Math Stairs and Todd Parr

Today we "met" Todd Parr.  Todd Parr is one of my favorite authors and illustrators.  His book teach us all to be who we are, that it's okay to be different and the importance of being kind.  It's important for children to see themselves as readers and writers and to find mentors in the book we read.  Todd Parr's books are not only relatable for children but pass on some amazing messages.  Today we watched this video and read the book It's Okay to be Different. We will continue reading Todd's books for the next few weeks.

In Math today I introduced the concept of "one more," through 'math stairs.' Making a stair of cubes going from 1-10.  After discussing what we noticed students practiced the language of "one more than ___ is ___," and we played a game where we rolled the dice and told the number that was one more. 

Woods and a Math Play!

I apologize for no post yesterday but here are a few pictures from our day:

Yesterday during Math I worked with a small group to put on a play!  First we arranged large number cards in order from 1-10 in a path and then students acted out a math story about walking to a birthday party as I read the story.  It was quite fun!  During play some students also used straws and paint to blow paint on a piece of paper.  We are going to cut these out and add googley eyes and make them into monsters.

Today we began morning meeting with a compliment circle.  We talked about how a compliment is when you say something nice that you like or appreciate about someone else.  It was a great way to start our morning with kindness and think about what we appreciate about our classroom community.

Students noticed that the woods are changing!  The ground is completely covered with leaves.  After the woods and lunch we read our second to last book in our Ezra Jack Keats' Author Study: My Dog is Lost.  Students quickly noticed something different about this book - it had an illustrator that was not Keats.  We talked about how sometimes two people can work on a book together and maybe this is something that Kindergartners will do in the future.

We are writers!

This morning we extended our writer's workshop time.  We spent a lot of time thinking about how characters are drawn in books.  Kindergarten is easily able to spot Peter in Ezra Jack Keat's books because his skin color, his hair and his clothes typically look the same.  Some Kindergarteners also noticed that in different books Peter is wearing different clothes so it must be a different day.  We connected this knowledge from our mentor texts to our own writing thinking about making the people we write about look as realistic as possible.  Kindergarten then had time to work on their own stories focusing on drawing people how they look.

During Math we worked on number writing, matching ten frames to numerals and then switched classes from 10:30-11:00 like we did last week.  Kindergarteners who worked with me worked on Making Ten with a partner.

During Reader's Workshop our book was Apartment 3 by Ezra Jack Keats.  The main character in this book, Sam was trying to 'solve the mystery' of which apartment the harmonica was coming from.  After Reader's Workshop it was time for Library and then some more outside time on this beautiful day!

A Busy Day!

It was such a busy Monday in Kindergarten that I realized that I did not take any photos today!  This morning we practiced writing the lowercase letters l and h, had some time to play, practiced writing names and then it was time for math.  Our Math time was cut short due to a lock down drill but most Kindergartners did an excellent job staying quiet and calm during the drill.  In Math we have been working on proper letter formation and decomposing numbers to 10.  Later this week we will be working on identifying the number that is "one more."

We are finishing up our Ezra Jack Keat's Author Study this week.  Today we read the book Dreams.  Many students chose to draw pictures of their dreams in their sketch books during Reader's Workshop.  I also introduced a new poem: Fall Leaves which brought some laughter into the classroom:

Fall Leaves

One is orange.
Two are brown.
Three look yellow on the ground.

Three are green.
Two bright red.
One just fell upon your head!

Kindergarten has enjoyed these weekly poems and are beginning to be able to read them independently after joining in shared reading.  One of our literacy stations is listening to a recording of me reading the poem and then illustrating a paper version.

A Rainy but Fun Day in Kindergarten!

We began our day by looking closely at a stack of books and sorting them into piles by author.  Kindergarteners were able to do this even without being familiar with the book.  This led to a discussion on author's craft or style.  It is easy to recognize a book because all authors and illustrators usually use similar styles in all of their book.  After this we charted what we notice about Ezra Jack Keat's as a writer.  Kindergarten noticed that the characters in Keat's books are the same, the books use the same character names, the characters are drawn to look like real people, and all of the books we have read take place in a city neighborhood.  I called this the setting of the books.  What wonderful noticing!  

We were unable to get out into the woods today due to rain but that didn't stop us from having some rainy day fun!  We repurposed some cardboard tubes from an earlier project into a "maze" to drop pom pom balls through.  Kindergarteners worked together to build two very creative mazes on the wall and were successful in getting the pom poms to the bottom.  It was really a lot of fun!

Other Kindergarteners chose to use water color paints and painted some beautiful pictures!  We ended the day in Mrs. Slack's classroom and were able to listen to a silly book by Robert Munsch.

We have one more image to add tomorrow but I thought I would share our "Journey of a Leaf Book" as it done so far: Journey of a Leaf .  Click on the link to see the AMAZING work of Kindergarten! They are so proud of what they created and we will be sharing at Community Meeting tomorrow.  

A Beautiful Day

This morning we read the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs after several requests from various students.  After enjoying this book together it was time to play and then for Mrs. Guilmette to join us for Guidance.  During Guidance Mrs. Guilmette talked about what bullying is and how to report bullying to an adult if it is occurring.  Next it was time for math and we worked in small groups to decompose the numbers 7 and 8.  After that some students practiced rolling and writing numerals while others used the computer or iPad to practice subitizing with a ten frame.

During Reader's Workshop we read another book by Ezra Jack Keat's Pet Show.  Students noticed that Peter and his sister Susie are getting much older and are making new friends in the neighborhood.  Tomorrow we are going to start thinking about and charting what we notice about Ezra Jack Keats as an author.  The more books we read during this author study the more we are able to notice about Keat's style and craft as a writer.  These authors then become mentors for student writing in addition to books we recognize and love to read over and over again!  Soon we will be moving on to studying the work of another author Todd Parr.  We ended the day with Art and a Fire Drill.

The Journey of a Leaf...

This morning we went outside and collected leaves for a project we are working on.  Kindergarten is creating their own leaf person or animal to be made into a video to be shared at our community meeting on Friday!  Today many kindergarteners made a leaf creation, then took a photograph of it and added audio.  Be on the lookout for this finished video book later this week - it's pretty cool!

In Math we decomposed the number 6 today finding six different ways to break up the number six.  On Tuesday we are doing something special during Math Intervention time - we are switching classrooms! Students will be split between the three kindergarten classes on Tuesday from 10:30-11:00.  This will allow for more (fun) and differentiated instruction as well as time with other Kindergarten friends and teachers!  I heard that some bowling was happening in Mr. D's class today.

This afternoon we read Goggles by Ezra Jack Keats which featured Peter, Willie and Peter's friend Archie.