Math Centers - Working with Numbers

Math Center time is when students have the opportunity practice and apply the skills and strategies they have learned in the classroom. These skills concentrate on building number sense, fluency and practice. The first center on the computer is called Reflex Math which is a game-based math fact fluency site. It is individualized whereby each student is building basic math facts to ten.

 Math Center #2: Students are using the 100's chart to play (+1) (-1)  (+10) (-10). This game is used to help build number sense.

Math Center #3: Students are doing Number Sprints. There is a timer and they are challenging themselves to see how many math facts they can complete in one minute.

Math Center #4: By using a number line as a tool to solve equations, students are playing Start With - Get To.  All of these games are used to enhance student's learning and to build number sense.

Letter Combinations and Blend Charts

Once again, we have had several requests for the above "Letter Combinations" chart. We alternate this chart with the below "Blends" chart every day during Skills Block. Students chant it as "ay, ey, ai See kids play, etc." They see these letter combinations in their reading and use them in their writing. These two charts are also kept in easy eye-sight for students to refer to as needed. Smaller charts are also put into their writing folders and reading bins earlier in the year to use as reference tools and chant during partner reading.

Literary Pumpkin - Mummies in the Morning

This year the children chose "Mummies in the Morning" by Mary Pope Osborne for their entry into the Literacy Pumpkin display in the front lobby. It is #3 in the Magic Tree House series. They love the adventures of brother and sister Jack and Annie in the magic tree house. In this book, they take a trip to ancient Egypt and meet up with a 1000 year old queen and help return her belongings. The trip takes us to pyramids, a burial chamber and, of course, the mummy queen. The students enjoy their daily read alouds when we read them two chapters a day of their favorite characters' escapades. Parent volunteers helped the children paint the pumpkins and they did an awesome job!

Fall Festival - Lollipop Tree

One of our favorite times of the year is the annual Fall Festival and Literary Parade. Each class has a booth and our tried-and-true each year is the Lollipop Tree. Costing only two tickets, children get to pick a lollipop. If it has a red tip on it they win the lollipop and a prize. If it is not colored, they get the lollipop. That's why we say,  "Everyone is a winner at the Lollipop Tree!"

Field trip - IMAX - Great Barrier Reef

What is more exciting than a field trip to a six year old? Our first field trip this year was to the IMAX Theater to see the Great Barrier Reef: An IMAX 3D Experience.  Students grabbed their snorkel gear and skillfully mastered a trip through the awesome and bizarre living world of the reef. They experienced the 3D movie with the focus on preserving and protecting the habitat of giant mantas, sea turtles, sharks and Minke whales. Seeing the children reach out and trying to touch the sea creatures was very entertaining. This was a wonderful field trip that compliments our school theme this year of "Love All - Live Big - Learn Deep!"

Math Journals

Math journals are a tool that we use every day.  It started in Kindergarten when children may start with writing their numbers and making representations to now when they are writing number bonds and figuring out word problems. It is a way to start Math time and focus on either a review or enrichment activity. The assignment is read before students start and are given a few minutes to focus and get their answers written. It is then reviewed with the whole class and students get to share their answers and model the thinking behind their answers with the class.

Interactive Skills Block

Skills Block is a favorite part of the children's morning. Each day they have an activity that enhances their learning and helps them in some way make sense of their word wall words and word families. Today the students worked in teams to find the letters and make the words that they have been learning with all week. On the back they will build the word families by just changing the beginning sound. For instance, they make say, "If I can spell -ake, I can spell make, cake, bake, take, wake, and fake."  By learning the word families, they have the opportunity to learn so much more about how words work.

Love All. Live Big. Learn Deep 18-19 from Once Upon a Teacher on Vimeo.
We are very excited about our new theme for this 2018-2019 school year. Looping our Kindergarten students to first grade is always a pleasure. We begin our learning on the first day of school and it is also great to see familiar family and friend's faces after the summer. We will keep you posted as to the events in our classroom and school. It's so much fun being a Chets Creek student!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.