Blog Archives

2/22-2/26

2/28/2016

Announcements:
1. Spirit Days coming up this week:
Wednesday, March 2- Dr. Seuss Day! wear stripes and crazy socks.
Friday, March 4- Cuddle Up with a good book- Pajama Day! (no stuffed animals please).
Here are other literacy spirit days we have coming up at IT in honor of Read Across America week:

2. Please remind your student that toys should be kept at home and not brought to school (unless they have a show and tell). They are so excited to share with each other which is why I have been allowing it, but it is starting to become a distraction. I also don't want their special toys to get lost or broken at school! We will talk about this as a class this week as well. Thanks for your support.

3. Coming up next week we are going to have St. Patrick's Day STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) centers. One of these centers will involve a "pot of gold" aka pennies! Please help your child practice counting at least 20-30 pennies and send them to school in a baggie by Monday, March 7. Feel free to count and send in more than 30! Some of our experiments may change the color of the penny, so they won't be sent back :) I will also send a note home this week as a reminder.

This week we continued with our new afternoon routine of play tubs which is going wonderfully! It holds the students accountable for getting unpacked quickly, as well as cleaning up quickly and efficiently.

In literacy this week we learned /ch/, /th/, and /sh/ in Jolly, finished up this round of centers, and learned all about the meaning of fiction and nonfiction.

Centers still included working with sight words, blending and writing words, guided reading with me, reading to self, and listening to reading on the ipads. Also included are pictures from afternoon tubs that they request :)

Our big topic was fiction vs. nonfiction. We talked about how some books (and movies and TV shows) are fiction (pretend or not real, and have characters and a setting) or nonfiction (real, has information, and can teach you something). We practiced sorting different books in our classroom and some of our favorite books and movies. Then with our buddies, we started a nonfiction research project. The students picked their own nonfiction topic, and their buddies helped them research it on their chromebooks. The students then started filling out a KWL chart (what they Know, Wonder, and then Learned). We talked about what they knew already about their topics, and practiced brainstorming questions they may have. We will continue working on this with our buddies for many more weeks.

In math this week we discussed 17-19, 20, explored dominoes, continued to practice working with double ten frames, and reviewed this concept while working with a team. The task was to work with your table team and show the given number on the double ten frame in the easiest way possible, while being able to explain your reasoning. The goal was to review and reinforce the concept that showing 10 in one color, and any of the extras in a different color is the best way to represent a number. All the students were able to reach this understanding, and it also brought up a great class discussion about what it means to work in a team! We talked about what it means to be a good teammate, and are going to keep practicing these skills (taking turns, listening to other's ideas, and being kind). With the dominoes, we sorted them on our number rug, and then played making connections with the dominoes. The students had to be able to explain why they connected them together (for example they both make 6, or the both are 1). It was great to hear the student's thinking.

Friday was exciting! After talking with our Occupational Therapist Mrs. Bean and doing a lot of my own research, we decided to test out flexible seating in our classroom. Flexible seating is exactly what it sounds like; a more relaxed seating environment where the students get choice in how they learn. Studies show this helps with handwriting, focusing attention, posture, and collaboration skills. I am working on finding a resource to share with you, but in the meantime we are testing this out at 2 tables. One table is lowered to the ground, and one is to stand and work. This is completely optional, and the students can choose to sit in traditional seats if they wish! When they came in and saw the new seating, they were SO excited. We tested it out I will keep you posted on how this develops in our classroom :)
We also enjoyed our usual recess time on Friday.

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2/16-2/19

2/20/2016

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Here is what we have been up to this week in Room 124...

First of all, we have a change in our afternoon routine. To motivate students to unpack more efficiently and independently as well as incorporate more play and exploration into our day, we have started doing "afternoon tubs". When the students come into the classroom, soon as they unpack they can start playing with the toys, materials, or manipulatives in their table tub that day. At 12:53, the buzzer goes off and the students have 2 minutes to clean up completely and meet on the rug to start calendar. So, the faster they unpack, the longer they get to play! The students have done SO well will this change in our afternoon and the new expectations! I have already seen such a difference in their sense of responsibility to complete their job of unpacking and then cleaning up. It has also been a great way to continue practicing our social and emotional skills such as collaborating with peers and sharing. It's also a fun way to ease into our day! And of course they requested pictures every day :)

In literacy we reviewed and assessed /v/, /z/, /ng/, /oo/ in Jolly Phonics, and learned /y/ and /x/. We continued with our same centers as last week. The students are getting really good at stamina and independence (working the whole time at their center and being able to problem solve on their own). We will be doing a lot more centers in the next few weeks as well. In literacy this week we also read Aliens Love Underpants, another favorite. We practiced making connections to the book and also retelling a story. We identified the characters and setting, as well as the beginning, middle, and end of the story. We talked about how this is called a "5 finger retell". After retelling the story, we did a sight word hunt around the room, looking for aliens wearing underpants with our words on it! We practiced reading and writing these sight words.

In math this week we practiced basic addition with a "roll and color" activity with 2 dice. We did a math task exploring 15 and 16. We talked about many different ways to represent and make 15, how to change 15 into 16, and the easiest way to make and represent both numbers. These lessons are building on each other. We have done numbers 11-16, and will do this all the way through 19 so that students gain a deeper understanding of how these teen numbers are composed. This will make future math concepts like addition and subtraction make more sense!

Additionally, in Second Step this week we learned and discussed the difference between doing something on accident or on purpose. We practiced using specific language to let someone know what happened was an accident.

We also had a discussion this week reviewing what it means to be safe, respectful, and responsible at school. We talked about how coming up next year, the students are going to be first graders and they are going to be role models for the new kindergartners, and they will have to show them these behaviors at school. Please ask your child how they can demonstrate safe, respectful, and responsible behaviors at school and in our classroom.

Last but not least, we made it outside Friday to enjoy the amazing weather! We also went to see the 2nd grade music concert, they did great. It was a fun day!

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2/8- 2/11

2/14/2016

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Supplies Wanted!
As you know and have seen on the blog, a lot of our centers and activities have been hands on and require a lot of different materials. We are looking for donations to continue doing Makerspace (it means just what it sounds like, a space for students to design, create, make and build things) and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math projects in our classroom. The items may include:
- popsicle sticks (or the fatter tongue depressors)
- paper plates (any size)
- plastic cups (any size)
- pipe cleaners
- masking or duct tape
- liquid elmer's glue
- play-doh
Or any other supplies you may have or can think of! This will be an ongoing collection for the rest of the year (it does not have to be brought in right away!) and can be supplies you already have at home. As always, thanks for your help!

What a week in Kindergarten! Not one but TWO parties!

Starting on Monday, we finished learning this round of Jolly Phonics sounds with short and long /oo/. We also journaled about our weekends and read about the Chinese New Year. We practiced making connections to how we celebrate New Years, and talked about how this is a type of tradition. We also started new centers. They included guided reading with me, reading to self, sight word practice on the iPads, listening to reading on the iPads (Dr. Suess books this week), blending and writing words (with Star Wars notebooks of course), Legos, and writing words with Jolly Phonics sounds.

Math this week was all about 100! We did a 100 hunt around the room. There were numbers 1-100 around the room on hearts and the students had to find the number and color it on their sheet.

With our buddies, we sorted and counted our 100's collections.

100's Day Wednesday was AWESOME! We started our afternoon making crowns and writing about what we would spend $100 on. We then did centers with all different activities incorporating 100. We had 100 cups building, 100 drops of water experiment, 100 paper links chain, 1-0-0 picture, a 100 shaped snack, and 100 shapes glasses. Thank you so much to Bari and Mariana for helping out!

The kids celebrated Valentine's Day Thursday. I was so sad I was out at a conference, but it looks like everyone had a great time! They decorated Valentine envelopes, played bingo, and made fruit kabobs. Thanks to Michael, Suzanne, and Mariana for helping!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

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2/1-2/5

2/5/2016

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This week in Kinder...

In literacy this week we learned /z/ in Jolly Phonics and Handwriting, did a lot of centers, and talked about traditions.

Our literacy centers included guided reading, building sight words with Legos, journal writing, writing and reading CVC words, and puzzles and iPads.

We did a 2-day lesson about making connections to what we read and sharing our ideas. We read a book about birthday traditions in other cultures, shared verbally and through writing and drawing our own birthday traditions, and then shared those while connecting it to the story. On day 2, we shared our birthday tradition in any way we wanted! Some students used recycled materials, some built with Legos, and others used art supplies. We then recorded our ideas on the iPads. This might explain why you had birthday cakes and presents arriving home on Friday :)

In math this week we continued talking about numbers in the teens and played a double ten frame game. We worked with a partner by rolling a 20-sided dice, and then placing the cubes on the double 10 frame. The partner with the bigger number (or more of their 20 frame filled) was the winner.

Tuesday was Groundhog's Day! We read a silly book about Punxsutawney Phil, and then with our buddies did a variety of activities to celebrate. We wrote our predictions on if he would see his shadow, worked on sight words, and making sentences. We were all so happy to hear Phil decided Spring was coming!