Annndddd...

It's the end of day 4! I am so proud of all my little buckaroos...We have worked HARD this week. Hopefully they have enjoyed it as much as I have! But I will be completely honest...I'm ready for the 3 day weekend. For some reason I decided 2:00 am would be a good time to wake up this morning! So needless to say...I was a little draggy this morning! UNTIL 7:40 and my day TURNED around! Look how my day started...

Now this is the way to start a DAY! Thank you my sweet little ones!










So, yesterday I told you there was something missing from our coconut tree...But before we could add those special characters we talked some more about concepts of print! We even added some new things to our circle map.  Someone said that words were in the book and then someone said that words have letters!  We talked about how to open a book and where to start reading.  I had a lot of little voices helping me read today! WHAT FUN...in order to go to our table spot and add not just letters but GLITTER letters we had to identify a letter from our flash cards.




After finishing up our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom trees we talked about rules!  I asked why we needed rules.  And just as I suspected some smartie britches told me to keep us SAFE.  We talked about keeping our rules positive...and made a list! Listen, keep our hands to ourselves, be NICE to others, walk.  I think they did a GREAT job.  Then we read NO David! by David Shannon.  We used our concept of print knowledge and read right through David's escapades!



We got to make our own David and talked about rules David should have followed.  I will post pictures of those cute little fellows tomorrow!

But here are some of the process. We are combining so much into our lessons.  Fine motor skills, rules, and concept of print!  Kinder isn't what it used to be! <wink>

By this time it was recess and lunch time (guess what...no lunch practice NEEDED) WOO HOO!

After lunch we talked about what makes each of us special. We watched Molly Lou Melon  Click Here
and then drew a picture of what made us special!
I am special because...
I have a dog. ~Valentino
I like my family. ~Kensli
my mom loves me. ~Cade
I watch T.V. with my family. ~Gabrielle
I like my family. ~ Jaymie
I have a twin sister. ~Kamaura
I like to hang out in the sun. ~Bella
I play soccer. ~Bobby
I got a birthday present. ~Chelsie
I am an artist. ~Jakson
I help my baby brother. ~Kyon
I love my sisters and my family. ~Jordyn
I play with my dog. ~Addison
I am happy. ~Janiya
I made a robot out of sticks. ~Julius
I'm an artist. ~ Addie
I have two turtles. ~Chase
"sokr". ~Luke (I love that he gave it a try on his own)
I live in an apartment. ~Reece
(not everyone finished!)

I think these are some of the most special kids I know!!!

We explored with some new math tubs today...and after P.E. with Coach Moore and Coach B we broke out the SCIENCE equipment!

Be sure to ask your little one to explain what each of these tools is used for! A balance, goggles and a hand lens! One of our favorites...

 Thanks for sharing your little one with me! Have a great evening!

Hump Day

 I can't believe we have only been in school for three days. Everyone is starting to "open" up!  Ms. Guy had to use her "stern" voice today.  Talking is something most of us are really good at! <smile>
We came in and reviewed The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn this morning.  We sequence the story beginning, middle and end.  When your child tells you about it...it should go a little like this. One night Chester was sad because he didn't want to leave his mama when he went to school.  Chester's mama told him about the kissing hand and gave him one.  Then Chester went to school happy. A retell should include characters (mama and Chester), a setting (one night) and an event (going to school)!

We introduced concepts about print today.  We created a circle map...

A circle map allows us to brainstorm everything we know about something...In this case a book.  I have to admit I was very impressed!!! 

After we brainstormed about our book we got to READ Chicka Chicka BOOM BOOM by Bill Martin Jr.! I could tell this wasn't a first for very many!  We enjoyed reading BOOM BOOM together. Then we got to make our VERY OWN chicka chicka boom boom tree...you will notice we are not quite finished...we still need to add some VERY IMPORTANT characters! 

We had a lot of fun cutting out our leaves and of COURSE our coconuts! These two activities took up our morning!
After lunch we listened to another story I Went Walking you may watch and listen here .  After watching the story we talked about being an investigator and where we thought this "investigator" went walking! WELL, it wasn't long before we decided it was on a farm.  I asked why they thought it was the farm.  "Well, he sees a bunch of animals that live on a farm!" GREAT inferencing!! After talking about the animals we might find on a farm I asked what do we think we could find in a school!  We had so many great responses!  We then got to GO on a walk...Look at some of the cool stuff we saw!

 All my little investigators...







WE SAW...

                                         

When we got back we drew a picture of what we saw and filled in the blank... I went walking.  What did you see?  I saw a _______ looking at me.  I tried to let as many as wanted to write their own word. With a little sounding out from me...and those who didn't want to try I wrote for them!  Look at some of the amazing writers we have!

We started math with a little number chat time. We looked at the calendar, practiced counting to 20 and filled in our How Many Days.

We are starting out with a 5 frame.  Each day we will fill in a box to count how many days we have been in school.  Today we see 3 dots "That equals three days.  The two boxes left are for Thursday and Friday and that will make 5!"  I'm so impressed with their concept of addition.  What great little thinkers!

Today we went to Music with Mrs. Biscamp.

When we returned from Music we had enough time for some math tubs and sharing!

 Unifix Cubes

bears

Chains

pattern blocks

After exploring some friends got a chance to share!



Then we packed up and it was time to head out!  Another good day in room 313!

Day Two

Well...Let me start by saying I my head is a bit cloudy and the day is a bit blurry...but over all we had fun and I am LOVING being a kindergarten teacher. I just want to say classroom procedures were better today than yesterday! I am so impressed with how fast we are learning new things.
This morning started with a story...

An "OLD" first week of school stand by.  I asked my little buckaroos what they thought Chrysanthemum might be by looking at the cover of the book.  "I think it's the little girl. I think it is the BANANAS! I think it means to grow."  What amazing predictions we were able to make just by looking at the picture! (I really like the banana comment! That's exactly what that flower looks like to me now that I look at it!) If you don't have the book and would like to "read" it...click here

After we read about Chrysanthemum we played the Plate Game.  To make sure we were able to recognize our name.  Sung to the tune: If You're Happy and You Know It
If your name is on the plate
Pick it up!
If your name in on the plate
Pick it up!
If you name is on the plate you must be really great
If your name is on the plate
Pick it up!
By the end of the game EVERYONE could read their name on the plate.  Great Job!
Now what are we going to do with a plate with our name on it you might ask...We turned it over and drew our faces of COURSE!

 

What a wonderful job we did!
In the story we found out that Chrysanthemum has 13 letters in it. That is exactly half of the alphabet.  We thought it would be fun to find out how many letters we had in each of our names.  For this activity I introduced the document camera! (WOWZERS)

They were amazed that no matter what I put under it...it showed up on the SCREEN...and super BIG! We talked about this year we would all get a chance to come up and work under the document camera!! Fun and EXCITEMENT...that's what I'm all about! By this time it was time to go to the cafe and practice lunchroom procedures! (I'm not bragging or anything but room 313 is UH-MAZING)  And then out to recess. I tried to find as many as I could...

 

 Fun, Fun, Fun!!!

 

 

Making new Friends

 

 After lunch we came in to finish our names.  We wrote our names in boxes, cut them out (not without a little lesson on using scissor JUST FOR CUTTING PAPER), and glued them on another sheet of paper that says...There are ______ letters in my name.  We counted them, wrote the number and then graphed them! I heard things like. 4 and 5 have the "same".  "Do we have 17 kids in our class?"  That one stopped me in my tracks...I asked, "How did you get that number?  My little friends said, "I counted all the ones hanging up." Well, THAT'S WHAT I'm TALKING ABOUT!!! I love when stuff like that comes up! We talked about having 21 kids here today.  So we came to the conclusion that some ONE(s) hadn't put theirs up yet! Now that's some higher level thinking math!

We then read another book...(one of my favorites I might add...) The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

You can listen to it here ! We noticed that although Chester was just starting school...he goes to school at NIGHT and in a TREE! Great observations!!!!
After reading the book...we made our MOMS a kissing hand card.  So each of you know how much we love you...(you will find it in your child's daily folder) NOW...there is also some HOMEWORK for YOU in that folder. We would like for you to make your child a kissing hand to hang in our classroom! Feel free to BLING it OUT!!! Make it special for your little one! By this time it was getting close to snack time.  We had our snack and went to P.E. Ms. Guy had some QUIET time alone in the room! ~smile~
When we returned we talked about what a TEAM was.  Again, some great answers.  "A bunch of people trying to do something together!" I'm thinking that is a GREAT definition coming from a 5-6 year old!
Each table group got to be a team...we held hands in a ring...I threw in a balloon and without letting go of each others hands they tried to keep the balloon up! ( a little Kagan Brain Break) We had a lot of fun and soon caught on to the fact that we had to trust everyone to do their part!

We were missing a SWEET part of our class today...We hope she feels well enough to come back SOON!

What a way to end the day! And with that...this kinder teacher is T-I-R-E-D...In bed last night by 8:30...and hoping to be able to stay up that late tonight!
Thank you all for sharing your precious child with me! Each of them have already stolen a piece of my