Saturday, November 18, 2017

Powwow - 2017

Our Inuits...2017

Powwow Day - 2017 - Inuit








Minutes before lining up for the Powwow...

Family Night - Make and Take - Inuit

Our family night this week was centered on the dwellings of the Inuit tribe. Even though most Inuits do not live in igloos, they do use them on extended hunting and fishing trips. These representations were made with half a water bottle, cotton balls, and glue.

Powwow: Learning About the Inuit Nation

Our November Social Studies Unit is learning about Native Americans. Each Kindergarten class focused on a Native American Nation and learned about their food, clothing, and shelter. The tribes represented this year were the Lenape, Iroquois, Seminole, Nez Perce, Sioux and our tribe Inuit. We learned about the Northern Lights and Inuit folklore. Students were invited to make an Inuit child representation on a cardboard cutout and they were displayed in the school lobby.

Literacy Character Parade 2017


 
On October 31st, students were invited to wear their favorite literary character costume to school. Together with the costume they carried the book that they were representing. We paraded around the first floor of the school with older grades watching and them remembering when they did the same thing a few years ago. This is another tradition that makes our school a very special place of happiness and memories.

Monday, October 23, 2017

Firemen Visit Kindergarten - Fire Safety




We were very fortunate to have the Jacksonville Fire/Rescue Unit visit us Friday and discuss fire safety. The firemen passed on valuable information to our students including having a meeting place in case of fire. They dressed up in their gear to show the children what they would look like and not to be frightened and hide if they see them.
 The firemen opened up all of the firetruck doors for the students to see all of the equipment in the truck. This was a huge firetruck that could be driven from the front or the back.
 The firemen showed the students how high the ladder can go. There was a gasp at how high it goes.
The children enjoyed seeing the firemen and firetruck up close. We appreciate our firefighters and we are so glad that they had the time to come visit us at Chets Creek and teach our students about fire safety.

Monday, October 16, 2017

Lucy's Boot - A favorite retelling

In Reader's Workshop, we have been enjoying acting out some of the books we are reading. One of our favorites is Lucy's Boot by Janie Spaht Gill.  Lucy needed help getting her boot off so her father tried to help her, then her mother, sister, brother, and dog all pulled to try to get the boot off.. "I't's stuck," she said. "It won't come off." "I don't know what to do!"  Then Lucy tells everyone to "Wait" and she unbuckles the boot. Lucy's Boot is a small book with a big impact for our young readers.



Saturday, October 14, 2017

Building with Cubes 1 to 10 and 10 to 1

In Math, students have been working with numbers one to ten.  Using math manipulatives is a great way for children to see that by adding one more cube their towers grow. After they have built their towers to ten, they then went from ten to one to see how by removing one cube their numbers decreased and towers grew smaller. Verbally counting numbers and really understanding what these numbers mean and look like are important mathematical foundation skills for our young learners.

Literary Pumpkin Time - Kindergarten

This year we decided to make Nursery Rhymes our theme for our pumpkin display in the school lobby.  These rhymes are such an integral part of Kindergarten - developing rhyme and rhythm helps so much with beginning reading skills.
Students had lot of fun painting Humpty Dumpty Dickory Dock, and Jack and Jill.
The finished product was awesome!  Thank you room moms for helping the children decorate some of their favorite nursery rhymes.

Monday, October 2, 2017

Mrs. Wishy Washy Reader's Theater

One of our favorite books is Mrs. Wishy Washy by Joy Cowley. The children love its simple story of life on the farm with a cow, a pig, and a duck who love to play in the mud. Of course, Mrs. Wishy Washy scrubs the animals clean and when she leaves, they can't wait to jump back in the mud. By using simple props, the students get to act out the story and have lots of fun doing it.

Monday, September 4, 2017

The Three Billy Goats Retelling

Using puppets is a wonderful way to retell stories. Students are taking turns using the The Three Billy Goats Gruff puppets to retell one of our favorite Star books. A Star book is a traditional story that the children hear a few times until they are able to "read" or "retell" the story by looking at the pictures and noticing the words. Some other Star books include: Caps for Sale, Where the Wild Things Are, and The Carrot Seed.

Star Name of the Day

Star Name is another kindergarten tradition that not only helps reinforce letters and sounds but helps the children get to know one another. A name is randomly picked out of a box. It is written on the board. We count out letters, clap out syllables, cut up the name and mix it up so that the "Star" can put it back in order and mix it up again to have a friend put the name in order. We also see what the new name has in common with other names that have been chosen. Students get to ask the "Star" questions and then they draw a picture of that person with one of things discussed. We put all the pages together to make a book and the "Star" gets to take the book home as a keepsake.

Partner Reading is beginning

The children are getting into the rituals and routines of partner reading. They include sitting side-by-side with the book in the middle and sharing it with their partner. This takes a lot of practice and patience to get this right. At this age, both students are excited to show their book to their friend but it is best to take turns and look at the book together. This is where the partner can show "Wow" pages of interesting findings and other great pictures to share.

Kindergarten Self Portraits

 One of our traditions is to have the students draw a self-portrait of themselves the first week of school. We cut them out, mount them on construction paper, laminate and display them throughout the year.
 This is a great way to see how the children see themselves. They are very careful and take this project seriously.
At the end of the year we like to have them draw another self-portrait and compare the two. They are the most surprised at their growth as an an artist.

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Kindergarten is Exhausting!

During Writer's Workshop, one of our little ones conked out while still holding his crayon. It was the third day of school and he may just have needed a little cat nap. How could you not love this picture?

Humpty Dumpty: Our First Rhyme




Our first week of Kindergarten is now behind us. In Skills Block, we have been singing about Humpty Dumpty, pointing out words that rhyme and that are the same, and have also danced to the Humpty Dumpty song. Nursery rhymes are a great way that students can practice phonemic awareness (being able to rhyme words) which is important in reading preparedness.
 Today students had lots of fun making the first page of their Nursery Rhyme book. We will be adding a new rhyme once a week.

Kindergarten Class Picture 2017-2018

Here they are...the Mall-ard's Kindergarten Class of 2017-2018. We have high expectations for this beautiful group of kids and can't wait to see them learn and grow. This was actually the second day of school and amazing that we were able to these five year old children to sit so nicely to get their picture taken!

Friday, June 2, 2017

Moving on to Second Grade

It is an equally happy and sad time in Room 104. Children realize that they are leaving us after two years (Kindergarten and First Grade). Some of our students are moving (San Francisco, Tampa, and Georgia). We can't keep them forever but we hope that what they have learned from us, socially and educationally, will live with them for a very long time. It has been our pleasure to be your child's teachers and they will forever be in our hearts. Below are some miscellaneous pictures through the year.  







Thursday, June 1, 2017

A Visit from Miss Jacksonville

The children were very excited today to get a visit from Miss Jacksonville Teen. She chatted with the children and read them a book. It was a great surprise on one of the last days of first grade!

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Revision Party - Writer's Workshop

 Today we celebrated our series writing with a "Revision Party".  First, we brainstormed our favorite authors and talked about what we liked about their book and style of writing. Some students liked how Kevin Henkes uses the same characters in his books; some liked how Eric Carle makes his books fun making the pages so unique and others liked Mary Pope Osborne and how Jack and Annie's adventurers are always so interesting in The Magic Treehouse Series.
 Then the children were invited to use some of those favorite characteristics in their own writing by revising words and sentences.There was a lot of excitement in writing at this revision party!!

Monday, March 13, 2017

Kevin Henkes Celebration 2017

 It was time to celebrate our mentor author Kevin Henkes and his beloved mouse books. Children dressed up as their favorite character and had a great time rotating through centers this morning. These are our Lilly's and Mr. Slinger.
 The boys loved "Wendell" from "Weekend with Wendell."
 Chrysanthemum is a class favorite along with Mrs. Twinkle.
 Wemberly Worried was these three girls favorite!
Finally, we have Julius, Sheila Rae, and Lilly - this was a great day to celebrate a wonderful author!

Monday, March 6, 2017

Kevin Henkes Puppet Presentations

Today students started bringing in their Kevin Henkes puppets from their favorite book. We had a few Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse presentations and the children had a wonderful time retelling the story with the puppets. We will be doing a few each day so that everyone has a turn to retell these great stories with lots of life lessons.


Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Reader's Theater - Kevin Henkes

 The children are enjoying our Kevin Henkes Author Study this month. They have been practicing their Reader's Theater scripts and they take it very seriously. We have four script practices going on in our room this week: Chrysanthemum, Weekend with Wendell, Sheila Rae the Brave, and Owen which are all class favorites.
After a few days practice, students were up and doing their final rehearsal before their class presentation. These Reader's Theater scripts are not only fun for children, but it helps with fluency and intonation. After they present the play, they get to pick a new book to rehearse.

Friday, February 3, 2017

"Sleepover" Camping Out Under the Stars

 Today was the First Grade "Sleepover" - Camping Out Under the Stars. Students came to school in their pajamas had a whole day of sleepover activities. It started with a parade around the school with them holding their pillows and flashlights. The cupcakes are compliments of one of our room moms (Nicole). It was a memorable day for the kids.









Kindergarten Pow Wow 2019

Our tribe this year was the Inuit. Our students learned about the Inuit culture which included their food, housing and shelter. They sang ...