Classroom News-February 15

We had quite a week in kindergarten.  On Monday we celebrated Valentine's Day.  I set up several activities for the children during our center time.  We decorated cookies, played Valentine Bingo, stacked candy hearts (which is not as easy as it sounds), and handed out Valentines.  Everyone had a great time!  Thank you to the volunteers who brought materials in for the party, and came in to help with the activities! 

Today we had centers.  We read, wrote in our journals, worked on Lexia/Core 5 on the ipads, and we worked on before and after numbers.  This afternoon we read Tacky and the Emperor by Helen Lester.  Tacky is a silly penguin!  After P.E., we watched videos about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  Afterwards, we created a Double Bubble Map that shows how we compared and contrasted the two presidents. 

We do not have school on Friday, Febuary 17 or on Monday, February 20.  I will see the children on Wednesday, February 22.  We will be at school ALL DAY on Friday, February 24. 

Here are a few pictures from our Valentine Party and our Double Bubble Map from today.  Enjoy the week off!

Candy Heart Science

We had a fun and exciting day in kindergarten.  Our morning started off with the calendar notebook.  We filled in our calendar and did some addition problems. We went to centers where we read, wrote I can sentences in our journals, sorted sh, th, wh, and ch words, and started to decorate our Valentine Bags. 

After lunch, we worked on our phonics cards and have started talking about consonant blends (cl, gl, cr, gr), and digraphs (sh, th, ch, wh), as well as vowel blends (oo, ee, ay).  We also reviewed The Hat and The Mitten, both by Jan Brett.  We compared and contrasted these books.  We went to the library to check out new books.  After the library, we reviewed partners of 10.  The class did a terrific job! 

The class had a chance to play the ukuleles in Mr. Sutton's class.  I have been told I have a class of rock stars!  When we returned to the classroom, our 4th grade buddies from Mrs. Melaney's class came in for a science experiment.  We put candy conversation hearts in hand sanitizer, vinegar, club soda, hot water, and lemon juice.  We were interested in seeing which solution dissolved the candy heart the best.  We followed the Scientific Method which means we developed a hypothesis, conducted the experiment, made observations, recorded our results, and drew a conclusion.  We learned that while water, lemon juice, and vinegar will dissolve the heart some in an hour, club soda will almost completely dissolve a candy heart in an hour.  As if we hadn't had enough fun, we did a second experiment.  I filled a mason jar with Sprite soda.  Then I put several candy hearts into the soda.  We watched the candy hearts rise to the surface and then sink several times before stopping.  We added additional candy hearts and saw the same results.  We talked about it and drew the conclusion that the bubbles from the soda were helping the candy hearts reach the surface, the bubbles would pop, and then the candy would sink.  It was super exciting to watch!

Classroom news-February 6

We had a busy, but productive day in kindergarten.  I changed the Animal Table most of the kids were at, so we started the day learning about which table would be their new Animal Table.  We worked on our calendar notebook.  These children are doing a great job of writing the date, and sounding out simple words!

After calendar notebooks, we went to centers.  We have new books to read at the reading center, Ms. Sarah worked with children as they wrote "Look at the" sentences, we worked in our math journals, and listened to The Emperor's Egg which is a story about penguins hatching an egg.  Our math journals are getting difficult because they are asking us to count up to 20 and include addition equations.  Its a challenge, but I think we can do it!

After lunch, we watched a video about the book The Mitten by Jan Brett.  We talked about cause and effect and created a Flow Map.  We talked about how the child lost his mitten and because that happened, the animals crawled inside it, and because that happened, the mitten was all stretched out when the little boy found it and took it home. 

Our math time was spent on learning about "partners" of numbers.  1 and 9 are partners of 10, 2 and 8 are partners of 10, 3 and 7 are partners of 10, etc.  They seemed to grasp this concept easily and we had fun doing our worksheet with ladybugs. 

Our specials class today was Computer Lab.  We were not able to get on to Lexia because there were technical difficulties.  Hopefully those are resolved by Wendesday. 

We also completed our Interactive Winter Book.  Look for these in Friday Folders.  Speaking of which, Friday Folders were sent home today because I was not able to get them out on Friday.  Please return them by this Friday so we can fill them up and send them home again. 

I look forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday!

February News

Specials Next Week:
-Monday: Computer Lab
-Wednesday: Music

Important Dates:
-February 13, 9:30-Valentine's Party
-Friday, February 17-No School
-Monday, February 20-No School
-Friday, February 24-ALL DAY
  
Valentine's Party
Parents are welcome to join us for the Valentine's Day Part of Monday, February 13 at 9:30.  I will have activities at 4 centers and we will rotate through them.  Children are welcome to bring Valentine cards for their classmates (23 students).  Do not write who the card is to.  Just ask your child to write their name on the back.  We will decorate Bags in class.  I have created a Sign Up Genius page for the party supplies.  Go to www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0c45aba72ea3fb6-valentine. 

Literacy
Please continue to read the Take-Home books at home with your child.  The kids are making great progress in reading!  You are welcome to make a note in the folder to let me know if the books are too easy, or too difficult.  We want the children to be challenged, but not overwhelmed.  

Next week, we will review The Hat by Jan Brett, and read The Mitten.  We will be comparing and contrasting the stories as well as discussing the problem in each story, and how it was solved.

Math
Next week we will be focusing on the Partners of numbers.  The partners of 10 are the numbers we put together to make 10 (5 and 5, 4 and 6, 2 and 8, 1 and 9, for example).

Buddies
On Wednesday of next week, our 4th Grade Buddies from Mrs. Melaney's class will come in to help us record the results of a science experiement.  We will be dissolving candy hearts in several solutions (soda, vinegar, water, lemon juice, and rubbing alcohol). 

Conference Week

Thank you to all the parents that came to parent-teacher conferences!  I enjoyed sitting down with you to give you an update on your child's education.  I'm proud of the progress they are making. 

With all the craziness of conference week, I forgot to create a homework menu.  Please continue to have your child visit the Lexia and MyOn websites to practice reading skills.  Please encourage students to draw and write about things they see or do through the week.  We are also working on counting to 100, finding shapes in our world, and counting out the appropriate number of items from 1-20.  Look for coins.  Talk about the name of the coin and how much it is worth. 

This week our centers focused on Penguins.  We created circle maps that included everything we know about penguins.  We also made Pengins.  They are all in the hallway in front of our classroom.  Stop by and take a look!

Next week we will read the books The Hat and The Mitten by Jan Brett.  We will compare and contrast the books.  We will also continue to count on from 5 in mathematics and work on addition.  On Wednesday of next week, our 4th grade buddies will come in.  We will do a science experiment with candy hearts. 

Wednesday of next week (February 1) is a late start day.  School will start at 11:30 and dismiss at 3:40. 

On Monday, we watched a video based on The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  Today, we read the book.  Afterwards, we compared and contrasted the book and the video.  I wrote some of our thoughts on a T-chart. 

Have a great weekend!

Classroom News-January 20

Today was a difficult day for some children because they are ready to go home at lunch time on Fridays, but we had a busy and fun day.  Next week we will be on a normal schedule.  Wednesday, February 1 is a Late Start Day.  We will not have school on Friday, February 17, or Monday, February 20.  These are no-student contact days. 

We started our day with centers (Reading, building sentences, math journals, and coloring snowflakes which meant they had to match the color word with the cowboy hats above the white board).  While we were at centers, we watched the Presidential Inauguration.  I thought it was important for the children to see how we change Presidents.  They will not have an opportunity to see this again for 4 years.  I feel as though they need  to understand this is an important transition for our country. 

After recess, we finished centers and went to lunch.  After lunch, we watched a video called The Snowy Day.  We wrote in our Winter Journals about the weather we observed in the video. 

We went to music class and had a lot of fun playing ukeleles!  Mr. Sutton said our class was fantastic!

We finished the day with math.  We are continuing to work on counting on from groups of 5 up to 10.

Next week is parent-teacher conferences.  I sent home a notice with your conference time last week.  If you need to reschedule, please contact me and let me know.  I look forward to meeting with everyone!  We will be discussing the results of the mid-year literacy assessment and our end of year goals for the children.

During centers next week, we will be talking about penguins and polar bears.  We will also finish our Weather unit and start working on our Culture unit.    In math, we will work on partners of number (2 and 3 are partners of 5, 4 and 1 are partners of 5).  We will go to P.E. on Monday and go to the art room on Wednesday. 

We will have a Valentine Party on Monday, February 13.  Children are welcome to bring Valentine cards to share with classmates.  We currently have 24 children in our class.  Please do not worry about writing who the Valentine card is TO.  Just have your child write their name on the back of the Valentines.  I would like to have children decorate Valentine cookies during the party.  We will need heart shaped sugar cookies and frosting, and maybe a bag of M&Ms.  Let me know if you are willing to donate to the party. 

Have a great weekend!

January News

We have had a very busy week because it is a short week.  There is no school on Friday, January 13.  It is a no-student contact day.  We will not have school on Monday, January 16 because it is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  I will not see students again until Wednesday, January 18.  Since we do not have school on Monday, we will be at school ALL DAY on Friday, January 20. 

Looking ahead, February 1 is a Late Start Day.  School will start at 11:30 and dismiss at 3:40.  The children will go to lunch as soon as they arrive at school.

We will have a Valentine Party on Monday, February 13.  Students are welcome to bring in Valentine cards to share with their classmates.  Do not worry about writing the other students' names on the cards.  Your child should just write their name on the back of the cards.  I would like to have cookies for the students to decorate for the party.  Would it be possible to find heart-shaped sugar cookies to decorate?  Then we will need sprinkles and frosting. 

Today, Mrs. Melaney's 4th Grade class came for a visit.  They helped the kindergarteners think about and write about things they could do to make a  positive change in the world with their own hands.