This week we began our IB Unit “Who We Are”. This unit looks into how our environment can influence our roles and responsibilities. We started this unit talking about how families are different. We read the story What Makes a Family and created a thinking map identifying the main idea and details of the story.
In the story we learned that families can be all different sizes and with different types of family members. We created an apple tree that illustrated the number of family members that live with us.
We also read another book called When I am Old With You about a boy talking about all the things he likes to do with his grandpa and wants to do with his grandpa as he continues to get older. We talked about how not all families like to do the same thing as other families. Students then drew pictures in their journals what they like to do with their family.
This last week we learned about the importance of our family and our roles and responsibilities within our family. We also learned about how families can be different sizes and do different things.
One of the books we read was “My Wild Sister and Me” and drew a picture that illustrated the things we like to do with members in our family. We compared our activities with the boy and his sister playing dress up and make believe.
For partner reading students read emergent reader books about different members of the family. Then they learned how to take turns reading and reading to their partner.
For math we created a class graph of how many students in the class have brothers, sisters, both brothers and sisters, or no siblings. We talked about we compared which group had the most and which group had the least. Then we created our own family trees with the number of apples that matched how many people were in our immediate family.
Thursday as part of our family unit we read the book My Wild Sister and Me, and we talked about how the boy and his sister liked to dress up and pretend to be animals. Then we discussed about what we like to do with our family and then illustrated pictures about it. I dictated what they said verbally in their stories.
For math we made a class graph that illustrated who had only brothers, only sisters, both brothers and sisters, or no brothers or sisters in their family. We compared the numbers and discussed which category had the most and which category has the least. These activities and more can be found here.
Finally as a treat we had one of our students parents come in to the class to read a book about a special family.
Last week was our unit on families; how our families roles and responsibilities are different, and activities that families do.
We started off by reading an informational text called What Makes a Family. For math we made a family tree, gluing apples on our tree that match the number of people who are in our immediate family.
For writing we’ve been learning how to draw circles and sticks and how to be illustrators. We drew our family portrait that matched the same number of family members on our family tree. The activities can be found here.
We read the poem Families and looked for sight words and rhyming words.  When we drew a picture of our families on the back of the poem.  Then we made construction paper puppets of one of our family members.
 
We also wrote about why our families are special to us and traced our hands to make “hug writing”.
This week we have been talking about our families and how they are important to us. Â We read the story “I Love It When You Smile” by . Â We made text to self connections by writing about how someone in our family tries to make us feel better when we’re sad.
We then made a family tree that showed how many members of our family lived with us. Â Then students shared with the class a picture of their family and shared about who the members of their family are.
To finish off our families unit we created a class graph that illustrated who had siblings in their family and who did not. Â We found that the majority of the class had both brothers and sisters. Â Only one student had no brothers or sisters. Â Finally the class copied the graph and we discussed which group had the most and which group had the least.
Finally we read a book called “Families” as a class and then students partnered up, took turns reading the book to each other, and colored the pictures of the book.
Lots of things are happening in Mr. Bowen’s All-Star class during our families unit.  First we read the story “I Love it When You Smile” and made connections with the story.  Students talked about times when their family members such as their mom or dad helped try to make them feel better.  Then students illustrated their connections to the story.
 
Since the beginning of the school we have been collecting pictures of our family. Â This week students got to share their pictures with the class. Â We have also been learning how to ask questions in our class, so the class got to ask questions of the person sharing.
For a math center students rolled a dice with family members on it, and students colored in the corresponding person on their graph. Â Students used the graphs they created and compared them to their own families.
For art students made hand painting family trees, putting apples on the trees for each family member that lives in their house. Â Members of our class also made construction paper puppets of their moms or dads.
This week we began our unit on families. Â First we read a poem about families on the smart board and decorated them for their poetry journals.
Later on in the day we discussed how families are important and the things that they do together.  Then we read the story “Gone Fishing” which is a story about a boy going fishing with his dad.
Then we made connections with the story and talked about things we like to do with our family. Â Finally we wrote and illustrated those things that we like to do.
As we finish up our unit on friends and familyWe read the book “I Love it When You Smile” by Sam McBratney.  We filled out a thinking map writing about elements of a story.
 
Then students were given their own individual pictures of the problem and solution. Â We decorated our pictures, matched them to the problem and solution. Â As we matched them we retold the story through problem and solution.
We then made a connection with the story as we talked about how our mom’s take care of us just like Roo’s mom helped make him feel better when he was grumpy. Â Then we wrote about our mom’s with our sight words and we made construction paper mom’s.
The Kindergarten All-Stars 