Weekly News (Mar. 17-21)

All About Me

The morning class was excited to see what Ryan brought in for his "Me Box" this week. We learned that Ryan loves dogs and playing hockey, and he enjoys spending time with his family. He likes the movie Cars 2, and he is proud of the dolphin he won for Character Counts. He also has great taste in pizza---Tortorice's!

The afternoon class loved learning about Scott this week too, and we were quite impressed with Scott's creative talents! We learned that Scott loves St. Patrick's Day, and he enjoys building with Legos. The class loved all the crafts he made including a boat, a pirate claw and a telescope!  

Math
This week the children practiced their counting skills. We reviewed counting by 1's, 5's, and 10's, and then we introduced counting by 2's. We talked about items we might find in pairs such as socks, mittens, and shoes. Then we practiced counting collections of items by 2's. We also learned about estimating and practiced how to make a "thoughtful guess" when trying to guess how many pennies were in a plastic cup. We also introduced the concept of dividing objects or a group of objects in half. A huge thank you to all of our parents who volunteered for math centers this week as well. We couldn't have done it without you!

Teen Frame Game

Top It

Half Game

Race to 100

Teen Frame Game

Half Game

Top It

Race to 100

Literacy
The children enjoyed several stories this week that reinforced concepts from our current science unit--Rainbows, Color, and Light. We read Mouse Paint, A Color of His Own, Little Blue and Little Yellow, and Press Here, which was definitely the favorite of the week. I highly recommend checking it out from the library. It's a fabulous book! The children also met in their guided reading groups this week and practiced making predictions while reading. They also wrote about what their plans for spring and drew pictures to match!


Science
This week we began our science unit on Rainbows, Color, and Light. We explored several concepts this week including: finding hidden colors, mixing colors, light and shadows, and rainbow effects on bubbles. We experimented with a prism by shining light from our overhead projector through the prism, which caused the white light to separate into the colors of the rainbow. We saw more hidden colors when we drew a black line with a marker on a coffee filter and dropped water on it to see the colors in the ink separate out across the filter. The children had a blast mixing colors with play-doh. Using red, yellow, and blue play-doh, the children were able to make orange, green, and purple. The children loved learning about shadows and experimenting with bubbles too, and they did a great job recording their observations like scientists!

K is for Kindergarten Tissue Paper Stained Glass Creations

Experimenting with Prisms in the Science Center

Watercolor Painting

Red + Blue = Purple

Color Mixing

Recording Our Observations

Color Mixing

Thanks for reading!
Have a great spring vacation!

Weekly News (Mar. 10-14)

All About Me

It was Daniel's week to share his Me Box in the morning class!  We learned that Daniel loves to play games like "Spot It" and his favorite movie is Monsters University.  He also enjoys Halloween and wearing his vampire teeth. Daniel enjoys spending time with his family, and he uses an alarm clock to make sure he is always on time!

The afternoon class enjoyed Quinn's Me Box presentation this week! We learned that Quinn loves playing card games, building with Legos, and spending time with his family. He is an avid coin collector, and the class LOVED looking at his coins from around the world in all different shapes and sizes! Quinn's piece of fool's gold was a big hit too!

Math
This week we reviewed 2-D and 3-D shapes and did some more work with measuring. We also introduced the dime this week and reviewed how to count by 10's when counting a collection of dimes. We also talked about "trading" some of our coins. For example, we traded 5 pennies for a nickel and 10 pennies for a dime. The kindergarten students are not expected to be able to count coins, but they should be able to name each coin and know each coin's value. 

Literacy
The children learned two new sight words this week, and and what, and they brought home a new sight word book. We read several stories about weather including two books about rain.  The children talked about all the facts they knew about rain and then did some expository writing using these facts. We also learned about weather throughout all four seasons and did some illustrations in the computer lab depicting our favorite type of weather. Mrs. Powers put the students' pictures into a slideshow, but there were some technical difficulties with the morning class. Click here for the afternoon class.

The children continue to make great progress with their writing. In addition to writing about rain this week, the children also wrote about what they did over the weekend, and they wrote a book response to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. 

St. Patrick's Day
We got a little bit of a head start on some of our St. Patrick's Day activities. We read a story called The Leprechaun's Gold and made St. Patrick's Day crowns to wear on Monday. We also did some St. Patrick's Day math. We gave our leprechauns some gold. Then we gave him some more gold and wrote number sentences to match--8 pieces of gold plus 4 more pieces of gold equals 12 pieces of gold in all (8 + 4 = 12). 

Centers
The children did a nice job working in centers this week while I met with students in guided reading groups. 

Reading to a furry friend

Playing Top It

Reading to a furry friend

Motessori Crosswords on the iPad

Listening Center

Looking forward to another great week!

Weekly News (Mar. 3-7)

All About Me

The morning class loved seeing all of Isabella's favorite things, especially photos of her family!  We learned that Isabella is a great big sister, and she loves spending time with her family.  She loves to draw and color, and she is learning Italian.  She likes to build things, and she LOVES visiting relatives in Canada!

The afternoon class loved learning about Kelsey this week!  We learned that Kelsey loves spending time with her sister Kaitlyn, and she enjoys doing crafts.  She loves the Disney princesses, and she was excited to meet them and get their autographs on a trip to Disney.  Kelsey also enjoys playing sports, especially gymnastics and soccer!

Math

This week in math the students explored the penny and the nickel.  We talked about what each coin looks like, the value of each coin, and we even spent a few minutes taking a closer look at each coin using a magnifying glass.  We also explored the concept of time this week and clapped out the number of beats it took to walk across the room, tiptoe across the room, and run across the room.  We recorded and compared our results in our math journals.  We learned about 3D shapes as well including the following shapes: sphere, cone, cube, rectangular prism, and cylinder.  

Using a magnifying glass to learn about the penny.

Literacy

This week we celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss with many of our favorite Dr. Seuss books.  We focused on the concept of rhyming words, and we learned about several word families including the -at, -an, -it, and -ish families.  After reading Green Eggs and Ham, we learned that is okay to try something new.  Then the students wrote about a time they tried a new food.  We definitely have some adventurous eaters!!  The students did some writing this week during Writer's Workshop time, and they also wrote about their favorite Dr. Seuss story.  We even made our own "Cat in the Hat" for a craft project this week!

Both classes enjoyed stories from our guest readers this week as well.  The morning class LOVED the illustrations and the story of Dangerously Ever After read by Zhara's mom, and the afternoon class enjoyed the funny and clever book Tops and Bottoms read by Kelsey's mom.  Thank you!

Weekly News (Feb. 24-28)

All About Me

The morning class learned all about Max's favorite things this week.  We learned that Max is a Star Wars fan, and he loves Ironman.  He is a great swimmer, and his favorite movie is Planes!

The afternoon class enjoyed learning about Hunter's favorite things.  He is also a great swimmer, and he loves to golf too.  His favorite food is mac n' cheese, and he LOVES Lifesavers candy!  He enjoys playing with Legos, spending time with his family, and watching his favorite movie--How to Train Your Dragon!

Literacy/Social Science

This week we talked about the different jobs people have and how people in a community work together.  We created a list of jobs from A-Z and made a class ABC Book highlighting different community helpers.  We read a Time for Kids magazine about firefighters and read a story about a boy who helps his uncle at a firehouse in Chicago.  We even had a special visit from a local firefighter!

Math

This week in math, we focused on using the number grid and played several games to help students recognize number patterns and understand how the number grid is organized.  The first game we played was called Number Hunt where the students had to follow clues to guess the mystery number such as "What number comes before 58?  What number is 3 more than 23?  What number has 4 tens and 7 ones?"  We also played a game called Race to 100 where students rolled a die to determine how many spaces to move on the number grid.  Students played until they reached 100.  In centers this week, the students also practiced their counting and addition skills when playing a domino game.  The students also reviewed several different math concepts this week during our math centers.  A HUGE thank you to all of the parents who were able to help out with centers.  We couldn't have done it without you!!

K-2: Roll and Tally

K-2: Race to 100

K-2: Top-It

K-2: Monster Squeeze

K-4: Roll and Tally

K-4: Monster Squeeze

K-4: Top-It

K-4: Race to 100

The children also brought home their March calendars and a  copy of our February song this week.  Here is the morning class singing it one last time!