Home Learning

Looking for some fun ways to help your child practice their reading and math skills at home?
Check out these great websites!

http://www.education.com/games/reading/kindergarten/

http://www.starfall.com/ 

www.readinga-z.com

http://mes-english.com/

Don't forget to have your child access iReady reading and math lessons from home as well.

https://learn.i-ready.com/

Just remember, they need to complete these lessons independently, without help from a parent or sibling!

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!

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!

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!

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!

Wonderful Writing

Today we read a story by Ursula Dubosarsky called Rex.  In the story, students get to take turns taking home a class pet - a chameleon named Rex. Each student in the story does something different with Rex, like taking him to the movies or the pool, and each student in the story has to write about what they did with Rex on the evening they brought him home. The story ends with a question, "What would you do if you took Rex home for a night?"
So, we used our imaginations and shared ideas of what we would do with Rex. Then we went to our seats to write about it. Take a look at what wonderful writing is beginning to happen in our classroom!

Brooks wrote that he would take Rex to the pond. He used phonetic spelling to describe where they would go and he is beginning to add details to his picture so that it matches his writing, like drawing the pond with the murky color that he sees when he looks at it at home.

Keith liked the teacher's idea of taking Rex to the beach, so he practiced writing by copying what he saw and remembered from the teacher's example. Then he worked on a picture that showed him and Rex on the sand.

Josiah said that he would take Rex with him to LegoWorld. He used phonetic spelling, sight words, and spacing between his words while working independently. He then began to draw a picture that told more about what would happen using details with his shapes and colors.

 Hollie wrote that she would take Rex with her to play at the park. She used phonetic spelling, like 'prc' and included details in her picture that would tell about where she and Rex played at the park.

Zayne used his imagination to draw about where he would take Rex. He also included letter strings to tell his story and is beginning to add sight words and some beginning sounds to his writing.

All of these students are at various stages in the writing process but are each doing their very best! We will continue to work on wonderful writing and soon you will see your child becoming a master at storytelling! :-)

Week one, already done!

This first week of school has zipped right by! Our class has 18 wonderful students who are learning so much about how to be responsible kindergarteners and how to have fun while still following the rules. Please take some time to talk with your child and have him or her share our classroom rules with you. The more they talk about them at home, the more likely they are to remember them at school.
We began practicing our color coded behavior chart this week as well. Starting Monday, the students' behavior will be recorded from the chart daily and will make up a percentage of their conduct grade.

Thank you to everyone who has sent in supplies, offered to help out in the classroom, and continues to check and sign the agenda daily. You are an awesome pit crew! :-)

Click here to see a few pictures of our race team working hard during the first week of school.