The Honey Guide

We are reading the Magic Tree House book called Lions at Lunchtime. In chapter eight, we learned about a special African bird called the Honey Guide. Here is a video of the actual bird. Do you remember the name of the tribe from chapter eight? You will see them too!

Funny Measurement Video

Hi! The children like this video about measurement.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

As you know, our theme this week is baseball! We have been singing the popular song, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". We even used it to read sight words, increase our fluency, and locate rhyming words or patterns. Here is a video for you to enjoy!

Welcome to the Kindergarten Diner!

Did you hear about the best new restaurant in town? Yes, it is the kindergarten diner! It is located right in our classroom. The children enjoy playing the various roles such as waiters, waitresses, hosts, hostesses, cooks, customers, and even dishwashers! During our persuasive writing the unit, the children made commercials advertising our new restaurant.  We brainstormed several reasons why you should visit and then recorded ourselves using our iPod touches. Here is a video featuring Cate and Liam. Enjoy!

Week of April 15th

We became accomplished book critics this week! For our persuasive writing unit, we learned how to write a book recommendation. This week, we reviewed Pete the Cat books. Please enjoy the videos below featuring two of our book reviewers, Sarah and Nat.

Make a photo collage

Happy Spring!

We had a wonderful week! We enjoyed a theme about the spring season.

Theme: Spring, Clouds and Rain


Writing Workshop: We continued our unit about persuasive writing. This week, we learned how to write a book recommendation. I modeled how to write one using a book that I recommended to Mrs. Hannigan. Then, the children wrote their own and gave them to their friends.

We also completed some descriptive writing activities about spring. The class took a walk outside and we used our senses to describe spring. We felt wind, heard birds chirping, and saw lots of flowers blooming. Then, we wrote about our observations.

We found flowers!

We felt the wind.

We heard birds singing in the trees.

Reading Workshop: We reviewed several word families this week. We also completed some fun syllable activities. We learned two new heart words. We have almost completed all of our words from the kindergarten lists. If you need a new set to review at home, please let me know.

We read several books for story time. The children really enjoyed the classic tale, The Turnip.

Math:We started unit 11 in math. The children used double ten frames to display numbers in the teens. We also practiced counting on from any given number. For example, I would say a number such as 22, and the children would say, "23, 24, 25" and so on.
We also learned how to look at a set of numbers and determine which number is missing. For example, we looked at the following set:  18, ____, 20. The children had to tell me 19. Sometimes the first number in the set was missing, and sometimes the last number was missing. Here is a fun game to practice this concept. Click on the picture and then scroll down to the Number Track game.

The children also practiced ordinal numbers and positional words.

Science: We had a blast in science! We made soap clouds. I hope your child told you all about it. Did you know that you can make a cloud from a bar of Ivory soap? Yes, if you place a bar of Ivory soap in the microwave and cook it for 90 seconds it will form into the shape of a cloud. It is wild! We were really able to use our scientific observation skills during this experiment. We wrote our observations into our lab books.

If you try this at home, you must use a bar of Ivory soap. I suggest putting it onto a sheet of wax paper. You microwave it for 90 seconds, full power. It's a fun motivator to get into the tub at night - wash up with a soap cloud!

Dylan is holding a soap cloud!

Literacy Stations:

ABC Station: I Spy Spring Sight Word Fun - we used magnifying glasses to find words.
Sight Word Detective Activity - we had to break a code to uncover a sentence.

Writing:We created books about spring.

Guided Reading Groups: Mrs. Doyle read several books about animals in the spring and animals that hatch from eggs.

Listening:  The Carrot Seed

Pocket Chart: Sorting Syllables

Spring cleaning, anyone?

Many of you, like me, are probably doing some spring cleaning at home. While cleaning or organizing, please consider making a donation to our classroom. Your trash can be our treasure!

We are looking for gently used puzzles (please have all pieces), board games (great for indoor recess - again please have all pieces), old matchbox cars, fisher price people or furniture (great for our dollhouse) scrapbook paper, old cards or stationary, craft supplies (googly eyes, pom poms, etc) and dress up clothes (no hats, please). Thanks!

Week of March 11th

Hello! We are having so much dinosaur fun in kindergarten. I think we may become paleontologists soon!

Peek at the Week:

Theme: Dinosaurs

 Here is the link to dinosaur games on PBS Kids:

Writing Workshop: We started a new unit. It is called "Persuasive Writing." The children are learning how to write opinions and reasons. We created persuasive posters for Hamagrael. For example, some children made posters to convince people to throw away litter, to be quiet in the hallway, etc. Next, we will learn how to write book recommendations.

We continue working in our personal journals. Every Monday, we write about our weekend news in our journals. We practice sentence writing, proper spacing and punctuation. We also try to use our best handwriting and create beautiful illustrations while writing about our fun weekend adventures. Feel free to talk to your child on Sunday evening and you can think of an idea for them to share.

Reading Workshop: We read a lot of non-fiction books about dinosaurs and completed bubble maps for each dinosaur. We also read some great stories such as Detective Dinosaur and made connections to the text. Our new read-aloud is Magic Treehouse: Dinosaurs Before Dark. The children love it!

We are still learning sight words and various word families. Please encourage your child to point out sight words as you read at home.

We completed a Venn Diagram comparing/contrasting carnivores and herbivores. The children did an amazing job with this challenging activity.

Math:The children finished topic 9. They love watching the mini-lesson videos from the Envisions website. After we watch the lesson, we typically complete a page form the chapter/topic. We will begin topic 10 next week. Thank you for helping your child with our weekly  math homework assignments.

We also enjoyed math tubs this week. We practiced tally marks, measurement, addition, and geometry.

Literacy Stations:

Listening Station: The children listened to Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato. They illustrated their favorite parts and wrote sentences to describe the pictures.

ABC Station:We played a fun dinosaur sight word game. The children had to watch out for the volcano card!

 

Writing: The children examined three sentences and determined which ones should end with a period, question mark or an exclamation mark.

Guided Reading Groups: Mrs. Doyle met with all of the children in small groups and read books at various reading levels.

Magnet Board: We have a new board called "A "Stache"of new words. My daughter found mustache duct tape (apparently very popular), so we made a new board. The children think it is very fun and enjoy building words with magnetic letters.

Pocket Chart: The children sorted real words and nonsense words.


Computer Station/I Pads: Our new app this week is:

 

                                                   
Center Time: Riley O'Meara is going to be a big sister soon. Mrs. Hannigan created a wonderful center for our students. Mrs. Hannigan is a registered nurse and used to teach sibling classes at St. Peter's hospital. She brought all of her materials from these classes to kindergarten. All of the children enjoyed learning how to diaper and take care of babies. It was wonderful! Thank you so much Mrs. Hannigan!

Important Announcements

We are running low on certain supplies. We need glue sticks, crayons, and #2 pencils. Thanks!

There is a mistake on the March homework calendar. I did not edit the state assignment block. Rather than focusing on the state of Tennessee (although I am a big Lady Vols fan), please focus on New York. Thanks!