We practiced coin recognition today. Students worked in pairs to play a coin exchange game. They took turns rolling a die and then putting that many pennies onto a mat. When they had 5 pennies they could trade them for a nickel. When they got 2 nickels they could trade for a dime. You get the idea. The first child to get a quarter was the winner. My husband visited at story time to share the children's book he's written. Half of the pictures are still black and white as the illustrator is still working on them, but they were able to get the gist of it. Students worked with their big buddies to finish their scenery and begin making their sock puppets. I don't think we'll wait until next Thursday to start putting on the puppet shows--we need to get the show on the road! Thanks for the donation of socks. We have exactly what we need!

We got a little number writing practice with another math game. Students worked in pairs to take turns rolling a die and then tracing the number that turned up. The person to fill their sheet first won the game. In the afternoon, some pairs of students put on their puppet "shows." I video taped them and showed them how they appeared to the audience in hopes that they would be able to identify parts they needed to refine, but it backfired. They thought their silly, unscripted ramblings were hilarious. Oh, well. Tomorrow they work with their big buddies to build a puppet and draw scenery for an animal show in which their animal puppet will give information about the animal each they researched.

I think the highlight of the day was that students made sock puppets to go along with the stories they wrote with their partners. Tomorrow they will put on their puppet show. I have to laugh because the stories they wrote mostly consist of two characters that each say "hi" and then the story ends. It will be a short show, but maybe some of them will get inspired to write more dialog so we can put on a performance for some other classrooms. We will need more socks for Thursday, when students make animal puppets for their animals they researched with their big buddies.

We played a very challenging math game today called Silent Movement Math. As you've probably already guessed, it was anything but silent, but at least we moved and practiced math. Students walked around the room, to 30 different numbered math problems and recorded answers onto a long answer sheet. They spent from 30 seconds to 1 minute at each math problem, calculating one more, one less, ten more or ten less than a particular number on each of 30 cards taped to the tables. If they recorded an answer beside the wrong number, they really got off track. For those who were really careful, though, it worked well. I should have done this on a day that we had our big buddies, but I still thought it was fun and I think the students enjoyed it. For social studies, we learned about caring for pets. We also talked briefly about the characteristics of mammals, which we'll cover in more detail tomorrow during science. Tomorrow is "tennis shoe Tuesday."

Happy birthday, Sophie!!

It was a muy loco day! We started by practicing sign language with the other kindergarten class. Next, students played a coin concentration-style card game. With their buddy, each student researched an animal, finding out where they live, what they eat, who their enemies are, and 3 interesting facts. Next, they worked on drawing scenery or the animal's habitat. Next Thursday, they will create a puppet of their animal and then begin working on a show to present their information to the rest of the class. After music, we went to Mrs. Holland's classroom for a fiesta to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. I read a story while Mrs. Holland fried sopapillas and then Mrs. Holland read a Skippy John Jones book as students ate. It was lots of fun, but left us with only a few minutes to pack up to go home. Enjoy the 3-day weekend!

Several students have asked if they could read a book to the class. I think it's a fabulous idea. My thought is that it would be best if they brought a book from home so that it's a story they've heard many times and are able to practice it a few times before reading it in front of everyone. Abby read If You Give a Moose a Muffin today. She did a great job. The book gave me an idea. In the story, the moose gets distracted by making a sock puppet and scenery. It made me think about how difficult it is to get some of the students to write, so this afternoon I announced that students can work with a small group to write a story, make sock puppet characters, draw scenery, and put on a performance for the rest of the class. The kids want to invite other classes to watch our shows, but we'll need to practice first. I will definitely video the performances. The enthusiasm level (and along with it the NOISE level) is very high for this project. If you are able to buy a pack of white athletic socks (size: Youth) we will need 22 socks or 11 pairs.