We read Rainbow Fish, discussed sharing and used the book as the focus for a lesson on addition and subtraction. Each student traced a fish onto a sheet of paper, adding underwater details. As they were drawing, I went around and gave shiny, silver scales to a couple of students at each table. They had to take their beginning number of scales, subtract the number of scales they gave away, and then tell the difference. Those who started with no shiny scales wrote an addition sentence. They started with zero, wrote the number of scales they added and then wrote the sum. This paper should be in your child's backpack so you can talk about it. We read "New Shoes for Sylvia." Our vocabulary words for today were: certainly, perhaps, and resourceful.

We will be spending time talking about describing words this week. On Thursday, the kindergartners and their big buddies will each be bringing an item from home, such as a stuffed animal, toy, or collectible, that they can describe.

Wow, what a busy day! Students met Mrs. Swanson and learned a little about her. She has 3 children who are ages 10, 12 and 16. Of course we had our field trip in the afternoon. We had previously read the book Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and had watched a short video, but seeing an hour long performance was a vastly different experience. To make the play longer, characters and scenes were added that were not in the book and it confused many of the students. There were some funny dancing squirrels but because the students didn't understand their place in the story, I don't think they appreciated the humor. It was cute but long and at the end we had to wait FOREVER for our bus to arrive. It seemed like we were the last school to leave! We got back to school 5 minutes before dismissal time and students were unhappy that they did not get their last recess and their last center.

We invited the other kindergarten class into our room this morning for sign language because the room that we normally go to was being used by the first graders. We had fun playing teachers versus students and the students won! Students read their mini books to three peers before sitting down to color the pictures. Students also colored a special 100th Day badge which I attached to a "crown." Our vocabulary words for the day were: upset, refreshed, and satisfied. I was so satisfied with their behavior in the hall this morning that I gave the class another link on their good behavior chain. It's getting pretty close to the ground which means a reward is coming soon! Thank you Mrs. Siroin and Mrs. Goudy for helping with our art and clean up this afternoon. I couldn't have done it without you both.

I met this afternoon with Mrs. Swanson who will be doing her practicum in our classroom beginning Monday. She has a lot of experience with young children and will be a wonderful addition to our classroom. Don't forget that we go to Alberta Bair on Monday afternoon. For the parents going with us, please be at the school a little before noon. Our bus leaves right at noon and the show starts at 12:30. Have a great weekend.

We have been working on addition for a couple of weeks and today we started subtraction. Most of the students seem to understand the concept but I need to provide more hands-on activities to make it stick. I read a book called The ABCs of Jobs. It went along with our theme of community workers. For each letter of the alphabet, there was a job description and list of tools used on the job. Students learned about helicopter pilots, scuba divers and yoga instructions among others.

Thank you for helping your child remember to bring their 100 items today. I think they had a good time practicing counting with their big buddy. Students counted by 1s to fill up their 100s chart. Next, they put their items into piles of 5 and counted by 5s to 100. Finally, they counted by tens. The 4th/5th graders also randomly called out numbers and asked their kindergarten buddy to cover that number with one of their items. There was a whole lot of counting going on!

The students made some great connections during today's vocabulary lesson. I read Caps For Sale. The man in the story is a peddler and we talked about how that meant the same thing as a vendor, a vocabulary word from the past. Another vocabulary word for today was imitate, which the students related to the word mimic. Last week I pointed out onomatopoeia (the use of words to suggest a sound, such as "woof" or "hiss"). Onomatopoeia is used a lot in children's books. Every time I read a story with it, they shout the word "onomatopoeia." There was a guest teacher in the room next door who came to see me after school. She commented that things have sure changed in the kindergarten curriculum because she could hear the students using a word she didn't learn until high school. I thought that was hilarious! They do enjoy knowing and using big words.

Students had fun practicing addition on a mini calculator. We read stories about people in our community who help others, such as a mail carrier, a school crossing guard, and a police officer. We also read the fiction book Officer Buckle and Gloria, about a police officer who goes to schools to talk about safety along with his entertaining dog, Gloria. At recess, we filled 4 spray bottles with water and a couple of drops of food coloring and sprayed the snowmen that the students worked together to make. He was a tie dye snowman!

Happy birthday, Haley! We were so happy that the weather warmed up enough so that we could go outside for lunch recess! Yay! We read Dr. Seuss's My Many Colored Days and talked about how different colors make us feel (yellow-happy; gray-sad). Students wrote in their journals about how they were feeling, using colors to describe their feelings. We did a fun art project, cutting scrapbook paper to make a colorful snowman. The students wrote a sentence about how their snowman was feeling.