Thank you for responding so quickly to our classroom needs. We received a variety of snacks from Mrs. Galvin and Mrs. Rolfson bought 2 big boxes of Goldfish crackers and several packs of glue sticks and a huge box of pencils! Sofia did a very nice job of presenting her VIP poster to the class and answering questions. I showed the class a 100s chart and they looked for patterns. Students placed their 100 items (if they would fit) onto the 100s chart. Students also wrote about their collection of 100 items. The afternoon was pretty crazy! There was a Kindness Counts assembly for students in the afternoon and I had to leave the students in Mrs. Hanson's care beforehand so I could set up the audio/visual equipment. The kindergartners performed What a Wonderful World in sign language and the ENTIRE school signed to The Power of One. There was a technical difficulty at the end of the song where the music stopped playing, but everyone kept singing/signing. It was awesome!

Classroom Needs

We are in need of glue sticks and Goldfish crackers if anyone is able to provide either. Thanks in advance!

We finished our chapter on time and money today, but we will continue to practice these skills for the rest of the year through center activities, games and contests. One of the ways I like to practice is to put a clock just outside the classroom door and tell students that they cannot enter unless they can tell me the correct time. It's great for those who are still learning because they can simply listen to the person in front of them and get the correct answer. I do the same thing with money by leaving a group of coins on a table. Students had fun with a story sequencing activity. We read Rosie's Walk, students cut out pictures of activities from the story and glued them in the correct order onto a sentence strip (that long piece of paper). The main character, Rosie the hen, is glued to the end of a popsicle stick. In the story, Rosie goes through a fence and as they were working on the project some students asked me to cut a slit in the picture of the fence so that Rosie could actually go through it. Some clever students asked for another popsicle stick so they could include the fox who is chasing Rosie throughout the story.

100th Day

Monday is our 100th day of school. Students are to bring a collection of 100 items to school. The items need to be small enough that I can display each student's collection. Examples are 100 paper clips, 100 M&Ms, 100 rubber bands, 100 pennies, 100 mini erasers, etc. Students will practice counting by 1s, 5s, and 10s using their items. I've asked the students to start thinking about what they will bring on Monday.

I am so proud of the entire class. They have been such wonderful teachers, helping our new student learn the rules and expectations in our classroom. Their patience, kindness, and understanding are impressive and a testament to great parenting from you all! Your child will be bringing home small paperback books from our classroom library several times per week. Any book that goes home with a student has been reviewed in class. Each student's job is to read the book to an adult on the evening that they bring it home and return the book the next day. I purchased these books with grants that I've received two years in a row. Because these books are very expensive to replace, I only let each student check out one at a time so your child cannot get a new book until the previous book has been returned. Reading these books is considered "homework" so please help your child with it. Thanks!

We're wrapping up our chapter on time and money. Please continue to practice coin recognition with your child and reinforce the value of each coin. If your child goes to bed at the same time each night, have them tell you when it is getting close to bedtime. I had promised students that if they were good for the guest teacher last Friday that I would reward them so today they got to play with the parachute at recess. They took turns, two at a time, running underneath it to switch places and bounded a ball by everyone pulling the parachute at the same time. Ms. Butler, one of the counselors, came in to teach another bullying lesson. Your child brought home a checklist of how certain situations make them feel, which you will want to discuss with your child tonight.

Students were very gracious in welcoming Kylar to our class and teaching him our expectations. In math we learned to recognize the dollar bill and the symbol for "dollar." Mrs. Felten practiced coin recognition with students during centers and she said they did a great job. In gym, students climbed a rope. I didn't watch, but I heard we had some great climbers. In social studies we talked about maps and the compass. We are going to label our room with N S W E signs. Don't forget to send a stuffed animal to school tomorrow for a writing project.

Class Recipe Book

Thanks so much for submitting recipes. I've typed the ones that I've received thus far. Some of the recipes were brought to school on a day I wasn't there, so I do not know who they are from. Please let me know if you submitted the Puppy Chow, French Toast, or the Ritz Caterpillar recipes.

I received an email from the school secretary that said we will be getting a new student on Monday. His name is Kylar. I am looking forward to meeting him! I placed the Scholastic book order. We should get the books next week. Have a great weekend.

I hesitantly started reading Stewart Little to the class yesterday. There are a lot of big words, but I usually change them as I'm reading or give a quick explanation. Yesterday, one student blurted out, "This is boring!" but today I had several requests to read it. I think reading a chapter book to them will be really good for comprehension. Let me know if you hear anything about the book from your child. As I was reading today, the sun (the paper model that students made and was hanging from the ceiling) fell to the ground. The kids cracked me up because they started yelling things like, "The building is gonna catch on fire!" Be good for your guest teacher tomorrow!

Thanks so much to Joe P. and his family for making the awesome treasure chest of sight word jewels!! I'm so excited and can see so many possibilities with them, including a "sentence building" learning center.

We continued our discussion of Dr. King and his message by reading The Crayon Box That Talked. We discussed how boring the world would be if it was all one color. We talked about what makes us all unique. Students decorated giant paper crayons that are on a bulletin board in the hall (I'll post a photo tomorrow). Students worked with their table partners to sort a large bowl of plastic pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. Students brainstormed words that begin with the letter p and those who contributed a word wrote it on a list. I'm very impressed with their ability to sound out words or to use their resources (look around the room) to help them spell words. Ms. Butler, one of our counselors, came in to teach a lesson on bullying. Students were taught to "Talk, Walk, Squawk:" Tell the bully to stop. If that doesn't work, walk away. If that doesn't work, tell an adult. In science, we read two books about animals in winter. We learned that bears hibernate. Students made bear dens, decorated them with snow (made from shaving cream, glue, and white paint), and made a clay bear to put inside. They had fun doing this!

No School Monday the 17th!!

Don't forget that there's no school for students on Monday. I'll see everyone on Tuesday.

Today we learned about the nickel and compared it to the penny. I hid plastic pennies around the room for each student to find. We learned the poem "Find a penny, pick it up. Then all day you'll have good luck." Students put the penny in their shoe for good luck. The poem was a good opportunity to talk about contractions. We learned that they are different from compound words because some letters are missing. Here are the other poems we learned. Penny, penny easily spent. Copper brown and worth one cent. Nickel, nickel thick and fat. You're worth five cents--I know that! We also talked about Martin Luther King Jr. and his dream. We learned that Dr. King's dream was a vision for the future and not a nighttime dream. Students wrote about their wish or dream during Writer's Workshop. Bram's dog Cookie came to visit at the end of the day.

Happy Birthday, Bram! Today we studied the two sides of a penny and talked about what we observed. See if your child can tell you the name of the president and the name of the building on the back. I have plastic 35mm film canisters for students to keep coins in as we study them. Could you please send a penny and a nickel to school tomorrow? I will have extras just in case. Each student will also need a dime and a quarter next week. Students will keep the coin canister in their cubby and take it out only at math time as we study coins and will bring them back home in March. We have completed two class books based upon books we're read in class. I will send both of the home with two different students tomorrow. It will take a while for both of them to circulate so keeps your eyes peeled. Thank you Mrs. Dodge-Millroy for bringing in the stickers and foam sheets! The students had a great time being creative!

Students made clocks with moving hands today. They drew faces on them to remember that the part with the numbers is the clock's face. We learned some vocabulary words from the book Julius, Baby of the World: constantly, insulting, and cleaver. Mrs. Mayes, my reading coach, came in to teach a lesson about details. Our ultimate goal is to get students to use details in their writing, but the way we teach them is to add details to their drawings. Students drew snowman pictures and were encouraged to make their drawing unique and to add lots of details. For art, we did a paper weaving activity. In it, students had to pay attention to detail--the way the pattern alternated.

I took this photo for the cover of our class book based on Gregory, the Terrible Eater. Besides posing for silly photos, students learned how to read time to the hour on both digital and analog clocks. They also wrote 3-sentence stories and learned the signs for the song "Power of One," which the entire school will perform at an assembly at the end of the month. I was so proud of the boys today. They all eagerly pitched in to help clean the room after centers.

Brrr..... It was much too cold to play outside today, so student were able to choose their own activity for indoor recess. During lunch, both kindergarten classes met in my room for a Reading Rainbow movie about optical illusions. For writing, students came up with the title for a short story and drew pictures representing what they might want to write about for the beginning, middle and end of their story. They will add the words tomorrow. The students had a guest teacher for gym and it looked like they were playing a relay game with a rubber chicken. They were definitely having fun! We had a short lesson in social studies about how to solve problems with friends. They learned that instead of hitting or yelling they should stop, talk and listen, come up with a plan and then try the plan.

Card Games for Teaching Math

Lately I've been using a lot of simple card games as a way for my students to practice math skills. I think it's important that students are able to practice math skills in a real life setting, such as playing a game, as opposed to reviewing on worksheets. Here is a web site with descriptions of various card games for kids. http://www.bellaonline.com/subjects/5763.asp All of them emphasize turn taking (a much-needed skill in kindergarten), counting, and problem solving. I mention problem solving because the big issue with kindergartners is deciding who gets to go first. Of course all of them want to be first all the time. I encourage my students to play rock-paper-scissors to solve simple problems such as who goes first.

Our Class is Shrinking

Sadly, in the span of one short week, we have lost two students. Albert and Neveah have moved to other local schools. Thankfully, our class had the opportunity to say goodbye to both of them, but we are all feeling sad about their departure.

Snowflakes and Chameleons

Today was very "artsy." We read the book Flower Garden and then students made flowers out of coffee filters and pipe cleaners. I hope you saw the end result--they were cute! Next, students made snowflakes out of the coffee filters and decorated our classroom windows. In the afternoon, we read Leo Lionni's A Color of His Own and I did a guided drawing lesson of the chameleon from the story. The pictures turned out fantastic! I wish I had my camera at school today. I will try to post some pictures tomorrow.

Fun Way to Practice Sight Words

Check out this blog for a great way to practice sight words with your child. If you decide to make a set of these "jewels" I might ask you to make a set or two for the classroom, too! http://www.fairydustteaching.blogspot.com/

As part of our nutrition unit, students had to think of a food they like that begins with the same letter as their first name. We had a hard time with the J's -- jelly and jellybeans were about all we could come up with. They made a book with paper plate pages about their food during writing. For science, we learned a song about our bodies: the heart pumps blood, the lungs fill with air, the stomach processes our food, and the brain tells our bodies what to do. We took our pulse at rest and after running place for 30 seconds.

We had a busy day. It sounds like everyone enjoyed the break. We reread Gregory the Terrible Eater and at writing time, each student made a page for a class book. When we were talking about the ways parents get their kids to eat healthy foods, I told the class that I have a recipe with pureed cauliflower and carrots and that my kids love it. Morgan said she wanted the recipe and then a light bulb went off in my brain -- what if we put together a class recipe book. Each child could contribute their favorite recipe and I could make copies for everyone. What do you think? If I get a positive response from those of you who check this blog, I'll send the word out to everyone next Monday. Please submit your child's reading minutes for December ASAP so I can get the Pizza Hut coupons distributed to those student who met the reading goal of 300 minutes.