Weekly News (Dec. 5-9)

All this snow...what a great way to kick off December!!

All About Me

We loved learning all about Gia this week. We learned that Gia enjoys playing Barbies and playing with her Baby Alive doll. She also enjoys collecting Beanie Boo stuffed animals, and she likes to play on the iPad. Gia likes to save her money, and she is excited about learning how to ice skate! Gia enjoys spending time with her family too and going on vacation to Greece!

Math

This week in math we practiced our graphing skills during a "Spin and Graph Gingerbread" activity. We spun the spinner 10 times and graphed our results. Then we analyzed our results to find the gingerbread with the least and most spins. We practiced our addition skills as well! 

We also revisited the concept of measurement this week with our 5th grade buddies from Mr. Holston's class. We used nonstandard units, small and large gingerbread men, to take measurements of objects throughout our classroom. After looking at our results, we concluded that it took more small gingerbread men than large gingerbread men for each item we measured. Take a peek at us in action below! There are more pictures on our photos page too.

Jolly Phonics

It's great to see the students gaining more and more confidence with their sounds each week. We started our last set of Jolly Phonics this week, and we will finish the last few sounds before winter break. This week we learned the sounds for:

qu as in "quack"

ou as in "out"

oi as in "oil"

Literacy

Reading Workshop

We continued to explore different versions of the orignal Gingerbread Man story this week. The class had a great time comparing and singing the refrains from the following stories: The Gingerbread Girl and The Gingerbread Cowboy. Next week we will compare The Gingerbread Baby and The Cajun Cornbread Boy. The class also LOVED seeing our hallway transformed into a gingerbread wonderland!!

Writing Workshop

I loved reading the students' weekend writing pieces. It's always fun to see what the children have been doing, and it's amazing to see how they continue to grow as writers each week. We continue to work on stretching out our sounds and leaving spaces between words. We have also been working on setting individual goals for our writing each week and then reflecting on how we did toward meeting those goals.

Art Appreciation

A big thank you to Dhilan's mom for coming in for an art appreciation lesson this week and teaching us about Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. We learned about his life as an artist, and we also had a chance to walk around and watch her eyes as they looked like they were following us!

Hour of Code

In the LMC this week, the students participated in the "Hour of Code" and explored the world of coding as they used two coding apps--Kodable and The Foos. Check out the Dryden LMC page for more coding resources!

Science

Take a peek at our science page to see how we wrapped up our Rainbows, Color, and Light Unit!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Thanks for reading!

Weekly News (Nov. 28-Dec. 2)

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Math
This week we introduced the concept of a number story using gingerbread boys and girls. For example, "James made 4 gingerbread boy cookies and Kate made 2 gingerbread girl cookies. How many cookies did they make in all?" We also practiced writing a number sentence (or a number model) to match each story, 4 + 2 + 6.

The children also learned about symmetry this week by looking at many different examples of symmetrical shapes. We learned that objects have symmetry when they are the same on both sides. We also learned that objects can have up and down (vertical) symmetry, side-to-side (horizontal) symmetry, or multiple lines of symmetry like the examples below. Then we practiced creating our own symmetrical gingerbread men.

Jolly Phonics
It's great to see how well the students are doing stretching out the sounds they hear when labeling their pictures in their Jolly Phonics notebooks and in their daily writing activities. Keep up the great work K-2!

This week we learned the following two Jolly Phonics sounds:

"sh" as in "ship"
"th" as in "this" and "thumb"

Literacy
Reading Workshop
This week we finished the last two interactive read aloud lessons for our Fiction Unit, and we will begin our mini-lessons when we return from break. As a class, we worked to create a story map after reading the book A Balloon for Isabel. In this story, Isabel tries to convince her teacher that she and Walter, both porcupines, should receive balloons on kindergarten graduation day just like the other children. As we listened closely to the story, we identified the characters and the setting as well as the problem the characters were trying to solve. In this story the characters were very resourceful and made several attempts to solve their problem before finding a solution that would work. We learned some valuable lessons from this story too as you can see from our story map below!

The children also did a terrific job during another reading workshop lesson this week. Using the wordless book Wave by Suzy Lee, the children learned how to describe the details in the illustrations to tell a realistic story just like a storyteller would from beginning to end. Using words like the ones in the illustration below, the children worked together to tell the story of the Wave.

Writing Workshop
This week we worked on writing about our Thanksgiving holiday break. I loved reading about all the fun and exciting things the children did over the long break. The children continue to grow as writers, and they are doing a great job really stretching out their words. We have been working on listening for middle sounds when writing, leaving spaces between words, and ending our sentences with a period. It's great to see how much they have grown since the beginning of the year!

Science
Click here to learn more about our science explorations this week!

Weekly Photos
Click here to see some photos from the week too!

Hope everyone enjoys the week and our first snowfall of the year!

Weekly News Nov. 14-18

The days keep flying by in kindergarten! Here's what we have been up to the last couple of weeks.

All About Me
This week the class loved learning all about Cameron! We learned that Cameron loves to build with his Legos, and he also loves to draw and color. He is a big baseball fan, and he loves to do math. He is also proud of his stuffed animal collection and enjoys spending time with his family!

A big thank you to Cameron's mom for sharing some GREAT stories!

We also loved learning all about Abby last week. We learned that Abby loves stuffed animals, and she has a HUGE stuffed animal collection! Two of her favorites are her stuffed monkey and Winnie the Pooh. Abby also enjoys watching Dora, and she loves spending time with her family. She had a great time on their most recent vacation to Disney World!

Math
In math, we spent some time learning about those "tricky teen" numbers from 11-19. We practiced sequencing the teen numbers and counting out each number. We also talked about how each teen number is "10 plus some more." We watched the video below to help us better understand teen numbers.

We have also been practicing counting to 100 by 1's and 10's. The class LOVES the video below, which is a great way to get a little exercise while practicing how to count to 100!

Jolly Phonics
We learned several new sounds over the last two weeks including:

Vv as in "van"
oo as in "book" and "moon"
Yy as in "yes"
Xx as in "fox"
ch as in "chicken"

Click here to listen to the Vv song.

Click here to listen to the oo song.

Click here to listen to the Yy song.

Click here to listen to the Xx song.

Click here to listen to the ch song.

Literacy
ReadingWorkshop
We read another familiar tale this week, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and learned how to identify the problem and solution in a fictional story. We learned that the main character or characters in a story often face trouble or have a problem to solve. By paying close attention to these problems and how the characters solve them, we can learn how to solve similar problems in real life. We also learned that the main characters are usually introduced at the beginning of the story and that traditional tales often have a villain or bad guy. We also spent some time comparing and contrasting Goldilocks and the Three Bears with The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

Using the book I Broke My Trunk! by Mo Willem's, the children also learned how to infer characters' feelings and traits by thinking about what's happening in the story, studying the characters' facial expressions and body language, and listening to what the characters say and think.

Writing Workshop
The children have been busy using our 4 step writing process (Think, Draw, Label, and Write) to share their ideas with others. Students had a chance to write about what they did over the weekend. Then they used our writing rubric to self-reflect on their own writing and make a goal for their next writing piece. It's amazing to see how far our authors have grown since the beginning of the year!

September

November

Centers
The children rotated through a variety of centers over the last couple of weeks while I worked with students one-on-one to complete some of our fall assessments.

Watercolor painting

ABC Mouse on the computers

Listening to ebooks on the Unite for Literacy website

Unite for Literacy

Matching labels and pictures by listening for the first sound

Book shopping

Book shopping

Science
Click here to see what we have been learning in science!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Thanks for reading!

Weekly News (Oct. 31-Nov. 4)

Happy Halloween! We had a great time parading around the school and having a party to celebrate Halloween. Take a peek at our Halloween photos by clicking here.

Math
This week we practiced sorting a collection of coins, and we also took a closer look at the digits 0-9 as we worked together to complete a number board using our interactive whiteboard. After completing the board, we talked about the different patterns we saw and then created our own boards. We also learned how to write the number 3!

Jolly Phonics
The children are doing a great job learning our new Jolly Phonics sound and applying these sounds to their writing. I can tell many students have been using their sound rings to practice at home. Keep up the great work!! This week we learned the following sounds:

Zz as in "zebra"
Ww as in "wind"
ng as in "strong"

Click here to listen to the Zz song.

Click here to listen to the Ww song.

Click here to listen to the ng song.

Literacy
Reading Workshop
This week we began our new reading workshop unit that focuses on fiction books. We learned that authors of fiction write stories that are made up from their imaginations. They write books to entertain us or to teach us a n important lesson. We also learned that there are two types of fiction stories:

Realistic Fiction: stories that could happen in real life

Fantasy: stories that are imaginary or make-believe and can't happen in real life

Using the book Could Be Worse by James Stevenson, we practiced distinguishing realistic fiction from fantasy by noticing the details and asking ourselves, "Could this really happen?"

We also learned how to retell the events in a story using a familiar tale--Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The class did a great job sequencing the events and using the words first, next, then, after that, and last to retell the story.

Writing Workshop
The students were excited to share their "Ouch!" stories this week. We even made "I am a writer!" crowns to wear during our sharing session!

Science
Use the link at the top of our blog or click here to see what we learned during our Rainbows, Color, and Light science unit this week.

Thanks for reading!

Weekly News (Oct. 24-28)

Is it Halloween already? Can't wait to see all the great costumes on Monday! Take a peek below to see how we have been wrapping up October.

All About Me
This week we loved learning all about Josie! We learned that Josie loves owls, and she enjoys taking dance lessons. She loves Halloween and celebrating fall with her family at Didier farms. She also enjoys reading and spending time with her family at Lake Carroll!

Math
This week in math we played some oral counting games to help students practice counting fluently. They loved playing "Count and Sit." In this game, a target number is chosen, and then students stand in a circle and take turns counting up to the target number. The person who says the target number sits down and then a new target number is chosen and the count begins again. We played several times. They couldn't get enough of this game! We also explored patterns in our everyday lives and practiced writing the number 2.

Count and Sit

Jolly Phonics
This week we finished learning the last three sounds in Book #4:
ie  as in "pie"
ee as in "sheep"
or as in "corn"

Literacy

Reading Workshop

This week during reading workshop we learned how to use connecting words such as once, next, then, after that, later, and finally to help us tell a story as we read through the books in our book bins. We were also "buzzing about books" this week as we learned how to talk about the books we love with our classmates. We used the steps below to help us retell the exciting events in our books!

Writing Workshop

This week the students finished working on their "ouch" stories. Then we worked together as a class to create a rubric to help students reflect on their own writing, targeting the skills we have been learning during the first part of the school year. We will continue to modify our rubric as we learn new skills! We also learned how to write the letter E during handwriting time. 

Science

Please click here to see what we have been learning during our Rainbows, Colors, and Light unit!

Art Appreciation

A big thank you to Josie's mom for coming in for our first Art Awareness lesson of the year. The children learned about the paintings inside Lascaux Caves in France. They also learned about the different materials that were used long ago to make paint, and they even had a chance to go in their own caves to create their own cave drawings!

Have a great weekend!