Hurricane Sandy

I just wanted to write a quick post to tell everyone to stay safe in this crazy storm!

Last Week......Scarecrows!

Last week we had a scarecrow theme.  We learned about scarecrows and why people might have them at their house, in their garden, or on their farm.  We read lots of stories about scarecrows as well.  We made a HUGE scarecrow of our own and made a book to go with it.  That was done in our Creation Center that week.  

In Reading, we learned how to make connections and about how to make predictions while we read.  Those are very important skills and those are great to practice when reading with your child at home.  I have completed some assessments with your children.  One was the DRA, in which I assess their reading and comprehension.  In the beginning of the year, Kindergarteners are expected to be at a Level A, which is at the emergent/pre-reading stage.  This assessment helps me put the children into reading groups with children that are of the same ability.  Then we will learn lots of new reading strategies and then we will see some wonderful reading from your little ones!  It really is amazing how much they can learn in such a short period of time!  I also did the district number knowledge assessment last week.  This week, I am working on an alphabet assessment as well as some other Kindergarten skills.  Once I am finished with assessments, I will begin our guided reading groups during center time.  Also, you will be able to see all of these assessments during our conference in December.

We have also been working on writing in our classroom.  We have our writing workshop during our morning literacy time.  During writing workshop, we all sit together on the rug and I do a small mini lesson on what we will be working on in writing on that day.  I model by writing my own story.  The kids have been learning about how to choose a story to write about (a true story about themselves), sketch a picture, label their picture, and add words to their story.  When they add words, they are to stretch out the word and listen to the sounds to spell it.  I NEVER tell a child how to spell a word.  I will help them sound out the word, but I love to see them figure out how to stretch it out and spell it.  :)  In a few weeks, we will publish our first story.  That is where we fancy up our writing and put a pretty cover on the front. 

So, during scarecrow week, we worked on many fun centers during our literacy and math time.  In Math, we worked on patterns.  The kids got to participate in Math centers that all had to do with making patterns.  Here are some pictures from our centers:

Scarecrow Writing Center

Listening Center- They listen to the story and draw a picture of their favorite part.

ABC Center- Fishing for letters- The kids got to fish for letters and then they colored in the letters that they got.  There was water in the bucket.....definitely a favorite center this week!

Phonics Center- Syllable Count- They had to put "crows" (black beans) on the shoulder of the scarecrow to show how many syllables were in each word.

Word Work Center- Play Doh Words

Read and Write Around the Room

Math Center- Make and extend patterns

Math Center- iPad Pattern Game

Math Center- Sticker Patterns

Math Center- Pattern Bracelets with Beads

Math Center- Pattern Puzzles

Pete the Cat Week!

We have been having such an amazing time in Kindergarten these days.  We are doing so well in our centers and we have been learning so much!  In Reading, we have been learning about how to make connections when we are reading.  We have made text-to-text and text-to-self connections while reading various stories in our classroom.  We have also been learning all about rhyming words and syllables.  We have learned lots of new letters and star words.  I hope everyone is practicing those at home and finding those words in the books you are reading.  :)

Two weeks ago, we read and compared three different Pete the Cat books. I never knew how much the kids were going to like Pete the Cat, but I have to say, he might be the new favorite character in our classroom!  We compared the three stories (text to text connections), watched the author of the book red the stories on You Tube, and made a graph of the favorite Pete the Cat story in our class.  It was so much fun!

In Math, we worked on positional words, left and right, and sorting.  We reviewed all of the skills we learned in Chapter 1 and began our next chapter.  During our morning meeting, we work on a lot of Math skills as well.  We learn how to tally, count by 5's, count by 10's, count by ones, break numbers apart by 10's and 1's, and shapes.  We also will be learning about the coins and how much each is worth soon.  We are very busy in Kindergarten!

Here are photos of some of the centers that we completed during our Pete the Cat week:

Our Cat Poem- Poetry Center

Our Pete the Cat Creation Center

Roll a Letter- ABC Center

Phonics Center- Rhyming Words



Word Work Center- Spin a Star Word



 

Our New Friend Buddy

     I wanted to introduce you to our new classroom friend, Buddy.  He is a stuffed puppy from Build a Bear that my nephews made for our class.  The class voted on a name and Buddy was the winner!Each child will bring Buddy home with them when they are star of the week.  It is so much fun!   

Here are some photos of my nephews making Buddy with much love for our class! 

Giving our puppy's heart lots of love!

Giving our puppy lots of brain power for school!



Our new friend, Buddy and my nephews

Giving Buddy a bath....he must be clean to meet our Kindergarteners!  Build a Bear said you can
go give Buddy a bath at their store when you get to take him home for the weekend!

Making a new friend is hard work!

Apples, Apples Everywhere!

   

      Last week we learned so much about apples!  We learned about the apple life cycle and what an apple tree looks like in the winter, spring, summer, and fall.  We tasted apples and made a graph of which apple color was our favorite.  We learned about Johnny Appleseed who used to give apple seeds to people he met.  We made an apple craft too.  We learned a great deal about apples and here are some pictures of our activities.

Working in the Creation Center on our apple craft

Our apple chart that we made together as a class

Our apple tasting graph

MMM!  Apple tasting!

The apple diagram we did together as a class.  We were learning about how to label.

Apple Core Craft

Writing Center Activity- The pages will be put together in a class book.

Poetry Center- This is a poetry journal that they work on in the center.



Our apple poem from our poetry center

Apple Life Cycle

     We worked on so much last week during our literacy time!  We were also very busy with Math.  We are learning about sorting by color, shape, and size.  We have been practicing using various manipulatives in the classroom, such as buttons, animal counters, vehicle counters, and shapes.  You can help your child learn to sort at home.  Have them sort food, clothing, or various household items you might have.  It is interesting to see how they might sort objects differently from how you sort objects.  We are having a blast in Kindergarten!