Each month, Kindergarteners have the opportunity to explore and study a new author. Our past authors have included: Joseph Slate, David Shannon, Laura Numeroff, and Jan Brett. During January, we will be taking a look into the life and works of Leo Lionni. Yesterday we began this study with one of my favorite Lionni books, A Color of His Own. 
The scholars were immediately intrigued after watching a short informational video about chameleons and their color-changing abilities. In Lionni’s book, A Color of His Own, a chameleon goes through many different settings.. hoping to find a color that belongs just to him. He discovers by the end of the story, however, that he doesn’t need just a color to feel like he belongs… he finds a friend!
After reading the story and talking a little bit about Lionni’s childhood fascination with animals, we ventured over to the “green teacher table” to make our own chameleons out of pipe cleaners. You probably heard all about these little fuzzy friends at home last night! We used Lionni’s writings and our own chameleons to inspire our own stories.
Venturing further into our human body unit, the scholars took a look at the Muscular System and its purpose. We discussed muscle movements (voluntary or involuntary), contracting versus relaxing, and will learn a few of the basic muscle names today. On Tuesday, we finished adding our bones to our body diagrams. Today and tomorrow we will continue by drawing in our muscles!
Thus far in Kindergarten, we have worked with a “Hundred Chart.” So when I handed out a 120 Chart on Tuesday I 
was greeted by many incredulous remarks and questions. “What is that number?” “Why is this so big?” “What is THIS?” We are working with the chart in many ways to continue building number sense. We have explored the chart as a whole group, with partners, and individually. We will continue our exploration over the next few days.
If you’re viewing this post from email, you may not be able to see all of the pictures. View in a web browser so you don’t miss out on some of the fun!
