Polar Express Day

On Wednesday, we will be having a Polar Express Day in Kindergarten.  Please send your child to school in pajamas.  They can also bring their favorite stuffed animal as well.  Please do not send them to school with slippers.  They must wear sneakers to school.  We are looking forward to having a fun day!!

Some Important Calendar Items

December 13th- We will be making gingerbread houses this Thursday. It may get messy, so please dress your child appropriately!

 

 

 December 18th- Please bring a book for our book exchange in our classroom.  Please wrap it and put your child's name on the tag on the front.  We will be exchanging books at our party on Friday the 21st. 

December 20th- Dress Up Day and Sing a Long.  We are singing the Chipmunks Christmas song (Christmas Don't Be Late).  Here are the lyrics if your child would like to practic at home.  http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/a/alvinthechipmunks8588/christmasdontbelate490140.html
Please try to dress your child in a red shirt/dress if possible. 

 

December 21st- Red and Green Day- We will be having our holiday party.  We will be having a pizza party, so there is no need to send a lunch in or order a lunch for your child that day, unless he or she does not like to eat pizza. 

 December 24th-January 1st- Winter Recess- Enjoy your break!

Run, Run as fast as you can.....

     You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!  Last week, we started with a fun theme using Gingerbread and the book, The Gingerbread Man.  It was so much fun!  We read multiple Gingerbread Man books this week.   We compared and contrasted them and made MANY text to text connections while reading.  We also learned about how to retell a story.  We even got to read a book about a Gingerbread Girl and a Gingerbread Baby.  Then we got to taste gingerbread cookies (SHH! That is our secret).  When we tasted the cookie, we took one bite and then graphed about which piece we ate first (arm, leg or head).  The head was the most popular part that was eaten first.

     During our Literacy Centers, we had lots of fun and everything had a gingerbread theme.  In the Creation Center, the kids made a gingerbread man AND a reindeer.  The reindeer kept them busy while our gingerbread man was drying.  In the Writing Center, the kids wrote about an animal that they ran away from, just like the gingerbread man and then they wrote about what they would do if a fox asked them to jump on his back.  In the Listening center, the kids listened to a version of The Gingerbread Man and then wrote about and drew their favorite part from the story.  In the ABC Center, they matched a picture with a letter from the alphabet and then they had to write the letters of their alphabet.  In the Word Work center, the kids made our star words using homemade gingerbread play doh and letter cookie cutters.  In the Phonics Center, they made CVC words (Consonant Vowel Consonant).  They looked at the pictures and made words with gumdrop letters.  In the Poetry Center, the kids matched the words of our Gingerbread Man poem and put it in their poetry journal.  In the Read and Write Around the Room center, the boys and girls looked for words that began with each letter of the word GINGERBREAD.

     This week in Math, we began a new chapter.  We are learning all about numbers and counting still.  We are learning about the proper way to form numbers.  We have been practicing and it is still difficult for many of the kids to write numbers appropriately.  We have learned about how to write numbers from 0-5.  Please practice writing these numbers at home.  It would help your children greatly!

     The class is REALLY looking forward to making our gingerbread houses on Thursday!  It is going to be tons of fun!

Creation Center

Poetry Center

Poetry Center

Writing Center

ABC Center

Word Work Center

Phonics Center

Our Gingerbread Man cookie graph

Listening Center

Busy Bees

     We have been very, very busy in our classroom over the past few weeks.  We have been learning all about how to make connections while we read and also we began learning how to properly retell a story.  We read The Three Little Pigs and discussed how a fairy tale begins and ends (Once Upon a Time and Happily Ever After).  Then we also retold the story using many details.  We began our own retelling of the story as well.  Then we we read many different versions of the story and compared and contrasted them.  It was a fun week!

     We worked on 8 different centers during Reading timelast week.  In the poetry center, the kids matched the words in our poem in the poetry center.  This poem was all about colors since we have learned all of our color words.  After the kids match the words, then they put the poem in their poetry journal.  We also worked on rhyming words in our Phonics Center. The students had to use the small word cards and put them in the appropriate rhyming house. This was a popular center this week!  In our word work center, we worked on reading, stamping and writing our star words.  Keep practicing those star words!  This is extremely important as our star words are the most popular words in print and most cannot be sounded out.  Star words are the words we should memorize.  In the Writing Center, the boys and girls wrote a story about themselves, just like in Writing Workshop.  In the ABC Center, the kids put objects inside our alphabet tubs.  They had to work with their group to figure out what object started with what letter.  In the Read and Write Around the Room center, the kids found words that began with each letter of the alphabet.  In the Listening Center, the kids listened to Animal Strike at the Zoo and wrote and drew about their favorite part of the story.  In the Reading Center, the kids read books and searched for star words in each book. 

     We have been very busy in Math as well.  We continued with our Investigations unit.  During this unit, the kids have been learning about counting and numbers by playing various Math games.  During this time, they have played games such as grab and count and they made a counting book, just like the book Anno's Counting Book.  The kids also ordered numbers from greatest to least and least to greatest. 

     During this time, the class also learned about living things and nonliving things in Science.  They learned about baby animals and adult animals.  They also learned about the plant life cycle.  It has been fun and there is much more to come!

Enjoy some pictures from this week:



Phonics Center- Rhyming Houses

Word Work Center- Read/Spell-Stamp-Write

ABC Tubs

Poetry Center- They are matching words to the poems