Howdy Kinder: 2014

I cannot believe it is May! And we all know how fast the days seem to fly by! This year has been a whirlwind...but as I sit at the guided reading table or in the chair for discussions or just walk around and "listen in" on conversations...I am amazed at how much growth there has been.

I love when the class is able to problem solve in everyday situations. When we go to library...I present them with the following..."Okay, today we have __ students here. We can only have 10 people on the top row how many will there be on the bottom?" Well, when we had 20 kids it was much easier. But I hear things like "We used to have 20 and 10 and 10 is 20 but today we have 19 and 19 is one less than 20 so if there are 10 on the top that means one less than 10 is 9 so 9 can be on the bottom" I hear some counting the top row and then seeing who still needs to sit down...It gets a little loud but it makes me happy to see that they know how to work it out.

I love during buddy reading...to hear the students helping one another, encouraging them to "use your strategy" Or, "listen to this....what would make sense there?" Yesterday, I heard a group talking about the main character in the book they were sharing with one another. Two girls made some text to text connections about their monster books. The joy I hear in their voices when they read and share with their friends is heartwarming!

Okay...now where to start on the BLOG CATCH UP...

Birthdays looks like a good place!

Happy Birthday to some Special littles!!

Down On the Farm

We had a great turnout in 313! Our littles LOVED showing you all of their crafts as well as teaching you about graphing and measuring. (We are learning to write letters for a purpose...hint hint thank you notes should be on their way)!

Painting with PUDDING...What better "MUD" to roll in if you are a
PIG??? We were able to lots of fun stuff while the big kids took the STAAR test...this kept us quiet so we wouldn't disturb them!

What is your Favorite Farm Animal?

We can measure weight using a balance scale!

Capacity is how much something can hold! Look how much WORK my farm folder can hold!!

Just hanging out in the cubbies with the family...down on the farm!!! LOVE...

Reading and Writing on the Farm

During reading we talked about who we thought was the main character of Giggle Giggle Quack...

13 thought Duck was, 1 thought Farmer Brown was and 4 thought Bob was (AT FIRST)...We each character had littles speak on their behalf...Then we voted again and (I'm not sure where the extra vote came from...)and as you can see we have some persuasive speakers...And I love that a little said, "Ms. Guy, I think the two extra votes for the Duck came from the Bob. I don't think they really think Bob was the main character!"

We also read Click Clack Moo...And talked about story elements! When the littles go to readers workshop this is the kind of TALK I am hearning!!!

We also voted at the end of Click Clack Moo...

Mrs. Wishy Washy

(one of our favorites)

During Writing time we were using our schema to describe FARM things...so that we could write some POETRY!

We talked about using all of our senses to describe so that we can SHOW not TELL our readers!!! This day we were talking about ACROSTIC poems.

We used a bubble map to record our mud ADJECTIVES.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

Penny

nickel

dime

quarter

In kindergarten we need to be able to identify each of these coins. We also talked about the value of each.

Each table was given a Ms. Guy handful of coins to sort. There was great conversations being had. I heard the littles asking each other what the coin was and where they thought it should go and WHY!!! When they came to one they were unsure of they said, "look on the back...let's see if they match!" In the end we had a couple of coins that JUST DIDN'T FIT on our mat...

We talked about the "golden" coin being a dollar and then the 1/2 dollar!

We have some that already know that a dollar is 4 quarters so a 1/2 dollar is 2 quarters!!! WOWZERS...smarties!

We continue to be BUSY, BUSY in kinder... We have some exciting things coming up... We will begin our author study of Eric Carle as well as the Perot Museum coming to present Getting BUGGY!!!

This time of year also brings us to assessment time. Guided Reading will be coming to an end as we begin to collect books to inventory so please make sure all guided reading books and bags are back in school EACH DAY!