Language Arts

We've been doing lots of writing in our School Helper books. We interview people in the school about their job and then write something we learned about them. We have begun Writer's Workshop with the children and they are working in their writer's folder several times a week.

We continue to practice learning sounds in Jolly Phonics. We also play games sounding out words. We continue to work in predictable stories at a beginning level, and the kids are doing great!

We are writing a class book about things we are grateful for. We read a Native American Thanksgiving Address about appreciation for all the things on Earth that support the people. We are also reading
I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie and will act the story out with a paper version of the story elements that the children colored.

The only photo we have is of the children learning some Jolly Phonics games on the Smart Board.

Math

We have been working with comparing towers of different lengths and placing them in order from smallest to largest. We then proceeded to do this with the children's names, comparing the length of three or four names and recording them in our math books.

We also played a very popular game of "What's Missing?" The child removes an object from a tray and ask her/his partner to figure out what it was.

We have recently moved to a unit on patterns. The children began by making towers and sorting them into patterns and not patterns. We then discussed the difference between the two types of towers. Today they articulated that the pattern is the one that does the same thing over and over again. They figured that out really quickly. Now we will spend weeks refining this idea and testing it out in all its permutations.

Recent Happenings

Technology is slow at school today. I hope this can be posted.

The children made BZ some tissue paper flowers for the farewell to BZ assembly.

Lauren made pear sauce with the children. A big thank you to April Woodard-McNiff for the donation of home grown, organic fruit!

And of course the Halloween Parade was awesome. Thank you to the parents who helped us get the kids into their costumes.

And More Pictures

In Addition

Here are the Hopes and Dreams that children wrote, that they would like to learn in kindergarten. We use what they want to accomplish to talk about how we want to act in our classroom to meet our goals. Children had lots of ideas for what was acceptable behavior and what was not. Based on these ideas we generated a list of classroom rules.

We finished our sunflowers and put them up around the classroom. There's also a picture of children listening to stories on headphones. This is a popular activity every day and there's always a sign up sheet with children eager for their next turn. Children also get a turn on the iPad during rest time every six days or so.

Physical Education

We are sad to hear that Mr. Scalzo is taking a leave of absence. We will miss him. Here are a few shots of children learning how to play soccer.

Papermaking

The entire school was involved in paper making last week as we transitioned from BZ as our art teacher to EveLynn. The children had lots of fun and made beautiful works of art. Be patient, it will take time before they come home. We expect to do some follow up with paper making in the classroom later in the year.

Chief Tibbetts

We asked Chief Tibbetts to come visit and talk to the children during Fire Prevention week. He brought lots of equipment and showed the children how he puts his uniform on. It's important for children to see what a fully dressed firefighter looks like as the appearance can be scary to young children. They listened to how his breathing sounded with his oxygen tank on and saw the thermal imaging camera. He had a fire hat for each child, as well as a sticker and a pencil. A big thank you to Chief Tibbetts!

Counting, Counting, Counting!

We have been doing lots of counting in many ways this year. Each child has made a counting book for the numbers 0-6. They each shared a page from their book with the whole class. Children are generating wonderful math conversations, discussing whether they think a particular way of counting is accurate or not. They are actually talking about their thinking (metacognition).

Children are counting how many children are in the group, comparing it to how many children are in the class and figuring out how many children are absent. We often stop the discussion and ask if we started counting with a different person, would the total be different? Or if we count the blue cubes first will it be different than if we start with the red cubes? These questions are truly something to think about in kindergarten. The answers are not obvious!

We have played a game called Build It, where children draw a card and place that number of pennies on their playing board, a ten frame. We also play Roll and Record. Children roll a die and write down the number on a piece of paper. Some children recognize the patterns on the die and other children count how many dots there are each time. They have been practicing writing numbers and doing really well.

Currently we are working on inventory bags. Children take a bag of objects and record how many items are in the bag. We are also building a measuring stick that is ten cubes long and comparing objects in the classroom to determine if they are longer or shorter than the stick.

A Few Notes

Some handouts will come home in your child's folder that will prepare you for the Open House. Please read them and come with your questions.

Click on Older Posts at the end of each segment of the blog to see additional posts. Generally 4-5 posts appear at the same time. Thank you.

Clean-Up Time

We have some great shots of kids sweeping the classroom after snack which I'll include here.

We have also been exploring a water pump that pre-school purchased. It is great fun and will involve many hours of exploration. Mostly in the warmer weather.