Mrs. Garneau's Kindergarten Class

Groundhog Day is a fun day for kindergarten to enjoy. There are so many lessons we can learn: weather, seasons, predictions, geography, folklore, reading, writing and so on. We heard a few groundhog stories, then made predictions about what we thought the groundhog might do in 2012. We used KidPix on the computer to draw our groundhogs.

We wrote predictions for our groundhogs. We talked about what a prediction is and came up with synonyms such as guess and hypothesis.

We wrote the beginnings of a story about a groundhog. This is the first time the students have written in story form versus narrative form. It was quite fun.
We also checked out the official Punxsutawney Phil web site to see what the prediction would be for 2012. Phil saw his shadow so we will have 6 more weeks of winter. However, we learned that Phil is only 39% accurate so he is not very reliable.

Next we practiced a new skill: identifying the who, what, when, where, why and how in a story. This is a very important skill and one we will be practicing often. It’s a good skill to practice when reading together at home as it builds comprehension skills. You can even ask for the evidence by asking your child to tell you where in the story that information is found.
Here’s our chart from the SmartBoard:

Finally, we had to celebrate Groundhog Day with a special groundhog cookie during snack. What a fun day!