Lois Elhert, Measurement and Maps!

Last week we studied Lois Elhert, a wonderful author/illustrator.  We read Mole's Hill, Growing Vegetable Soup, Hands, Top Cat, Oodles of Animals, Color Zoo, Rainbow Garden, and Wag a Tail.  In writing we wrote sentences after reading some of these books.  One day, we created an animal with foam shapes and wrote to describe our animal with shape and color words.  Two other days we drew a cats and dogs and wrote to describe with adjectives. Yesterday, we wrote about the amazing things our hands can do!  This week in math we started a unit on measurement.  We shared ideas of what kinds of things we can measure.  We measured items in our classroom with unifix cubes. We continued to work at our math zones to practice number concepts.  In social studies we began a unit on geography and studied maps and globes.  We know that a map key gives us important information to help us read a map.  We also began to study the continents and oceans.  We are working hard each week on word sorts.  Our first sort was plants and animals, the second was sorting animals by land, sea, and air.  This week we sorted fruits and vegetables!  Soon we will begin to sort pictures by beginning and ending sounds.  

Christopher was the star of the week!  He brought in some cool pictures of his family and a book about dinosaurs.  Thomas' mom came as the mystery reader this week and taught us all about cool ways animals use their external features like tails, noses, eyes, etc.  

Junior Great Books!

Thank you all for coming to parent teacher conferences this week. I enjoyed meeting you all and sharing how much your child is learning!  

This week our reading and writing lessons came from a wonderful program called Junior Great Books. This program is an inquiry model in which students are able to build skills in discussion, questioning, listening, and writing. The program uses poetry, short stories and folklore to develop deep thinking. This week's theme was "companions".  I've attatched the three poems we read this week in case you're interested in reading or discussing them with your child. Our writing focus was integrated this week as we wrote about something we like to do with someone, what our shadows like to do, and where Pooh and Christopher Robin might go together. 

As we continue to collect, count and analyze data with the question of the day in math, we also started new math zones. A favorite is "Compare", which is a counting game with cards. The higher number each round wins and gets to collect the other player's cards. You can play at home with a deck of regular playing cards!!

This was our last week of the health unit. We focused on brushing teeth, going to the dentist and what to expect at a doctor visit.

In our Media Center lesson this week we continued our study of the difference between fiction and non-fiction as we prepare for a mini research project on bears. We read a story about a bear who got lost and was scared and we drew connections we made to the story. In Computer Lab we tried out some cool new math games. I started a Symbaloo, which is a compilation of favorite websites. This will continue to grow as we visit more sites together. Here's the link: http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/kindergarten576 

Our Mystery Reader this week was Andres' grandmother!! Both she and her husband are retired from the education field and it was so nice to have them visit the class and read to the students. We have a lot of Mystery Readers signed up for November and December. If you have family visiting from out of town and they would like to read to the class, just let me know! 

Eric Carle, Teen Numbers, Healthy Habits and Helping the Homeless!

This week we had an Eric Carle author study. 

We read several of his books but we couldn't get to read nearly enough of them.  He has so many wonderful books.  The next time you're at the public library, check out some of his great work.  In writing we wrote about our favorite restaurant after reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  We wrote about what makes us happy after we read The Grouchy Ladybug.  We also started new weekend journals for the 2nd quarter. 

We've been exploring teen numbers in math.  We represent them on a double ten frame, with pictures, words, tallies, and can identifying if the number is even or odd.  Each day we even break apart the teen number of the day to identify ways to make that number.  We have a cool song we sing too called Numbers in the Teens Have a Group of Ten. See if your child can sing it to you!!   We also introduced a new math routine called Question of the Day.  We use technology called Activotes to secretly select an answer to a question and then anaylze the results.  It's really cool!

Last week I did some testing with students of letters and sight words during literacy centers. I'm so impressed with how much they have learned in two months!!  Guided reading books came home this weekend with almost everyone. We also began a new word study program where students are sorting concepts into groups.  Soon we will sort pictures by beginning and ending sounds.  

We've learned a lot in our health unit about medicine, being sick, washing hands, and colds and the flu.  We continued to study ways to stay safe and healthy this week.  Does your child know their full name, address and phone number? This is important if they were ever in an emergency and had to call 911. Next week we will practice this so you can help at home by reviewing this information with your child. 

The Walk for the Homeless was a lot of fun! 

We had several donations from families and had a good discussion about how you can help your community. 

In other exciting news, the morning announcements are now LIVE on TV.  Pretty cool!!

Farm Fun!!

Here are some pictures of today's field trip to Heyser Farm!! 

We are authors!!

Hello parents!!  Last week in reading and writing we identified the beginning, middle, and end of stories. We read a lot this week!  Some highlights were, The Secret Birthday Message, The Wind Blew, and One Day, One World.   We also read books about wind and the seasons in science! 

In writing, we wrote our own books called My Day.  We worked on a page each day, and we are proud to say that we are officially authors.  Our first book is a success!    

 In math we continued to work in our math zones while I worked with small groups to practice number concepts and counting.  The students are getting really good at subitizing, or knowing how many there are without even counting.  Their number sense is growing as well, as they are starting to recognize greater and less, and ways to make numbers in different ways.  

We had Andres' dad come Wednesday to be the mystery reader!!  Also Wednesday the class had their first substitute teacher. I got a great report from the sub and I'm proud of everyone for being respectful and responsible while I was at a curriculum study meeting. 

In science we are studying the seasons!! We also did a fun experiment with wind on Friday. Students made a hypothesis about what items would move in front of the fan. Then we tested 20 classroom objects. The students were really thinking like scientists today!  You can try this experiment at home too.  All you need is a fan and some heavy and light objects.  

Please let me know if you can volunteer in our classroom. I'd love for you to come either as a mystery reader for 15-30 minutes, or as a classroom volunteer if you can stay for an hour or so. The cafeteria and recess para educators also love volunteers too!!  I just had to snap this picture of Thomas' dad, who volunteered last week.  Everyone wanted him to read to them! 

We are gearing up for a fun class party on October 30th!! A sign up sheet came home today if you would like to sign up to bring decorations, food, drinks, or paper products. We could also use volunteers starting around 1:30 to help with decorating, helping children change into costumes, and running activities or games after the costume parade. 

Thanks for all of your support! 

Fire Safety Week!!

Last week was Fire Safety Week!  We read books this week all about firefighters and staying safe around fire.  On Thursday, firefighters came to our school and showed us all of their tools in the firetruck and what they have to wear to fight fires. It was a fun surprise for the kids!

We also had a bus evacuation drill on Thursday.  We all got to go on a bus and meet a bus driver, and hear about how to safely exit a bus in an emergency.  In writing we continued to work in our weekend journals and wrote lists.  We are working on stretching out the sounds in our words to write a beginning, middle and end sound for each word.  The words of the week were to and the this week, and we practiced those everyday!  This week in math we started have new math centers to continue building our number sense.  Some of our favorites are playing grab and count, roll and count, and using the Promethean Board and computers during math zones.  We finished up learning about U.S. Symbols this week and talked a lot about leaders this week.  We identified leaders in our families, school, community and country.  Juniper was a great star of the week!  She shared some toys she made, pictures of her family, and made a great poster.  She also brought in a favorite book that I read to the class. We had two mystery readers this week.  Thomas' grandma from Seattle came and Christopher's Tia also came to read to us.  

Monday is Open House!  If you have some time between 9 and 12 to stop by, we would love to show you around our classroom!   Please send back library books, book buddy bags, and homework tomorrow.  If you haven't sent the field trip permission slip and money, please try to send that in this week!  There is no school Friday!  

Our first field trip is coming up at the end of the month.  We will be visiting Heyser Farms in Colesville, MD.  It's a local farm that produces many things, including apple cider.  We will get to observe the process of making apple cider from start to finish, and we will even get to take home a sample!  Please send field trip permission slips in with cash or check.  We have space for one parent volunteer to come with us on the bus.  Please let me know if you are interested!  

This week we read informational books about Fall and U.S. Symbols in whole group reading. In guided reading we worked in small groups to learn reading strategies and practiced letters and sight words. Some groups made "cut up sentences" with a familiar part of the book. As beginning readers, your child will use picture clues, sight words, and familiar language patterns to help them read.  We have new centers, including a play-doh sight word center.  Thanks to Linus' mom for making homemade play-doh this month!  

In writing, we took a huge step forward developmentally.  Up until now, we drew pictures and added labels to them. This week, we wrote lists! We wrote letters together to make words and drew our pictures last.  We wrote a grocery list, a list of colors, and a list of toys.  One day, we went to the computer lab and made a list of animals using the program Kidspiration.  It was really fun!  In math, we continue to count and represent numbers in different ways.  We can show a number with words, tallies, a picture, a domino, on a ten frame, on a die, with fingers, or just a numeral.  We only have six or seven children left to bring home the counting jar, so it's almost your turn if you haven't gotten it yet!  Here's what Sonora brought one day to count!! 

We had a fun and educational visit from Thomas' dad this week.  He came as the mystery reader and taught us all about oviparous animals.  

Exciting news!  We have five members of the shoe tying club!  If your child is still working on learning this skill, don't worry!  We will add more children to the shoe tying club next month.  

The October sign up for volunteers and mystery readers will be sent to you this evening!