Kinder Update: Fall Edition

Ok, so I have definitely fallen off the blogging band-wagon.  I love reading blogs and I know I'm going to want to some of the events in our life, but sitting down to write it is just so unappealing sometimes (and sometimes just too much work for me).  I hope to get back into the swing of things and we have some exciting things going on at the Loeffler house that I will hopefully find time to blog about soon (porch remodel started yesterday!)  But for now, it will be a school post.

As some already know, I changed schools and districts this year.  While I loved my job last year and most of the people that I worked with, it was time to move on and find something new.  And I have to say, I really lucked out this year.  The commute isn't ideal (I'm now driving 16 miles each way so about 30 minutes depending on traffic as opposed to my 0.5 mile commute last  year that I could walk in 7 minutes), but my kids are fabulous.  I only have 8!  Can you believe that?  How is that even possible?  And no major behavior problems!  Hallelujah! I'm still in bilingual kindergarten which is where my heart lies.  I cannot even imagine teaching in a monolingual classroom.  When I'm in school I just switch into Spanish mode, so trying to do anything in English just seems too difficult for me right now (bizarre, right?)

We've been doing some pretty fun things these past few months and I wanted to document them so I remember them for next year.  And because I wanted to put it on Pinterest and not just link back to a photo but an actual description of the projects.

I've had the opportunity to really play with the curriculum this year and do my own thing.  While I've kept some of the staples of years past, it's been fun to try some new things.  I moved the dinosaur unit to February/March to make way for pumpkins and nocturnal animals.  I also introduced the science notebooks much earlier in the year so that they kids could get used to using them and recording their observations.  So far, it has been a big success!

Let's start off with trees.  I've started doing a lot more bridging activities with my kiddos to help them ease into English more and develop the academic language.  They are doing such a great job.
First, we painted a tree, then labeled it in Spanish and English.

 Then we wrote everything we learned about trees in Spanish.  After reading a book and talking in English, we wrote our ideas in English.

 We went to the farm in the beginning of October.  We had so much fun!   We went on a hayride, pet the animals, went through the corn maze, and everyone got to pick a pumpkin!  We brought the pumpkins back to class and talked about its parts.  Then we drew a picture in our science notebooks and labeled it.

 We measured our pumpkins with cubes.

 Then we measured its circumference with yarn.  Brenely's pumpkin was medium.

We did another bridging activity after we learned all about pumpkins in Spanish.  We made a big pumpkin to label.  And let me tell you, it took a long time for little hands to cut out those seeds and glue on the "pulp"! :)  We labeled it in Spanish (red) and English (blue).

 We also talked about the characteristics of pumpkins and wrote about them in Spanish and English.

 After Halloween, we learned about nocturnal animals.  Our two big vocabulary words were "nocturno" (nocturnal) and "oviparo" (oviparous).  I love that whenever I ask them what each means they can tell me!
We read drew a picture of an owl in our notebooks and labeled them.  Brandon wrote "Los buhos son nocturnos."  He's so smart.

We made owls out of paper bags and hand prints.  The kids did an awesome job of tracing their own hands!

 To finish our nocturnal unit, we are studying bats.  Did you know that bats are also "nocturnos" and are "mamiferos" (mammals)?  We read Stellaluna and then made these bats out of toilet paper rolls and hand prints.