Math: Today for math we talked about the vocabulary words same and different. Then we did an activity where we took off one of our shoes and we compared shoes. We talked about what characteristics made some shoes the same in some ways and also different in some ways. Then we walked around the room with one shoe and when the music stopped we had to find a friend who had a shoe that was the same in some way. We LOVED this activity!
S.M.A.R.T. Room: we are up and running and love working at the stations with our partners.
Writer's Workshop: We played a game called pencil pick ups. We are practicing picking up a pencil quickly and holding it in the correct position. The song we sang goes like this..."Pinch it, flip it, let it rest." Ask your child how to do this.
We had PHY ED today.
Reading/Phonics: Today we worked on the letter Gg. We chanted our ABC chart and read the Alphatales story Gorilla be Good. We brainstormed words that start with the letter G and played an interactive matching game on the smart board. Then we worked on our letter G poem.
Social Studies: We took our bus safety "test" today. I just asked each student about the rules of being safe on the bus. We ALL passed!! We are all bus safety experts! :)
Library: We had library today!!
Tuesday:
Bus Safety: This morning we went outside for Bus Safety. Two people from the bus company brought out a bus and talked to us about being safe on the bus. We also enjoyed a very funny puppet show. Watch a short video of our bus safety experience.
Bus Safety from Annie Jost on Vimeo.
Math: Today we learned a new math game called Roll and Trace. Instead of matching the dots on the dice we had to find the numeral and trace it. We all did a great job and really enjoy these math games.
Writer's Workshop: Today we made a friend their special friend book to take home.
We had MUSIC today!
Reading/Phonics: Today was our day 2 of the letter Gg. We reviewed the letter G and all the other previous letters and played a game on the smart board. We also did a practice sheet where we had to color all the letter G's. We also learned a new snap word "I". We played our hangman game for practice and review of all our words so far. We also did a practice sheet where we filled in the word I to make a sentence.
Handwriting: Today we talked about mat man and how he is made up of pieces that we use to create our letters. We played an online interactive game where we each had a turn building a part of mat man. Then we each got to make him ourselves in groups. We had a lot of fun with this. Ask your child to sing the "mat man" song.
Wednesday:
Math: Today we got to meet our "ketchup and mustard" partners. These will be partners that we will be working with for all of our Unit 1 math partner activities. With our partners today we sorted a bag of shapes by color and by shape. We also had some time to explore with them as well to see what we could create. We also had a practice sheet where we were able to show the skills we learned about sorting by shape today!
Storybook Reader: We listened to a wonderful book called Michael Recycle. We had a great time and were fabulous listeners!!
Free choice time: Today we were able to go into the open classroom next door that I made into a play room. We were very excited to have a little more room to play. We have a play dough and watercolor station, a grocery store station, an area to play "school", a library, a large car mat and blocks, an art area and we also have an iPad station. We had a lot of fun in our new play area!! We will have time at the end of each day to explore and learn by playing!!
We had PHY ED today!
Reading/ Phonics: Today we learned about the letter Hh and the sound it makes. We read the Alphatales story Hide and Seek Hippo. We also played a listening game called....what did you hear. The students closed their eyes and I created two different sounds. For example: I dropped a book and them coughed. The students then raised their hands to tell me what two sounds they heard. This is a great listening game getting them ready to hear all the sounds in words. We had a lot of fun with this. You could easily play this game at home. We then chanted our ABC chart and worked on our letter H poem.
Character Education: Mrs. Weninger came into our classroom this morning and talked about the zones of regulation again. Last week she taught us about the green zone and what that looks like and feels like. This is the zone where we are "ready to learn." Today she talked about the "yellow zone." She talked about how it's ok to go into the yellow zone, we all do, but what is important is how do we get back to the green zone. Some examples she gave us were: feeling silly, really excited, frustrated with a friend, overwhelmed, etc. The kiddos were able to give some great examples of when they have been in the yellow zone. Then she talked about some strategies we can use to get back into the green zone. Some examples were: to take a short walk, get a drink, ask to take a break, take some deep breaths, etc. It was so great to see how engaged all the students were with Mrs. Weninger!!!
Math: Today we worked with our ketchup and mustard partners again and sorted our shapes by size. We practiced as a whole class on the smart board what that means to sort by size. We sorted teacups by if they were large or small and then went with our partners and tried to sort them by size today. This was a little trickier than sorting them by color and shape but with some practice we were all able to sort them.
Writer's Workshop: We worked on a friend's special friend book.
We had MUSIC today!
Reading/Phonics: Today was our day 2 practice of the letter Hh. We played a game on the smart board and then worked on the practice sheet for letter H. Here we had to color in pictures that started with the letter Hh. We also learned the new snap word "on" and did a practice sheet. We then played a listening game to hear if 2 words rhyme within a sentence.
Social Studies: TIME FOR KIDS- Today we did our first magazine about schools around the world. Most weeks we will do our time for kids on Mondays. We learned that schools can look different all around the world. We then discussed what made out school different and what we love most about our school.
Friday:
Technology: Today Ms. Casebolt showed us how to get on the internet and to her webpage that has MANY fun learning games. There were a lot of steps to get there but most of us were able to do it. Way to go Kindergartners! When they got to the correct website they were able to play the game "This is sand" again. We also learned about double click and how we can use double click on our games.
Math: Today in math we reviewed our shapes and sorting briefly and then worked on number writing. We practiced writing our numbers with a number line to help. We are getting better. A HINT...make sure your child is starting their numbers at the top. Also the number 1 in school is just a line, no fancy looking letters and no line underneath the 1. Just a straight line. This helps avoid confusion later on in math.
We had PHY ED today!!
Reading/Phonics: Fridays are usually our review day. We reviewed all the letters we have learned so far and the sounds they make. We reviewed the snap words we've learned by playing some interactive games on the smart board. We also played a rhyming game on the smart board. We LOVED this game!!! We also did a practice sheet using our visual skills. We sorted the letters b, d and p. Since these letters visually look so much alike it's important for the students to distinguish between them. Some of us had to double check our work but overall we did very well.
We made another friend's special book and ended the day in our new play area.
A PEEK AT NEXT WEEK:
Math: Number sense- we will be working with our partners a lot this week and working on what does a number mean. The students will get to pick a number and their partner will build it with cubes. We will also be working with counting and one to one matching.
We will also be introducing our DAILY 5 time. This is the management program we set up so that I can spend time working one on one with students and small groups. We will spend time practicing and building up our stamina in the hopes to build our quiet reading time to 10 minutes so we can begin our guided reading groups.
Reading: We will also be starting our whole group reading instruction this week. This week will focus mainly on finding the main idea of a story and the supporting details. We will also be talking about making connections to stories and our real lives.
Fire Safety: We will begin to talk about fire safety and will be making a fun art project.
