It’s 3D!

I had so much fun introducing students to three-dimensional shapes this week using the clever book Captain Invincible and the Space Shapes by Stuart J. Murphy.

“Captain Invincible and his intrepid space-dog, Comet, are on a perilous journey back to Earth!

Throughout their mission, the fearless captain and his canine sidekick encounter asteroids, poisonous gas, and alien beings. But will their knowledge of three-dimensional shapes, including cubes, cones, and pyramids, help our heroes navigate past these obstacles — and make it safely home.” (Amazon)

I introduced each three-dimensional shape with a poster and a corresponding foam block. The students had the opportunity to hold each of the shapes and discover the number of surfaces, edges, and faces.

We practiced sorting pictures of items, using the new vocabulary words we had learned. Students then had fun playing an alien-themed sorting game on the Smart Board.

To further demonstrate their understanding of three-dimensional shapes, students used the Seesaw app to find these shapes around the classroom. They were encouraged to label the shape using their best guess spelling or the spelling on the shape posters.

We even used the recording tool!

I loved how engaged the students were in these activities. There will be more three-dimensional shape fun to come!

Summer Learning Had Me a Blast….

Summer is wrapping up! My summer was filled with chasing our four-year-old, wrangling our puppy (who likes to chew up shoes, socks, pretty much anything, thus the pen in the kitchen!),

working on our avocado ranch, going on several road trips to downhill mountain bike with the family,

and LEARNING! I became an official Seesaw Ambassador! “Seesaw is a student-driven digital portfolio that empowers students to independently document what they are learning at school. It gives giving parents a real-time, personalized glimpse into their child’s school day.” (Seesaw) I have been using Seesaw in kindergarten for the past two school years as a way to give parents a birds eye of our day. I tended to take the pictures or videos, rather than having the kindergarteners doing it themselves. It is QUICK…I snap a picture, click on the students’ name, and parents receive a notification that there is a new post. Seesaw in no way takes away from my teaching or the students’ learning. In fact, it has the potential to add so much depth to instruction and learning!

First, look at the great parent communication aspect of Seesaw. It is so user-friendly!

(Slide courtesy of Seesaw)

After my training, I realized that I was not using Seesaw to its fullest potential. In the past, I was the one making the posts to the students’ journals. But look how at easily students can add posts themselves. Ms. Downing (our Technology Instructor) and I are planning to collaborate with the kindergarteners to get them up and running on how to use Seesaw. They will be able to document their work during Reading Centers or explain how they solved a math equation. Another important part of the program is that I approve every post before it is sent to parents.

(Slide courtesy of Seesaw)

Furthermore, the annotation tools are a wonderful way for students to demonstrate their learning.

(Slide courtesy of Seesaw)

But the best part is that Laguna has purchased a subscription for Seesaw to be used in all classrooms EK-6 (and possibly seventh and eighth!) This means that your child’s learning journal will roll over year after year. When he or she is in fifth grade, you will still have a digital record of all the learning that took place in kindergarten. Yay!