Happy Monday! Today we started doing reading interventions in the kindergarten grade levels. While some students went to Mrs. Boese's class to work in a small group with her, the rest of Mrs. Boese's class came to my classroom. The students were excited to make new friends during this 30 minute intervention time. In my classroom our large group worked on reviewing reading and math skills. All the boys and girls did a great job particpating and following the rules in such a large group. In reading we started with a poem about grandparents. Then we worked on rhyming words. To review the letters we have learned thus far, the students got out their whiteboards. I said a word and they wrote either the beginning letter they heard or the ending letter they heard. As a challenge, the students had the option of trying to write the whole word. We talked about sentences, how words are divided by spaces and that periods come at the end of them. Then we wrote our own sentence about something our family does together ("My family goes camping," "My family plays together"). The students were to stretch out the words the best they could, listening for all the letter they heard. In math we talked about maps. The students did an activity where they were given a map and had to listen to directions and draw how to get from one place to another. After that we had just enough time to have a quick snack and story. Reminder: Friday is picture re-take day.
Homework: You might be seeing some blue/white math homework sheets coming home. The purpose of these is so that kids are exposed to the material once more during the day, helping really embed that knowledge into them. If your child has the chance to do these during the week, I would love for you to send them back to me so I can see who has been working on them :) If you forget/have a busy week, no big deal it won't be held against your child either. Also, thank you for the egg cartons! We have enough now to do a craft with them hopefully sometime this week!
The boys and girls love listening to Mary read stories!
In class today we did a review of the letter C and the word go. Students made up sentences following the outline "A ____can go." They brainstormed things that go, such as cars, trucks, boats, etc. They wrote a sentence to go along with a picture. Then we made books about a circus. These were a bit wordy from what we were used to. The focus was filling in the blank on each page of how many items there were. With help, they were able to read the book to a few friends.
In math we took our self portraits and made a graph. We talked about how graphs give us information. I had the students try to use the words "fewer" and "less" in a sentence that asked a question (ex: Which group had fewer?). We will revisit this later :)
Our class graph using self portraits
We briefly practiced making our own graphs. The students choose two colors and had to walk around asking friends which color they liked better. They were to graph the results. It was good for a first rough draft.
We got to have a little "Fun Friday" today since it was the last day of our school week. If the boys and girls were done with all their unfinished work, they had the choice of playing with legos, making things out of scrap paper, or coloring fall pictures.
Have a wonderful long weekend!
Today we warmed up by doing a few dance songs. The kids new favorite is Animal Action, where they act like animals. It made me smile today when all the boys joined hands and all the girls joined hands (on their own!) and danced together. What a great classroom family we have :)
We started with math today and after our warm up, we talked about partners. A partner is two numbers that add up and go into the number (ex. partners of 5 would be 3 and 2, or 4 and 1). They did a good job with this. This concept will be revisited throughout the year, but also in their next few years of school as well. We talked about self portraits, and the students drew one in order to prepare for us to make a graph with them tomorrow. It was fun getting to see how they view themselves :) I will save these for their portfolios.
While students worked on math activities, I pulled small groups aside to do a Unit 1 math test. This test was much better for us then our benchmark tests, as these were all things we've been learning. Everyone did a fabulous job.
In language arts we reviewed the letter C and the sound it makes. We also talked about rhyming words and the students helped me brainstorm words that rhyme. We read a poem together on the smartboard and circled letters and sight words in it that we have learned.
We have been learning some pretty big robust vocabulary words. This week we learned savor, appetite, feast, and urgency. I told the kids if I heard them use a robust word, I would give them a glitter ball-one a day per word. I realized I needed to add 'in the right context' when in math everyone tried to use the word feast. :) I appreciate their eagerness to experiment with these new words. :) :)
After we did language and math, we had a little bit of time for art. We made 'friendly fall ghosts.'
I also must say how considerate my class is; I have had a big frog in my throat all week and they have been so quite in order for me to not have to talk very loud. I feel really lucky to have such nice boys and girls :)
I'm excited for the kids to see their craft projects hanging up all over the ceiling tomorrow!
Today in language arts we learned the letter C. We brainstormed words that start with C, then did an activity working on forming C's and drawing a picture of something that starts with C to go with it. We talked about how with every letter, you need to make it starting at the top and going to the bottom. While students worked I pulled boys and girls aside to read to me a book that emphasized our new sight word go.
We started working on some grandparents day projects. Mrs. Mary helped the students paint their hands and put their hand print on a poem for grandparents. We also made pictures for our grandma's and grandpa's. The students brainstormed descriptive words; I love you, caring, nice, rockstar--they came up with them ;)
We finally had time to do a T craft, so we made turtles. The students had two choices. They had a blast working on these.
At the end of the day we sampled the pumpkin seeds we collected!
What a great week we had! I was so proud. :) We worked very hard on the new sight word: the. We also started having a special password that they have to read to enter the classroom. The password changes each day.
We also visited the fire hall, had a fire truck snack and wrote thank you letters to the fire fighters with our fourth grade buddies. I feel that our class now will know what to do in case of a fire. What a smart group!
Enjoy the weekend! Mrs. Zywicki
Today we reviewed the letter P, listening for words that have p's at the beginning and at the end of them. We made sentences up containing the sight word the. Then we worked on our very own "The" books. Students practiced writing the word the throughout the book. Next they found 3 friends to read it to. After this activity the students listened to Mrs. Mary read a story. The students then got to read another book ("The Park), with a partner sitting elbow-elbow-knee-knee.
In math we reviewed position words and worked on number stories that we could represent using our vertical graphs ("Last night I ate 6 pancakes and 4 glasses of juice!). We worked on mathematical language describing our graphs as greater than, less than, fewer, more, taller, shorter, etc.
Then it was time to celebrate filling our brownie tray--the first time this year! Each day the students get a brownie point if nobody had to move their clothespin. We made it! :) The boys and girls took turns painting pumpkins. Then we made a spider craft out of marshmallows and pretzels, with chocolate syrup (just a little :) ) for the spider web. They loved making/eating these! Tomorrow we will finish our celebrations by carving the pumpkins (I have already cut them open, so they will just need to scoop out the insides). I will save a container of seeds and bake them for the students to sample next week. I'm so proud of how hard they have been working. They really earned this extra fun day!
Tomorrow we also will be walking across the street to the fire station. This will be a great Fun Friday!
Today the students had a substitute teacher while I was in meetings discussing our benchmark data. I had a chance to talk with the sub before she left, and she had only good things to say :) The students even earned their last brownie point, so we'll be making plans to have a mini 'party' here soon.
In the classroom the students worked on reviewing the letter P and the word the. They did a writing activity practicing their P's. They also made a number book and read it to three classmates.
For math the students reviewed position words (beside, next to, under), and moved a bear around the room accordingly (they have done this before). Then they did a review activity practicing their numbers 1-5.
Looking forward to being in the classroom all morning tomorrow! I've missed my kindergartners this week :)
Today the students had a sub for the first hour of the day. They did calendar and then worked on a connect the dots activity that I introduced yesterday. When they finished, they 'wrote the room.' Then they colored and traced a picture of a fireman, to prepare for our fire station field trip on Friday.
When I got back to the room I showed the children a website that the teachers at esko use with our math curriculum. On this website (think central...mega math) there are interactive games to play that go along with our math lessons. The students and I tried out a few and they really seemed to enjoy them. Today I set up an account for each student, and I will be sending home directions on how to use the site along with a password for each student. You will also have access to workbook activities that go along with our lessons as well as other games. Feel free to explore if you choose to do so :)
Exploring educational games on thinkcentral; mega math.
For language we reviewed the sight word the. We talked more about the letter N, and listened for words that have an n at the beginning or an n at the end.
Deciding if they hear N at the beginning of a word or at the end
We sang and danced to a few songs, then listened to a story on the carpet.
Tomorrow I will be gone. I introduced a few of the activities they will be working on. They hope to be able to do a turtle craft if everything goes well throughout the morning!
We had a pretty good Monday. We began Language Arts by reading a poem about grandparents. The students helped me clap for each word in every line of the poem. This was tricky because we are used to clapping for syllables and not whole words. We got better as we practiced. The students then came up to the smartboard and helped find the letters r, t, s, and m in the poem.The letter n was introduced. We practiced writing an uppercase N and lowercase n with our magic pens (our fingers). Then we learned the word the. We practiced using it in a sentence.
For station work the students did a handwriting activity with the letter N. Then we worked on tracing N and coloring a picture to uncover a photo of a nut. Then the boys and girls walked around the room and got autographs of their classmates, working on penmanship and name spelling :) I pulled small groups of 2-3 students aside to read a book to me called The Park.
For a brain break we danced to the songs Animal Action and Freeze Dance. Then we got into math. We practiced our horizontal graphs, this time making up stories to graph about (i.e. Last night I had 5 apples and 3 oranges. Show this on your graph). Students helped me come up with short stories like these. We worked on our math vocabulary by using words to describe our graphs such as more, greater, fewer, less then, how do you know?
We had just enough time for a quick snack of goldfish and a story before we headed home.
Tomorrow I will be out of the room for an hour to work with other teachers and our math curriculum, and Wednesday I will be in the school but at benchmark meetings. I talked about this with the students, and they are ready to show our subs how great of a class we are! :) :)
This is my first year using a BLOG and I hope to get better at doing it. Please be patient with me as I learn! Things are going great in our kindergarten classroom.
We are meeting with our fourth grade friends each Friday. Today we made spiders and wrote a spider story. We even were able to have a marshmallow spider snack! YUM! We are going to be learning about fire safety next week. Please review your fire escape plan at home.
We are getting ready for the circus! It will be on Friday, October 26 at 1:30 in the cafeteria. If you have questions about costume ideas, please feel free to call or email me. Enjoy the weekend! Stay warm!!
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