Cinderella Stories

From Singles

Our Cinderella Study was in full swing this week as we huddled indoors and tried to keep warm and dry. This week we read four more versions of Cinderella and began making lots and lots of text-to-text connections between all of the stories. On Friday we shared the pen to create a poster that helped us illustrate the similarities and differences between all of the stories.
In Math the children worked on solving a word problem involving Cinderella shopping for a pair of shoes. Please see the videos below to see how a few of the children approached this problem

LA Cinderella Math from Lisa J on Vimeo.

AH Cinderella Math from Lisa J on Vimeo.

DR Cinderella Math from Lisa J on Vimeo.

Fairy Tales and Cinderella

From Book Buddies

What a week it has been! Amidst assessments and our fairy tale study it is hard to know where all of the time has gone! This week the children continued their weekly routines of weekend report, handwriting, reading, math practice and writing in their journals. In word study, the children focused on the –an family. Their word study included reading three new –an books, “Flip and Write” as well as making their own –an books. The children were recently introduced to the ‘Magic 5 of Writing’. After completing a writing assignment the children need to check and make sure that they have used the following 5 things: 1. Each sentence begins with a capital letter. 2. Use punctuation 3. Use the word wall 4. Use spacing 5. Use lowercase letters.
Our fairy tale study began with a reading of Cinderella with our Book Buddies. During job time the children traced their buddies shoes of feet to make an outline of their “glass slipper” and measured their glass slippers using blocks, cubes, rulers and dominoes.
During Reader’s Workshop we read Cinderella Skeleton and created our own silly Cinderella stories. In one story Cinderella was an Alien who lost a heart when the clock struck midnight and danced with a monster at the ball and lived in outer space forever…

New Year... New News!

ADLP movie from Lisa Bergin on Vimeo.

We are back with so much to catch up on! I apologize for the lack of recent pictures, but hope you enjoy the video and pod guide from our Avenida de la Playa study. To access the pod guide please click on the link below:
http://sites.google.com/site/kindergartenavenida/home

This week for word work we focused on the –at family. We had a shared reading of the book “Pat the Bat” and the children followed up the reading with their own copies that they could use to search for and high-light all of the –at words. We also brainstormed –at words and came up with 18! During job times the children played Roll & Write, practiced writing –at words and built word puzzles.
In math the children worked on writing their numbers to thirty, addition and subtraction problems to 20, and solving word problems that included multiple step addition and subtraction problems as well as fractions.
During Writers’ Workshop we worked on our new years resolutions using Snail Speak. Snail Speak is a fun way of stretching out words r-e-a-l-l-y s-l-o-w-l-y. The children also learned a game using snail speak that you can play at home. The children wrote resolutions for school, home and with their friends.
This week we also kicked off our Fairy Tale study by reading “The Frog Prince Continued” and “The Fairy Tale News”. The children shared ideas about what they already know about fairy tales (they will be on the white board for the remainder of our study) and what aspects of the story made it a fairy tale. On Friday they helped guide our fairy tale study by sharing things that they would like to learn more about.

What We Have Been Doing!

From La Jolla Shores Market

This past Wednesday we completed our last field trip to Avenida de la Playa and are now beginning to reflect on all that we have learned. We have been so fortunate to be part of such an amazing community and the children have gained knowledge and experiences that could never be taught in the classroom.

From Singles

In the classroom we have been learning how to make maps and what makes a community. The students have made maps of their classroom, Avenida de la playa and of course their neighborhoods!
After learning about Maps we read the book Roxaboxen, which is a wonderful story about children and they town they created with their imagination. We then worked in small cooperative groups to make our own towns.

Roxaboxen 1 from Lisa J on Vimeo.

Roxaboxen from Lisa J on Vimeo.

From Singles

Thank you to all of the wonderful guest chefs we have had over the past few months. This past Monday we joined Lisa B’s class to read “The Runaway Tortilla” by Eric A. Kimmel. The children made tortillas from scratch and enjoyed making their own restaurant menus and puppets.

Untitled from Lisa J on Vimeo.

In Book Buddies we continued our exploration of domino math by playing “1-2-3 Flip”.

All About Avenida

From LJBTC

The children have been busy learning about their community. We have been so fortunate to have the support of our families, the businesses and all of the community members surrounding Avenida de la Playa. The students enjoyed golfing a morning of golf, tennis, gardening, touring and enjoying milk and cookies by the pool. Please click on the LJBTC album tab to see some photographs of our trip.

From Dentist & Hotel

During our trip to the dentist the children learned how to make a silver/gold tooth, what dentists do if they need have a cavity and what they use to make your gums numb. After our trip to the dentist we visited our neighbors at Hotel La Jolla. We learned that there are 108 rooms and that we can see our school from the top floor! The highlight of the trip was getting into the shower and raising and lowering the shower covering (see the Hotel/Dentist album).

From Surf and Kayak

This past Friday we visited all of our favorite ocean sport stores. At Surf Diva J.L counted all of the hats he could find and told us that there are 159 hats! At Rusty’s Boardhouse we learned that Rusty is the name of the man who shapes all of the boards. Corey at La Jolla Kayak taught us how to paddle a kayak and even let us put on life jackets and get in (thankfully we stayed on dry land!).

Our Guest Scientist!

From Guest Scientist

On Wednesday, S.H and his mom were our guest scientists!
"The experiment was from my grandma. My mom was actually not the helper, actually my grandma was. My grandma told my mom and my mom forgot a little bit. We poured chemicals into the cabbage water and it turned different colors. One turned green, one turned pink and one turned blue. The water was purple when we started. We got to wear scientist goggles because if the chemicals went on your eyes it would burn. Some of the chemicals smelled kind of weird so we wafted the smells. To waft the smells we moved our hand toward our nose to move them smell to our nose. We wafted the smell because you don't want to get the chemicals inside your nose because it might go up the nostril and down and out the other nostril." ~S.H

Our Visit to Station #9

From Fire Station #9

On Tuesday we went on a field trip to the La Jolla Fire Station #9. This was the first of eight trips we will go on throughout our community study of Avenida de la Playa. The children were able to ride in the fire truck, find a hidden firefighter in the dark and wear "Firefighter Steve's" boots, pants, jacket and helmet. On the tour the children asked the firefighters questions about being a firefighter (see below). It was a great trip, thank you to all of the parent volunteers who made it happen.
• Is there a helicopter and pole? A.H
We have two helicopters at other stations, but we don’t have a pole.
• Do you have a pumper, a hook and ladder and a brush breaker truck? L.A.
Yes. There are all different kinds of rigs that attach to a truck. We have a pumper truck with 1,000 gallons of water and a 1,000 feet of hose and a pump. This is called a “fire engine”.
• What is it like to be a firefighter? J.L.
It is great and a lot of fun.
• What are your names? S.H.
Andy, Steve, Rich and Karen.
• How do you put out the fires? F.V.
Normally we use water.
• How do you put out brush fires? D.L.
We drive off road and use water and shovels.
• How do you use the brush breaker? D.R.
The brush breaker trucks drive off the road and have bigger wheels. They hold less water, because they are smaller, and we also use shovels.
• How do you breathe in the air mask and how does it connect to the tank? J.B.
The air mask is attached to the air tank with a tube.
• How do the helicopters dump out the water or chemicals? J.B.
Helicopters have a “door” with a bucket and they push a button to open the door. It’s like pouring out a glass of water.
• How do you put on your mask? A.H.
You have to attach the mask to the air tanks, because you need air when walk into a smokey fire.
• How do you put on your pants? A.A.
We put them on at the same time as our boots.
• How do you put on your boots? M.F.
They are attached to our pants, so we just step into them.
• How many fires have you put out? LM.W
There have been too many to count!
• Are there any girl fire fighters? Q.G
Yep!
• Do you take people to the hospital for surgery? P.B
Yes. We have an ambulance that will take them there if the need to have surgery.