Future Journalists

In reading and writing, we are learning about biographies! We will read about lots of important people and their lives. So far, we have read about Dr. Suess and Benjamin Franklin. Ask your child to tell you each day who they read about!! 

 In writing today we each thought of an interview question. Then we asked our questions to Mr. Bernstein!  We learned a lot about his life, favorite things and his job!! Next we will  use what we learned to write his biography. It will be lots of fun!!! Who knew his favorite shape is a circle? 

The Blog is Back!!

I'm finally back!! I had some technical difficulties and one of the solutions was to erase the blog completely and start over. I didn't want to do that so after some troubleshooting and LOTS of technical support, we are back online!! I apologize for the delay. 

Here's what we are up to in Kindergarten these days. 

In reading and writing we have been learning about persuasion. We read some funny books about characters trying to persuade us to buy a book, stay up late, and a few about kids persuading their parents to ge them a new pet. So... If your child has been particularly persuasive lately, you know why!! We wrote persuasive paragraphs about the best pet, best special, best food, best season, and best part of kindergarten. We know that to be persuasive, we must give three good reasons. 

Did you know we can add and subtract? We use different strategies to solve basic number sentences. Drawing a picture and using a number line are two of te best ways to join and separate numbers. We can even read a story problem and decide if it is adding or subtracting. 

In science we had fun learning about animal camouflage and how animals move, but this week it's all about trees!! Today we went on a tree walk and discovered many different types of trees right in our backyard. 

There is no school for Kindergarteners on Thursday or Friday this week because of Kindergarten Orientation!! 

Beetles, Sea turtles, Spiders and Groundhogs

Did you know some of our mealworms have changed into pupae and darkling beetles? Every day we observe the changes in science. We're also learning the parts of an insect and all about external features of different insects and animals. 

Check out what one group did during centers! They used the pocket chart and worked together to show the lyrics to a favorite song. 

In writing this week we wrote a descriptive report about sea turtles. Today we made a baby sea turtle out of paper and practiced following directions and careful cutting. Next week we will choose our own animal and write a descriptive report with a partner. 

Who will win the Superbowl? We collected data and compared numbers today in math. Most of the class thinks the Seahawks will be the champs!

What about Phil, the groundhog from Pennsylvania?  Will he see his shadow on Superbowl Sunday? Our class can't wait for Spring! 

Christopher's mom read us a pirate story today. She was a great mystery reader!! Who wants to read to us next week??

Who was the mystery reader?

It was Mary's mom!! She surprised the class today and brought two great books. The first one was by Mo Williams had a silly problem and lots of questions in it! The second one was a story about Red Knit Cap Girl wanting to get close to the moon. Everyone loved both books and it was fun to have a surprise reader come to our class!  

Want to be next? It only takes about 15-20 minutes and you can come whenever you want! Even brothers, sisters, cousins and grandparents can be mystery readers!  So email today and sign up to be our next mystery reader! 

It's bear week!!

Kindergarteners brought teddy bears to school this week!! We are reading all about bears and writing bear stories! In math we can use ordinals to line up bears and we can graph with bears too!! Today was the teddy bear picnic. We made a headband, sang songs, had a parade and even ate some snacks!! 

Pajama Drive

A few weeks ago, we started a cool project with our reading buddies. First we read a great story called Lulu's Pajamas. We talked about our favorite pjs and why we liked them and how they make us feel.  Then, I told the classes about The Pajama Program. It's an organization that collects pajamas for kids in need and pairs them with a book to make a good nights sleep for everyone!! The kids were excited and made posters and announcements about the project. Our school collected 125 pajamas!! We counted and sorted them by size. It was a big success and gave everyone a great feeling of giving during this holiday season. 

Snowgirls and snowboys

Today we had a winter rotation. First we learned all about Snowflake Bentley. We saw how he used a special camera and microscope to photograph and learn all about snowflakes. Then, we made snowflakes!  Our second rotation was a tasty one. We made marshmallow snow-people and sang a new snowman song. Last, we used paper plates and lots of arts and crafts materials to decorate a snowman. We really showed a lot of creativity! It was definitely a fun morning in Kindergarten!