Genius Hour

Hey Kids and Parents,

We're starting up Genius Hour. You, kiddos, will pick a topic you LOVE, and work with a couple other friends that love that thing too, and you'll learn all the stuff you ever wanted to know about it. Every Friday for the last hour of the day, you will work on completing a project to show your friends and family!

I will document pictures each week of the students' work, and at the end of the unit, I will upload any digital media the children have created, as well as videos of each group's presentation. So keep checking back! This also means I need parent volunteers (4 preferred) to come help these groups read, research, and navigate information. If you're available please e-mail me. Likewise, I'll send out an e-mail once students have selected their topic to see if any of you are field experts or have resources we could use. I'll include the general layout of the hour, and what I'll be looking for from the students. It's not a free for all, but it does allow for a lot of creative freedom. :)

Thanks for all your support!

Miss Keri

Genius Hour Kindergarten Accountability Tasks

Beginning Stand-Up Meeting:

1. Groups will pull out their large white board for reference.
2. Students will take turns sharing:
1. What they have been working on
2. What they will do today
3. Students will be active listeners (asking questions, validating, making eye contact)

During Genius Hour:

A timer will go off every 10 minutes. At each interval students will hold up a number 1-3 of how on task they have been: 1-goofing around, distracting others most/all of the time, 2-working most of the time, feeling bored or frustrated. 3- very engaged/excited, encouraging their peers to stay on task, asking others for help and feedback.

Ending Stand-up meetingr:

1. Groups will pull out their large white board to update.
2. Students will share verbally:
1. What did I work on today?
2. Was it what I planned on doing? Why or why not?
3. What do I want to do next time?
4. How is the big picture looking? Do I think I’ll complete it? Or do I need to adjust?
3. During the sharing, a scribe or volunteer will write a phrase of what the sharer will be doing next time, and put it on the board

Hi, everyone! My name is Joy Prior, or Miss Prior, and I am the student teacher for the last month of school. I am currently studying Early Childhood Education at Brigham Young University and begin my final internship  this fall at Cedar Fort Elementary in Apline School District. A few fun facts about me are that I grew up on a dairy farm in Springville Utah and I am the youngest of nine children. I also enjoy the outdoors: hiking, backpacking, rock climbing, and camping. This spring I ran my first half marathon in Moab, Utah and realized that I love nothing more than racing through the red rock and canyons of Southern Utah. I am excited to be a student teacher in your child's Kindergarten class for the last few weeks of school and look forward to learning from Keri Beirdneau.

Plants

A couple weeks ago we started our plant unit. The students shoveled dirt into their plastic cup, I made the hole up against the side so we could watch the roots grow, and they dropped in the seed and covered it back up. Everyday our librarian waters our plants, and we observe the changes our plants are undergoing. We planted radishes, so they are growing very quickly. We record our observations in our plant journals each day.

Measurement

Last week we started our measurement unit in math. This was such a fun activity for the kids that I had to document. We all measured each other's shoes with blocks. :)

 Some of the students even asked to measure my shoe.

 And we measured Hannah's mom's shoe too.

Butterfly rotations

On Friday we did some rotations to end our butterfly unit.
First we filled in a sequence page with the butterfly life cycle.

 Then we made the butterfly life cycle with noodles.

Next, and probably the favorite rotation of the day was a symmetry painting activity where students painted half of a butterfly, then folded their paper in half, and when they opened it back up, they had a complete butterfly!

 

 

Our last rotation was recording our observations of the caterpillars as they turned into a chrysalis and then butterfly, in our science notebooks. 

It was a very fun day all in all. The kids have really loved watching these caterpillars progress into butterflies. I hope it's an experience they can remember for the rest of their lives.

Reading Buddies

Every Monday Mrs. Kennedy's 3rd grade class comes in and reads to us for 10 minutes. Each Kindergartner is assigned to 1 or 2 buddies, and it's the buddy's job to bring a book to read. This is great practice for the 3rd graders, but it's also wonderful for the Kindergartners to not only get one on one reading time but to see their peers be successful in reading. Occasionally we've been the ones to read to our 3rd grade buddies, as they help us sound out words, retell the story, and ask us questions to help us think about what we're reading. It's one of our favorite times of the week, and we always look forward to it.

 l