Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Keeping Busy in Kindergarten!


The children have been busy getting used to their classroom routines, exploring new materials, making friends and learning new math and writing strategies. Last week the children were introduced to “Sharing the Pen”. This is an opportunity for the children to mix their inventive spelling with the conventional spelling patterns of words they would like to write. We will be using this strategy throughout the year and it is a great strategy to use at home when your children want to write with “book spelling”.

This week we had a lesson on how to write our Weekend Reports independently while focusing on stretching out our words and using spacing between each word. The children worked really hard and did an amazing job. This week they also began working on solving word problems in their math books. We had lessons on how mathematicians draw pictures without detail to help them solve problems and they also worked on using their words to describe our problem solving strategies to their classmates.

On Tuesday we had our first shared job time with friends in Room 6. We read the big book "Apples and Pumpkins" and discussed some of the differences between the apples and pumpkins. The children then solved a math problem with Lisa B and wrote about whether or not they would like to learn about apples or pumpkins with Lisa J.

On Wednesday we reviewed how to write the letters F, E, D, R and P. We focused on bumping the lines while starting all of the letters at the top, then leapfrogging back up to complete the letter. Our Book Buddies came to our classroom to participate in some of our favorite jobs (legos, playdough, building trains, free choice art etc.). The children have had a busy few days and I am looking forward to many more!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Magical Monday and Terrific Tuesday






“On Monday morning Jesse helped us with morning jobs. After morning meeting we went to art with Carrie. We made a self-portraits on a piece of paper. We used colored pencils, markers and sharpies. For free choice at art we played with clay. In music we got to try all these different new instruments. One of them, you put your hand gently on the beads and you spin the handle and it makes a cool noise. After recess we went to Todd Time. At Todd Time we played Mr. Fox. After peaceful time we had a lesson on stretching words out. We pictured the word like a piece of bubblegum, then we chewed the bubblegum (word) in our mind then we stretched out the words to hear all of the letters and stretched it again and again and again until we wrote the last letter of the word. At the end of a thought (sentence) you put a dot (period).
Today after morning meeting Lisa A came in and talked to us about germs and washing our hands. She told us that when you cough, you should cough into your arm (not your hand). She told us that when you wash your hands you have to sing the whole alphabet. When you are done singing the alphabet you are done washing your hands! During job time at the Horseshoe table we made a book about our family. At the Little Low table I finished my butterfly bead thing. At the Rectangle table we grabbed bears and drawed how many we got and wrote down the number. Like 5 blue bears, 3 red bears and 2 green bears. At the Red Spin table we writed peoples names and we counted how many letters there are in their name. Two times I got 13 and one time I got eight. In the wet exploration table there was little magnet thingies, some of them were balls and some of them were flat round things. I was playing with J.B and D.R. In Spanish we writed our name and then we writed our school name TCS and then we drawed a picture of the school. I drawed the blacktop, the tree house, the basketball hoop and my brother’s classroom. During read aloud we readed another book by Peter H. Reynolds called The North Star. It was about this boy that was going on a journey and he saw a star. At the end of the book it said ‘The Beginning’ instead of ‘The End’ because it was the beginning of his journey.” ~M.F

Friday, September 11, 2009

Our Hopes and Dreams


“Today at community meeting they showed us some new shirts and a video. After community meeting I went back to the classroom and played with play dough. After morning meeting we had job time. My have to job was to draw what I wished for kindergarten. I wished that the classroom was made out of toys. At the sparkle table there were crafts. It was really hot today. At Todd Time we played musical hoops and tunnel tag. After recess I visited Ryan in Room 2.” ~J.L
Below are the hopes and dreams of friends in Room 5:
“To surf and catch butterflies.” D.L
“To learn to read.” LM.W
“I want to learn to read.” Q.G
“Learn about volcanoes.” P.B
“The classroom (will have) has Lego's around.” A.H
“Run on the tires.” J.B
“To learn about bugs.” S.H
“To learn about tigers.” M.F
“To learn about camping.” D.R
“I want to learn about sharks.” A.H
“I want to learn to count to 101.” L.A
“I want to learn about dogs.” A.A
“Learn about dinosaurs.” F.V
“The classroom was made of toys.” J.L

Thursday, September 10, 2009

The Dot






Today we began our mini author study on Peter H. Reynolds by reading The Dot. While we read the story the children made connections between the frustration they feel when they cannot come up with an idea and the feeling Vashti was having in art class. Throughout the story the children discovered hidden dots and the illustrators artistic style. Below is a reflection of our day from J.B.
“After morning meeting we went to Spanish with Isabel. In Spanish we drawed pictures of animals doing stuff. They kind of dance. After Spanish we went back in the class and we read The Dot and Super Puffy. During job time I went to Legos and builded two guys with helmets that had a screen that lifted up and down. I also builded a guy with a jet pack and a police and a doctor holding a guy with a skateboard. At the Sparkle table I painted lots of dots. I painted yellow and blue dots. First I put the yellow then I put the blue. At the Red Spin table I colored dots with the oil pastels. At the Horseshoe table I made a calendar, writed words and drawed a picture. This year in kindergarten I want to learn all about Snow Leopards.” –J.B

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Our First Day of Kindergarten


The children survived their first day of kindergarten. We spent the day exploring around our classroom, naming our tables and making friends. Below you will find their first blog post of the year!
“I feel happy.” M.F
“I am looking forward to our field trips at school.” L.A
“I like school because you get to play. My favorite table is the Sparkle Table. I also like surfing.” A.H
“I had a great day. My favorite part was peaceful time because I got to read books.” J.L
“I started out the day happy, but I turned out exhausted. I am exhausted because I did a lot of work.” S.H
“I had a good day and I feel happy.” D.L
“I had a great day.” D.R
“I had a fun time playing with the Lego’s.” F.V
“I am exhausted from drawing.” A.H
“My favorite part of the day was recess because I love to do tricks on the blue bars!” L.W
“I liked finding the caterpillar. I put it in a cup in my parent file.” Q.R
“I was really really sad because I fell on my face and landed my eye on a tire.” J.B
“I had a fun day in kindergarten. I went to the movie theater yesterday!” A.A