Monday, May 30, 2011
Learning the month of May!
Dear Kindergarten Families,
I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day and you had time to enjoy the weather! Thanks to all of you who came to the zoo field trip and to our afternoon to visit kindergarten with the music program and math games. The children had a great time "Showing off" all that they have learned this school year. Here are some important dates as your child's kindergarten year comes to a close.
May 30 No School: Memorial day
June 1 Summer Library Program in the IMC
June 2 Variety Show in the morning
June 3 Field Trip to First Stage Theater: Please have your child bring a bag lunch with a drink as we will be eating before we go (hot lunch will not be available for kindergarten)
June 6 Variety Show in the afternoon
June 8th Last day of school: Fun activity morning which will include bubbles, sidewalk chalk and kickball ( I would love to have some parents help out with this fun morning at 9:30-10:40. Let me know if you will be able to help!)
Ice cream beach party in the afternoon: I will bring the ice cream and I would like some families to donate one of the following: 30 bowls, 30 spoons, chocolate topping, caramel topping, strawberry topping, marchino cherries, sprinkles, plain M & M's. Please let me know what you will be able to donate so that we don't have double of anything. I would also love to have several parents help scoop ice cream at 2:20pm. Let me know if you would be available to help out. Thanks!
June 9th Beginning of summer!!! Keep reading every day this summer!
What we have learned:
Reader's workshop:
*We read several books to help us learn about Earth Day and how to keep our Earth clean.
*We have been reading Charlotte's Web to help us practice visualizing what is happening in the story. We hope to finish the story before the end of the school year.
*We read many different poems during poety unit and each child illustrated and read their own poetry books. These will be great to read over the summer.
*We learned about different reasons that poets write poems.
*We learned that some poems rhyme and some don't.
*We learned that poets write about things they love.
*We voted on our Favorite poem...winner...The Green Queen.
*We sorted words with "Th" and "Sh".
*We sorted words by the amount of syllables they have.
*We continue to work on our stamina and we are up to reading 20 minutes independently.
Writer's Workshop:
*We reviewed what "Voice" is so that we continue to use voice in our writing.
*We read the book First Day Jitter's and wrote about how we felt about our first day of kindergarten.
*We wrote a poem about Earth Day.
*We wrote about books about our Mom's for Mother's day.
*We wrote about our trip to the zoo.
*We continue to work on our stamina while writing independently.
Math:
*We filled in our calendar for May by writing our numbers.
*We solved some Earth day & Mothers' day math addition and subtraction problems.
*We learned about different ways we can add to 8 and 9 using unifix cubes, pattern blocks, stamps and tiles.
*We have been practicing writing addition and subtraction number sentences.
*We learned how to create different shapes using rubber bands and geoboards.
*We practiced measuring using different objects including unifix cubes, markers, etc.
*We made addition flashcards that we can use at home to practice our math facts over the summer.
Science/Social Studies:
*We made and delivered May Day baskets to our Bethesda neighbors.
*We made flower pots for our marigolds and a cover for our Mother's Day books.
*We made a picture of the Earth using watercolors and a coffee filter.
*We learned about the Basic needs of plants and animals by creating and illustrating a book about different animals and plants. We also learned a song to help us learn these basic needs.
*We read a book and wrote about different animals that are oviparous (hatch from eggs). We made the cover for these books by tracing our hands and feet.
*We became very excited about our chicks hatching and everyone held the chicks.
*We became excited when our caterpillars became crysallis (we are hoping for a butterfly any day now).
As the school year comes to a close, I want to thank you for the opportunity to be your child's kindergarten teacher!!! It has been exciting to watch all that your child has learned this year!!! I appreciate all of you that have read the blog. (If you have any thoughts about this blog please let me know)
Have a wonderful summer and I look forward to seeing you all at the Open House in the fall!
Sincerely,
Lori Marshman
I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day and you had time to enjoy the weather! Thanks to all of you who came to the zoo field trip and to our afternoon to visit kindergarten with the music program and math games. The children had a great time "Showing off" all that they have learned this school year. Here are some important dates as your child's kindergarten year comes to a close.
May 30 No School: Memorial day
June 1 Summer Library Program in the IMC
June 2 Variety Show in the morning
June 3 Field Trip to First Stage Theater: Please have your child bring a bag lunch with a drink as we will be eating before we go (hot lunch will not be available for kindergarten)
June 6 Variety Show in the afternoon
June 8th Last day of school: Fun activity morning which will include bubbles, sidewalk chalk and kickball ( I would love to have some parents help out with this fun morning at 9:30-10:40. Let me know if you will be able to help!)
Ice cream beach party in the afternoon: I will bring the ice cream and I would like some families to donate one of the following: 30 bowls, 30 spoons, chocolate topping, caramel topping, strawberry topping, marchino cherries, sprinkles, plain M & M's. Please let me know what you will be able to donate so that we don't have double of anything. I would also love to have several parents help scoop ice cream at 2:20pm. Let me know if you would be available to help out. Thanks!
June 9th Beginning of summer!!! Keep reading every day this summer!
What we have learned:
Reader's workshop:
*We read several books to help us learn about Earth Day and how to keep our Earth clean.
*We have been reading Charlotte's Web to help us practice visualizing what is happening in the story. We hope to finish the story before the end of the school year.
*We read many different poems during poety unit and each child illustrated and read their own poetry books. These will be great to read over the summer.
*We learned about different reasons that poets write poems.
*We learned that some poems rhyme and some don't.
*We learned that poets write about things they love.
*We voted on our Favorite poem...winner...The Green Queen.
*We sorted words with "Th" and "Sh".
*We sorted words by the amount of syllables they have.
*We continue to work on our stamina and we are up to reading 20 minutes independently.
Writer's Workshop:
*We reviewed what "Voice" is so that we continue to use voice in our writing.
*We read the book First Day Jitter's and wrote about how we felt about our first day of kindergarten.
*We wrote a poem about Earth Day.
*We wrote about books about our Mom's for Mother's day.
*We wrote about our trip to the zoo.
*We continue to work on our stamina while writing independently.
Math:
*We filled in our calendar for May by writing our numbers.
*We solved some Earth day & Mothers' day math addition and subtraction problems.
*We learned about different ways we can add to 8 and 9 using unifix cubes, pattern blocks, stamps and tiles.
*We have been practicing writing addition and subtraction number sentences.
*We learned how to create different shapes using rubber bands and geoboards.
*We practiced measuring using different objects including unifix cubes, markers, etc.
*We made addition flashcards that we can use at home to practice our math facts over the summer.
Science/Social Studies:
*We made and delivered May Day baskets to our Bethesda neighbors.
*We made flower pots for our marigolds and a cover for our Mother's Day books.
*We made a picture of the Earth using watercolors and a coffee filter.
*We learned about the Basic needs of plants and animals by creating and illustrating a book about different animals and plants. We also learned a song to help us learn these basic needs.
*We read a book and wrote about different animals that are oviparous (hatch from eggs). We made the cover for these books by tracing our hands and feet.
*We became very excited about our chicks hatching and everyone held the chicks.
*We became excited when our caterpillars became crysallis (we are hoping for a butterfly any day now).
As the school year comes to a close, I want to thank you for the opportunity to be your child's kindergarten teacher!!! It has been exciting to watch all that your child has learned this year!!! I appreciate all of you that have read the blog. (If you have any thoughts about this blog please let me know)
Have a wonderful summer and I look forward to seeing you all at the Open House in the fall!
Sincerely,
Lori Marshman
Monday, April 18, 2011
Painting Party
Examples of Hats for our Spring Hat parade
Lori
Happy Spring (maybe) but Happy learning!
Dear Kindergarten Parents,
It is hard to believe that spring break is almost here! I have heard several stories about all the fun activities your children will be doing with you during spring break! Enjoy this special time with your child and hopefully the weather will cooperate! It is also hard to believe that as of today we only have 30 school days left of the school year. Where did the time go?! I look forward to seeing you this Thursday as we celebrate the amazing reading and writing that your child has learned this year. I get so excited this time of the year when I see all that the children have learned!!! It just amazes me what a five and six year old can do! I hope you will enjoy our author's celebration and spring hat parade. If you are unable to come please be sure to have your child read the book that they wrote and illustrated to you and everybody you know. They have worked so hard on it and you can see so much of what they have learned about writing this year.
Important dates:
April 21st Authors celebration and spring hat parade at 10:30 until 11:30
April 21st Spring party planned by our room parents 2:15 (bunny hop in gym at 2:50)
April 22-May 1st Spring Break
May 2nd Back to school
May 5-13 Map testing (Please make sure your child is at school during this time)
May 17th Zoo Field Trip (All families are welcome:more information will be coming)
May 24th Our baby chicks will hatch
May 25th Kindergarten concert in the afternoon (families are invited)
May 26th Wellness walk
May27th Raindate for wellness walk
May 30th No School: Memorial day
June 3 Field trip to First Stage to see Miss Nelson is Missing (if you have not turned in the permission slip and money please do so asap)
June 8th Last day of school
What have we been learning:
Reader's workshop:
*we reviewed that we are all author's and illustrators and what that means
*We started our author study about Audrey Wood and read many, many books that she wrote and that her husband or son illustrated
*We made a list of all the books that we read by Audrey Wood
*We compared The Napping House and Quick as a Cricket both by Audrey Wood
*We learned some interesting & fun facts about Audrey Wood and we had a "mock" interview with Audrey Wood (aka Mrs. Marshman)
*We compared and contrasted two different alphabet books by Audrey Wood
*We read the book Piggies and listed all the characters and the words the author used to describe those characters to help us learn about good word choice
*We read The Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and The Big Hungry Bear and came up with words to describe the Mouse and the Bear
*We shared what is our favorite Audrey Wood book and why we like it
*We started to learn about a new author who lives in Milwaukee (Lois Ehlert). We learned some fun and interesting facts about her and we have begun to read some of her books. We really discussed how she illustrates books as she uses many different types of media in her books.
*We shared all of the rhyming bags by guessing which item did not rhyme. Thank you so much for your help with this activity.
Writers Workshop:
*We read the book Grow Flower, Grow by Lisa Bruce. We modeled our book after this book.
*Every day we wrote and illustrated a new page for our book. This included a dedication page and an about the author page. (Our books have at least 7 pages!!! WOW!!!)
*We focused a lot on using good word choice and using voice (writing how we feel) into writing our Grow Flower, Grow books.
*We illustrated the cover to our books.
*We wrote in our plant journals so that we can see how much our plants have grown. We also measure our plants when we do this,
*We wrote about favorite season and included that in our four season book.
Math:
*We reviewed telling time by the hour and half hour. We made our own clocks so that we can practice telling time at home.
*We practiced learning about different ways to add to 6 and 7 and wrote number sentences to help us with this.
*We are learning about greater than and less than by guessing the mystery number of the day.
*We continue to practice learning our coins and the value of the coins.
Social Studies & Science:
*We had our last day with Miss Sara & Miss Heidi from Junior Achievement who taught us so much about coins, how to save money, make money and spend money.
*We learned about the different parts of a plant and we continue to take care of our plants.
*We learned about six different National symbols and what they mean.
*We sorted pictures of items from the four different seasons.
Okay!!! We have been busy learning!!!! I can't wait to see you on Thursday and don't forget to make and send in your kids spring hat.
Sincerely,
Lori Marshman
It is hard to believe that spring break is almost here! I have heard several stories about all the fun activities your children will be doing with you during spring break! Enjoy this special time with your child and hopefully the weather will cooperate! It is also hard to believe that as of today we only have 30 school days left of the school year. Where did the time go?! I look forward to seeing you this Thursday as we celebrate the amazing reading and writing that your child has learned this year. I get so excited this time of the year when I see all that the children have learned!!! It just amazes me what a five and six year old can do! I hope you will enjoy our author's celebration and spring hat parade. If you are unable to come please be sure to have your child read the book that they wrote and illustrated to you and everybody you know. They have worked so hard on it and you can see so much of what they have learned about writing this year.
Important dates:
April 21st Authors celebration and spring hat parade at 10:30 until 11:30
April 21st Spring party planned by our room parents 2:15 (bunny hop in gym at 2:50)
April 22-May 1st Spring Break
May 2nd Back to school
May 5-13 Map testing (Please make sure your child is at school during this time)
May 17th Zoo Field Trip (All families are welcome:more information will be coming)
May 24th Our baby chicks will hatch
May 25th Kindergarten concert in the afternoon (families are invited)
May 26th Wellness walk
May27th Raindate for wellness walk
May 30th No School: Memorial day
June 3 Field trip to First Stage to see Miss Nelson is Missing (if you have not turned in the permission slip and money please do so asap)
June 8th Last day of school
What have we been learning:
Reader's workshop:
*we reviewed that we are all author's and illustrators and what that means
*We started our author study about Audrey Wood and read many, many books that she wrote and that her husband or son illustrated
*We made a list of all the books that we read by Audrey Wood
*We compared The Napping House and Quick as a Cricket both by Audrey Wood
*We learned some interesting & fun facts about Audrey Wood and we had a "mock" interview with Audrey Wood (aka Mrs. Marshman)
*We compared and contrasted two different alphabet books by Audrey Wood
*We read the book Piggies and listed all the characters and the words the author used to describe those characters to help us learn about good word choice
*We read The Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and The Big Hungry Bear and came up with words to describe the Mouse and the Bear
*We shared what is our favorite Audrey Wood book and why we like it
*We started to learn about a new author who lives in Milwaukee (Lois Ehlert). We learned some fun and interesting facts about her and we have begun to read some of her books. We really discussed how she illustrates books as she uses many different types of media in her books.
*We shared all of the rhyming bags by guessing which item did not rhyme. Thank you so much for your help with this activity.
Writers Workshop:
*We read the book Grow Flower, Grow by Lisa Bruce. We modeled our book after this book.
*Every day we wrote and illustrated a new page for our book. This included a dedication page and an about the author page. (Our books have at least 7 pages!!! WOW!!!)
*We focused a lot on using good word choice and using voice (writing how we feel) into writing our Grow Flower, Grow books.
*We illustrated the cover to our books.
*We wrote in our plant journals so that we can see how much our plants have grown. We also measure our plants when we do this,
*We wrote about favorite season and included that in our four season book.
Math:
*We reviewed telling time by the hour and half hour. We made our own clocks so that we can practice telling time at home.
*We practiced learning about different ways to add to 6 and 7 and wrote number sentences to help us with this.
*We are learning about greater than and less than by guessing the mystery number of the day.
*We continue to practice learning our coins and the value of the coins.
Social Studies & Science:
*We had our last day with Miss Sara & Miss Heidi from Junior Achievement who taught us so much about coins, how to save money, make money and spend money.
*We learned about the different parts of a plant and we continue to take care of our plants.
*We learned about six different National symbols and what they mean.
*We sorted pictures of items from the four different seasons.
Okay!!! We have been busy learning!!!! I can't wait to see you on Thursday and don't forget to make and send in your kids spring hat.
Sincerely,
Lori Marshman
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Happy Spring!!! What has been happening...April 3
Dear Kindergarten Families,
It is hard to believe another 2 weeks have past since my last post. Time is sure flying! I sent home the April calendar last week Thursday so please take a look at all the happenings this month but here are some highlights...
*April 13 Early Release at 1:55pm
*April 21 Hat Parade & Author's Celebration at 10:30-11:30 am.
All parents are invited!!! Start thinking about the fun spring hat you would like to make with your child and bring it on this day!!! The children will also be sharing their Grow Flower Grow book that they will be working on writing and illustrating the next couple of weeks. We sure hope you can come and enjoy this special day with your kindergartner!
(Spring Party in the afternoon)
*April 22-May 1 No School-Spring Break
*May 17th Field Trip to zoo:all Families are invited to join us. More information will be coming
*June 3 Field Trip to First Stage to see Miss Nelson is Missing
What we have been learning:
Readers Workshop:
*We have been focusing on learning about how to have a strong retelling. This would include telling the title, the story elements and act like it is a conversation. We practiced with a partner and a stuffed animal with our retellings with some of our favorite stories we have read this year.
*We learned that retelling is telling something again.
*We learned why we retell ...because we love a story and want to think about it again, to remind us of the details of something we care about and to let someone know what happened.
*We focused a lot on the story elements including the characters, setting, problem and solution. Each day this past week we learned about each of these elements.
*We opened several rhyming bags each day and tried to guess the rhyming item. The children loved this activity and thanks for your help with this activity. There will be a new rhyming activity coming home this week.
*We read a nightime book and highlighted all the super words.
*We made a kite and read long "i" and short "i" words to put on our kites.
*We sorted long and short vowel sounds and learned how to "Flip the sound" (meaning to change from the short or long vowel sound) when we are trying to read a new word.
Writers' Workshop:
*We did a lot of non-fiction writing the past two weeks. We wrote about the nighttime and daytime sky and what we see in these two skies.
*We wrote about our five senses and how they relate to the season of spring. We made spring books to go along with this.
*We wrote about the four seasons in regards to the weather and how it is different in each season.
*We learned how to write lists by writing about different things we can do in each season.
Math:
*We sorted and graphed the different coins with a partner.
*We made a coin booklet using coin stamps so that we can learn how to indentify the different stamps.
*We have been practicing writing number sentences using unifix cubes, stamps, tiles and pattern blocks. Each week we focus on a different number where that number is the solution. Two weeks ago we focused on the number 4 and this past week we focused on the number 5. We will continue this until we have focused on the numbers up to 9.
*We solved spring math problems where we draw the picture (Show our work), write the number sentence and the solution.
*We were introduced to the different parts of a clock and we have practiced telling time by the hour and half hour. We also practiced putting events in order by the time.
Social studies & Science:
*We have learned about the differences between the nighttime and day time sky.
*We have been watching our plants grow.
*We have been learning about the four seasons and how they are alike and different especially in regards to the weather.
*We have had our students from Carroll University who volunteer for Junior Achievement teach about the coins and money and how to save money. Each child was given a bank this past Friday.
****Please keep reading with your child on a daily basis. It makes a HUGE difference with your child's reading achievement. Thanks to those of who participate in the book in a bag program and continue to return the books on a regular basis.****
*We will have library later this week as their will be voting in the library on Tuesday. Please have your child return their books by Tuesday but they will not bringing a book home until later this week.
Have a great couple of weeks where we can hopefully enjoy the spring weather!!!
It is hard to believe another 2 weeks have past since my last post. Time is sure flying! I sent home the April calendar last week Thursday so please take a look at all the happenings this month but here are some highlights...
*April 13 Early Release at 1:55pm
*April 21 Hat Parade & Author's Celebration at 10:30-11:30 am.
All parents are invited!!! Start thinking about the fun spring hat you would like to make with your child and bring it on this day!!! The children will also be sharing their Grow Flower Grow book that they will be working on writing and illustrating the next couple of weeks. We sure hope you can come and enjoy this special day with your kindergartner!
(Spring Party in the afternoon)
*April 22-May 1 No School-Spring Break
*May 17th Field Trip to zoo:all Families are invited to join us. More information will be coming
*June 3 Field Trip to First Stage to see Miss Nelson is Missing
What we have been learning:
Readers Workshop:
*We have been focusing on learning about how to have a strong retelling. This would include telling the title, the story elements and act like it is a conversation. We practiced with a partner and a stuffed animal with our retellings with some of our favorite stories we have read this year.
*We learned that retelling is telling something again.
*We learned why we retell ...because we love a story and want to think about it again, to remind us of the details of something we care about and to let someone know what happened.
*We focused a lot on the story elements including the characters, setting, problem and solution. Each day this past week we learned about each of these elements.
*We opened several rhyming bags each day and tried to guess the rhyming item. The children loved this activity and thanks for your help with this activity. There will be a new rhyming activity coming home this week.
*We read a nightime book and highlighted all the super words.
*We made a kite and read long "i" and short "i" words to put on our kites.
*We sorted long and short vowel sounds and learned how to "Flip the sound" (meaning to change from the short or long vowel sound) when we are trying to read a new word.
Writers' Workshop:
*We did a lot of non-fiction writing the past two weeks. We wrote about the nighttime and daytime sky and what we see in these two skies.
*We wrote about our five senses and how they relate to the season of spring. We made spring books to go along with this.
*We wrote about the four seasons in regards to the weather and how it is different in each season.
*We learned how to write lists by writing about different things we can do in each season.
Math:
*We sorted and graphed the different coins with a partner.
*We made a coin booklet using coin stamps so that we can learn how to indentify the different stamps.
*We have been practicing writing number sentences using unifix cubes, stamps, tiles and pattern blocks. Each week we focus on a different number where that number is the solution. Two weeks ago we focused on the number 4 and this past week we focused on the number 5. We will continue this until we have focused on the numbers up to 9.
*We solved spring math problems where we draw the picture (Show our work), write the number sentence and the solution.
*We were introduced to the different parts of a clock and we have practiced telling time by the hour and half hour. We also practiced putting events in order by the time.
Social studies & Science:
*We have learned about the differences between the nighttime and day time sky.
*We have been watching our plants grow.
*We have been learning about the four seasons and how they are alike and different especially in regards to the weather.
*We have had our students from Carroll University who volunteer for Junior Achievement teach about the coins and money and how to save money. Each child was given a bank this past Friday.
****Please keep reading with your child on a daily basis. It makes a HUGE difference with your child's reading achievement. Thanks to those of who participate in the book in a bag program and continue to return the books on a regular basis.****
*We will have library later this week as their will be voting in the library on Tuesday. Please have your child return their books by Tuesday but they will not bringing a book home until later this week.
Have a great couple of weeks where we can hopefully enjoy the spring weather!!!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Dr. Seuss birthday
Learning the month of March!!!
Dear Parents,
Happy Spring, Happy St. Patrick's day and congrats for all the learning that has been happening in kindergarten!!! I apologize that it has been a month since I last posted a blog. Life has been crazy busy since I have three major birthdays in my household this month plus it was report card time. Speaking of report cards, you should have all received them this past Friday so please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
So what have we been doing and learning in kindergarten the last month?! Here are some of the highlights....
Celebrations:
*We celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday on March 1st and read many of his books that week and really focused on rhyming words that week since so many of his books have rhyming words. The children loved all the silly Dr. Seuss characters, especially the Zizzer Zazzer Zuz from Dr. Seuss ABC book.
*We also earned our game day for being kind and respectful. Thanks to all of you who sent in board games and to Mrs. Duffek and Mr.Kellog and several 4th grade students who helped us learn how to play by the rules and take turns. Our next party we are trying to earn is a painting party where Mrs. Marshman will bring out many different kinds of paint and paper so that we can just paint. (Some children thought we would paint the walls, love their sense of humor!)
*We celebrated St. Patrick's Day by trying to catch a leprechaun. We caught his hat and his pants and but not the leprechaun. We did get some leprechaun gold and as one student said that is better than the leprechaun. The leprechaun also made quite a mess in room with our chairs, messing up the numbers on the calendar and leaving some leprechaun dust.
Readers Workshop:
*We have been focusing on learning and practicing reading "long and strong". We went to a first grade class and observed them reading long and strong. Then we made a list of what they did so that we could read like a first grader.
*We practiced picture reading a book and reading the words. We also learned how to "linger" in a book and not to rush through it.
*We learned how to use different voices for different charcaters in our stories to make them more interesting.
*We learned why we can read a book more than once and made a list of the reasons.
*We learned how to be a reading coach when we are reading with someone.
*We learned four different nursery rhymes, found the rhyming words in the nursery rhymes and made our own nursery rhyme book that we can read at home (it should have come home last week)
*We worked with the word families of "an", "ay" & "and" to make different words by chaning the first letter.
*We practiced reading our color words.
*We practiced matching upper and lower case letters.
*We practiced looking at the first, middle and end of word to figure out a new word.
Writers Workshop:
*We wrote a get well card to Mr. Dave (one of our maintenance engineers) since he had back surgery and a birthday message to Alyssa Netke who now lives in Indiana. The children did a great job coming up with their own their ideas of what to write.
*We wrote what would happen if we caught a leprechaun.
*We made a list of what we need to do so that somebody else (like our parents or our teachers) can read our writing.
*We read the a book by Jamie Lee Curtis that introduced us to writing fun and interesting in our stories.
*We continue to write several sentences about one topic.
*We also continue to try to write our super words correctly
Math:
*We practiced writing as many numbers as we could from 1-100.
*We made different Dr. Seuss characters using all the different pattern blocks and then writing down how many blocks we had for each different block.
*We have been learning about the different coins and the value of these coins. We learned a song to help us remember. We used a magnifying glass to investigate what it looks like and then we played a head and tails game with a partner.
*We solved shamrock addition and subtraction problems and we started to write number sentences with addition, subtraction and equal signs.
*We sorted and counted how many marshmallows are in our bag of lucky charms.We wrote down those numbers and then solved some addition problems with our lucky charms.
*We read the story Jack & the Beanstalk and then solved addition problems to help Jack go up the beanstalk.
Science/Social Studies:
*We have two students from Carroll University who volunteer through Junior Achievement who have been teaching us about buying, selling, saving and coins.
*We planted marigold seeds and learned what seeds need to grow.
*We finished our Keeping healthy unit by sorting healthy and junk food, counting and graphing how many teeth our class has lost, making toothbrushes so that we can keep track of how much we brush our teeth at home and reading a book about keeping our teeth healthy.
*We learned about ways to celebrate St. Patrick's day and we made leprechaun faces.
Important dates:
*April 12th Buddy day at 2:30
*April 13th Early Release at 1:55
*April 21st Spring Hat Parade and party
*April 22-May 1 Spring Break-No School
*May 30th No School-Happy Memorial Day
*June 3 Field Trip to see Miss Nelson is Missing at First Stage
*June 8 Last day of school
****We are again in need of more snacks and glue sticks. Please send in a snack for 24 children. In addition, please send in 6 glue sticks for your child and if you are able send in a some extra for other classmates, that would be very much appreciated!!!!**********Since spring is here and we are not sure what the weather may bring please make sure your child is dressed for the weather. This may include boots for quite awhile longer as it is still very, very wet with many puddles on the playground and extra socks for just in case. Thanks so much!****
Happy Spring, Happy St. Patrick's day and congrats for all the learning that has been happening in kindergarten!!! I apologize that it has been a month since I last posted a blog. Life has been crazy busy since I have three major birthdays in my household this month plus it was report card time. Speaking of report cards, you should have all received them this past Friday so please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
So what have we been doing and learning in kindergarten the last month?! Here are some of the highlights....
Celebrations:
*We celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday on March 1st and read many of his books that week and really focused on rhyming words that week since so many of his books have rhyming words. The children loved all the silly Dr. Seuss characters, especially the Zizzer Zazzer Zuz from Dr. Seuss ABC book.
*We also earned our game day for being kind and respectful. Thanks to all of you who sent in board games and to Mrs. Duffek and Mr.Kellog and several 4th grade students who helped us learn how to play by the rules and take turns. Our next party we are trying to earn is a painting party where Mrs. Marshman will bring out many different kinds of paint and paper so that we can just paint. (Some children thought we would paint the walls, love their sense of humor!)
*We celebrated St. Patrick's Day by trying to catch a leprechaun. We caught his hat and his pants and but not the leprechaun. We did get some leprechaun gold and as one student said that is better than the leprechaun. The leprechaun also made quite a mess in room with our chairs, messing up the numbers on the calendar and leaving some leprechaun dust.
Readers Workshop:
*We have been focusing on learning and practicing reading "long and strong". We went to a first grade class and observed them reading long and strong. Then we made a list of what they did so that we could read like a first grader.
*We practiced picture reading a book and reading the words. We also learned how to "linger" in a book and not to rush through it.
*We learned how to use different voices for different charcaters in our stories to make them more interesting.
*We learned why we can read a book more than once and made a list of the reasons.
*We learned how to be a reading coach when we are reading with someone.
*We learned four different nursery rhymes, found the rhyming words in the nursery rhymes and made our own nursery rhyme book that we can read at home (it should have come home last week)
*We worked with the word families of "an", "ay" & "and" to make different words by chaning the first letter.
*We practiced reading our color words.
*We practiced matching upper and lower case letters.
*We practiced looking at the first, middle and end of word to figure out a new word.
Writers Workshop:
*We wrote a get well card to Mr. Dave (one of our maintenance engineers) since he had back surgery and a birthday message to Alyssa Netke who now lives in Indiana. The children did a great job coming up with their own their ideas of what to write.
*We wrote what would happen if we caught a leprechaun.
*We made a list of what we need to do so that somebody else (like our parents or our teachers) can read our writing.
*We read the a book by Jamie Lee Curtis that introduced us to writing fun and interesting in our stories.
*We continue to write several sentences about one topic.
*We also continue to try to write our super words correctly
Math:
*We practiced writing as many numbers as we could from 1-100.
*We made different Dr. Seuss characters using all the different pattern blocks and then writing down how many blocks we had for each different block.
*We have been learning about the different coins and the value of these coins. We learned a song to help us remember. We used a magnifying glass to investigate what it looks like and then we played a head and tails game with a partner.
*We solved shamrock addition and subtraction problems and we started to write number sentences with addition, subtraction and equal signs.
*We sorted and counted how many marshmallows are in our bag of lucky charms.We wrote down those numbers and then solved some addition problems with our lucky charms.
*We read the story Jack & the Beanstalk and then solved addition problems to help Jack go up the beanstalk.
Science/Social Studies:
*We have two students from Carroll University who volunteer through Junior Achievement who have been teaching us about buying, selling, saving and coins.
*We planted marigold seeds and learned what seeds need to grow.
*We finished our Keeping healthy unit by sorting healthy and junk food, counting and graphing how many teeth our class has lost, making toothbrushes so that we can keep track of how much we brush our teeth at home and reading a book about keeping our teeth healthy.
*We learned about ways to celebrate St. Patrick's day and we made leprechaun faces.
Important dates:
*April 12th Buddy day at 2:30
*April 13th Early Release at 1:55
*April 21st Spring Hat Parade and party
*April 22-May 1 Spring Break-No School
*May 30th No School-Happy Memorial Day
*June 3 Field Trip to see Miss Nelson is Missing at First Stage
*June 8 Last day of school
****We are again in need of more snacks and glue sticks. Please send in a snack for 24 children. In addition, please send in 6 glue sticks for your child and if you are able send in a some extra for other classmates, that would be very much appreciated!!!!**********Since spring is here and we are not sure what the weather may bring please make sure your child is dressed for the weather. This may include boots for quite awhile longer as it is still very, very wet with many puddles on the playground and extra socks for just in case. Thanks so much!****
Monday, February 21, 2011
Feb. 21 What have we been learning-lots!!!
Happy Monday! As I am sitting here at jury duty (hence why I am absent today, tomorrow and possibly Wednesday if I get on a case), I thought it would be a great time to catch you up on what's been happening in Kindergarten. It is hard to believe we are almost 2/3 of way through the school year. Where did the time go! Even though the snow is still flying outside, I am quite excited by all the learning that is happening inside!
Readers Workshop:
*Since the Florentine Opera came to our school we read two different versions of the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff and wrote about the setting, characters and what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story.
*We continued and now finished our non-fiction unit. We are now able to identify the table of contents, the glossary, index and we can tell you "fun facts" when we read a non-fiction book.
*We started to learn about the Daily 4 which will be a new way that our Readers' Workshop will sound and look like. The first part of the Daily 4 is to read to self which we have been doing for a long time but now we are trying to get better at it. This includes reviewing that to be a strong reader you must practice everyday, to find a good spot to sit and to have good stamina so that you can read the whole 15 minutes that we need to do in kindergarten this time of the year (by the end of kindergarten we need to read for 20 minutes).
*We were introduced to the second part of Daily 4 which is to read with someone. We have also been doing this for quite awhile but we are also trying to get much better at this by sitting Elbow, Elbow, Knee to Knee, reviewing the different ways to read a book with someone and making sure that both children can see the book.
*We have started to do more word work in our morning message and in our word work lesssons. This has included reviewing about syllables in words, learning to look at the beginning, middle and ending sounds of words, identifying the long vowels sounds in words, and sorting our super words in several different ways.
Writer's Workshop:
*For our 100 day party we wrote what we would want a 100 of and we would not want a 100 of and drew a picture of our 100 year old self. This pages have been placed in a book that will be rotating to all the children to take home and read with you.
*We wrote prompt about what a fun thing we have done with a family member or a friend and how we felt about it.
*We have practicing putting more details in our pictures because soon we will need more details in our writing.
*We have been continuing to learn to write neatly which includes writing our letters on the line, using spaces and putting ending marks.
*We have been been practicing writing the first letter in a sentence with an uppercase letter and the rest with lower case letters.
Math:
*With our 100 day party, we practiced writing the numbers 1-100, counting to 100 by ones and tens, made a 100 activity chart that had 10 items and 10 of each item which equals 100, made 100 day badges that allowed us to color the numbers by tens.
*For Valentines day, we solved Valentines story problems and graphed, estimated and measured using candy hearts.
*We sorted dominos and played a domino game called domino path that allowed us to count and add the dots on a domino.
Science/Social Studies:
*Made Butterfly Valentines for our families and wrote them a message inside.
*Decorated Valentines bags to put our Valentines in.
*We read books about healthy me including books about the importance of heatlhy eating, keeping clean and exercising. We have started to make our own book to help us write fun facts about each of these areas of being healthy.
Important dates:
Thanks to all of you who came to conferences!!! It is always great to meet with each of you to discuss how your child is doing! We had 100% attendance!Yeah!
Thanks to those who donated food and non-pershiable items for our 100 day food drive. Our class was one that donated over 100 items. We had a total of 124 items. WAY TO GO!!!
Feb. 24 and 25 No school for students!
March 2 Read across America day (AKA Dr. Seuss birthday)
March 8 end of the trimester
***Please continue to have your child wear their boots and snowpants to school and bring an extra pair of socks. It gets really wet outside so all of this will help them stay dry when they are done with recess.****
***We use hand santizer so if anyone is willing to donate a bottle of hand sanitizer I would greatly appreciate it. In addition, if you would be willing to donate some extra glue sticks that will be used by a class member that would also be much appreciated. Thank you for all you do!!!
*Books in a bag will start coming this week so please read, read, read with your child!!!!
Enjoyt the shoveling and spring will be here soon (I think)!!!!
Lori Marshman
Readers Workshop:
*Since the Florentine Opera came to our school we read two different versions of the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff and wrote about the setting, characters and what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story.
*We continued and now finished our non-fiction unit. We are now able to identify the table of contents, the glossary, index and we can tell you "fun facts" when we read a non-fiction book.
*We started to learn about the Daily 4 which will be a new way that our Readers' Workshop will sound and look like. The first part of the Daily 4 is to read to self which we have been doing for a long time but now we are trying to get better at it. This includes reviewing that to be a strong reader you must practice everyday, to find a good spot to sit and to have good stamina so that you can read the whole 15 minutes that we need to do in kindergarten this time of the year (by the end of kindergarten we need to read for 20 minutes).
*We were introduced to the second part of Daily 4 which is to read with someone. We have also been doing this for quite awhile but we are also trying to get much better at this by sitting Elbow, Elbow, Knee to Knee, reviewing the different ways to read a book with someone and making sure that both children can see the book.
*We have started to do more word work in our morning message and in our word work lesssons. This has included reviewing about syllables in words, learning to look at the beginning, middle and ending sounds of words, identifying the long vowels sounds in words, and sorting our super words in several different ways.
Writer's Workshop:
*For our 100 day party we wrote what we would want a 100 of and we would not want a 100 of and drew a picture of our 100 year old self. This pages have been placed in a book that will be rotating to all the children to take home and read with you.
*We wrote prompt about what a fun thing we have done with a family member or a friend and how we felt about it.
*We have practicing putting more details in our pictures because soon we will need more details in our writing.
*We have been continuing to learn to write neatly which includes writing our letters on the line, using spaces and putting ending marks.
*We have been been practicing writing the first letter in a sentence with an uppercase letter and the rest with lower case letters.
Math:
*With our 100 day party, we practiced writing the numbers 1-100, counting to 100 by ones and tens, made a 100 activity chart that had 10 items and 10 of each item which equals 100, made 100 day badges that allowed us to color the numbers by tens.
*For Valentines day, we solved Valentines story problems and graphed, estimated and measured using candy hearts.
*We sorted dominos and played a domino game called domino path that allowed us to count and add the dots on a domino.
Science/Social Studies:
*Made Butterfly Valentines for our families and wrote them a message inside.
*Decorated Valentines bags to put our Valentines in.
*We read books about healthy me including books about the importance of heatlhy eating, keeping clean and exercising. We have started to make our own book to help us write fun facts about each of these areas of being healthy.
Important dates:
Thanks to all of you who came to conferences!!! It is always great to meet with each of you to discuss how your child is doing! We had 100% attendance!Yeah!
Thanks to those who donated food and non-pershiable items for our 100 day food drive. Our class was one that donated over 100 items. We had a total of 124 items. WAY TO GO!!!
Feb. 24 and 25 No school for students!
March 2 Read across America day (AKA Dr. Seuss birthday)
March 8 end of the trimester
***Please continue to have your child wear their boots and snowpants to school and bring an extra pair of socks. It gets really wet outside so all of this will help them stay dry when they are done with recess.****
***We use hand santizer so if anyone is willing to donate a bottle of hand sanitizer I would greatly appreciate it. In addition, if you would be willing to donate some extra glue sticks that will be used by a class member that would also be much appreciated. Thank you for all you do!!!
*Books in a bag will start coming this week so please read, read, read with your child!!!!
Enjoyt the shoveling and spring will be here soon (I think)!!!!
Lori Marshman
Valentines Day
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Environmental Education Field Trip
Oh "Deer"! What great looking kids!
Touching a live turtle!
Making our bead necklaces. What did you learn?
What we are learning: Feb. 6th
Happy Super Bowl Sunday!!! I hope you are enjoying a great day with family & Friends! It sure has been a snowy week and continues to be as I look outside.
Thanks for continuing to send all of the snow gear that is required for this weather. The children will be allowed to play in the smaller snow banks on the playground but not on the one's on the Pendelton side of our school. Thanks for your understanding in this matter.
*A little reminder to make sure you ask or tell your child what they will be having for lunch the Next day. Several of the children are saying they are either having hot or cold lunch the next day and this information is incorrect. This makes it difficult for our 5th graders who eat last. They might not get the food they asked for. Thanks for your understanding and help with this!
*Our Valentine's day party is on Feb. 14th. A note went home regarding the party and my room parents will be contacting parents about helping out with our party.
What we are learning:
Reading:
*We have been focusing on learning more about nonfiction books. We read many different books about Polar animals and Martin Luther King, Jr..
*We looked at all our non-fiction books that are in our classroom and sorted books between fiction and non-fiction.
*We reviewed why we read non-fiction books. We realized that nonfiction and fiction books look and sound different.
* We also learned that you don't have to start reading non-fiction books from the beginning.
*We reviewed the strategy to check for understanding by reading the book Knuffle Bunny by MoWillems.
*We were introduced to the concept to expand our vocabulary by looking for fun and interesting words. We did this by reading the book Kitten's Full Moon.
*We learned about the reading strategy to cross check which is to make sure the words and the pictures make sense together.
*We learned to look at the beginning sound to figure out unknown words.
*We reviewed ten of our kindergarten high frequency words. We used magnet letters to create these words and we wrote the words on the dry erase board. We also read two poems that had many of these 10 super words and then found them on our SMART board and read them in our poetry binders.
*We have also started to do our morning message on the SMART board. You will notice that those messages are coming home so that you can read them with your child.
Writing:
*We read Owl Moon and listed the details that we heard in the story and reviewed that we need details in our story.
*We wrote a small moment about our princess and pirate day and then they practiced writing their own small moment.
*We learned how to write non-fiction by raeding aboug and writing facts about a polar bear, a walrus and a penguin.
*We did a picture walk through Knuffle Bunny and looked at what different things the author did with the words and the details in the pictures.
*We also noticed that the author of Knuffle Bunny used speech bubbles so some of us tried to use speech bubbles in our writing.
Math:
*We practiced writing our numbers by filling in the missing numbers on the snowflakes.
*We solved polar animal story problems on the smart board and individually.
*We practiced writing our numbers with a polar counting book.
*We continue to play buzz but now we count up to 100.
*We played teen & twenty bingo to help us learn those numbers.
*We learned a money song and our beginning to use to pennies and dimes during calendar time to count how many days we have been in school.
*We practiced estimating many different objects and see how close our smart guess is.
*We learned about numbers that are greater than by playing the card game war.
*We practiced measuring by using links to measure our long jumps and then we graphed our jumps on the SMART Board.
*We played football math by coloring different footballs and counting how many we had of each.
Science/Social Studies:
*We have been learning about Arctic & the Antartica and the animals that live in these two places. We have been making our own non-fiction book about these animals.
*We wrote about living and non-living book. These are shared at conferences.
Important Dates:
Feb. 8 Florentine Opera comes to our school
Feb. 9 100 day party (please bring in canned goods all week for our all school food drive)
Feb. 14 Valentine's day party
Feb. 24 No school for kids-budget inservice day
Feb. 25 No School for everyone-winter break
Thanks for continuing to send all of the snow gear that is required for this weather. The children will be allowed to play in the smaller snow banks on the playground but not on the one's on the Pendelton side of our school. Thanks for your understanding in this matter.
*A little reminder to make sure you ask or tell your child what they will be having for lunch the Next day. Several of the children are saying they are either having hot or cold lunch the next day and this information is incorrect. This makes it difficult for our 5th graders who eat last. They might not get the food they asked for. Thanks for your understanding and help with this!
*Our Valentine's day party is on Feb. 14th. A note went home regarding the party and my room parents will be contacting parents about helping out with our party.
What we are learning:
Reading:
*We have been focusing on learning more about nonfiction books. We read many different books about Polar animals and Martin Luther King, Jr..
*We looked at all our non-fiction books that are in our classroom and sorted books between fiction and non-fiction.
*We reviewed why we read non-fiction books. We realized that nonfiction and fiction books look and sound different.
* We also learned that you don't have to start reading non-fiction books from the beginning.
*We reviewed the strategy to check for understanding by reading the book Knuffle Bunny by MoWillems.
*We were introduced to the concept to expand our vocabulary by looking for fun and interesting words. We did this by reading the book Kitten's Full Moon.
*We learned about the reading strategy to cross check which is to make sure the words and the pictures make sense together.
*We learned to look at the beginning sound to figure out unknown words.
*We reviewed ten of our kindergarten high frequency words. We used magnet letters to create these words and we wrote the words on the dry erase board. We also read two poems that had many of these 10 super words and then found them on our SMART board and read them in our poetry binders.
*We have also started to do our morning message on the SMART board. You will notice that those messages are coming home so that you can read them with your child.
Writing:
*We read Owl Moon and listed the details that we heard in the story and reviewed that we need details in our story.
*We wrote a small moment about our princess and pirate day and then they practiced writing their own small moment.
*We learned how to write non-fiction by raeding aboug and writing facts about a polar bear, a walrus and a penguin.
*We did a picture walk through Knuffle Bunny and looked at what different things the author did with the words and the details in the pictures.
*We also noticed that the author of Knuffle Bunny used speech bubbles so some of us tried to use speech bubbles in our writing.
Math:
*We practiced writing our numbers by filling in the missing numbers on the snowflakes.
*We solved polar animal story problems on the smart board and individually.
*We practiced writing our numbers with a polar counting book.
*We continue to play buzz but now we count up to 100.
*We played teen & twenty bingo to help us learn those numbers.
*We learned a money song and our beginning to use to pennies and dimes during calendar time to count how many days we have been in school.
*We practiced estimating many different objects and see how close our smart guess is.
*We learned about numbers that are greater than by playing the card game war.
*We practiced measuring by using links to measure our long jumps and then we graphed our jumps on the SMART Board.
*We played football math by coloring different footballs and counting how many we had of each.
Science/Social Studies:
*We have been learning about Arctic & the Antartica and the animals that live in these two places. We have been making our own non-fiction book about these animals.
*We wrote about living and non-living book. These are shared at conferences.
Important Dates:
Feb. 8 Florentine Opera comes to our school
Feb. 9 100 day party (please bring in canned goods all week for our all school food drive)
Feb. 14 Valentine's day party
Feb. 24 No school for kids-budget inservice day
Feb. 25 No School for everyone-winter break
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Pirate & Princess day
What a fun day it was!!! Arrgh!!
We read pirate and princess books, talked like a pirate and had a wonderful snack! 
Monday, January 17, 2011
Happy Snow:(
Jan. 17, 2011
I hope you are enjoying the beautiful snow and of course the shoveling that goes along with it!
A few reminders...
*please send your child's snowpants, boots, hat, mittens (maybe an extra pair as they get very wet during first recess) and an extra pair of socks every day! They will go outside every day (if it is not below 0 degrees).
*Parent/teacher conferences are Jan. 27 and Feb. 1. You may sign up for conferences on line. Thanks to those of you who already have.
*Our Pirate/Princess day is this Thursday, Jan. 20. Your kindergartner may wear pirate or princess clothes. No weapons please.
*Our field trip to the Environmental Education building was a huge success. Thanks to Mrs. Jenkins, Mrs. Escobedo and Mrs. Eklahare who chaperoned! If anyone took pictures please send them to me electronically so that I can put them on this blog.
*Our next field trip will be in May to the zoo and all parents will be welcomed to come. We will going to see the play "Miss Nelson Is Missing" at First Stage on June 4th. I will able to take 2 chaperones.
*No school this Friday, Jan. 21. (teacher planning day)
*This week and next week the children will be on the computer participating in MAP reading and math testing in the classroom.
What we are learning:
Readers workshop-
*We reveiwed usig picture clues to help us figure out unknown words
*We reviewed using getting our mouth ready to help us figure out unknown words
*We were introduced to a chart that is in our poetty that gives us different strategies to help us figure out unknown words.
*We learned what stamina is and how we need to read the whole time during read to self time. At this time, we are trying to read 15 minutes by ourself. Our goal is to read 20 minutes by the end of the year.
*We learned about connections. We made text to self connections to the book "The Mitten" by Jan Brett and "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day". We also made text to text connections with the books
"The Hat" and "The Mitten" both by Jan Brett.
*We compared and contrasted two different versions of the story "The Mitten".
*We learned the sight words "Did" and "can".
*We started to participate in literacy centers after our buddy reading time.
Writer's Workshop-
*We used to descriptive words to write about a snowman we created.
*We reviewed putting spaces between our words and using a popsicle stick to help us with this.
*We reviewed writing the sounds you hear.
*We learned that strong writers write about what they are doing and what they are going to do. We call this writing about their own lives. We are trying to practice doing this.
*We were given paper that has more lines on it so that we can write more than one idea.
Math-
*We played teen and twenty Bingo. This helped us write and recognize our "tricky teens" and our twenties.
*We solved winter story problems on the SMART board and then practiced by ourself.
*We learned what an addition, subtraction and equal sign look like and what they mean. We also practiced writing number sentences.
*We filled out a January calendar on the SMART board.
*We practiced writing our numbers by filling in the missing numbers in the snowflakes.
Science/Social Studies-
*We reviewed the five senses and the season of winter. We made a winter book about the five senses.
*We learned about the characteristics of living and nonliving. We worked with a partner to find pictures of living and nonliving things and then shared our chart with the whole group.
I hope you are enjoying the beautiful snow and of course the shoveling that goes along with it!
A few reminders...
*please send your child's snowpants, boots, hat, mittens (maybe an extra pair as they get very wet during first recess) and an extra pair of socks every day! They will go outside every day (if it is not below 0 degrees).
*Parent/teacher conferences are Jan. 27 and Feb. 1. You may sign up for conferences on line. Thanks to those of you who already have.
*Our Pirate/Princess day is this Thursday, Jan. 20. Your kindergartner may wear pirate or princess clothes. No weapons please.
*Our field trip to the Environmental Education building was a huge success. Thanks to Mrs. Jenkins, Mrs. Escobedo and Mrs. Eklahare who chaperoned! If anyone took pictures please send them to me electronically so that I can put them on this blog.
*Our next field trip will be in May to the zoo and all parents will be welcomed to come. We will going to see the play "Miss Nelson Is Missing" at First Stage on June 4th. I will able to take 2 chaperones.
*No school this Friday, Jan. 21. (teacher planning day)
*This week and next week the children will be on the computer participating in MAP reading and math testing in the classroom.
What we are learning:
Readers workshop-
*We reveiwed usig picture clues to help us figure out unknown words
*We reviewed using getting our mouth ready to help us figure out unknown words
*We were introduced to a chart that is in our poetty that gives us different strategies to help us figure out unknown words.
*We learned what stamina is and how we need to read the whole time during read to self time. At this time, we are trying to read 15 minutes by ourself. Our goal is to read 20 minutes by the end of the year.
*We learned about connections. We made text to self connections to the book "The Mitten" by Jan Brett and "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day". We also made text to text connections with the books
"The Hat" and "The Mitten" both by Jan Brett.
*We compared and contrasted two different versions of the story "The Mitten".
*We learned the sight words "Did" and "can".
*We started to participate in literacy centers after our buddy reading time.
Writer's Workshop-
*We used to descriptive words to write about a snowman we created.
*We reviewed putting spaces between our words and using a popsicle stick to help us with this.
*We reviewed writing the sounds you hear.
*We learned that strong writers write about what they are doing and what they are going to do. We call this writing about their own lives. We are trying to practice doing this.
*We were given paper that has more lines on it so that we can write more than one idea.
Math-
*We played teen and twenty Bingo. This helped us write and recognize our "tricky teens" and our twenties.
*We solved winter story problems on the SMART board and then practiced by ourself.
*We learned what an addition, subtraction and equal sign look like and what they mean. We also practiced writing number sentences.
*We filled out a January calendar on the SMART board.
*We practiced writing our numbers by filling in the missing numbers in the snowflakes.
Science/Social Studies-
*We reviewed the five senses and the season of winter. We made a winter book about the five senses.
*We learned about the characteristics of living and nonliving. We worked with a partner to find pictures of living and nonliving things and then shared our chart with the whole group.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Happy Holidays & Happy New Year!
Wow! I know it has been awhile since I posted and I apologize for that. I guess the busyness of December got the better of me. I hope you had a wonderful holiday with your kindergartener and you are getting ready for a fantastic 2011! I want to thank each of you who were able to come to the Author's celebration!!!It was such a pleasure to see each of you share the Gingerbread book with your child and to play the Gingerbread games. It just warmed my heart!
Lori Marshman
****On Monday, January 10 we are going to the EB Shurts environmental education building for a field trip. In order for this to be a successful trip, I need 4 parents to come and chaperone. This would involve arriving at the EB Shurts building at 8:45 for a 15 minute training on what you will be doing and then helping the children through this field trip beginning at 9:00 until 11:15. Please let me know as soon as possible if you are able to chaperone. Thank you so much!!!*****
What we have been learning:
Readers workshop:
*We read many different versions of the Gingerbread Man (Girl) and talked about the different story elements including the characters, setting, and the plot. This helped us write our own version of the gingerbread man. We compared and contrasted the different versions of these stories.
*We reviewed what just right books are and how many they should read at the beginning of read to self time.
*We reviewed the strategy of looking at the first letter and then the whole word to help us figure out new words. We called this getting our mouth ready.
*We learned about identifying the beginning, middle and end of several stories.
*We introduced the reading strategy to ask the question "Does it make sense?". This helps us figure out a new word.
*We learned about rhyming words and made rhyming Rita and rhyming Roy.
*We practiced identifying how many syllables are in different words.
Writer's workshop:
*We reviewed that we need details in our pictures so that we know where we are and what you are doing.
*We reviewed getting our mouth ready to help us write new words.
*We reviewed the expectations for writer's workshop so that we were sure we were ready to begin to write our gingerbread story.
*We reviewed putting spaces between our words and we used a popsicle stick to help us with this. (A great way to also practice at home.)
*We reviewed putting ending marks in our writing.
*The biggest accomplishment was writing our first story which was our gingerbread story. The children did an amazing job and I am quite proud of how much they learned from writing their first story!
*We learned about voice bubbles and wrote about what Rudolph said.
Math:
*We continued to practice counting to 100 by ones and counting how many days we have been in school (73 so far!!!). We also started to practice counting by fives and tens.
*We learned different ways to add to five by reading Five little monkeys.
*We practiced writing our numbers by filling in the missing numbers in the number train.
*We practiced putting the numbers 1-20 in the correct order.
*We solved many holiday math story problems.
*We graphed our favorite toy by using our new SMART board. We look forward to using our SMART board much more in the new year.
*We made different holiday items using pattern blocks and then counting how many blocks we used.
*We practiced measuring different objects using unifix cubes and links.
*We played a gingerbread man game using a dice.
Project time:
*We made practiced lacing by making a holiday stocking.
*We made bells with a paper chain link so that we could countdown until our winter vacation.
*We made holiday wreaths to decorate our classroom and now your homes.
*We made our covers, our author page and our dedication pages for our gingerbread books.
*We made a rudolph to go with our rudolph voice bubble.
Important dates:
Jan. 10 Field Trip to EB Shurts environmental education building (9:00-11:15)
Jan. 21 No School-Teacher record day
Jan. 27 & Feb. 1 Parent Teacher Conferences 3:45-7:15pm
Lori Marshman
****On Monday, January 10 we are going to the EB Shurts environmental education building for a field trip. In order for this to be a successful trip, I need 4 parents to come and chaperone. This would involve arriving at the EB Shurts building at 8:45 for a 15 minute training on what you will be doing and then helping the children through this field trip beginning at 9:00 until 11:15. Please let me know as soon as possible if you are able to chaperone. Thank you so much!!!*****
What we have been learning:
Readers workshop:
*We read many different versions of the Gingerbread Man (Girl) and talked about the different story elements including the characters, setting, and the plot. This helped us write our own version of the gingerbread man. We compared and contrasted the different versions of these stories.
*We reviewed what just right books are and how many they should read at the beginning of read to self time.
*We reviewed the strategy of looking at the first letter and then the whole word to help us figure out new words. We called this getting our mouth ready.
*We learned about identifying the beginning, middle and end of several stories.
*We introduced the reading strategy to ask the question "Does it make sense?". This helps us figure out a new word.
*We learned about rhyming words and made rhyming Rita and rhyming Roy.
*We practiced identifying how many syllables are in different words.
Writer's workshop:
*We reviewed that we need details in our pictures so that we know where we are and what you are doing.
*We reviewed getting our mouth ready to help us write new words.
*We reviewed the expectations for writer's workshop so that we were sure we were ready to begin to write our gingerbread story.
*We reviewed putting spaces between our words and we used a popsicle stick to help us with this. (A great way to also practice at home.)
*We reviewed putting ending marks in our writing.
*The biggest accomplishment was writing our first story which was our gingerbread story. The children did an amazing job and I am quite proud of how much they learned from writing their first story!
*We learned about voice bubbles and wrote about what Rudolph said.
Math:
*We continued to practice counting to 100 by ones and counting how many days we have been in school (73 so far!!!). We also started to practice counting by fives and tens.
*We learned different ways to add to five by reading Five little monkeys.
*We practiced writing our numbers by filling in the missing numbers in the number train.
*We practiced putting the numbers 1-20 in the correct order.
*We solved many holiday math story problems.
*We graphed our favorite toy by using our new SMART board. We look forward to using our SMART board much more in the new year.
*We made different holiday items using pattern blocks and then counting how many blocks we used.
*We practiced measuring different objects using unifix cubes and links.
*We played a gingerbread man game using a dice.
Project time:
*We made practiced lacing by making a holiday stocking.
*We made bells with a paper chain link so that we could countdown until our winter vacation.
*We made holiday wreaths to decorate our classroom and now your homes.
*We made our covers, our author page and our dedication pages for our gingerbread books.
*We made a rudolph to go with our rudolph voice bubble.
Important dates:
Jan. 10 Field Trip to EB Shurts environmental education building (9:00-11:15)
Jan. 21 No School-Teacher record day
Jan. 27 & Feb. 1 Parent Teacher Conferences 3:45-7:15pm
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