K-2's Weekly News (Jan. 23-25)

For a short week, we sure were busy in K-2!  Read on to find out what we have been up to!

Math
This week in math we practiced counting by 10's both orally and by writing the numbers in sequence.  For an extra challenge, we also practiced counting on by 10's starting with numbers greater than 10.

We introduced a new math game this week as well called "Top It," or as you may know it--"War."  In this game, each player starts with a set of cards numbered 0-20.  Players flip over one card at a time, and the player with the larger number takes both cards.  The students LOVED playing this game and did a great job identifying the larger number.

In order to build a foundation for adding and subtracting numbers, we used our interactive whiteboard to play a number line game where students had to either hop forward (add) or hop backward (subtract) from a given number.  Take a peek at the picture below to see how we played this game.  We reinforce this concept of "counting on" each morning during our calendar routine when we add one more day to our class number line.  I always ask the students, "How many more hops until we get to the next 10?" The students are so used to our routine by now that they have their hands raised before I can even ask the question!

Literacy/Social Science
This week we wrapped up our animal themed unit in Treasures.  We finished our workbook pages for Unit 5 and sent home a new sight word book.  We also read a sweet story called Mole and Baby Bird about a mole who rescues an abandoned baby bird.  Mole wants to keep the bird and makes a cage so the bird won't fly away.  It isn't until Grandpa takes Mole for a walk up on a high hill where he feels like he could fly that Mole realizes his baby bird is meant to be free.  

We also read two wolf-themed books this week.  The first book we read was called Footprints in the Snow, which was about a wolf who was tired of reading stories about mean and nasty wolves, so he decided to write his own book about a nice and kind wolf.  His story starts out great but quickly goes awry when he starts writing about a plump and tasty duck!! 

The second book we read this week was called Wolf's Coming!  After reading several pages of this book, we stopped when the wolf was about to enter the house, and the students wrote down a prediction of what they thought the wolf was going to do next.  Just about everyone predicted that the wolf was going to eat all the animals in the house.  After writing down our predictions, we continued to read to the end of the story where we found a very surprising twist---a surprise birthday party for Wolf!

After reading a Time for Kids magazine article, we learned that Martin Luther King, Jr. believed that all people should be treated equally and kindly.  We completed an activity together showing different ways children could be kind to one another, and then the students wrote about one way that they could be kind to others.  They did a great job with this writing activity!

At the end of the week, our class joined Mrs. Schellinger's class to watch the movie The Snowman, which is a movie based on a wordless children's book about a boy who builds a snowman that comes to life and takes him on a magical adventure to the North Pole.  This beautifully animated movie has no words, just music and images to tell the story.  The children loved the movie, and they had a great time creating winter scenes of their own!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Thank you for reading!

K-2's Weekly News (Jan. 14-18)

It's official!  This week we reached the half-way point of the school year.  My how time is flying by in kindergarten!  The children are growing so fast and learning so much!

All About Me
It was Owen's turn this week to share a few of his favorite things.  The class loved his Lego box and all of the goodies inside!  The Hershey's chocolate bar and the stuffed "Where's My Water?" alligator were class favorites!  It was also neat to see Owen and his mom featured in a Daily Herald article about an event organized by Legoland where Owen and several other children helped set a Guinness World Record for having the "Largest Toy Construction Lesson" at St. Alexius Medical Center.  Here's a link to the article if you'd like to learn more.  Way to go Owen!!

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20121126/news/711269829/photos/AR/

Math
This week in math we practiced using our pan balance scale to practice the concept of "leveling."  We placed a tennis ball on one side of the balance scale and then placed counting bears on the other side one by one until the scale was balanced or level.  It was amazing to see how focused the students were during this lesson as they carefully watched the scale after each bear was added!

We also took a closer look at the "teen" numbers this week and looked at how we can break the teen numbers down into a "ten plus some more."  We used a "teen frame" template (see below) to help us visualize these numbers.

Teen Frame for the number 16

We played a new math game called the "Growing Train" game.  Each student received 10 blocks and rolled a die to see how many cars to add to the train.  The train was complete when there were 10 train cars lined up.  The students loved playing this game over and over again, and it was a great way for students to understand and visually see what numbers make a sum of 10.  Check out the Growing Train game below!

Jolly Phonics
We introduced two more sounds this week and spent some time talking about how sometimes two letters work together to make one sound.  We also practiced making the two different sounds for "th."

sh as in "shell"
th as in "this" and "thick"

Literacy
We continued our animal theme this week as we explored more alphabet books and even created an ABC Animal Book of our own.  The children also spent some time writing some clues for our Mystery Animal Book.  Each student chose an animal, wrote down three clues about that animal, and then illustrated and labeled a picture of the animal.  I know this will be a very popular class book!  We also introduced the sight word "play" and read a story called Elmer in the Snow about an elephant who helps some friends stay warm on a chilly day.

Shell Centers

 During science this week, the children had a chance to explore several different learning centers that focused on sorting, identifying, investigating and drawing shells.  Take a peek at our centers below!

Sorting Shells 

Identifying Shells

Drawing and Labeling Shells

Making Shell Imprints 

Painting Beach Scenes 

Drawing Shells

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading!

K-2's Weekly News (Jan. 7-11)

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone's 2013 is off to a TERRIFIC start!  It was great to be back in the classroom again.  I really missed all of my kindergarten kiddos!  We had a busy and productive week as we eased back into our daily routines.

All About Me

This week we learned all about Nikolas and some of his favorite things.  We learned that he loves swimming and collecting shells, and he likes to play games at Chuck E. Cheese.  The class loved his hacky sack, and they especially loved the picture of Nikolas riding in his go kart.  So cool!

Math
This week the students used a set of number cards to practice ordering the numbers 0-20.  They did a great job sequencing and reading these numbers!

We also explored the concept of probability and introduced the terms: impossible, possible, certain, likely, and unlikely.  We read a story called Ducks Don't Wear Socks and identified which events in the story were possible and which were impossible such as---a duck riding a bike, playing a guitar, or wearing underwear!  It was a fun story and a great way to reinforced the concepts of impossible vs. possible.

Jolly Phonics
We jumped right back into Jolly Phonics this week!  We introduced the following sounds:

ch as in "choo-choo"
Yy as in "yogurt"
Xx as in "fox"

This week we introduced the first of our "h-brothers," which include /ch/, /th/, and /sh/.  Learning and recognizing these letter combinations will be helpful when reading and writing new words.  When learning about the letter "y" this week, we talked about how sometimes it is easy to confuse the sound for "y" with the /w/ sound instead of the /y/ sound.  We will continue to review these sounds as well as all the sounds we have learned in class.  Please take time at home to review these sounds as well, especially the trickier sounds with double letters or long vowel sounds.

Writing
The students did a great job writing about what they did over winter vacation.  I loved reading about where they went and what they did over break.  During writer's workshop time, the students continue to practice drawing a picture, labeling their picture, and writing down their ideas.  When writing our sentences, we have been working to start with a capital letter, end with a period, and leave a space between each word.

Animal Unit in Treasures
We began our animal unit in Treasures this week by reading a story about a mama cat and her sleepy kitten named Boris.  We also worked to create a word web about different categories of animals including: farm animals, zoo animals, animals we would find in nature, and animals we might keep as pets.  We also read about cold weather animals in our Time for Kids magazine.  We will continue to add to our web throughout our animal unit.

We created a mini-book about pet care and completed a sorting activity about which animals would make good pets.  We will work on sorting again next week during our shell unit when we try to classify different types of seashells.

Assessments
This week I used our normal small group guided reading time to individually assess the students' reading progress.  I will be finishing up these assessments next week.  All kindergarten students will also be assessed next week on letter names and letter sounds as part of our winter benchmarking period, and sometime over the next two weeks they will also be given two quick math assessments--one for number identification and one for counting given quantities.  The information gathered from each of these assessments helps us to track individual student growth and plan for instruction that targets individual student needs.  Let me know if you have any questions!

Looking forward to another great week in kindergarten!

Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend.

K-2's Weekly News (Dec. 17-21)

All About Me
It was great to learn all about Blaike this week!  Not only did we learn that Blaike loves ballet and Tae Kwon Do, we also learned that she is quite the artist!  If you look closely at the picture below, you can see the beautiful painting Blaike made for the cover of her Me Box and the cute Tooth Fairy box she made with her grandma.  So neat!  Thanks for sharing Blaike!

Singing carols with Mr. Deptula during music class.

Spending some time in the gym with Mrs. Sessler and Mr. Robinson!

PJ and Stuffed Animal Day---can you tell they had a great day?!





I hope everyone has a relaxing winter vacation with time to spend with family and friends.  Looking forward to an amazing 2013 with your children.
Can't wait to see them again in January!

K-2's Weekly News (Dec. 10-14)

All About Me
This week we learned all about Mark's favorite things!  As you can see from the photo below, Mark loves sports---football, fishing, and especially hockey.  Mark LOVES to play hockey, and he is a huge Blackhawks fan!  Mark loves Corvettes and collecting shells too, and he even has a green thumb.  It was neat to see the sunflower seeds that came from a flower that Mark grew! 

Math
We integrated our gingerbread theme into our math activities this week!  We introduced the concept of measuring length using nonstandard units such as small and large gingerbread, and we used paperclips to do some measuring as well.

We practiced our graphing skills this week as we played a gingerbread themed game called "Spin and Graph."  Using a spinner with different gingerbread friends, we took turns spinning the wheel and graphing our results.

Gingerbread Literacy Unit
The children are loving our gingerbread unit!  We have read and compared several versions of the familiar story The Gingerbread Man.  For each story, we worked together to identify the characters, the setting, the problem, and the solution.  Then we used a simple technique to practicing retelling the main events in each story.  Using the words, somebody, wanted, but, and so, we were able to summarize and retell the key points in each story.  Using the original story, for example, we were able to summarize the story with this statement: The gingerbread man wanted to escape from the oven and run away, but everyone wanted to eat him so he trusted the fox and he was gobbled right up!  Take a peek below to see which versions we have read so far!

iPad Projects
The students have been doing a great job using the iPads.  We have completed several projects using different apps on the iPads over the last several weeks.  Check out our digital ABC Book and our symmetry posters below!

K-2's Healthy Foods ABC Book

Symmetry Posters Using Pic Collage

Thanks for reading!

And thank you all for sharing your children with me each day.  I really enjoy working with each of the students in my class, and I am truly grateful to be their teacher!

Weekly News (Dec. 3-7)

All About Me
Zach did a great job sharing his "Me Box" this week, and we all loved learning about some of his favorite things.  The class thought it was neat that Zach's grandpa carved a car out of wood, and they loved Zach's mini piano.  We were even treated to a rendition of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star!"  Way to go Zach!

Math

This week the students played a game called "Roll and Record."  After rolling a die and counting the number of dots, the students practiced tracing the corresponding number and graphing their results.  It was a fun way to review and practice several math skills at once!

We also introduced using a pan balance this week.  We introduced the concepts of lighter and heavier, and we talked about what it means when the pans are equal or balanced.  We experimented weighing several different objects, and the students were able to experiment with the balance on their own during center time this week as well.

We completed several activities this week that reinforced the concept of ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th...)  For some more at-home practice with ordinal numbers, check out the link below.  There are several fun online games to play that reinforce this concept!

http://www.technologyrocksseriously.com/2012/03/ordinal-numbers.html

The children were excited to use a new app on the iPads this week called Monster Squeeze.  The students loved playing this game with a partner as they used their reasoning skills to reveal the "mystery number."  

We also used the iPads to revisit the concept of number stories by creating our own picture number stories using an app called Doodle Buddy.  Check out some of our work below!

Arya

Jolly Phonics

We finished Book 5 this week as we introduced the following sounds.  Please note the two different sounds for "oo."

ng as in "sing"

Vv as in "van"

oo as in "book"

oo as in "moon"

We will finish the last two Jolly Phonics books when we return from winter vacation, so there will not be any Jolly Phonics homework until after break.

Literacy

We continued our theme of healthy eating in Treasures this week, and we worked hard to complete the final two sections of our workbook for Unit 4.  I was so impressed with how well the students did stretching out their sounds on the last page of their workbooks.  We keep reviewing our Jolly Phonics sounds, especially the vowels, and it seems to be making a difference!  Next week we will begin a two-week Gingerbread Unit that will include several reading and writing activities.  I know the children will love it!!

We completed several sequencing activities this week in order to reinforce the concept of putting events in a logical order.  We will continue to practice sequencing pictures to help prepare the students for retelling the events of a story, and we will practice using words such as first, then, next, and last to help us retell the events.  

Adventure Course in Gym

This week in gym, Miss O'Sullivan's class helped the students in our class complete an adventure course where the students pretended they were the blood circulating throughout the body.  It was a great learning experience for both classes!  

Thanks for reading!

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Update (Nov. 26-30)

It was great to be back with the children after the week long break.  I missed seeing them each day!

All About Me
Kelly did a great job sharing her Me Box this week!  She shared a picture of her aunt and talked about how much she loves her little cousin.  She also showed us a sticker chart she keeps at home to do chores.  She even modeled her favorite sunglasses for us and talked about her favorite movie--Rapunzel!  Thanks so much for sharing Kelly!

Math
Several concepts were introduced in math this week.  Earlier this week the students learned about estimation.  During our lesson, we compared making an estimate to a "thoughtful guess."  During our interactive whiteboard lesson, the students counted 10 cubes inside a jar and then used that information to estimate how many cubes were placed in a second jar.  Comparing the jars side-by-side, the students were able to make thoughtful estimates.  For example, in the sample below, they knew there were a few more than 10 cubes in the second jar but not quite enough to make 20.  We completed several examples like this during our lesson.

The students were also introduced to the concept of number stories this week.  We practiced using pictures to solve both simple addition and subtraction number stories, and we talked about how certain words in a number story, such as "in all" or "gave away," are clues to help us find the answer.  We also introduced the concept of a number model to show our thinking.  For example, when we solved the problem, "There were 5 gray squirrels and 2 black squirrels in a tree.  How many squirrels were there in all?," we recorded 5 + 2 = 7 to show our thinking.

Jolly Phonics

We introduced two new letters in Jolly Phonics this week, and we continued to review the sounds that have already been introduced.  Our new sounds are:

Zz as in "zebra"

Ww as in "wind"

The students are becoming more and more comfortable stretching out the sounds they hear when writing and many are beginning to discriminate the short vowel sounds.  Any extra time you can dedicate to reinforcing the vowel sounds--both the short vowel sounds and the long vowel sounds that have been introduced--will be tremendously helpful for your child as we continue to develop our writing and reading skills.

Literacy
We began a new unit in our Treasures reading program this week, which focuses on food and healthy eating.  We began our unit with a funny story titled Gregory, The Terrible Eater, which is a story about a young goat who is a picky eater.  Instead of eating tin cans and old tires like a typical goat, Gregory prefers healthy foods like fruits and vegetables.  We also learned more about healthy eating by reading an online interactive Time for Kids magazine about making healthy food choices and keeping your body in tip top shape!

We also read a story this week called Apple Farmer Annie. This is a story about an apple farmer named Annie who works hard each fall to pick the apples from the trees in her orchard and to bring her apples to the farmer's market to sell.  After reading the story, we practiced summarizing and sequencing the events from the story in order.

During Writer's Workshop this week, we practiced using more sight words in our writing as well as adding more details to our sentences.  We worked on leaving spaces between words as well and checking for capitals and periods.  Check out some of our K-2 writers in action below!

iPad Project
After reading an ABC book called Eating the Alphabet, we worked together as a class to create a digital alphabet book of our own about healthy foods.  I will post it on our blog soon!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Thanks for reading!