Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Gingerbread All Around
We are diving in to gingerbread these past two weeks at school. We have read several different versions of the story in class and we are comparing each one as we go. Everyone has been having a good time predicting the ending to each new story. As the class is finding out, they aren't always the same.
We had a great time visiting Conner Prairie last week. We were on the hunt to find the gingerbread man! We started out at the Conner House and listened to a version of the story. Then, we moved to the kitchen in the house and met a woman making gingerbread cookies and when she was ready to pull it out of the oven, it ran away. We looked in the barn and even followed "foot steps" back to the main building where we found the gingerbread man waiting for us. We finished up by decorating a cookie and enjoying a glass of milk. This is always one of the favorite field trips we take each year!
During our writing block, we are learning about informative stories (stories that contain facts for the reader). We wrote about our field trip and included the facts of what happened. It was really hard for the children not to put how much fun it was in their writing. We are also working on using the words first, then, next, and last in our stories. To help with using these words, we have been working on a special gingerbread story this week at centers. We are pretending to be a gingerbread cookie and each child is creating an escape plan of their own. It has been great seeing all of the creativity with these stories!
Next week we are going to start switching out books in each child's book bags that were handed out during our conference time. If you would make sure that they are in your child's backpack in the next few days, I will grab them and refresh the books so you will have new books to work on over Winter Break.
Have a great week!
We had a great time visiting Conner Prairie last week. We were on the hunt to find the gingerbread man! We started out at the Conner House and listened to a version of the story. Then, we moved to the kitchen in the house and met a woman making gingerbread cookies and when she was ready to pull it out of the oven, it ran away. We looked in the barn and even followed "foot steps" back to the main building where we found the gingerbread man waiting for us. We finished up by decorating a cookie and enjoying a glass of milk. This is always one of the favorite field trips we take each year!
During our writing block, we are learning about informative stories (stories that contain facts for the reader). We wrote about our field trip and included the facts of what happened. It was really hard for the children not to put how much fun it was in their writing. We are also working on using the words first, then, next, and last in our stories. To help with using these words, we have been working on a special gingerbread story this week at centers. We are pretending to be a gingerbread cookie and each child is creating an escape plan of their own. It has been great seeing all of the creativity with these stories!
Next week we are going to start switching out books in each child's book bags that were handed out during our conference time. If you would make sure that they are in your child's backpack in the next few days, I will grab them and refresh the books so you will have new books to work on over Winter Break.
Have a great week!
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Happy Thanksgiving!
Wishing everyone a happy thanksgiving! We had a lot of fun today wearing our Native American shirts that everyone created. We also made a bracelet that the children used to retell the story of the first thanksgiving. At the end of the day, we all earned a Paw Pride Special Activity. Have your child tell you all about it! Have a great Thanksgiving Break!
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Weekly News
A big thank you to everyone for meeting with me! It is always fun to share the many accomplishments that I see each day with your children!
Last week, we started talking about Pilgrim and Native Americans. We have been learning more about the first thanksgiving and more about what life was like if we lived in those times. It has been fun listening to the conversations of everyone. One big shock the children had was how there wasn't a car or tv around. :)
Our writing is moving right along. We continue to focus on trying to write using a main idea and supporting details. Next week, we will be taking a break from narrative writing and we will be working on learning how to write an informative story (a story with facts) using Pilgrims and Native Americans as our topic.
Last Friday I sent home the November and December book order fliers. There are some wonderful titles available if you are interested in ordering. These orders will be sent in at the end of the day tomorrow (Friday the 21st). If you choose to order any of these and would like to keep them a surprise, just let me know and I can either wrap them in a paper bag to come home or we can find a time for you to come pick them up.
Since next week is a short week we are going to focus on learning about all things Thanksgiving. We have some fun activities planned for the week so I look forward to sharing with you some great photos.
Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving break!
Last week, we started talking about Pilgrim and Native Americans. We have been learning more about the first thanksgiving and more about what life was like if we lived in those times. It has been fun listening to the conversations of everyone. One big shock the children had was how there wasn't a car or tv around. :)
Our writing is moving right along. We continue to focus on trying to write using a main idea and supporting details. Next week, we will be taking a break from narrative writing and we will be working on learning how to write an informative story (a story with facts) using Pilgrims and Native Americans as our topic.
Last Friday I sent home the November and December book order fliers. There are some wonderful titles available if you are interested in ordering. These orders will be sent in at the end of the day tomorrow (Friday the 21st). If you choose to order any of these and would like to keep them a surprise, just let me know and I can either wrap them in a paper bag to come home or we can find a time for you to come pick them up.
Since next week is a short week we are going to focus on learning about all things Thanksgiving. We have some fun activities planned for the week so I look forward to sharing with you some great photos.
Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving break!
Friday, November 7, 2014
This Week in Review
Whew! What a week. This has been a difficult week with behavior in the classroom. We have stopped and spent some time reviewing what would be considered "paw pride" behavior and also talked about what it should look like as well. As always, it is a work in progress. To help with this, the children have started earning stamps for their clip position at the end of the day. If a child ends their day on green, they will receive one stamp, blue receives two stamps, purple is three stamps, and off the chart is equal to four stamps. When each child has filled up their chart they will have the chance to earn a prize from me.
Conferences are all set and scheduled for Thursday. I look forward to speaking with all of you. When you arrive at school, just let the front office know you are here for conferences and they will help direct you to where we will be meeting. Thank you in advance for taking time to come in to meet with me. I enjoy getting to share with you our many accomplishments!
So this week in class we have been working on adding pages to our stories during writing time. Instead of using just one page for a story, I have the children take a new page each time they write a sentence. When their story is complete, I staple their book together and we share the books in the classroom. Keep having your child practice spelling words at home. A lot of the children are struggling with wanting to try to spell words on their own during class time.
During centers, we are staring to talk about Thanksgiving. We have worked on a writing about things each child is thankful for (these are really cute!), we are staring to talk about the Pilgrims and Native Americans and we are going to continue to work with this topic next week.
I talked to the class a little bit on Friday about our math time block. Starting Monday, Kindergarten will be switching classes for our math time. Some children will have either Mrs. Trammell or Miss Fernkas for their math teacher and some children will continue to have me as their math teacher. I have sent home an envelope with your child today that explains this in more detail.
Have a great weekend!
Conferences are all set and scheduled for Thursday. I look forward to speaking with all of you. When you arrive at school, just let the front office know you are here for conferences and they will help direct you to where we will be meeting. Thank you in advance for taking time to come in to meet with me. I enjoy getting to share with you our many accomplishments!
So this week in class we have been working on adding pages to our stories during writing time. Instead of using just one page for a story, I have the children take a new page each time they write a sentence. When their story is complete, I staple their book together and we share the books in the classroom. Keep having your child practice spelling words at home. A lot of the children are struggling with wanting to try to spell words on their own during class time.
During centers, we are staring to talk about Thanksgiving. We have worked on a writing about things each child is thankful for (these are really cute!), we are staring to talk about the Pilgrims and Native Americans and we are going to continue to work with this topic next week.
I talked to the class a little bit on Friday about our math time block. Starting Monday, Kindergarten will be switching classes for our math time. Some children will have either Mrs. Trammell or Miss Fernkas for their math teacher and some children will continue to have me as their math teacher. I have sent home an envelope with your child today that explains this in more detail.
Have a great weekend!
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Harlem Ambassadors
Yesterday we had the opportunity to watch a little bit of the Harlem Ambassadors. It was a fun time to learn about being drug free, bullying, and earning a college degree.
One of our classmates even had a chance to earn a free ticket by answering some questions from their presentation.
Friday, October 24, 2014
Monster of a Week!
It has been a "Monsterous" week! We have had so much fun talking about monsters this week. There have been so many laughs when we have talked about what kind of monster everyone would create. Next week we will continue with our monster theme and have fun creating a monster snack. We will be tying this into our writing time by each child learning how to write down the recipe to bring home.
This week during writing, we have focused on the learning target of "making our stories more interesting." What this means is adding more detail to the picture or the writing of the story. So many of the children are great at getting one thought (sentence) onto their page. Now, we are working on having each child add two or more sentences that go along with their picture. Another big struggle during writing time is using capital letters correctly in a sentence. We have learned all of the upper and lower case letters of the alphabet at this point in the school year, so I would encourage you to point out those capital/lower case mistakes when working on writing at home with your child. It is still fine to have a few (I never want to overwhelm a child with errors), just name a few and the more practice we have, the better this skill will become! :)
During math workshop this week, we took some time to focus the teen numbers again. We are slowly making progress with this skill. Keep practicing at home with writing and recognizing the teen numbers. The important thing to remember is to work on the numbers out of order to help with really learning the numbers instead of memorizing the numbers. On Thursday and Friday, we did a fun pumpkin activity where we really observed a pumpkin and even opened one up to look inside. We even investigated whether or not the pumpkin would sink or float. I think this was a favorite for everyone!
Next week we will be celebrating Red Ribbon Week at CE. This is a week where we celebrate being Drug Free. Here are the activities that are planned for next week:
Friday,
October 31st: Wear Red to show support for Red Ribbon Week!!!
Have a great weekend!
This week during writing, we have focused on the learning target of "making our stories more interesting." What this means is adding more detail to the picture or the writing of the story. So many of the children are great at getting one thought (sentence) onto their page. Now, we are working on having each child add two or more sentences that go along with their picture. Another big struggle during writing time is using capital letters correctly in a sentence. We have learned all of the upper and lower case letters of the alphabet at this point in the school year, so I would encourage you to point out those capital/lower case mistakes when working on writing at home with your child. It is still fine to have a few (I never want to overwhelm a child with errors), just name a few and the more practice we have, the better this skill will become! :)
During math workshop this week, we took some time to focus the teen numbers again. We are slowly making progress with this skill. Keep practicing at home with writing and recognizing the teen numbers. The important thing to remember is to work on the numbers out of order to help with really learning the numbers instead of memorizing the numbers. On Thursday and Friday, we did a fun pumpkin activity where we really observed a pumpkin and even opened one up to look inside. We even investigated whether or not the pumpkin would sink or float. I think this was a favorite for everyone!
Next week we will be celebrating Red Ribbon Week at CE. This is a week where we celebrate being Drug Free. Here are the activities that are planned for next week:
Wednesday,
October 29th: Our theme for this year is “My future is
bright. No drugs in sight.” Wear neon/fluorescent colors on
Wednesday!
Thursday,
October 30th: “I am a jean-ius! I’m drug free.” Wear
jeans on Thursday!
Have a great weekend!
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Symmetry All Around
This week for math we have focused on symmetry. We talked about what it means and how to make something symmetrical. First we used paint to make a symmetrical picture and then we used pattern blocks to make a symmetrical butterfly. See if you can find some symmetrical objects around you!
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