Mrs. Straight's Kindergarten Korner

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Martin Luther King Day

I always LOVE this lesson that revolves around this very special day. What is most amazing to me is that most kids at this age are not aware of skin color and certainly not religion or culture. To them kids are kids!!!! My focus on this day centers around kindness and bullying which is what kiddos this age DO understand. We spent our entire afternoon with activities focusing on this theme.

I started out by showing the class a video depicting the life of Dr. King as a boy and how he grew up. The kiddos immediately were saying things out loud like; "That's mean!" That's not fair!" "I would play with him!" I am so proud of my boys and girls. We had a very interesting discussion on how times used to be and the boys and girls were glad they weren't alive back then!!!

I then presented the kiddos with two boxes. One gift wrapped in fancy paper with a beautiful bow and the other in torn wrinkled newspaper.

I asked the class which gift they would choose and of course they choose the pretty box. So I unwrapped each box and showed them what was inside.

Inside the pretty box ---- rocks!!!!

Inside the plain box ---- M&M's!!!!!

I explained to the class, that it doesn't matter what you look like on the outside it is what is in the side that counts. The kind of person you are --- hopefully sweet and nice. We then talked about the M&M's and how each looked different of the outside they were all the same on the inside...just like people. We all have feelings that can get hurt. So remember to treat people with kindness ALWAYS!

Another favorite activity and book I love to share with the boys and girls goes along with The Crayon Box That Talked. Each student was then given their own copy of the book and we made our own crayon box!

Finally each student wrote about his or her own dream. Many of them were hard to read so I did try to write a caption for each. I decided the world would be a pretty good place if their dreams did come true!

Have people like each other

Not have people call each other names

Have everyday always be summer

Have the world be like summer

Have no more fighting

Have only great days

Have everyone have the same as each other

Let us play with puppies all day

Have everyone have the same stuff (this little guy was referring to when schools were segregated)

Have it only be winter - he LOVES to ice fish

Have everyone be nice to each other

Hip Hip Horray It Is Our 100th Day!!!!

Well, the day FINALLY arrived!!! We began the countdown to our 100th day celebration on our first day of school. The boys and girls know we would have a full day of celebration that revolved around the number 100..... and boy did we ever!!!!!!!

This is what what in store for a fun filled day all about the number 100

The boys and girls began making their 100 day crowns. 100 spots using our dot paints! Painting in Kindergarten is ALWAYS fun!

Next the boys and girls made their trail mix. Ten different kinds of yummy and somewhat healthy zero shaped treats were counted out and sorted on our sorting sheet and later put into cups. The boys and girls were able to munch on them throughout the day!

The boys and girls began working on our VERY hungry and VERY long caterpillar. After he was put together the boys and girls put together a list of 100 foods (in groups of five) our VERY hungry caterpillar enjoyed eating!

And there he is!!!!! He barely fits on our wall!!!!

After lunch, it was time for our 100 Hershey Kiss Hunt. The kiddos had to find and match numbers on the bottom of each Hershey kiss to fill the hundreds chart.