Our Awesome Apple Week

Math:

Last week we learned what the symbols + and = mean and where they go in a number sentence. We practiced writing number sentences with the end product being 2. We had to really think hard to find what numbers can be added together to equal 2. We continue to do story problems and figure out which set has more. We also keep working on writing our numbers 0-10 and counting sets of objects. 

Language Arts:

While I am working with small groups, the students are working quietly by themselves. They can pick from Word Work (using play-doh, markers, letter tiles, etc. to work with letters and word), Read to Self (reading books from our book shelf, their poetry binders or easy readers) and Listen to Reading (using the IPads to listen to stories being read to them). This week we will introduce Work on Writing (finding words words that begin with a certain letter around the room, writing sentences, etc.) All of these things help keep the students engaged and learning which gives me an opportunity to work with smaller groups. 

Writing:

We finished our first writing unit!! We celebrated Friday by sharing one of our favorite pieces and telling each other what we like about them. We reviewed what it means to add a setting and characters to our pictures and how to pick a writing topic. Monday we will start a new unit which will teach us how to write personal narratives. This unit will help us tell our stories in an organized, focus manner. 

Discovery:

It was so fun learning about apples! Especially using our taste buds to learn about apples! We started the week by labeling the parts of an apple and making a neat apple frame. 

                             

Tuesday we learned about Johnny Appleseed and wrote down facts we remembered from the stories we read. Then we made a Johnny Appleseed apple print.

     

Wednesday we sequenced an apple poem and made illustrations to match. This was a FUN project and I was so proud of how well they did with it!

 

  

Thursday did a SMARTBoard activity and learned about the different types of apples and what they taste like. We then tasted for ourselves! We tasted red, yellow and green apples and then graphed our favorite. I can't believe it, but the majority of our class liked GREEN apples the best! SO SOUR!! After they picked their favorite they arranged a sentence to show which they liked best and made an apple of their favorite.

Friday we spent the morning measuring, weighing and investigating our apples! We also chopped our apples up and put them in the crock pot with some other yummy ingredients so we would have applesauce in the afternoon!

Fun on the Farm

A lot has happened in Kindergarten since my last post! We spent the last two weeks learning about the farm and making our own Farm Fact Books! I can't wait for them to bring them home to show you. We have been learning more letters, solving more math problems and writing great stories! 

Math:

We completed our first math unit and took an assessment to see what we remembered from our learning! Ten frames and counting sets and writing how many were big components of this unit. Now we are starting to focus on numbers and how to represent a number in different ways. This is what we came up with for the number 2:

We also introduced a new math choice...MATH TECHNOLOGY!! We are learning one game at a time, but the kids are excited to FINALLY be using the IPads. :)

Language Arts:

We are over halfway through the alphabet in reviewing the letters. We continue to meet our new letter friends, practice writing the letters as well as recognizing the letters and knowing their sounds. Along with this, we have been learning about the parts of a book (cover, author, illustrator) and concepts of print (reading left to right, top to bottom, the meaning of a period, and the difference between letters and words.) This week we are reviewing ALL those concepts and making sure we understand them and can put them into practice. We have been trying these new concepts while we read our poem of the week. Listen to last weeks poem: At the Farm!

Writer's Workshop:

We have started to learn about the "setting" and the "characters"in a story. This is important to add in our writing because then people know where the story they are reading takes place and who the story is about. This week we are learning how to share our writings with a partner at the end of writer's workshop and how to give someone feedback on their writing. We will have a celebration of ALL or writings at the end of the week and start out new unit next week. Here are some of our writings from the past couple of weeks:

Discovery:

The focus of our farm unit was animals and what they give us. Each day we talked about a different animal and read non-fiction books that gave us many important facts about them. We made a class chart of all the information we learned as well as our own fact book. During this unit we also learned about the difference between fiction and non-fiction stories. The kids picked up on it so quick! Whenever I read a story now someone is always quick to tell me what kind it is: fiction or non-fiction. It is fun to see them learning and remembering! Here are some of the stories we compared fiction to non-fiction:

  

On the last day we took a trip to the farm!!! (kind of.) We took a virtual reality tour to a vegetable farm, a chicken farm and a dairy farm! It was neat to see how everything we have been learning about comes together on a farm and what different machines/buildings/people are used for. 

This week we are learning all about APPLES! This is one of my favorite weeks because Friday ends with delicious smelling applesauce baking in the crock pot all day long!

Our Week in Review

Math:
This week we learned about ten frames! Here is a cool ten frame game we played this week if you want to practice with your child at home!

http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=75

The students learned that ten frames ALWAYS have ten boxes and it’s another tool to help us practice numbers. I have been showing them ten frame flashcards and they have been doing their best to say how many dots they see as quick as they can. Another activity we tried used a blank ten frame mat and linking cubes. I showed the students a number and they had to put that many linking cubes on their ten frame mat. They are really getting the hang of it and we will continue to work on it this week. We also continue to work on writing our numbers, working on math games quietly by ourselves and solving math problems. Here are a few examples of our problems from the week:

 

Language Arts:
We continue to meet new letter friends each day. This week we met: Dana Dolphin, Edie Elephant, Frankie Frog and Gerdie Giraffe. We get to watch their videos and see where they live, what they eat and what they look like in real life. This is also helping us remember the letter names and what kinds of sounds those letters make. They are doing a great job of learning how to write the letters and looking for those letters in their names! We use this name chart everyday and compare letters in each others names.

We talked about the "red letters" in our names, which are also called VOWELS! Vowels help other letters make words. :) Along with learning our letters, we are also learning how to read books quietly by ourselves and this week we will start talking about the parts of a book and the correct way to use/read them. 

Writer's Workshop:

The students were SO excited to bring their writing folders home for the weekend to share their stories with you. They have been working very hard on their writing "stamina." This means working quietly in one spot for the ENTIRE writing time. We continue to get better at this and I love "reading" all of their stories. Please take the time to go through each story with your child and allow them to "read" their stories to you. This week we will be learning about making our writings better by adding a setting and characters that look real.

Discovery:

We finished our unit on names and we are looking forward to learning about the farm the next two weeks! We had a lot of fun last week reading Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom! and making our own coconut tree with the letters in our name.

              

We also read all the "Miss Nelson"books. It was fun to make Miss Nelson to remind us of the rules of school and how we act when we are in class. Friday we read/sang Pete the Cat: Rocking in my School Shoes. We did a guided drawing (I draw, they copy what I draw onto their own paper) and the kids did FANTASTIC! Their Pete the Cats turned out so good! They will be proudly hanging up in our room to remind us that when we are at school, everything is alllll goooood!

Important Reminders:
-Wednesday is our first Early-Out day. The students will be dismissed at 1:45. If their regular transportation plans are different on this day, please remember to let me or Dana know so we can send your child to the right spot!
-A green and blue polka dot bag will be coming home in your child's backpack if they are the "show and share" friend. Please remember to have them bring something special to them to share with the class.
-Please return the Writer's Workshop folders and Friday Folders with your student on Monday.