Weekly News (Mar. 16-20)

I hope everyone had a great spring vacation!  I was able to spend a few days in Houston for an educational conference, which was fantastic! I can't wait to hear about everyone's spring break. Looking forward to seeing the children again tomorrow! 

Houston

Take a peek below to see what we were up to our last week before break.

Math

Before break we reviewed 2-D shapes and learned about the characteristics of several 3-D shapes including the following shapes: sphere, cone, cube, rectangular prism, and cylinder.  We also introduced the dime and reviewed how to count by 10's when counting a collection of dimes. We also explored the concept of time 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.  

Reading Workshop
During reading workshop, the students learned how to "notice and note" while listening to a book about flowers. Students were able to pay close attention to the details presented in the text and then recorded new information they learned using an a "Notice and Note" observation sheet. While listening to the book Molly's Organic Farm, the children learned how to use context clues and word webs to help them understand and determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. Students also had time to read independently from their individual book bins, and they even went on a word hunt throughout the classroom looking for two, three, and four-letter words! 

Word Hunt

Word Hunt

Writing Workshop
After reading a book about a lucky leprechaun during writing workshop time, the students wrote about a time they felt lucky. The children loved sharing their ideas with the class. We sure have some lucky kindergarteners! We continue to practice our handwriting skills as well. We only have a few more letters to go. It's amazing to see how much progress the children have made with their writing this year! 

St. Patrick's Day

After writing about how lucky we were, we completed several other St. Patrick's Day themed activities throughout the week. We made St. Patrick's Day crowns and completed some St. Patrick's Day math activities. We completed a survey related to our favorite green foods and created a bar graph to show our results. We also practiced our math facts using some leprechaun gold, and we even had a special visit from a sneaky leprechaun named Colin McDoogle. He left us some gold and a huge mess!!

Leprechaun Gold

That sneaky Colin McDoogle!!

All About Me

The class loved learning all about Shiloh and some of her favorite things! We learned that Shiloh loves to sing and dance. She is a gymnast and loves horseback riding too. Shiloh enjoys reading, painting, and going on vacation with her family. She has even been to Paris! 

The class loved listening to one of Shiloh's favorite books--Frederick by Leo Lionni.
A big thank you to Shiloh's mom for coming in to read!

Science

Next week we will begin our science unit Rainbows, Colors, and Light. Through questioning, exploration, observing, and sharing ideas, the students will begin to learn how our eyes sense color and light. 

Center Time
The class did a great job spending some time playing cooperatively during center time this week!

Weekly News (Mar. 9-13)

It was definitely a busy week in kindergarten! Take a peek below to see what we have been learning!

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. They did a great job sorting our class collection of shapes!

Cubes 

Rectangular Prisms

Cones

Spheres

Cylinders

Reading Workshop
During reading workshop this week, the students learned that readers are just like scientists. As we read our books, we wonder and ask questions along the way. Readers, just like scientists, learn by noticing details, asking questions, and looking for ways to answer their questions by identifying evidence. We also took a closer look at nonfiction texts and talked about how we can use the various features of nonfiction to help us learn about a topic. We looked at the table of contents and the glossary  and learned about labels, diagrams, and captions. The students also had some time this week to "shop" for new books for their individual book bins. I was so impressed with how thoughtful they were when choosing new books to read during independent reading time!

Checking out our "Just Right" book collection

"Shopping" for books in our classroom library!

Writing Workshop
It's amazing to watch the students grow as writers. Every week they gain more and more confidence with their writing skills, and they are doing a great job communicating their ideas for others to read. I look forward to hearing about all the fun things they did over the weekend on Mondays when we write about our weekends during writing workshop time. The students also completed a sequencing and writing activity after they listened to a story about a duck wanting to play outside in the rain. They did an amazing job retelling the story in their own words! We spent some time sharing our writing with a buddy this week as well and practiced both our speaking and listening skills. Students chose an animal, wrote three clues about that animal, and then read their clues to a buddy who tried to guess their "Mystery Animal." They did a great job sharing their clues!

Sharing our writing

Sharing our writing

All About Me

We loved learning all about Dawid this week and some of his favorite things! We learned that Dawid loves to go camping and skiing. He enjoys playing with his Legos and his Pokeman cards. Dawid also enjoys swimming and reading. He loves spending time with his family, and he wants to be a police officer when he grows up, just like his dad!

The class loved the book Dawid's mom shared and donated to our classroom library called Freckleface Strawberry.  Thank you so much!

Art Appreciation

The class also enjoyed an art lesson on Spanish artist Joan Miro. A big thank you to Colin's mom for a great lesson!

Learning about the art of Joan Miro

Creating our own masterpieces!

Centers

Thanks so much for reading!

Have a great week!

Weekly News (Mar. 2-6)

Could spring possibly be around the corner? I hope so! Take a peek below to see what we have been learning in kindergarten. :)

Math
We continued exploring the concept of measurement this week, and students were introduced to a new measuring tool--a tape measure! We spent some time looking at our tape measures, and the students quickly noticed there were different markings and numbers on each side of the tape measure. One side was marked in centimeters and the other side in inches. We practiced opening and carefully closing our tape measures, and then students had some time to measure different objects in our classroom. We shared some of our measuring results which led to some great discussions about the difference between measuring in centimeters and measuring in inches! The students also spent some time using our class number grid to play a "Mystery Number" game in order to help students recognize number patterns and understand how the number grid is organized.

Literacy

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! This week we celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday with many of our favorite Dr. Seuss books and some Seuss themed activities!  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 and created a class bar graph showing which Dr. Seuss books are our favorite!

All About Me

The class loved learning all about Chloe and her favorite things this week! We learned that Chloe loves to ice skate and sing. She likes to read, do crafts, and she is very into fashion. She also enjoys doing archery and spending time with her family and friends, especially her sister. 

A big thank you to Chloe's Mom for coming in to read
The Day the Crayons Quit.
 What a great story!

Hopefully we'll be enjoying some warmer weather during recess soon!

Weekly News (Feb. 23-27)

Even though it was chilly, it was great to have a full week of school! We were busy learning and keeping warm!

Math
This week we practiced counting by 5's and introduced the concept of using tally marks to show our counts of 5. Using the chant below, we practiced writing and counting a given set of tally marks. 

This week we also learned how to make an estimate, or smart guess, while trying to determine how many objects were in a container. We continued to explore the concept of measurement as well. The students practiced measuring the length of our rainbow rug using both standard and nonstandard measuring tools. 

Each day during our calendar routine, our "Hello Helper" keeps track of the temperature using our color-coded thermometer. As you can see from our calendars below, it has been an extremely chilly winter. The children and I are eager for us to begin recording some green and yellow days. Hopefully warmer days will be here soon!

Our Class Thermometer

Recording the temperature on our calendar

Literacy

The children LOVED listening to more Jan Brett books this week, and they are becoming quite the experts in identifying the unique characteristics of her writing and illustrating style.  They really enjoyed  The Three Snow Bears,and they did a great job comparing it to the familiar tale of Golidlocks and the Three Bears.  We used a Venn diagram to compare some of the similarities and differences between these two books.  Take a peek below!

During reading workshop the students are learning how to paint pictures in their mind as they listen to or read a story to help them visualize and understand the events in the story. They also helped develop some strategies to use during independent reading time when problems arise such as what to do when two students want to read the same book, how to keep focused on reading when someone is trying to distract you, and how to keep our books in good condition. They came up with some great solutions, and they are already applying them during reading time!

All About Me
The class loved learning all about Graham this week! We learned that Graham loves to play with Legos, especially Super Hero Legos. Graham also enjoys swimming and golfing. He likes to color, and he loves to play games like Monopoly. Graham had a great time at Disney, and he loves spending time with his family, especially his brother Ben!

The class loved the book that Graham's mom shared called Clark the Shark.
Thank you for coming in to read!

Centers
This week the students worked in various centers while I worked to assess students one-on-one for report cards. Looking forward to sharing their progress with you soon!

Thanks for reading!