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Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Turkeys and Thank Yous!

As the autumn leaves continue to change, so do the students in my classroom. We've only been in school for 68 days, yet these 'speed racers' have learned so much! With Thanksgiving just a few days away, we've been participating in several turkey related activities.
Yesterday was no exception as the students were read to by a real author. His name is Chris Francis and he lives in Canada. Through video, the students listened as Chris read us one of his books titled, Mr. Pancake Turkey. It was a great book and inspirational to my class since we just wrapped up Narrative Writing where we learned all about the elements of a good story. It was so nice of Chris to take the time to share the story with our class! You can check out more of Chris' work at http://www.francisart.com/
We also decided to try a bit of turkey drawing ourselves and use our pictures for functional writing. Check out these super gobblers by clicking here!

Thank you so much to all the families who came to visit with us today! The students really enjoyed sharing pumpkin pie, Thanksgiving cards, and our video with you. Our class does have much to be thankful for and if you weren't able to join us this afternoon, you can still check out the video below. I hope each one of you has a safe, relaxing, and enjoyable break. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Click here to see the video of things we're thankful for!

Friday, November 14, 2014

3D Shapes

Early next week the students will be having a shape recognition test over the following six 3D shapes: sphere, cylinder, cube, cone, rectangular prism, pyramid

Though we have been discussing these in class, several of the students could use a little more practice remembering the names. Please work with them daily so they will be ready for the upcoming test.
Later next week the students will again be assessed on the 3D shapes. This time, the test will cover the shape attributes. They will need to answer questions like: which 3D shapes can be stacked, which 3D shapes can roll, which 3D shapes have flat surfaces shaped like 2D shapes (the sphere is tricky because it looks like a circle on paper, but in reality, it has no flat surface shaped like a circle), etc…?

Click here to practice the 3D shapes I know song with your child!

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Diamond D Ranch

Thursday was our first field trip of the 2014-2015 school year. The students excitedly boarded the bus, dressed in their new, grey shirts, bursting with anticipation. Diamond D Ranch held many surprises and adventures for the students. One of the top activities was a wagon ride into the cow pasture where the students fed the cows and felt their long, rough, slobbery tongues. Throughout the day we fed goats, took care of a pony, had fun on the bouncy houses, went on a barrel ride, took a lunch break, rode horses, and fed some very hungry fish. The students were exhausted after the long day and the bus ride back to school was quiet as most of the students drifted off to sleep.
Thanks to all the chaperones who came to help keep our class safe and enjoyed the fun day with us!


Click here to see more pictures of our fun field trip!

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Fall is in the Air!

We have been very busy these past few weeks with all kinds of events, from the school's Literacy night to our classroom Fall Festival, and we are excited to share some of these moments with you!

Let's start by taking a look at Olaf the Pumpkin which won first place during Literacy Night! A huge thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Jarrett for helping our class win this fun project!


Next we wanted to show you some of the fun things we do during math centers time. The students get to rotate to a different math center each day of the week. Sometimes the center activities cover concepts we are currently learning, other times they help us review things we've learned in the past, and occasionally the centers challenge the students by giving them problems to solve and ideas to process that we have not spent much time learning as a group.


Another thing we want to share with you is a fun storyboard activity we did in Reading with The Three Billy Goats Gruff. After reading the story as a class and answering questions about the characters, setting, and plot, we set out to make a storyboard that would help us as we retell the story at home with our families. The students loved using the little Billy Goats and walking them across the bridge on their papers as they retold the story!


The students have also been excited about science as we spend more time diving into the process of science and learning about things like hypothesis, experiments, and conclusions. As we learn more about what scientists do, the students take a larger role during science so that they become the leaders of the experiment, the generators of the ideas, and the masterminds behind completing projects and finding answers to our greatest kindergarten science questions!


Click here to see more pictures of our math centers, reading, and science projects!

Finally, we were so excited to have some of our parents come in as volunteers and help us with our Fall Festival. The students rotated through four different stations and had the opportunity to make an edible turkey craft (who knew turkey's could taste so sweet?), create a silly pumpkin with crazy hair and a painted face, make an owl with big, googly eyes and long, silent wings, and practice their sight words while they colored a fall picture complete with pumpkins and the cutest kittens.


Click here to see more pictures of our Fall Festival!

We have many more events coming up and we can't wait to share them with you too!