Fun On the Playground

From Fun On the Playground

On Friday during lunch recess some children decided to make a human flower while others were learning to fly (see album). Needless to say, fun was had by all!

Pumpkins Galore

From Pumpkins and Butterflies

Lots of sharing in kindergarten has been occurring. Last week Q.G was kind enough to share the special release of her butterflies with us. To see more photos of the release, click on the photo above and it will link you to the Picasa album. D.L also shared the book Ten Red Apples with us. As we read the book we “flashed” the numbers 1-10 and discussed the different ways to flash numbers with our fingers. J.B also brought in a book about a class that wanted to count pumpkin seeds. After reading the story we learned that the number of seeds in a pumpkin depends on the number of ridges on the pumpkin. The following day we opened up our own pumpkins and roasted our own pumpkin seeds. After roasting them we were so excited to eat them that we completely forgot to count them! We did find out that the small pumpkin had the most seeds, followed the big pumpkin.

From Roasting Pumpkins

The Estrada family gave us our very own BIG Pumpkin. After measuring it we got to paint it, then wash it. To see activities we have done around our BIG Pumpkin click on the photo and you can follow the adventures of our pumpkin.

From Painting Pumpkins

In Math the children worked in small groups or independently to solve the math problem “Dominic and David want to count the seeds in their pumpkin. 5 seeds fit on the plate. If Dominic and David have scooped out ___ seeds, how many plates will they fill?” Each problem was individualized for each student.

From Math Problems

Where Is The Cat in the Hat?

On Monday we arrived at school with a message from The Cat in the Hat, stating that he has run away and is off on an adventure. The children decided that they need to follow "clues" to find our missing cat. Below are the clues they found while they were at recess.

Cat Clues! from Lisa J on Vimeo.

Before making our own pumpkin and apple pies the children have been working in collaborative groups to determine what ingredients we will need. LM and AA have decided to take this activity to the next level...

Pumpkin Song from Lisa J on Vimeo.

A Busy Week in Kindergarten

What a week it has been! The children continued their apple study this week with measuring the height of our apples, singing an apple song with Lauren, using watercolors to paint an apple growing from a branch, comparing apples, hypothesizing on why apples were only growing on the top of one of our apple trees and brainstorming all of the things we can do with apples!

During Writer's Workshop the children continued to gain independence in stretching out their words and using a 2 finger space between each word. We finished our review on the leapfrog letters (F,E,D,P,R & B) and began our review on starting corner letters (H, K, N, & M). The focus of our handwriting has been bumping the lines and starting the letters at the top. If your child is writing at home please encourage them (or ask them to show you how) to properly form these letters.

In Math this week we began exploring the calendar and figuring out how to count the days we have been in school. The children suggested that we use the snack sign up calendar and our sign in sheets to tally our days in school so that is what we did. After determining that we had been in school for 15 days we explored all of the different ways to count to 15 (skip counting by 2's, 3's and 5's) and represent 15 (tallies, 15, buildings of 15 things) .

We also continued to solve word problems in our math notebooks. This week the children all worked on a subtraction word problem. Below you can see video's of the different methods students use to solve the same problem. SH chose to use his mental math, AH used blocks and JL used a picture. After solving the problem they explained their method to their classmates.

SH Pumpkin Problem from Lisa J on Vimeo.

JL Solving an Apple Problem from Lisa J on Vimeo.

AH Solves An Apple Problem from Lisa J on Vimeo.

In Book Buddies this week our second grade Book Buddies taught us how to play the math game "Poison Apple". After playing a few rounds we had some time to read our favorite books. This week I was also able to read with each of your children to determine which books would be "Just Right" for them. Everyone was very excited to read and I am looking forward to teaching them new strategies and making them their book baggies..

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!

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