Exploring Capacity

This morning during Math Stations we worked at our sand and water table with rainbow rice to introduce a new math word capacity. Students learned that capacity is one math word for how much something holds.  Students made predictions about which containers would hold a greater capacity of rainbow rice and then had an opportunity to explore with these materials.

Our book today was Boot and Shoe by Marla Frazee, one of my personal favorites!  We will be looking at this book more closely from the eyes of a writers as Marla Frazee is known for using lines in her books to show motion as well as drawing multiple pictures of the same character to show both motion and different activities.  There continues to be lots of excitement around making, writing, and reading words!  This is such an exciting time of growth in the classroom as students are beginning to read and write more words everyday.  Kindergartners have greatly enjoyed using our brand new table top easel and magnetic letters to support with this work!

Finishing up Weight and Lots of Word Building!

We bagn an illustration study and students are learning to look at books like writers.  Today we looked at the book The Emperor's Egg, which we read last week during Writer's Workshop.  Students noticed that they can tell that it is windy and snowing just by the illustrations because the illustrator Jane Chapman drew the snow in swirls covering the blue pages.  Some students thought that maybe they would try this in their writing if it made sense.

Last week we began reading (and singing!) some of my favorite poems from Maurice Sendak's Chicken Soup with Rice.  As we read the poems together students then work to circle upper case letters and sight words.  The sight words (words readers and writers should know very quickly) we have worked on so far are: I, a, is, the, to, at,  in.  Students are working on recognizing these letters in print and adding them to their writing.  As you read with your child at home be sure to point out these words!   

In Math we are finishing up a unit on Weight.  Today we focused on making a scale balanced or equal and predicting which objects would be heavier or lighter despite some being bigger, or taking up more space. Students used balls of play dough to demonstrate that even if you take one ball of play dough and break it into smaller balls it still weighs the same amount.     

Snow People!

I have been busy yesterday and today with Mid-Year literacy assessments.  I have been able to get to more than half of kindergartners and it is always amazing to see how much growth students have made since the beginning of the year.  If your child mentioned 'another teacher' (our building sub Mrs. K) being in the room the last few days it's because I am pulling students to complete assessments.  Tomorrow should hopefully be more of a 'normal' day as I will not be testing.

We did however get to go out in the Woods this morning before the rain!  It was pretty mild and much of the ice had melted.  Many Kindergarteners enjoyed working together to build snow people!

Happy Monday!

It was a terrific Monday in Kindergarten!  Last Thursday Ms. Gunnarsson and I were able to get A LOT of work done in the classroom.  We spent the afternoon making some small changes to our daily schedule and students seemed to respond well to the changes today.  After outside time and a quick morning meeting we went right into Writer's Workshop.  Students are working on using uppercase letters for the first word in their sentences and lower case letters for everything else (unless it is a name of a person or a special place).

After Writer's Workshop we went right into our new Math Stations.  Everyday students will work in small groups and go to four stations during math: Station 1 is a teacher directed station, Station 2 is a math game on the computer, Station 3 is responding to a word or application problem in Math Journals and Station 4 is a game or activity based on the teacher station.  This week we began working on measurement and today talked about the words equal, lighter and heavier.  At Station 4 students worked with balance scales and noticed that when it is heavier that side goes down and the lighter side goes up, you need to put the same amount of 'stuff' in each side to make it even or equal, and you need to use the same objects on each side to make the scale balanced.  We will continue to work on weight for the rest of this week.  

Our book today was The Emperor's Egg by Martin Jenkins and learned LOTS of interesting facts about penguins.  We discussed how sometimes we read books as readers - to learn more information and sometimes as writers - to get ideas for our their books.  Tomorrow we will be beginning  an illustration study.  Students will look through a pre-selected stack of books and mark illustrations that find especially interesting with a post it.  I will read these books at Reader's Workshop and the next day will focus on a different 'illustration move' that students can try out on their own.  Be on the look out for some fabulous illustrations from Kindergarten writers!

Also - by the end of the week I will have met with all students for Reading Groups.  All students will have a colored book bag with books we have read (I will try and switch these up every two weeks).  These books are also read independently during Reader's Workshop.  Instead of the bags going home nightly, students will bring the bags home over the weekend and can share the books with you!  Students have been very excited to read these books and share with others in the classroom.

Owls Visit the Woods!

Today was a VERY exciting day in Kindergarten!  We enjoyed the snow this morning and even did some sledding outside on the playground.  After snack we were given the chance to visit the woods and met an educator from Shelburne Farms who rescues Owls!  Craig brought 3 different owls: 2 Screech Owls and 1 Barred to visit with us.  We learned that all of these Owls were injured, many by cars, and are not able to be released back into the wild but live very happily in an aviary at Shelburne Farms.  It was a very exciting opportunity that was enjoyed by all.  This afternoon we read the book White Owl, Barn Owl by Nicola Davies and learned more interesting facts about owls.

Wonder Journals

Last Friday I introduced something new in the classroom: Wonder Journals.  I found that every morning when we come in from outside there is some down time while I assist students in taking off their winter gear.  Each morning I will display an image on the screen and when students are done putting away their winter clothing they will go to a table and draw and/or write about what they wonder about the image.  Our image this morning was a group of flamingos. Some wondering from students were:

Why do flamingos stink?
Why are flamingos pink?
Why do flamingos have a long neck?
Why do flamingos stand on one foot?
Why do flamingos always stand in a group?

These wonderings all come from: http://wonderopolis.org.  Each day the site features a 'Wonder of the Day,' with a short video, some images and an answer to the wondering.  After students shared what they wondered we looked at the wondering on the site: http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/pink-flamingos.  

Our book today was Supermarket by Kathleen Krull.  Students were excited to learn more about how food gets to the grocery store and were eager to share what they know about going to the grocery store.

Fiction vs. Non Fiction

To start the day I read one of my favorite books Stellaluna.  Before I even introduced the books students were asking if it was a fiction or a non-fiction book!  I told them that I was going to read it and then we would decide.  There was a little bit of debate as students some students argued that the book was about real animals so it had to be non-fiction while others realized that the birds and bats in this story were talking.  At the end we all agreed it was a made up story so it had to be a fiction book.

After Music we went to the woods were it was much less wet than the playground.  Many students continued to work on structures started by Mr. D's and Mrs. Spinner's classes who go to the woods on Wednesday.

A large part of the afternoon was working on writing.  Many more students chose to work on their first booklet.  Students are writing on a variety of topics that they know a lot about such as volcanoes, their pets, their families and dinosaurs!

Wiggly Worms and Warm Weather!

It was so nice to see the sun shining today.  While it was very wet and muddy this morning, we did get outside this afternoon and took a little walk around the neighborhood before we played on the playground.  During Math this morning we did a fun measuring activity: each student was given a green strip of paper and their job was to make a 'worm.'  After the worms were created we worked together to arrange them on a piece of paper from shortest to longest. A student arranged his worm in a square pattern (cutting it up and taping it together) and this was a great real life example of an object that was BIGGER (took up more space) than the others.   Students were able to explain that while it was bigger it wasn't LONGER when you lined up the endpoints.

Yoga, Volcanoes and New Writing Folders!

After a little bit of outside play this morning, I read the book I am Yoga.  Several students shared that they have taken part of a Yoga/Dance class before or did some Yoga in preschool.  One student thought that it would be an excellent idea to teach the class some moves a way to work on focusing and calming our bodies.  It is always wonderful to see students take initiative and share their interests and skills with others!

In Math we played a partner measuring game, flipping a square with an L for longer and an L for shorter.  Each partner chose a cut straw from a cup and whoever built the longest straw structure won!

In Reader's Workshop I read a non-fiction book An Island Grows by Lola Schaefer and students were very interested in learning how volcanic islands 'grow' which led us to research further!  Students learned that volcanic deep below the ocean erupt and magma flows out which eventually hardens into big rocks that can form islands.

In Writer's Workshop I introduced new booklets to the class.  Students can continue to work in their writing and drawing journal or choose a new 5 page booklet with or without lines to write a continuous stories.  Many students chose a booklet and were excited to write their stories down - several asking for more time when the day was over!

Happy New Year!

Wow - it is hard to believe that it is already January 2017!  It is incredible to observe how much growth kindergarteners have made since September.  We began our morning outside and then had a bit of a longer Morning Meeting reconnecting, sharing one thing we did over the break and introducing a new way to work on self-regulation.  A big part of Kindergarten is learning how to manage yourself both independently and with your peers and sometimes this is hard.  The Alert program compares your body to an engine sometimes the engine is running slow, sometimes it is just right (read to learn!) and sometimes it is running too fast.  We started to generate a list of what we can do to self regulate and get our bodies just right some suggestions today were - take a quiet walk around the classroom if it is hard to sit still, go get a sip of water or do 10 quiet jumps.  Over the week we will create a list of things we can do to make our bodies ready to learn.  This is especially important as Kindergarten begins to take on more learning in the new year!

In Math we started our third module on measurement - a really fun one!  The Unit Launched with emphasizing the importance of lining up what we are measuring on an endpoint in order to compare objects using the words shorter, taller, longer versus bigger or smaller.   As a whole group students chose an object and then we worked to line them up from shortest to longest.  It was a fun activity with lots of questioning and noticing!   

Happy Monday!

Since the start of the New Year Kindergarten has been spending a lot of time working on identifying what makes their engine or body feel 'just right.'  Last week I took suggestions for what Kindergarten might like in a new "Calm and Relaxing Area" (they named it) and thanks to the generous PTO was able to buy some of these items.  The most exciting one being a bean bag chair!  This morning we were able to open up this area where students will be able to go and choose a sensory activity to get their body just right for learning - some ideas from students: drawing, looking at a book, using clay, doing a puzzle and sitting and thinking of something funny or beautiful.  It never ceases to amaze me how students are able to identify what works for them and what doesn't.  We talked about how we can use our 5 senses to get our bodies just right and what might work for you may not work for someone else.  We are all trying really hard to refer to these items as tools vs. toys because tools are something that help us.  This afternoon we all signed a sensory contract emphasizing the importance of these tools helping us to pay attention and calm our bodies versus being a distraction!  I anticipate that some students may share this information with you so wanted to provide some background, as always please reach out if you have any questions!

In Math we continue to work on measurement.  Today students worked in groups of 4 to measure different pieces of tape placed around the classroom with cubes.  Students then switched and checked to see if the group was accurate in measuring the tape with cubes.  A few groups were off by one cube and as a whole group we worked to problem solve.  Then we sorted the lengths from shortest to longest using the number of cubes to help us!

In Reader's Workshop we finished a Non-Fiction book called Ice Bear by Nicola Davies.  We learned some interesting facts about Polar Bears so be sure to ask your child what he or she learned!

Measurement and Non-Fiction Texts!

It was a busy Wednesday in Kindergarten.  This morning Mrs. Guilmette visited for Guidance and read the book The Crayon Box that Talked emphasizing harmony through diversity.  Students were first tasked to draw a picture with only one color (boring) and then a picture with as many colors as they wanted!

After Guidance we brainstormed how we could successfully measure ourselves with a piece of yarn again emphasizing the importance of an endpoint and making sure that we stand straight and tall. Students then lined up from shortest to tallest working together to figure out who is shorter and taller and problem solving when necessary.  We then attached our strings to a cutout of our faces and hung them in the hallway!

This afternoon Reader's Workshop began with looking at non-fiction texts and sharing what we noticed about the different topics of non-fiction.  So often students think that non-fiction texts are only about animals but today we found some non-fiction texts about animals, plants, the seasons and going to the supermarket.  Our Reader's Workshop time was cut a little short due to the excitement (?) of some ants eating some snack that wasn't quite picked up.  This led to an important conversation about the importance of cleaning up after one another.