Week of September 23rd

Can you believe it's almost October? I officially pulled out the pumpkin books. So exciting! This is my favorite season!

We finished Goldilocks and the Three Bears on Tuesday and started The Three Little Pigs! We have also started learning the songs for our play (date still TBA). We are visiting several stations this week and next. One station is called "muddy pigs." We get to finger paint little piggies! The interesting thing is, we learned that pigs actually prefer to be clean not dirty! The other station is acting and retelling. We get to wear a "costume" and act out the Three Little Pigs. The next station we visit is a place where we get to make a house out of straw, sticks and bricks. The last station is a pig fact book. We are learning the difference between a fact and an opinion. That's a difficult concept but they are doing really well!

Monday: Our school guidance counselor came to teach us about being kind to each other. She said that each of us has an imaginary bucket over our head. When we say something kind to someone, we fill their bucket. When we say something mean, we dip their bucket and their bucket spills. If you hear your child talking about bucket filing and bucket dipping, this is what they mean! We all strive to be bucket fillers :)

Math:
We continued to revisit our old math games this week but also learned about other math activities we can do at school and at home! On Tuesday we made a counting book. The kids were able to pick their own numbers from 1-20. They were to write that number on a page in their book and then place the appropriate amount of stickers underneath that book. They were also encouraged to write the word of the number on their page as well. We are still reinforcing the concept that numbers can be represented in different ways but they all mean the same thing. This is a neat activity that you can do at home! Make your own number book and try gluing down different objects or drawing pictures to represent that number.

Today we pretended that we were all employees at Target and we needed to take inventory. It was so neat! Each child was given a bag of items that they were to count and record. The recording part was the hardest! We were reinforcing counting using our one to one correspondence skill as well as counting in a slow, steady sequenced pace. The kids ended up counting 5 inventory bags. They loved it! It was a neat way to squeeze in math and writing while simoultaneously working on our kindergarten skills.

Literacy:

We continued to work on word sorts! We are getting into the habit of quietly reading for a long period of time while Mrs. Schultz and Mrs. Skaggs call small groups to focus on more individualized instructional needs. We worked on the "short a" sound this week. We worked on words that ended in   -at and -an. The first day we cut our word endings, pictures and words and talked about the short a sound. The next day we sorted our words and glued them into our notebooks! The next day we came up with our own words and pictures that have the short a sound. We also discovered that if we can spell the word "at" then we can also spell the words "bat, cat, mat, hat and pat." All we do is change the beginning sound and keep the same ending. Another neat discovery!

We have a lot coming up in the next month or so make sure you are checking the blog!

Important!! We need the following items for next week:

1. 4 fly swatters (can be found at most dollar stores)
2. 20 SMALL styrofoam cups
3. One bag of dirt
4. One bag of sand
5. One bag of grass seed
6. One box of toothpicks

**If you would like to purchase any of these items for next week, please hit "reply all" to the blog email I just sent and let us know you will be buying that item so that we do not get duplicates of things that are not necessary. Thank you SO much!

I also wanted to say thank you again, to everyone who continues to volunteer! It makes our classroom run smoother. The kids also enjoy showing off their mommies and daddies :) Just make sure you have turned in all of your paperwork and watched the volunteer video before volunteering in order to keep everyone safe!

**Below is a music video of the finger play we have been learning this week. We sing it a little bit differently but I also enjoy this version. Check it out!

Hugs,
Emily Schultz

Week of September 16th

We are moovin' and groovin' again this week! Lot's of new stuff happening in Mrs. Schultz's classroom.

Volunteers!

First things first. Thank you to everyone who volunteered this week! It was so great having a few extra hands in and out of the classroom. I sent another sign up genius for next week. Incase you did not get the email, here is the link to the sign up genius for next week: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C4FA5A82BA4FF2-week

Let them play!

Leslie Tomko found this phenomenal article and passed it along. I thought it was too great not to share! It is about the importance of "play." Please take a moment to read this and truly soak it in. It literally brought tears to my eyes! It's why we do what we do in kindergarten. I am truly working on building more time into our day where kids get to be kids and do what they do best...which is play! 
**The link is: http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/12/29/christakis.play.children.learning/index.html

Literacy

We jumped into a new genre this week...fairy tales! Although we were sad to leave nursery rhymes, we were excited to begin studying fairytales. We studied the different characteristics of fairytales and elements of this genre. So far the elements we have discussed are as follows: villain vs. good guy, happily ever after, once upon a time, animals talking and conflicts that end up being resolved. We focused on Goldilocks and the Three Bears this week and really enjoyed it! We visited four different stations where we really got to know the story. We also read several different versions of Goldilocks and voted on our favorite. The stations we visited were: Book making, "Wanted" poster, acting and retelling and sequencing. Each station was purposeful and meaningful to us. We began acting out Goldilocks to prepare for our upcoming play that will be coming up in the next couple of months (date TBA). It was by far my Mrs. Schultz's favorite station! We really enjoyed acting out our part of the "play" that day.

We also played several new literacy games and began our daily habit of quietly reading alone. We played roll and keep with letters and sight words. We also began discussing sounds of letters and how those sounds get "smooshed" together to make words! Such a neat discovery. We even got to play alphabet/site word bingo! What fun! This week we started to use word study notebooks and began with a sorting activity. The more we play with words, the better we become at reading!

Math

This week we jumped into a few new math games but also got to continue our oldies but goodies. We learned about estimation. To estimate means to make a guess! We got to make estimations and then check our answers. We also learned about one more strategy for accurate counting. We used ten frames to count our items this week. We learned that each ten frame has ten squares. We are counting quicker and a lot more accurately with all of our strategies now! We also started to write the number on a slip of paper after counting. Just one extra step to really connect the amount of items with that concrete number. (Devleoping number sense is key at this stage!) All of these math games are helping us discover how numbers work.

Bus Safety 

I am sure you have already heard from your little one, but we also got to go on a real bus on Tuesday! The bus was never turned on and we did not take a ride, but sitting on the bus was still way cool. We learned about bus safety and what to do if we ever needed to evacuate the bus. We learned about bus safety because at some point this year we will go on a field trip and it's important to know how to be safe. 

Rest Mats

We will do our best to send home rest blankets and towels each Friday. If you ever want me to send home the actual rest mat, just send a note and I will. The vinyl ones can probably be sprayed and I am thinking the cloth rest mats (with the attached blanket) can be machine washed. As we approach the season of lots of yucky germs and sickness, it's important to make sure we are staying as clean as possible! Just remember to send the blanket, towel or rest mat back. :)

Porridge Taste Testing

Tomorrow we will be tasting "porridge" like the 3 bears from our story! We will vote and make a graph about who likes it and who does not like it. We will then analyze our data and discuss how graphs can be used in the real world. We cannot wait to see the results and taste something new!

Have a great weekend!
Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

Learning Machines!

Wow, what a busy week!

We have started to dive into a more structured routine this week. We are still learning names and making new friends, but we are definitely starting to become a true family!

Literacy

We learned the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme and finger play this week. We read the poem on our pocket chart and had several really great conversations about rhyming words, word endings and syllables in words. On Tuesday we had a really neat conversation about how syllables are related to words and in particular rhyming words such as Jill and Hill. We made another mini book and also added this poem into our poetry book. We learned the Old Mother Hubbard rhyme and learned about unusual vocabulary we might see in literature. We discussed the word cupboard and bare. We also compared the two poems and looked at similarites and differences in rhymes and vocabulary. Today we are molding playdough letters. This is a great activity to do at home if you have playdough. We get to feel the different curves and lines in letters and explore the different shapes in upper case letters and lower case letters.

Math

We continued playing our tower game but added an extra step this week. After each player rolls the die, they build their tower and they are to discuss who has more and who has less. This week after their tower was built, they were to make one large tower, count it and then decide who had more and who had less. We learned another new game called “roll and cover.” Students would roll the die and then cover up that number on their game board. We played with “dot cards” where we learned that 4 dots is the same thing as the number 4. We talked about all the different ways we can represent out numbers!

We started handwriting without tears. This program is fabulous for new readers and writers! We started practicing how to write a 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. We also learned a neat number poem to help us remember where to start our numbers and how to properly form them. For 15 minutes each day, we have been working out of our handwriting books.

We also started writer’s workshop this week! I was so proud! We learned that we are all authors. We also learned that books have a beginning, middle and end. On Wednesday we discussed details and why they are important in our writing. We found out that we can write a book with only pictures! That was such a special discovery. You will see several books come home in their purple folders. Have your child talk to you about what their books are about. You can also put these books in the book boxes we sent home last week.

It was so great to see most of you at curriculum night. Have a great weekend!

 

Hugs,

Mrs. Schultz

Short but Busy Week!

My, my my! What a busy week we have had. It may have been short, but we have been making the most of it.

This week we have started to explore with numbers, letters and words! We are almost established with classroom procedures and everyone has started learning names. My heart nearly melted today when I saw (for the first time) friends from our class shouting to say hi to other friends from our class out of car windows and across other carpool stations. We are finally becoming a family! We have been working really hard to learn names! The Higgity Biggity book that was sent home last week will hopefully be a great reference the next couple weeks while we are still learning.

Hot lunch started this week and was a bit confusing at first but we are now pros! You may want to send an extra "side item" on the days hot lunch is provided just incase the main course is not enough. And of course, don't forget to always pack a snack! Learning makes us very hungry!

Math:

We officially started "real" math stations this week and the kids were awesome! We continued counting collections and also added playdough numbers, stamping numbers and played a few math games. Some groups even started making up their own addition and subtraction problems for their friends to solve. Today we learned about "more", "less" and "equal to." We played a really neat game with unifix cubes and our game board. I told each child to go home and make up some "more, less and equal to" math problems for you guys. We will see how many remembered! ;) We also began discussing how math can be used out of the classroom and also in literacy. I saw several light bulbs going off as they began to tell me how they use math outside of school.

Literacy:

We officially started "real" literacy stations this week as well. We practiced letters and words on white boards today. That was a hit! We also used stamps, foam letters, magnetic letters and playdough letters to practice sounds and words. We read Mary Wore Her Red Dress and then sang the song plugging in our classmates and their outfits. Next week we will make our own class book. Too fun! We also focussed on Baa Baa Black Sheep this week as our main literature source. We "remixed" the original nursery rhyme and started plugging in new colors. Example: "Baa baa orange sheep have you any wool?...." I have never heard so many giggles! They loved it. We made another mini book today with Baa Baa Black Sheep as well. They love that they can "read it." Add this mini book to their collection! We should make our book boxes tomorrow so that you guys will have a place to store all of these! If we don't get to it tomorrow, we will decorate their boxes on Monday.

Standing O: We started Standing O this week. This is a school wide tradition at CSD. I had tears in my eyes as I listened to the compliments being given. Each day a name is pulled out of the hat. That person gets to come to the front of the class and every student gives that person a compliment. Even this early on in the school year, these compliments are deep and meaningful. It has been a great tool for growing our class together! Mrs. Skaggs and I also get to give compliments. It is slowly becoming my favorite part in our day.

Don't forget, you have my email and phone number! Let me know if you need anything! Enjoy your weekend!

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz