An overdue post!

We have been BUSY the past week with our "Red Clover" week. The Red Clover Book Award is designed for children in elementary. Each year thousands of Vermont children read the 10 nominated picture books and vote for their favorite in the spring. The award has been handed out annually since 1997.  Students K-5 are split into 10 different drops and each teacher at Smith is reading one of the 10 books and completing a short activity.  At the end of the week students will vote on their favorite book.  I am reading the book Malala's Magic Pencil the story of Malala Yousafzai who defied the Taliban in  Pakistan and fought for girls to attend school through the power of her voice and her writing.  Last week on "Stuffy Day" the stuffies had some fun while Kindergarteners were at P.E...

Happy First Day of Spring!

This morning we began our first chapter book of the year Gooseberry Park by Cynthia Rylant.  I will be reading a chapter a day to get students used to hearing chapter books being read aloud.  Gooseberry Park  is the story of a an unusual friendship.  Most dogs chase squirrels but not Kona.  He is best friends with a squirrel named Stumpy.  Today we met Stumpy and learned that she likes to collect things and that she is also expecting babies!  We are excited to "meet" Stumpy's babies.

Goodbye Winter...?

Kindergarten is excited for Spring to arrive tomorrow.  Hopefully warmer weather is on the horizon!  Our poem for this week is called Goodbye Winter:

This afternoon I read the book Mama Miti about Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathi.  Wangari was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her work supporting women in Kenya.  Wangari helped to plant over 30 million trees in Kenya and surrounding African countries.  We discussed that in addition to making oxygen for us to breath trees are important because they: provide shelter for animals, fire for firewood, timber for buildings, food for people and animals, and even medicine for cows!  During Math this afternoon we continued working on ten numbers with a ten frame.  We talked about how teen numbers are 1 group of 10 and some more.  We worked on counting on from 10.    

 

Snow Fort!

I was surprised this morning to see how much snow had fallen.  Kindergarten was excited because it was perfect snowman snow!  Kindergarteners worked hard at morning recess to roll BIG snowballs and put them together to make a "snow fort."  We decided to take advantage of the milder weather and returned back outside before lunch and had our read aloud in the snow fort with Mrs. Tourin's class.  I read a favorite, Thomas' Snowsuit by Robert Munsch.  It was great fun!

New Books!

This week some students have brought in books to share.  I LOVE books and it is always exciting to be introduced to new books and authors.  Today one of our Kindergarteners not only brought in a book but she read it to the class which was super exciting! 

Back to the Woods!

We have not been to the woods in quite a few weeks due the weather so it was wonderful to get back out there this morning! 

This afternoon we started new Math Stations.  We will now be doing Math in the afternoon instead of before lunch.  We played garbage with cards 11-20, a dice game called "Tenzi" (google it it's fun and you can just use any 10 dice!), and started counting collections.   

New Literacy Groups

This morning after Guidance we started some new mixed Literacy Groups with Mrs. Tourin's class.  Students are split into different groups and will be working on targeted skills such as letter identification, letter formation, letter sounds, word building and reading.  We will be doing these groups four days a week Monday-Thursday from 10:30-11:00.

This afternoon we also met with Mrs. Tourin's class to read a book and do some thinking around why old logs are important?  We are hopeful that we will be able to get out to the woods tomorrow.  We also enjoyed looking at a chipmunk webcam https://explore.org/livecams/forest/chipmunk-log (there's also a lot of other great nature webcams here).  If you watch long enough you may be able to catch a glimpse of a chipmunk - we did but he exited the camera quickly!

Happy March!

It is hard to believe that is already March!  It has been a busy couple of days back in Kindergarten.  Yesterday we read the March Chicken Soup with Rice Poem and started some new Literacy Stations.  Kindergarten was excited to start use the app Raz Kids to listen to and read leveled books.  You can access Raz Kids at home - there should be login information in your child's folder.

March

In March the wind

Blows down the door

And spills my soup

Upon the floor.

It laps it up

And roars for more.

Blowing once

Blowing twice

Blowing chicken soup

With rice.