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.

Measurement and Mo Willems!

This week we have been working on measurement and all things Mo Willems!  We started making a chart of the different craft choices Mo Willems uses in his books.  We discussed how authors and illustrators make choices about how they want to tell or show the reader information.  Mo Willems does a lot of different things in his books such as add speech bubbles, thought bubbles, big bold words, or draw multiple characters or body parts to show movement. We've also had fun making Piggie and Elephant puppets and measuring our friends and items in the classroom using cubes and strips of paper.

We've been busy in Kindergarten!

A rare double post day (because I forgot to hit publish last Thursday - whoops!). Today during Math we had some fun with measuring.  We went out into the hall and found things that were longer and shorter than a ruler, one foot.  Then we came back into the classroom and students were given a random object and worked together to line them up from shortest to longest.  One thing that was tricky was making sure we lined up the endpoints so that we got a correct measurement.

Also below are some of the AMAZING shape creations students created last week.  They are all on display in the hallway outside of our classroom.

100 Days of Kindergarten!

Last Thursday was the 100th day of Kindergarten!! We used teamwork and 100 cups to make a structure, rolled a die to 100 and made necklaces with 100 pieces of cereal!  I also took pictures of students using an app, aging booth, to make them look '100 years old!' It was a fun day.

Measurement and Polar Bear Cam!

Yesterday we began our next math unit on Measurement.  Today students were given a piece of yarn and worked with a partner to find things in our classroom that were longer than or shorter than the yarn.  Students recorded and then shared their findings.

This afternoon I read the book A Pair of Polar Bears by Joanne Ryder.  A story about two polar bear orphans who were rescued in Alaska and brought to the San Diego Zoo.  The two polar bears named Kalluuk and Tatqiq are still at the San Diego Zoo.  We enjoyed watching them this afternoon on a live webcam: Live Polar Bear Cam!