with a sharpie.

Then I had the kids hold their birth date and we took pictures. Finally I printed the pictures and we sorted and glued them onto the correct month. When we first put it up, the kids loved coming over to this area at centre time and talking about what they noticed!

2. PUMPKIN SIGHT WORD SEARCH

I got this adorable idea from my friend and co-worker, Amanda (you can check out her Instagram by clicking here).

All you need to do for this centre is write some sight words on mini pumpkins and set them out with magnifying glasses, whiteboards and dry erase markers. Then invite the children to read and write the sight words they find! They loved this centre this week!

3. PUMPKIN STEM: CAN YOU MAKE A MAZE FOR THE PUMPKINS?

I love STEM centres that work on 21st century skills like creativity and innovation! At this centre students were given paper/plastic plates, strips of green construction paper and tape and were asked to build a maze of the “pumpkins” (which are just orange pom poms with green pipe cleaners glued to them).

Students experimented and problem-solved as they investigated how to make the loop, how to make bigger or smaller loops and fixing the loops when the pumpkins wouldn’t fit through them.

We saved the finished mazes and the kids got to play each other’s mazes on Friday during centre time before they took them home!

4. MY PATTERN BOOK

We are still working on patterning in math. We continued to practice creating patterns with a variety of manipulatives in our pattern mini books!

First we created patterns with these Halloween stamps (they are from Walmart and Dollarama).

Then we made patterns with snap cubes and recorded them…

And finally we made patterns with stickers!

I found keeping up with the booklets a little difficult as not all students had the stamina to complete so many pages, so I also just printed individual half pages and set them out at the corresponding centres!

You can find the pattern booklet in my patterning unit. You can click here or on the image below to check it out!

5. DESIGN A FACE FOR OUR CLASS JACK-O’-LANTERN

After we were finished searching for sight words on the mini pumpkins, I erased the sight words and set out this invitation for the kids to design a face for our class jack-o’-lantern. We will be voting on our favourite Monday morning and hopefully carving it Monday afternoon!

(Sidenote: To erase the Sharpie on the pumpkins, I just went over the letters with a dry erase marker and then wiped it away. Then I used a little bit of VIM and scrubbed off the rest with water and a sponge!)

This printable is in my Kindergarten Halloween Activities pack on TpT. You can click here or click on the image below to grab it.