Higher Order Thinking: Comparing and Sequencing

     We are always trying to s-t-r-e-t-c-h those Kindergarten brains!  One way we do that is to ask questions on subjects we are learning that challenge students beyond the "what" and "why."  This week, we have discussed seasons and how they relate to apple trees.  Below, you can see a chart comparing and contrasting what we know about apple trees in the winter and in the summer:

    We also learned about the life cycle of the apple tree and how we get apples in the fall.  Here the students had to correctly sequence the events that happen in order to get that delicious apple:

 

 









     Sequencing is an important skill to master in science AND in reading to develop comprehension in both areas.


     And to finish off our two weeks of apples, we made these adorable hand print apples!  ---->



Have a great weekend!

Numbers, Numbers... Making Number Sense

     Making sense of numbers... what do numbers mean?  Counting can seem as easy as 1,2,3!  However, there is a lot that has to happen in order for a child to have strong counting skills.  A child has to be able to use counting words, connect those words to numbers, numbers to numerals, and connect those numerals to a quantity.  Whew!  And since counting is the base of mathematics, it's a very important skill to master!

     In our class, we count whenever we have the chance. We also do a lot of hands-on activities with quantity and number. One recent activity involved ordering primary number cards.  These cards have the quantity represented on each one to help the student master the concept at a higher level:

     The students also practiced printing the numeral and drawing the correct quantity.

     We have been working hard on this skill and will continue to do so.  You can count on that!  :)

Emergent Writing and Word Webs

     One of the things I love about teaching Kindergarten is emergent writing and watching how it develops.  Learning to write and read go hand in hand, so we provide many opportunities daily to do both.

     Recently, we read a book about going on a picnic.  We wrote a sentence together, then used a word web strategy to connect our ideas and talk about new words.  The concept picnic is seen in the middle, and the words that web out from the center were given by the students during a whole group discussion. They are words that the children felt were connected to picnic.  Using a word web helps the students understand a concept, connect ideas, and learn new vocabulary.  Drawing pictures allows the children to use clues for decoding these written words.

      After writing and webbing as a group, the student went back to their desks and worked independently.

     It was fun to see the students re-create our class work.  They are already applying many of our writing strategies, and it's only been a month!  I am so excited to see what the next month brings!

An Apple a Day!

One of our themes this week is apples.  In fact, it's such a good theme, we talk about it for two weeks!  Here are just some of the things we've been working on:

We wrote about apples using our sight words..

     

We talked about the life cycle of apple trees and seasons in science.

    

 We read non-fiction books about apples and webbed facts: 

  We learned about Johnny Appleseed in Social Studies.

After reading this silly story...

...we even did some apple math!  Ten apples up on top!  :)

Related Arts Update

Check out what Kindergarten made this week in Art Class:

It's the  Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree!!

Related Arts Schedule this semester is:

Monday- Library

Tuesday- Music

Wednesday-Library

Thursday-Art

Friday-Gym

Today's Question is...

     Today's Question is something we do in math 2-3 times per week.  The question is written on a piece of chart paper, and the students have to decide what their answer is and write their name in the correct column. It's a good practice in reading, collecting data, and analyzing it.  The students really enjoy answering the questions and writing their names. Usually, we collect the data one day and analyze it the next.  The most recent Today's Question was this:

     After everyone answered the question, we counted to see which side had more.  We also showed the quantity by building cube towers to represent each set.  They did a great job!

Math time: Attribute Block Match-Up

     Today, we played Attribute Block Match-Up.  This is a game where the children take turns picking a block to place on a plate.  The next student has to pick a block that matches in some way.  It can be matching in size, shape, or color.  Can you guess what the students above are matching by?

     

Journal Writing: Using our Words

     Another thing we do in Kindergarten is write in journals.  Sometimes, that means free writing and drawing.  I believe this free time to explore writing is important because the students can work at their own level and interest, keeping them engaged in learning the writing process. Other times, I model the writing before they do it on their own.  When I am directing a sentence, we practice our writing conventions (capital letters at the beginning of a sentence, spaces between words, punctuation, writing from left to right, etc.). It is also a good time to incorporate sight and color words!

     Today we wrote this sentence in our journals:

      

Some things in focus this week:

Sight word:  we
Shape: triangle
Letter: Mm
Theme: apples
Number: 4
Color: green

And here's the fun song for green!----->

Did you know....?

    Did you know that each morning we get to say hello three ways?   In our class, we are fortunate enough to have students who speak three different languages!  How cool is that?  It has given us the opportunity to talk about diversity, respect, and how we can learn a lot from each other.  (And also links well with Maple Elementary's four core values: honesty, respect, caring, and responsibility)

  So... hello, hola, and ni hao to you! :)

Math time: Sorting

     One of the things we've been practicing in math is sorting by attributes.  We have sorted and compared shapes and colors of buttons, blocks, linking cubes, colored animals, and much more.  Today, we sorted ourselves!  All of the students who were wearing shoes with laces went to one side of the carpet, and those without laces stood on the other.  After sorting, the children were able to estimate which side of the carpet had more.  After making their estimate, we counted to check our answer.  More students in our class wore shoes without laces today!  We will continue to classify, count, and compare as we move through our math unit.  Stay tuned!

Swimmy: Working as a Team

     Today, we read Swimmy by Leo Lionni.  This story is about a school of small fish working as a team. By swimming all together, they form a big fish and avoid being eaten.  Swimmy, the main character pictured on the cover, creates the eye of this big fish.  Today, all of the Kindergarten classes worked together to make this big fish:

"Kindergarten works as a team!"

The Color of the Week is.... YELLOW

      The color we are talking about this week is yellow!  All of our color words are also sight words.  Here's a tune we've been singing each morning:

Our Community: Mapping

     One of our themes this week is "community."  We have discussed our community, its members, occupations, and maps.  Yesterday, we read the book, Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney. In this story, a little girl uses different maps to find her place in the world, country, state, town, house, and even her room!  

     Today, we collectively made a map of a town.  The children colored, cut, and glued the pieces on to our big map.  They together decided where the pieces should go. It was a great exercise in classroom community to work together on such a large project! 

The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

     Yesterday, we read The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister.  It is a story about a beautiful fish sharing his sparkling scales, making friends, and finding happiness.  This lead to a wonderful discussion about sharing and being kind to others.  The children then made these colorful fish, wrote a sentence (I can share.), and gave each fish it's own beautiful, sparkly scale:

     The students put a lot of time and pride in this project!  They got to practice all sorts of fine motor skills as well, including coloring, writing, cutting, and pasting.

Tech Kids: Our Class IPad

    Meet our classroom IPad.  It has supplemented our class lessons with games in phonics, rhyming, letter recognition, and handwriting.  It has been a great way to practice what we have been learning, and what's more, the kids love it!  They get very excited when it's IPad time, just ask them about this silly alphabet game:

    Because students need to be technology proficient in today's world, we try to expose them to as much technology as possible.   In addition to the IPad, we have access to several classroom computers, the school computer lab, and a Smartboard.  Stay tuned as we learn more about technology and ready our children for the future of learning!

Math time: Counting Jar

     We use a math series called Investigations.  I believe this series is great because it teaches students the meaning behind the concepts we learn in math, not just math facts.  There are a lot of hands-on experiences as well as games.  Something we did this week was called "The Counting Jar."  The children loved it.  I put a quantity of items into the jar.  Once they determined how many were in there, they had to make sets of the same amount of different items.  This was a great exercise in counting and then applying their quantity recognition.  Plus, it gave them time to work with their peers and play with the dice, dominoes, and small animals!

Cheese! Picture Day is Monday, September 10th

Just a reminder that picture day is Monday, September 10th.  Children can dress up or in school uniform.  (No jeans!)  Forms were sent home early this week.  If you cannot find yours, there are extras in the office.

Monkeys CAN jump!

     Each week, we add a "sight word" to our word wall.  Sight words are words that are used frequently in texts and ones that we deem very important in reading instruction.  This week's word was "can."  We read it, spelled it, and worked it into other lessons in different subject areas.
     For our non-fiction book of the day, we read a book all about monkeys.  After webbing some interesting facts about these animals, we decided on one that we thought was particularly interesting.  Your children decided that it was pretty cool that monkeys could jump!  So that became our sentence:

     We also read the book, If You Take a Mouse to School, which was very silly!  We discussed our favorite parts and wrote this sentence, using both sight words from this week and last. (We like to highlight our sight words when we spot them!)

Calendar Math

     Something we do A LOT in Kindergarten is count.  We count apples, days, paper clips, blocks.... anything, you name it!  A big part of our morning circle time (and as a part of our math series) is Calendar math.  We count days (grouping eventually by 10s), do patterns, practice estimation, and much more.  Your child might just come home singing a few silly songs about our days of the week and months of the year!  Watch out, because they are some catchy tunes!  :)

Welcome to a New School Year

     Welcome to our Kindergarten blog!  I am Mrs. Huminsky, your child's teacher.  As most of you know, I will be in for Ms. Roberts until she returns in November from maternity leave.  I am so happy to be here with your children!  I created this blog in the hopes that parents will be able to access classroom information, keep up to date on our work, and communicate with me.  Please feel free to post comments or send me messages whenever you have questions.  I will be happy to hear from you!

   
     We are a couple weeks into school and your children are doing great!  We have read lots of stories, practiced our writing and letter recognition, and have been talking about numbers and quantities.  A couple of things you can do with your child to keep the year going strong are read to them daily (even 15 minutes is beneficial!) and have them practice writing their names.

     Stay tuned!  We will be keeping busy in our Kindergarten room....

Sincerely,

Mrs. Huminsky :)