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.