Math Shapes All Around Us

 Children have been digging deeper into shapes and noticing that they are all around them. They worked in small groups putting together a mural of shapes in the real world. 

They created pictures with shapes in the air, sea and land.

Table groups presented their shape worlds to the class when they were completed.

100th Day of Kindergarten - Let's Celebrate

 What other way to start the celebration of 100 days in kindergarten but to have 100 balloons greet the children upon their arrival? It was the start of a great day!

This has been a day we have been talking about since the first day of school. They have been counting and marking each day as it past and it has finally arrived.

"The Mitten" is just the right fit bulletin board

In Reader's Workshop, we have been reading a few of our favorite books by Jan Brett including "The Mitten" and "The Hat".  This bulletin board represents "The Mitten" and some of the activities the students have done to compliment the book. For instance, students made their mitten paper bag and orally retold the story with animal story cards; retold the story via Reader's Theater with animal masks and practiced sight words using the book as a reference. So many children could relate to this book, especially this month, with all of the cold weather lately in Florida 

Writing Checklist - Making our Writing Better

 Today we worked on our Writing Checklists. This is basically a rubric that encompasses all of the writing lessons (Lucy Calkins' Writing Units) taught so far. Checklists are a daily part of our life. For instance, when we drive our car we use a mental checklist: "Do I have my keys?", "Is the garage door open?", "Is the driveway clear to back up?"  Students were told the story of "The Miracle on the Hudson" and how Captain Sullenberger went through a checklist to help him safely land the plane. 

The pictures on this checklist help to determine if the narrative story they wrote meets the rubric expectations. Below is one narrative whereby Ayden used her checklist to make sure her writing was the best it could be. Ayden later added the "Elaboration" part of the checklist to include how she felt when she saw that the "Not yet" section was checked. Making our writing easier for our readers is our #1 goal!

Page 1 - One day I wentto my cousin Emma's house. This is where I got the trampoline. It was big.
Page 2 - I got into the pick up truck and watched the guys carry the trampoline.
Page 3 - Finally I got it to Poppie's house.

The Magic Pencil in Writer's Workshop

Writer's Workshop has been "magical" ever since the children learned about how special their pencils are. These pencils help writers become better at reading and writing their work. One side is for reading (the eraser side) and the other side is for writing (the lead side). (Lucy Calkins Writing Unit) Students are rereading their writing for the shear fun of using the eraser side to tap out the words and then flipping it over to write with it. How can a simple black pencil make so many kids happy?  Just call it magical!!            

Penguins on Parade

 Maybe seeing some of these cute penguins will warm you up . Our hand art for his month was our "hand penguins". The children traced their hands, added the nose, stomach, eyes and a little snow and there you have it. We are saving the hand art each month to make an end of the year booklet to give parents as a Kindergarten keepsake. These just turned out adorable!

Reader's Workshop and "The Mitten"

Jan Brett is the author and illustrator of "The Mitten" (retelling) of this Ukrainian folktale. It is one of our favorite books to share with the class after the long winter break.  The weather was so cold our first week back that the book "The Mitten" was a perfect fit for Reader's Workshop. The story is about a boy named Nicki who wanted snow white mittens. His grandmother did not think it was a good idea because if he lost them in the snow they would be too hard to find. She gave into his request and as the story goes he lost one of them. It was eventually found by a stream of woodland animals that made the mitten their home. One by one the animals moved into the mitten to keep warm. When a bear lumbered by and snuggled into the mitten it held fast until a field mouse tickled his nose and made him sneeze. The animals went flying along with the mitten which flew back into Nicki's arms. 
The following are some of the fun activities that we did with "The Mitten."

Reading our sentence strips and learning sight and color words.

Students decorated their own mitten book with all of the colors in the above chart. This book is now in their book bin as another book to read.

After rereading the book, students were invited to sequence the animal's arrival in the mitten, how they got there, and why the other animals make room for them.

Students drew, cut out and glued their own mitten onto a paper bag. The cards are for them to sequence their own retelling of the story and place them in the bag.

Finally, in Reader's Theater, children had lots of fun retelling the story they now know so well.

Back to Work with Word Families

 This is our first week back from our winter break. After so many days off, we started the week with a lot of review. During Skills Block, we went over the short "a" word family including: "ap", "at", "ab" and "at". Then students were invited to play the above game with a partner. On one block was single letters and the other block contained the word family. Students rolled the cubes and then wrote the word down on white boards. After this step, they only circled real words. This was a wonderful opportunity to get their thinking kick-started and back into school mode -- they also had a lot of fun playing this game!

Gingerbread Houses - Hands On Learning and Writing

Today was another "best day ever" in our class according to some students. It was Gingerbread House day.  The first thing we did was go over in "How to" format how to make the gingerbread house. The children were more than ready after it was explained and then decorated their houses in their own personal style. After this hands on activity, they were invited to write how they made their houses so that others may also learn how to do it. It was a great way to incorporate an activity with writer's workshop and have lots of fun doing it. 

This piece includes the title "How to Make a Gingerbread House" and an Introduction "Can you see how to make a gingerbread house?"  First you spread the icing around."  "Then you put the candy." "Next you put the decorations." Finally you decorate the Christmas tree."  Then Kayla lists what you need. "You need a knife." "You need decorations."  She also lists a helpful hint "Don't forget the tree."

"How to Make a Gingerbread House"  "First you get a cafeteria milk jug." "Then you spread the icing." Next you put the (get the) graham crackers."  "Finally you decorate with candy." Ezekiel did a fine job sounding out some very large words and explaining how to make it.  

We hope you this helps you learn how to make a Gingerbread House this season!

Elves and Reindeer Decor

The time is flying bye and the holidays are upon us. We have been squeezing time in our busy academic day to do some fun art projects. Every month we do some sort of a hand project and this month it was the reindeer's antlers. These festive works of art are hanging on our wall in the classroom.

 These elves are hanging on our ceilings and making everyone laugh upon entering the room. Our little elves had fun decorating their costumes and seeing their faces adorn this project. 

 These pictures add a little pizzazz to our holiday festivities.

Thanks to Pinterest for sharing these great ideas!

Powwow - 2013

All of the hard work paid off to produce a memorable day for all of our kindergarten students and parents to remember. We learned a lot about our Lenape tribe and will never forget them.
Powwow Kindergarten 2013 on PhotoPeach

Powwow Preparation - Getting Dressed

A lot of work went into preparing for the actual Powwow day. Our Room Moms Mary Garrard and Christa Hancock saw to every detail from crowns to shoe covers. We appreciate all of their hard work and preparation. These are pictures from the morning of the Powwow before we went outside.
Powwow  Preparation on PhotoPeach

How to Make Chocolate Pudding

 How to get children's attention?  Make chocolate pudding. In Writer's Workshop, we have been learning about "How To" writing.  Students have been writing on such topics as "How to ride your bike,"  "How to brush your teeth," "How to get ready for school," and "How to play soccer."  All of these are written in "steps" -- Step 1, 2, 3 and 4. They are also learning transitional words: first, then, next, finally."  Today, we used a shared experience, "How to make chocolate pudding" as our "How to".  First we wrote what they thought the steps would be, wrote it down and then went over it as it was written. For instance, Step One - Put the milk in the pudding. Well the packet of pudding was opened and the milk was getting ready to be poured in.  "Oh no," they shouted.  "But that's what it says."  So we learned that directions have to be specific if you are going to teach someone how to correctly do things. Afterwards, all eyes were on the pudding and of course shared with the class. Also, they couldn't wait to write about it so they can teach their moms how to make it.!!

Pow Wow Preparation - Learning About Our Tribe -- Lenni Lenape

 For the past week, we have been learning about our Native American tribe - the Lenape.  They are from the northeastern region of the United States - primarily Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Delaware. The Lenape men were hunters and did what they could to protect their families. The Lenape women were farmers. Both the men and women were story tellers, artists, and musicians.

 

 This week we read a traditional Lenape story called, "Rainbow Crow."  This is the story of how a crow saved a forest full of animals during a terrible snow storm. The crow was once a beautiful bird. During a relentless snowstorm, the animals of the forest asked him to fly to the Great Sky Spirit to ask for the snow to stop. It got burned by the fire he received to melt the snow. However, if you look closely at its black feathers you can still see traces of its rainbow color.

Homework this past week was to research our tribe and dress the cut out accordingly. The students shared how they made their Lenape person and also wrote about it in a "How To" piece in Writer's Workshop. The following are their creations...

 

Literacy Characters - Our Fall Centers

Here are a few pictures of our book characters dressed up for our Fall Literacy Parade Day and Centers.  It was a wonderful experience for the children to walk through the halls of the school cheered on by older students who remembered how much fun it was when they did the same thing not so long ago.