The Kissing Hand

A Kiss From Me to You

Our first unit has come to an end!  It's hard to believe we've been working for three weeks already, but time does fly when you're having fun...

And we've had lots of fun with our Kissing Hand unit, based on the story The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. 

Chester is always such a fun little character to get to know, as he helps us make it through all the "rough spots" of being in school for the first time.

We began our unit this year making Chester for our wall.  What a great activity this is!  Even though it looks like a simple cutting and gluing exercise, the munchkins have to work very hard at following directions in order to get him to go together the right way.  Not to mention, during the first weeks of school, cutting and gluing are simply NOT all that simple!

They turned out sooooo cute!

  

Just like the munchkins that made them!

After reading all about Chester's first days of school, we read about his need for a Pocket Full of Kisses...the fun sequel to the first story.  We had all sorts of fun with activities from this book. 

We had a special "Chester's Pocket" snack...

Then we made a little pocket that we filled with kisses (the chocolate kind!)...

Then we made a BIG pocket to fill with some fun learning games...

 

Like the number matching game that the munchkins loved to play when they had extra time.

We also spent some time with several fun math and language activities, like counting kisses...

graphing probability results from our "Chester Spinner"...

and coloring & reading from a fun little emergent book about Chester. 

What a great way to help us practice the sight words we are learning.

Last, but definitely not least, these munchkins were introduced to the all-important kindergarten tradition of Recipe Day!  As always, our Wednesday afternoons have a little time set aside for creating a fun treat to go with our unit for the week.  These munchkins loved learning all about this tradition and loved even more making their first one!

"The Kissing Hand Toast"

YUM!

Although we're sad to say good-bye to Chester...

We can't wait to start our new unit.

I wonder what that will be?

And I wonder...

"will there be enough room?"

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.

Hugs and Kisses

Hugs and Kisses!

Our first unit of the year, based on the sweet story The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn, is always a great unit to begin with.  The different stories in the series deal with so many "beginning of the year" issues and the munchkins are comforted to know that some of their worries and anxieties are normal. 

We started our unit by tracing our own hand prints and creating a pocket chart activity and class book that helped us get to know each others' names and begin to feel a part of the group.  Handprints made fun little snacks, too!  The munchkins just loved them!

We were able to learn all sorts of new things about kindergarten, all with the help of Chester the raccoon.

Of course, one of our biggest jobs in kindergarten is to begin exploring the language.  To do this (and to begin recognizing some of our first sight words), we used a fun little emergent reader that stressed some of those words.  The munchkins colored the illustrations in the story and we used it to choral read, partner read and even show off our reading skills to
Mr. B. (our principal).

This particular little book was all about how much Chester loved school.  So a perfect companion activity was to create little wooden schoolhouses.

They turned out great!

We had...

orange and purple schoolhouses,

blue and black schoolhouses, 

red and brown schoolhouses,

and even rainbow schoolhouse!

We used Chester and his great stories to focus on some math skills, too.  The munchkins practiced counting hearts to match numbers on a counting mat.

The munchkins also learned about creating and reading graphs.  Everyone took a turn spinning Chester's spinner and graphing the result of the spin.  The classroom graph was created on the floor and then each munchkin recreated it on paper.  We spent lots of time dicussing which result happened most often, which happened the least number of times and if any of the results occurred equally.



We covered another set of math concepts that, interestingly, disguise themselves as a fun art project!  The munchkins color and cut several hearts of differing sizes.  These hearts are flipped, turned and ordered to create Chester himself.  Although cute and creative, it is a fantastic exercise in listening to directions and understanding directionality.

Coloring...

cutting...

 putting it together...

and even trying it on!

Well, for any of you that know Chester's story, you are aware that he shared more than one secret with Mother Raccoon.  Not only did she teach him about the "kissing hand", but she also gave him an extra.  This one was kept in his pocket.

So, we couldn't end our unit without creating a "pocket" of our own. 

First, we made a mini-pocket that we filled with "kisses" (just like Chester's!).

And we had little "pockets" (sealed with a mini kiss) for snack, too!

We made a big pocket, too, as a special place to hold some of the fun activities that we completed throughout the unit.  It was filled with counting games, patterning games and our emergent reader. 

To end our unit, the munchkins were introduced to a special kindergarten tradition. 

 Every Wednesday is "Recipe Day"!

And our first recipe was a Kissing Hand Sandwich.

Its ingredients were...

buttered bread,

sugared sprinkles,

and a candy heart "kiss" in the center.

Yum!

Yes....YUM!!

It's always sad to see the first unit of the year come to an end, but the munchkins are always ready to know what is going to come next...

I wonder...

Will there be enough room?

Until next time...

Giggles,
Mrs. D.