Day & Night
Kindergarten students discover a rocket ship launching out of the cubby room entryway as they start their "Day and Night" theme. The kindergarten classroom is transformed to represent day and the cubby room to represent night. Students cover concepts such as time and daily activities, nocturnal and diurnal animals, and the objects we see in the night sky (space, planets, stars. During math time, students learn to reflect on their daily activities and create a time book about all the activities they complete in a day. After students are taught to fill in the time and hands on the clock, they are also asked to write or copy the sentence of the activity they did at that time. This is a chance for students to practice their handwriting using mostly lowercase letters.
Kindergarteners let their imaginations send them into space as they make a list of the items they would take on a trip to the moon. In art class students use recycled items to make their own rocket ship and dream about where that rocket could take them! Using iPads and the "This Is My Story (And I'm Sticking To It)" app, students try their hands at writing their own story, and are able to listen to their friends' stories. Students fill their minds with facts as the class reads non-fiction literature on space. In Spanish class, students learn related day and night vocabulary to compliment the unit. Students culminate their "Day and Night" unit with a cozy pajama day, celebrated with parents, where students share their new knowledge and read books about day and night.
I would take my rocket to the planet Saturn because I want to see its rings.
~ Kindergarten Student