Happy 100th Day!
We had a lot of fun celebrating 100 days of school. The children went to stations where they worked on different things -  100 style. At one station they made 100 Day Hats. At another, they got to build with 100 cups; how high can they go? They compared the weights of groups of 100 items and strung 100 pieces of cereal on a string. I believe most were all eaten before they got home.  :) Later, they searched for 100 pieces of hidden candy and read the numbers off of each piece they found. What a fun way to practice reading numbers. We did 100 exercises and wrote numbers to 100. Last week we made a class book about 100 things they would want and 100 they would not want. 100 has kept us very busy!!
Also included are some pictures from the Valentine Party. Thank you!! A lot of fun was had by all!! 

February 1, 2015

Happy February! 
This we we heard stories about Groundhog Day and made our predictions. Everyone, except one, was hoping for an early spring, but I heard that the groundhog saw his shadow! Six more weeks of winter...we can do 6 weeks! Last Tuesday we braved the cold and walked to the library. The presentation on sound was excellent. The children learned that vibrations cause sound and that sound can travel through air, liquid and solids. Some had a chance to make sounds using different instruments and everyone got to use their sense of hearing to find matching sounds.

To help us deal with the cold and ice, we had a little science fun playing a "Melt The Ice Cube" game. The children received an ice cube and a die. Each roll determined what method they would use to melt the ice cube. In case you would like to play this at home, the directions are below, along with some pictures of the fun. You are correct in guessing that #2 resulted in a lot of laughter! :)

In math we have begun a unit working with teen numbers, particularly "composing" and "decomposing" the numbers. We continue to practice addition and subtraction in class and are finishing up January centers. 

Ella and Kaeden work on math on the computers

Chris and Mina are filling the number chart with numbers to 100.

Bronte' and Lillie are working on a subtraction game.

Emma, Logan and Carson are playing a addition and subtraction game using Legos.

Andrew and Myla are searching for subtraction problems around the room.

Clara and Dominic are bowling to subtract from 10!

Looking forward to seeing everyone at conferences!

January 25th

It's official - the year is halfway over. I am very proud of these hard working kindergarteners. 
The children enjoyed having their bear friend at school last week. Each child introduced their bear to the class and everyone needed to listen carefully because afterwards, the bears were matched to their owners. We learned some bear poems, heard bear stories and sorted bears by looking at different attributes. After listening to Goldilocks and the Three Bears, we put our bears into three groups; wee little bears, medium sized bears and great big bears. Next we completed a graph to see how many there were in each group. The children found the length of their bear using blocks to measure and compared the weight of their bear with a friend's bear. Finally, the children wrote a sentence or two describing their bear.

This week some time was spent learning about the importance of Martin Luther King Jr.  As a social experiment, only blue-eyed children were given a candy with no further explanation from me. Then after a few minutes, (and some teary-eyed brown eyed children), we discussed the fairness of this situation.  This lesson was followed up by a story about the life of MLK – and candy for all.  

Enjoy the photos from Bear Week!

Happy New Year! I can't believe it's 2015! Here's a little fun fact. Did you know that 2015 is the year that Marty McFly and Doc travel to in the movie Back to the Future II? I am probably dating myself, but when this movie first came out, 2015 seemed so far away - but here we are!!

The children seemed happy to be back at school and we have returned to a pre-holiday routine. The children started off the week completing  class project about their New year's resolutions. There are some pictures below.

Last week's story of focus was The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats. We worked on story elements and sequencing the events. We also completed a picture and writing project about looking outside on a snowy day. This combine writing with the newest sight word, "it' and using the question mark. In math, we have begun a unit on subtraction.

As we near the end of the second grading period, some kindergarten skills will be assessed.  Some math skills assessed will be counting to 100, counting by 10’s, reading and writing numbers to 20. They will also be asked to name the letters and sounds and to read the sight words. (sight word list: can, my, am, are, I, a, see, you, the, like, to, we, are, it, is blue, red, yellow, green, purple, orange, black, brown, white, pink)

Looking forward to warmer temps this week! :)