December 19, 2014

This week was filled with Christmas cheer and fun! The week began with PJ day and a special presentation of the Polar Express. One kindergarten teacher was even sighted wearing an elf costume for the story! (Phew, no photos!) :) Then on Wednesday, the children went on stage for the school concert. They were AWESOME! On Thursday, we had a fun-filled Christmas party. Thank you to Amy Grills for organizing everything and to all who helped out in any way. I hope the gingerbread houses made it home in one piece! And on Friday, the high school drama students visited Erieview for more Christmas songs, stories, and a visit from Santa!

As the holiday break approaches I would like to wish everyone a most joyous Christmas. I know the holidays are busy, but if you can possibly squeeze this in, maybe find time to practice shoe tying if your child hasn’t mastered this skill yet. Thank you so much for all of your support and sending me such wonderful children!

All dressed up for the concert! They are all so cute!

The excitement of Christmas is definitely building! The days from now until Christmas Break will be packed full of learning, activity, and fun! 
Have you heard about our class elf that visits us each day? The children voted and named him, Chippy Cookie. The hunt for the elf's hiding place is fun, but I love the notes he writes on the board.  These letters give us an opportunity to look for sight words and practice reading. We definitely have a class of children that are beginning to read!! 

Our Fundations time has been spent reviewing uppercase letters. We will work through these very quickly, practicing 2 a day. We also have been "tapping"out words, which is the practice of separating the sounds. This important skill will help the children with spelling and decoding words.

Our class story last week was, Caps For Sale.   We were able to act out the story a few times and they did an excellent job. This week's story is The Gingerbread Man. With each of these stories we discuss elements such as characters, setting, problem, solution and the sequence of the events. 
In math we have begun Unit 7, which introduces addition. But besides the work the children do in their math books, they are also working in math centers. Many of this month's center games are themed around the gingerbread man. Several of these games are differentiated, allowing the children to work at their level of understanding. The children have a partner and work on different math skills. The children are rotated through the centers so that everyone has a chance to play each of the games. Check out the pictures below.

Carson and Emma are playing a Gingerbread number game. 

Andrew and Myla are playing a number or fact search game. 

Lillie and Bronte' are playing a game called Bump, which uses 10 frames.

 Kaeden and Ella are involved in a number fact search activity.

     Chris and Mina playing math games on the iPads.

Dominic and Clara are playing a game which reinforces numbers recognition to 30. The Gingerbread Man is missing behind a number. Can your partner find the Gingerbread Man? 

As you can see, there is a lot of learning going on and the children seem to really enjoy these activities. They handle the routine of math center time beautifully! I am so proud of them. 

As the children have become better writers, the writing center has become extremely popular. The children are working on little books about Christmas. As the children complete a booklet, they read it to the class and earn a "clip up"! (That may have something to do with the popularity of the center, but I'll take it!) When the children have free time, they often crowd around the little table helping each other spell out words. It's so cute. 

Finding time to make some Christmas decorations too. I love these happy little Santas.

Have a great weekend!



Week 12

It was great to get the chance to talk with so many of you at conferences and our Parent Visitation Day. I hope that the costume making event was a memorable learning experience for your child. They will get a chance to wear these at our Thanksgiving feast. Amy Grill sent out the details for this party. All are welcome to attend, (but please don't feel obligated).
Our letters this week were /x/ and /y/ and the newest sight words introduced were 'we' and 'are'. In math we have finished up with teen numbers. The children put their skills to use in a few math centers about the teens. Next, we will be working with numbers to 100. 
We have been spending time reading about the first Thanksgiving and some of the different Native American groups that lived in America. We used this time to introduce beginning map skills. 
Pictures from our week are below. First you will see the pictures from the math center activities. The children rotate through the centers so that they all get a turn at each game. 

Myla and Andrew are searching for numbers using a magnifying glass.
They record the numbers they found, then fill in the ten frame.

Clara and Dominic are playing the Beanbag Toss Game.

Lillie and Bronte' are playing math games on the computer.

Ella and Kaeden are playing a  number counting game called Bump.

Chris and Mina are searching for hidden counting cards around the classroom.

Emma and Carson are ordering numbers.

One way we practice learning new letters is to write them on dry erase boards. This week,  we went on a search to find words in the classroom that contain x's and y's.

Here, Myla is completing the map we used as we learned about different groups of Native Americans.

Week 10

We all enjoyed the Halloween parade and party. Everyone looked great in his or her  costume! Thank you parents, for your help with our Halloween celebration. A big THANK YOU to Amy Grills for organizing it all! 

The children said good-bye to our TEE student, Miss Kaitlyn. Her last day was on Friday. Hopefully she gets a chance to come back and visit us. We wish her well as she continues her school year. 

Three letters were practiced this week. We worked on letters /l/, /h/, and /k/. The newest sight words were ‘the’ and ‘you’. We completed Unit 4 in math and the science Tree unit on trees.

We used a pumpkin to help us work on math skills. The children estimated its height in cubes. Several came close to by guessing 20. The actual amount in cubes was 19. Next children voted on the kind of pumpkin face they liked the best. The scary face was the winner. After the children helped to scoop out the seeds, the pumpkin was carved to match the scary face

Bronte', Myla and Mina especially loved getting the pumpkin goop out of the pumpkin! 

Scary pumpkin, happy kids!

My costumed kinders!

Mummy wrapping is fun!

The girls!

The boys, wearing their "manly" faces, as directed by Andrew! :)

A bird's eye view

Break the Ballon game

Week 9

October 24, 2014

We did it - we reached the end of the first grading period! The children have worked very hard; I am so proud of them!
We started the week with our field trip to the library and ended with PJ Day! In between we worked with letters /p/ and /j/, added to our sight word list by learning 'my', 'gray', 'white' and 'pink'. We continued working in our tree unit and in math, are continuing with number comparison and number order. Each week, we spend some time with the writing process. We work on writing conventions, such as starting sentences with a capital letter, using spaces between words and ending with a period or question mark. And we work on spelling - using sounds to write words. As this stage, the children are are asked to stretch out sounds and write the ones they hear. The children are doing a nice job with this. One writing project involved footprints. The children had their feet painted white and printed on an orange pumpkin. When we turned the footprints over - they looked like ghosts! We added the words, "Trick or Treat, See my feet, This is what I like to eat" and the children tried to sound out their favorite candy. It was really cute - wish I had taken a picture! But I have included some pictures from our field trip and PJ Day. Enjoy!

Weeks 7 and 8

A Peek at the (last two)Weeks

I can tell it is October because the weeks are starting to pass by more and more quickly. Your children have been working very hard and I am so proud of all of them. 

Spiders have been the theme for this week. The children are showing a lot of interest in learning about this topic.  After reading about spiders, we made a class graph about who was afraid of them. The graph showed that most of the children are not afraid of spiders. We had fun reading and singing the story, The Itsy Bitsy Spider and the children made a cute picture depicting where their spider would climb. This week we worked on letters /e/ and /r/ and last week the letters /d/ and /s/. The sight words ‘can’, ‘brown’ and ‘black’ were introduced and added to your child’s binder.
Last week was Fire Safety Week and the children were visited by one of our local firefighters. They had a chance to hear some excellent fire safety tips from him. We also have begun learning about trees. We are learning how they grow and their importance to our world. On Monday we will take a trip to the library to participate in a program on this topic. 

As we get into the holiday season there seems to be a lot of information to dispense. 

Please make note of the following.

Important Dates and reminders:

·         Monday, October 20^th - field trip to the Avon Lake Library.  

·         Friday, October 31st - Halloween Parade and party. The children can come to school dressed in costume, or bring it to wear at school. (No weapons please).  The whole school participates in a Halloween parade at 9:00.  Our classroom party will be immediately following the parade (around 9:30).  All are invited4

·         Tuesday, November 4th.  Election Day - No school for students.

·         Wednesday, Thursday, Nov. 5^th and ^6th are conference days. Dismissal time is 1:45 on both of those days.

Monday, November 10^th will be Parent Visitation Day. (1:30-3:00) This is a special event where an adult can spend time with their child at school. I hope that each child will have a special adult (parent, grandparent, aunt, neighbor, etc.) to spend time with them in the classroom and share in their “work”.  We will begin at 1:30 and will be making a Native American costume which is to be worn at the Thanksgiving Feast. A white or tan pillowcase is needed to make the costume. (Sometimes Marc’s has them for a good price). Please send in a pillowcase by November 6th, labeled with your child’s name.  Directions for cutting are below.

In math we have begun Unit 4 which continues to provide practice on number comparison. But besides the work the children do in their math books, the children also work in math centers. The children are partnered with a buddy or 2 and work on different math skills. The children are rotated through the centers so that everyone has a chance to play each of the games. Check out the pictures of some of the students working at the centers.

Carson and Emma working at the patterning center.

Bronte' at the play-dough number center.

Ella and Kaeden playing a number comparison game.

Clara and Dominic are working at the counting center.

Myla and Andrew working on the computers.

        One of the spider projects the children completed last week.

              We took advantage of last week's nice weather and had some opportunities to play outside.