Fall Fun Day!

The children had a blast exploring in the Fall Centers.
We learned which fall fruits and vegetables would sink and which would float.
The children used their five senses to explore a pumpkin.
They really loved measuring a weighing the pumpkins as well as measuring things we would find during the fall.
We did some art projects and practiced patterning and counting.

Spookley Math

Each day we are working on creating a classroom where everyone is treated fairly and with respect.  We read a story to help to support those positive feelings of respect.

Spookley The Square Pumpkin

The children created their own unique pumpkin and wrote about their favorite part of the story.

Ask your child to tell you the story of Spookley.

As a tie into our Spookley story we are working on 2D and 3D shapes.  We are working on learning their attributes and how to sort them.

We have been sorting objects in a variety if ways!  

Using our shapes we have also been learning patterning.  Some of our kindergarten friends have been creating and describing some really neat 3 and 4 part patterns.  We have discussed that if a triangle is turned a different direction in a pattern that it must remain in that direction and repeat throughout the entire pattern.

Patterns repeat.  That is the key!  

We also talked about if a shape is turned a different direction, it is still that shape only facing a different way! 

Here is one of our favorite songs that we sing to help with learning our shapes!

Ask your child to find these shapes in their world at home.

Patterning and sorting can be easily done at home as well!

2D Shapes-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htcuPenTg38

I will be posting our 3D shape song soon!  Come back to see!

When we are using our shapes I have also asked the children to practice counting backwards. We started off by using  shapes and simply counting backwards by touching them. Our tactile learners really benefit from this.

 Then, I showed them a number line and we practiced  jumping backwards (well not literally!).  

We also love to jam out to this song as we practice number recognition and counting backwards! 

Counting backwards-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srPktd4k_O8

Pete The Cat

Our class chose to make Pete the Cat for our literary pumpkin!  We sure hope we win!

Sorting

We started our math unit on sorting yesterday.  Through my pre-assessment I learned that many of our kindergarten friends sort at home.  They sort their clothing, toys, art supplies, shoes, and pool equipment.  This was a great way to show the children that we use math in our daily lives and that sorting was part of their schema.
During our math time we are learning how to sort objects by their attributes: size, shape, and color.   We read a great story about 3 Little Firemen. They had to sort the buttons on their turn-out coats so that each of them would have the right number of buttons.  Ask your child to tell you about this story. 
We started off with a sorting activity using our shoes. We sorted them by color, ties, without ties, boots, running shoes, and size.  
The children loved taking off their shoes!!!
Please make sure shoe tying is part of your daily routine.  If your child is not wearing shoes with ties this is a great year to buy a pair and practice. :)
At home ask your child if he or she can sort materials by those three attributes, size, shape, and color.

Science Lab Part 2

Copy of Science Lab Part2

Science Lab

Today we enjoyed our very first science lab of the year.  
Thank you to all of our parent volunteers for helping us to make learning fun!
Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. F., Mr. S., and Mrs. A.  We loved having you!
Science Lab

Computer Games That Reinforce Learning

Please check out these sites on this rainy weekend. 

http://readingeggs.com/freetrial/?gclid=CKHk7qz3o7oCFQyZ4AodNSAAJA


http://pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/games/count_your_chickens/count_your_chickens.html

http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/gooey.html

Fun Times

Today was such a great day! 
So many of my kindergarten friends surprised me with stories that they are writing and illustrating while at home.  It is marvelous to see this hard work happening everywhere!
During small group today while we were working on our rereads I introduced the children to the reading phone.  WOW! Was it a hit!
Many kids wanted to know where they could get one.
Any hardware store.

Reading Phone

Our focus during small group reading time has been the following reading strategies:

It is so important that the children practice using these as often as possible.  

I am also working with many of my friends on one to one pointing when reading.  

Ask your child to show you!

During small group time we are working on high frequency words.  Currently we are practicing reading and writing the following words: a,at,I, love, look (the o's look like eyes and we look with our eyes), my, the, you.
Ask your child to build these words with magnets, write them with chalk on the sidewalk, write them on sticky-notes and hang them in the house.

Ms. Miller has helped the children learn about Kelso's Choices. 

Sounds and Hearing

Today we read a non-fiction book called Shh... A Book About Hearing.

After reading and discussing how sound helps us to understand our world we went exploring outside and used our sense of hearing.  Wow! Did we hear many sounds!  
Upon returning to the classroom we wrote about our discoveries.
We wrote using an uppercase first letter, finger spaces, lowercase letters in our sentences, and making sure our picture matched our words.
This lesson lead into a discussion about visualizing. Some of the children said they heard sounds, but they could not see the thing making the sound. For example, the jet, cars, horns.
I explained to them that this is where we would use our schema...REMEMBER SCHEMA!?? Yes! They did, and visualizing, making a picture in our brain.  
They were then able to draw what they heard.
It was a great lesson.

Thank you to Allie who shared with us a story that she wrote for fun at home today.
Please encourage daily writing at home.  If we have time during the day I love to let the kids share what they are practicing at home! 

Our Five Senses

This week we are going to learn about each of the five senses.  In class we will be  reading various fiction and non-fiction books to help guide our learning.

Today we worked on starting our sentences with a capital letter, finger spacing, and ending our sentences with a period.

We are working all this week on identifying, writing, and counting to 20. Each day we are asking the children to match a number of objects to the given number. 
During calendar time we are working on patterning.  We discuss how many parts are in our patterns and describe them.

Handwriting is going very well during small group time.  When practicing at home please be sure your child is using the correct lines.  We don't like floating letters.  The are confusing. 
We are using a top, middle, and bottom line every time we write.  We call it the sky, fence, and the ground.
At the end of this week the children will be assessed on writing their first and last name the school way.  

Characters, Setting, and our 5 Senses

This week we spent much of our whole group learning time activating and building schema using our five senses.
We discussed our five senses and used some of them to explore our fall tree.
We also spent some time discussing WHY DO LEAVES CHANGE COLORS?
Prior to exploring and reading our non-fiction book some of our friends had this information in their schema:

• a fairy makes them change
• my mom does it
• the holidays
• the seasons change, so the leaves do too
• it gets cold
• there is not enough light
• a wizard zaps the trunk

After activating our schema we worked on building it. We spent so much time  this week turning and talking.  We are always encouraging appropriate oral language.  The children are learning about how to keep their conversation on the topic, look their partner in the eyes, and being bucket fillers.

We went outside and observed the tree using our senses.  WOW! Did we collect some information!  The we read a story called Why Do Leaves Change Colors?

We discovered that we had some "misconceptions."  

Now, we know that leaves change colors because of less sunlight, temperature changes, less water, and we learned a new word that makes the leaves change from their green color to other colors because chlorophyll begins to fade.

We observed this happening by touching and looking at actual branches with leaves on them.  As you are out in your yards or walking around where there are trees.  Please stop and discuss what we have learned about in school with your child.

This week we also spent time learning about characters and setting.  The children discovered that there can be many characters in a story or just one.  They also saw that the setting of a story can change.

As you are doing daily reading please encourage retelling and discuss characters and setting.

NEWS YOU CAN USE!

Please remember to read 20 minutes each day. :) Once you have read allow your child to color in a square on their log.  They feel so good about their accomplishments!  Our goal is to develop life long readers! 
Please remember to volunteer for Fall Fair.  
Today we started building our schema for 5 Senses. You can review this through asking your child what senses are they using during different activities.
Our Five Senses: sight, hear, touch, taste, smell


10/28-11/1-Red Ribbon Week
Monday 28th- Wear a hat day
Tuesday 29th- I'm Too Bright For Drugs- wear bright color shoes and clothes
Wednesday30th- "sock" it to drugs- Crazy sock day
Thursday31st- Orange you glad you don't use drugs?  Wear ORANGE day
Friday 1st- WEAR RED