Thursday in the Woods!

It was a beautiful day in the woods today!  We began with a meeting and I read the story Yellow Time by Lauren Stringer.  We discussed what changes will be happening now that it is Fall and are looking forward to when the leaves change color.  While in the woods, we collected some long sticks which we started to paint today and will continue to decorate tomorrow.  The sticks will be hung in our classroom as a natural display for student work.

Dragons LOVE Tacos

In honor of National Taco Day, I read a favorite book Dragons Love Tacos in our new outdoor classroom!  Thanks to a generous donation from a family, we have beautiful benches outside that can be utilized as an outdoor classroom.

This morning we had our first Fire Drill and Kindergarten did an AMAZING job getting outside quickly and safely!

I read the book The Watcher by Jeanette Winter the story of Jane Goodall's Life with Chimps and we talked about how we can all be watchers like Jane who quietly watched and waited until the chimps were comfortable with her presence.

We also worked on writing capital E and the number 1 properly - making sure we start at the top!

Busy Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!  Mrs. Guilmette visited for Guidance this morning and this afternoon Kindergarten had PE with Ms. Souliere.  Together we wrote some sentences about what we like about Kindergarten so far.  Some of our sentences were:

We like to stack rocks. (a math center to count how many rocks you can stack)
We like creation station.  (one of our literacy stations is creating something with recycled materials)
We like making letters in the sand.  (another literacy station is 'writing' letters in a box of sand)
We like math games. (a favorite this week is rolling a dice and covering how many on a squirrel)

It's always nice to get feedback on thing that students enjoy and are going well!

We also listened to this song from Dr. Jean and practiced writing numbers with white boards.

Happy October!

It was an awesome Monday in Kindergarten!  This morning was our first day of literacy centers during Reader's Workshop.  Kindergarten did an excellent job staying with their groups and working hard the whole time.  Some of our centers were: illustrating our poem of the week Fall Leaves, using magnetic letters to 'write' our names, using salt trays to practice 'writing' uppercase letters, and reading with a buddy.  Throughout the week Kindergarteners will get to go to all stations, some twice and next week the stations will change.

Our poem this week:

Fall Leaves

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

Three are green,
Two bright red,
One just fell
Upon my head!

During Math we thought of strategies to sort and count a bag of cubes.  Kindergarten also went to two math stations today.  A favorite math station was figuring out how many rocks they could stack!  Last week we read Ten Apples on Top a story of animals who stack apples up on top of their heads.  Kindergarten used rocks to see how many they could stack and then drew a picture and wrote how many. 

Thursday in the Woods!

Thursdays are always super busy as we go to the woods, have music and PE!  This morning in the woods we were able to find some chestnuts and talked about what they look like and why they might have a spiky outside.

This afternoon I read A Bus Called Heaven by Bob Graham about a neighborhood who comes together to care for an abandoned bus.  We had a wonderful conversation about working as a community, making sure to keep things beautiful so others can use them and how sometimes people donate things like food or clothes that don't fit to people who need them.  It is a great read!

Our Music teacher, Ms. Schwerin has been teaching Kindergarten the Vermont Kids Anthem from: http://www.letsgrowkids.org/kids-out-loud

It's an AWESOME song!

Apple Picking!

We had a GREAT day apple picking at Allenholm Farm today!  Thank you so much to the parents who joined us on this hot late September day.  Kindergarteners said their favorite parts were: petting the animals, eating the apples, playing in the park and riding in the tractor.  When we got back to school we relaxed, ate more apples and virtually traveled to Mexico via National Geographic Kids: Are We There Yet!  These are great short videos narrated by kids who travel the globe visiting different landmarks and exploring different cultures: Are We There Yet?

A HOT Monday

It certainly does not feel like a Fall day today!  We went outside for morning recess but stayed in this afternoon as it was so hot out.  This morning Kindergarteners got their Writing and Drawing books!  We talked about how we were only going to use one page and tell one part of our stories so that we could really focus on including all of the details.  There were lots of great stories started: picking up my cat from the humane society, going to the park with my cousins and going swimming a the beach to name a few!  I look forward to reading more stories by Kindergarten Authors.

During Reader's Workshop I read The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree  and we talked about how apple trees change over the seasons.  Kindergarten also worked to illustrate their second poem in their poetry books "Apples, Apples."

Apples, Apples

Apples juicy,

Apples round,

On the tree or on the ground.

Apples yellow,

Apples red.

Apple pie and juice and bread!

Apples crunchy,

Apples sweet.

Apples are so good to eat!