Come On A Ride On The Polar Express!

Today the children wrote about where they would travel on the Polar Express!  They became authors and illustrators of their own journey.  Mrs. Bianchi came by to visit, and she was thrilled to see how nicely they were writing!!!! She said, "Wow! Their writing has improved tremendously!"

Toot! Toot! 

All Aboard!

Today we boarded the Polar Express! Wow! Our kindergarten friends arrived in their jammies with their special bed time friend.
We enjoyed the story (complete with real train sounds).  We sipped hot cocoa, crunched on popcorn, chocolate, and peppermint sticks. 

We enjoyed learning about Christmas!

Ms. H. taught us all about Christmas, being a musician, and helped us to practice counting!

WE BELIEVE!

Numbers Rock!

During our math time we are reviewing identifying teen numbers, more and less.
I love to ask differentiated questions during this time to see who can add numbers or explain how many more are in one group than the other.

We have been practicing ordinal numbers. Today the children lined up with an ordinal number card.  We went from 1st to 24th!  
We also like to take colored cubes and I will say please put red first, green second, etc..
Here is a fun link that we like to visit to practice our ordinal numbers.
Many children are ready for extension activities with this, so I will ask them to put the red one first, the second one light blue,  and the green cube eighth, so it is not always in order of first, second, third.

http://www.turtlediary.com/kindergarten-games/math-games/ordinal-numbers.html

Information You Can Use!

This Friday is POLAR EXPRESS DAY in our class.

Please wear your PJs and bring something you love that you sleep with at night.  

You must wear shoes.   

The rest of the school is doing something else.  

Also, this Thursday, I hope to see parents enjoying the holiday centers with your children.

Updates

Tomorrow is the FAWN SHOP at school from 8:10-8:25.  A flyer went home about this with your child. 

Please remember to have your child complete and practice their Job Project.  They should be able to read to us the words that they wrote.  This is due on Thursday. 

High frequency flashcard went home with each child.  Please practice them often. 

All In A Day's Work!

Today I started using IPads in small group and differentiated the apps based on student need.  I love technology! Some of my friends (I did not meet with every group because math lasted a little longer today, but I will meet with everyone by the end of tomorrow.) were working on writing letters and letter sounds and some of my friends were building words and working on high frequency words. 
Please send in your child's ear phones or ear buds of you have not already.  Please make sure that they have tried them before sending them in. It is important that they also fit into the IPAD.  Not all ear phones and buds are compatible.  It often says if they are on the label. 

In math we are working on more, fewer, and the same.  Some of my friends were building more, fewer, and the same cities today with cubes.
I often use differentiated questions: How many more blocks are there? If I wanted 10 how many more would I add?
How many more would I need or less would I need to have the same amount?
It is amazing how many of the children demonstrate their deep understanding of math through their reasoning.  I love hearing them think aloud!  
Here are some great sites to reinforce what is being taught at school.

http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/SplatSquares/splatre100.html

http://www.abcya.com/counting_fish.htm

Reading

Daily reading is an important part of our day.
Each day the children are working on retelling as well as the following skill set:

When you are reading with your child at home ask what are the jobs of the author and illustrator, predict what you think the story will be about based on the title.
Ask where does the story take place?
Who are the main character?
What happened in the beginning, middle, and end.
If you see that your child is doing well with all of these areas kick it up a notch and ask what connections do you have to the story?  Does the setting remind you of a place you have been. Making connections is a great way for children to "connect" or remember the story.
If your child is struggling with any of these areas please make this part of your daily homework time as these are important emergent reader skills. 

Firefighters Help Our Community

Today we learned from Firefighter Fand all about what a firefighter does and how they help our community.
We learned that they use many tools, and go to school to learn how to use their tools, protect themselves, and save  others.
Ask your child to share their schema with you.

Holiday Events

*Wednesday 12/11- Wear P.J. to school day- yes, we are wearing them again on 12/20.
* Wednesday 12/18- Wear White Day
*Thursday 12/19- Holiday Hat Day
Holiday Centers- I hope to see all of you!  Please refrain from bringing younger siblings. Thank you.
*Friday 12/20- Polar Express Day in Rainbow Valley- Wear your p.j.'s and bring your favorite sleepy time treasure (no play weapons)

We will have our class store the week after holiday break.  If you can donate supplies we would greatly appreciate it.
-erasers
-small toys
-lollipops
-key chains
-stickers (please cut them up)
-small paperback early reader books

Holidays and Community Helpers

We have enjoyed many visitors in our classroom over the last two weeks.
Mr. A. taught us all about Hanukkah.

We have started our unit on community helpers and wants and needs. Over the next few weeks the children will be earning money for being bucket fillers, and for doing their job.

After the holiday break we will have a class store where they can spend their money.

We have invited many folks to come and speak to our class about their jobs and how their job impacts our community.

We have enjoyed learning from Dr. S. 

She talked to us about the tools that she uses to take care of children, and why she became a doctor.

We have been learning so much about non-fiction text.  Title, bold print, important words, facts, the index, and photographs.

Many of my friends wanted to learn about who takes those photos. Today we were so lucky to have Mrs. C. teach us all about photography.

After each of our guests leaves the children write down their new schema.  We call this building schema.

It is amazing how many details the children recall.

Rainbow Valley Is So Thankful

First, I would like to say that I am so thankful for each and everyone one of my kindergarten friends.
You make teaching and learning fun!
Second, thank you, Rainbow Valley parents for your kindness, love, and partnership.  You make my job wonderful.
I am thankful that I can work with such amazingly smart kids and amazingly awesome parents this year!
Happy Thanksgiving!  Gobble, gobble!

Play

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend today's Thanksgiving Performance.
The children were amazing!
Your presences at school is so important.  
Thank you for sharing your children with us!
If you have a video of the play please send it to me.  I forgot to hand off the video camera this morning to have someone record.
Please send me an email if you have video.

Thanksgiving

Our class Thanksgiving performance is tomorrow @ 10.  

Please refrain from bringing younger siblings if possible as we are very limited on space. 

Hope to see you then!

Gobble, gobble!

Reminders

Just some friendly reminders:

Homework is due on Friday's. Every time your child completes his or her homework their name is entered in the homework raffle.  Each week we choose names and they get to go to the treat bin. The more they do their homework the better their chances of winning.

Tuesday @ 10AM in our room is our Thanksgiving Play.  Your child has been assigned a certain color to wear. 
We have limited capacity.  Please refrain from bringing younger siblings if possible.

Wednesday is a half day of school.  The children will be dismissed at 10:10 and EDK will be dismissed @ 12:10.

Small group reading and math

Each day we are working on reading skills and strategies during small group time.
We are currently working on the following strategies that can easily be practiced at home.
LOOK AT THE PICTURE
GET YOUR MOUTH READY
ASK YOURSELF DOES IT LOOK RIGHT, SOUND RIGHT
DOES IT MAKE SENSE
LOOK FOR CHUNKS IN WORDS
GO BACK AND REREAD

Calling All Experts!

During the first few weeks of December we are going to begin our unit on jobs, community helpers, and economy.
Currently I have a doctor, chef, police officer, fire fighter, and solider scheduled to speak to my class.
I need at least 3 more folks to speak.  Through an interest survey the children expressed interest in addition to the above- they wanted to be dancers, football players, farmers, teachers, race car drivers,veterinarians, "video game makers" and ninjas.  
If you know of someone or are an expert in one of these areas please send me an E-mail ASAP, so I can schedule you to come in for a 15 minute presentation.  
Thanks!

Teacher Assistant Appreciation Week

Tomorrow wear blue, Mrs. Stinard's favorite color.  She also loves the Yankees and the Giants so if you have either jersey feel free to wear them.

Critical and Creative Thinking

During our math time we have been working on number boxes and sharing number talks

It has been amazing to see how many critical thinkers we have in our class.

You can check out Dreambox.com 

Today, one of the many ten frames I showed the children a 10 Frame with 9 dots. I asked to tell me how they knew it was nine.  One of the children said, I counted 5 on the top and 4 on the bottom, I counted by twos and added one, and I know there are nine and one box is empty and nine is one less than 10.  Now that's thinking!!! WOW!

Today Mrs. Mac came and did a great lesson for our gifted time.

Here was her creative thinking lesson where the children had to solve this Exemplar. 

Rainbow Valley Has So Much FUN!

Our class has started our unit on patriotic symbols.  

We are learning about the American Flag and what each part of the flag represents.  Today we learned the meanings of all the BIG words in the Pledge Of Allegiance and why we say all of those words.  We talked about those words representing patriotism for our country. 

Each day this week during snack I have been reading The Impossible Patriotism Project

by Linda Skeers.

We will end our unit tomorrow through learning about the president and what it means to be a leader in our community.

In February we will learn more about the presidents as well.

Today was also an exciting day we learned how to care for an use our IPADS.

the children explored the following apps if you would like to download them for use at home:

Millie Was Here Book 1

Doodle Buddy

Writing Wizard

Thank you Veterans!

During our language arts whole group time we started learning about the flag and what a veteran is.  
Many children shared their stories about veterans that they know and love.
Thank you to all of the men and women past and present for serving our country.  
WE APPRECIATE YOU!

Ear Buds/Phones

Parents:
Just a reminder.  If you have not already sent in a pair of ear buds or ear phones for your child please do so as soon as possible.  We will begin using IPADS shortly.
Thanks!

Book Order

Parents:
We are extending the book order time until this Friday, November 8th.
There are many awesome titles and leveled readers in this order.
We will be sending home the holiday order forms on Tues.  Books are great presents!
They are also much cheaper than at the big retail shops.
Let me know if you have questions.
If you chose to order you can do so online or through check or money order.
Checks must be made out to Scholastic.

What's The Matter?

We have started our unit on matter in Rainbow Valley. 
We talked about solid, liquid, and gas.
The children were given various items.  As a small group they had to decide how to change these items.
Some items were liquids and some solids.  
This hands-on discovery was a hit!
As you are working at home please talk about examples in your home that are solids, liquids, and gasses.
Today we learned about each state of matter more in depth.  We took ice and changed it from a solid to a liquid to a gas.  Your child is coming home with a page that they used to record their observations using their five senses.  Ask them about it!