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.

Week One is Done!

Wow! What a fun first week we had in Kindergarten!! We packed our days full of learning, laughing and playing!  Here is our first week re-cap:

Math

We learned the calendar routine and practiced saying the date and counting the days we have been in school. We practiced writing our numbers from 0 -9 on whiteboards. We also learned how to work quietly by ourselves which will soon be called, “Math by Myself.” During this time the students picked out a number card (0-10) and then made a set of linking cubes that matched that number. They did a great job of doing this job QUIETLY as well as successfully! It allowed me to work with a group of students in a small group. We also learned how to work in our Math Journals and completed two story problems!!! Hats off to your children--they did GREAT!

                  

                 

Language Arts

The kids loved meeting our new letter friends: Amos Alligator, Brodie Bear and Celine the Cow. We use the SMARTboard to make our letter friends come alive and watch real videos of the animals. They seem to love this part of the day! We also worked on ways we can read a book. Lots of them said the couldn’t read...NOT TRUE! We learned that we can read the pictures or retell a familiar story if we cannot read the actual words. We learned how to pick a spot in the room and read quietly by ourselves. This will take lots of practice to build our stamina so we can sit in one spot looking at books for a long period of time. :)

                 

Writer’s Workshop

This quickly became one of their favorite parts of the day! We learned that writer’s write to tell a story and that we ALL have stories to tell. This also takes a lot of practice because we have to work quietly in our own space to allow ourselves and others to think. They have done such a nice job of working silently and creating WONDERFUL stories! I can’t wait for them to show you.

                 

                                               

Discovery

This week we played many games and activities dealing with “names.” We also learned a lot about being a Bucket Filler and working very hard to make sure we do things to make our own buckets full as well as our friends. Next week we will continue to do some fun projects with our names.

                  

   

  

                 

Enjoy your long weekend! See you next Tuesday!

It Was a Great First Day! (Part 2)

What another fun day with another fun group!! We followed the same routine as yesterday and I was again so impressed with how well they followed rules and directions. We accomplished a lot and we are excited to meet the other half of our class tomorrow! Enjoy some pictures of our second "first day."

It Was a Great First Day!

After saying goodbye to moms and dads, we had a fun day....

.... touring the school
... playing at recess
... learning about the letter Aa
... meeting new friends
... eating in the new lunch room
... drawing a picture of what we like to do with a friend
... learning about bucket fillers and FINALLY....
... PLAYING!!!!! ( They had been waiting for this part since about 9 a.m.)

We had a lot of new rules and routines to learn. They did a WONDERFUL job of following them and waiting patiently for playtime to begin! I am excited to have them back Wednesday!

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome to our class blog! I am excited for a new year and anxious to meet you all. 

I hope this blog gives you a good idea of what we are doing each week in Kindergarten and is a place you can find information easily. I try and post new updates as much as possible!

I have been busy in the classroom trying to make it look organized enough for a couple pictures! Still a ways to go, but I’m getting there. :)

Ready to have the room filled with students! 

Enjoy the last weeks of summer!