I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For...!

     Our letter of the week is "I." We used this opportunity to learn about one of my favorite things... ice cream!  Talk about a high interest subject! Shared writing today involved writing two good sentences using our newest sight words (see, go).  We illustrated our sentences with these colorful ice cream cones complete with glitter sprinkles.

     We even read a non-fiction book about how ice cream is made, acting out each step along the way.

    Then we wrote about it.  Remember those higher order thinking questions we have been working on?  Well, after reading the book, we went back to our seats and wrote about the sequence of events that lead to the ice cream.  We even used sequencing words (first, next, last).  

     So if your child comes home asking for ice cream, now you know why. Maybe they will even tell you a little bit about how it is made.  :) 

Wonderful work today!

 

Transportation: How do we get home?

     As already mentioned, we are studying transportation this week.  We have read several stories in our reading series and today we crossed that theme into our math time.  We decided to graph how we get home from school.  After discussing what form of transportation the students use to get home from school, I put the students to the task of organizing their data.  With a little of my help, here is what we came up with:

     A giant graph makes it very easy to see which form of transportation is used most often and least often in our class!  We counted, compared, labeled, and discussed our findings.  Great job, Kindergarten!

On the Go & 50 Days Smarter!

Big Book: Reading about transportation in other areas of the world

     This week in Language Arts, we are talking about transportation.  The students really have fun with this subject and it goes well with our sight words of the week: see and go.  Here are just some of the things we worked on today:

Brainstorming and listing forms of transportation we know

Sentence writing during guided reading centers

Reading with friends in small group time

...and independently writing about the way "we go."  :)

Another day of hard work in our Kindergarten room!  It's the 50th day of hard work, in fact! Can you believe it??

We are 50 days smarter, indeed! :)

Happy Halloween!!!

Waiting out the Storm...

     We love our recess time in Kindergarten, and for good reason!  Not only is it time for us to get fresh air, take a break, and socialize with friends, but research shows that students perform better academically when they get a chance to take a break.  Research also indicates that classroom behavior improves after some recess.  I feel this is definitely true in our class!  Sometimes though, the weather does not allow us to take a recess outdoors.  This leaves us to figure out how to take a 20 minute break and let our 5 & 6 year olds have a little playtime.  After all, we work VERY hard in our room, we've earned it.  :)  

     Today was one of those days.  This was the view from our room ALL day:

    By the time our recess rolled around this afternoon, we had to make due.  We played some games, worked with blocks, computers, books, art... but, shhh, don't tell them- these "playtime" activities also have many academic benefits as well.

Here are some of our recess activities today:

Exploring Magnets
(science)

Chutes and Ladders
(math practice)

The Ladybug Board Game
Students took turns pulling cards and moving their ladybug that many spaces.
(math/number practice)

Hullaballoo
This is one of my family favories.  The players have to listen for which shape, color, or picture is called next and move to it, usually in a silly way.  It's so much fun, and great practice in color, shapes, and careful listening.

     Just a reminder, we will try to go outside for recess whenever it's possible, so please remember to dress your child for the weather!  :)  Hope you all stay safe and warm during this storm!

-Mrs. H

...some other Halloween "Goodies"

We read a few non-fiction books about bats...

...and wrote sentences on facts we learned.

Shared writing about skeletons...

...and put together our own!

Spooky Math

      Because this week's theme is Halloween, we've had a great time incorporating some Halloween fun into our core subjects!  For math time today, we did this spooky activity:  After reading a funny book about a witch and ten timid ghosts, we responded by making our own haunted house and putting the ghosts in numerical order.  The students loved the story AND practicing their numbers!