Kindergarten Celebration

Our Kindergarten kids have grown up and are very excited to be first graders!  I am so proud of the work we have done this year.  It is amazing to think back to the first day of Kindergarten and think about how our children have grown, matured, and learned!  We have developed into authors, readers, and mathematicians!  Continue to help your children grow this summer.  Encourage your child to read and write every day! 

We celebrated our accomplishments today with our final Kindergarten ribbon ceremony!  Each Kindergarten student was also given a special reward unique to that child to celebrate his/her accomplishments this year!  We are so proud of our Kindergarten kids!

Oviparous Animals

We've had another exciting week! This week we have been learning all about animals that hatch from eggs!

We also studied the life cycle of a frog and a butterfly! We have learned that these animals change during each stage of their life! We made a paper plate with the life cycle of a frog and we used different types of noodles and a popcorn seed to display the life cycle of a butterfly!

We have been playing our favorite math games from this year!  We have played Race to 100, Tug-of-War, and many more.  It has been a fun way to review our math skills!  We have learned so much!

Today your child is bringing home his/her Data Notebook.  We have been tracking our learning progress through this notebook all year!  Inside the front pocket you will find a paper titled "Summer Goal".  Please work with your child to write a learning goal for this summer!  If your child has not yet earned all the Kindergarten ribbons, you will find these ribbons stapled to the goal paper.  Please continue to work on these goals this summer!  When your child masters the goal, please have your own special ribbon ceremony to honor his/her work!  The best part of our data notebook is our Weekend Stories.  You can find these at the end of the 4th quarter work!  Almost every week we have written a story summarizing our weekend.  ENJOY reading your child's stories!  It provides a great memory for your child's Kindergarten year!

Here is next week's schedule:
Monday-NO SCHOOL
Tuesday-B-day
Wednesday-C-day
Thursday-D-day
Friday-11:45 dismissal NO SPECIALS

Maps and Globes

We finished another great week in kindergarten! We've been learning about maps and globes! Our goal is to identify bodies of water and land on maps/globes! We've even learned about different types of landforms. We are working on knowing where we live...Kansas City, Missouri and in a neighborhood!

We continue on with our study of measurement! We are learning what tools we would use when comparing objects...(balance scale, ruler or non-standard units, measuring cups)!

We had an AWESOME morning at field day! A huge thank you to, Mrs. Lindsay for coordinating it all, and a BIG thank you to all of the volunteers! The students had a great time!

Enjoy the pictures below! We had a lot of fun reading and eating popcorn outside with our third grade buddies.

Next week's schedule:
Monday-A-day
Tuesday-B-day
Wednesday-C-day
Thursday-D-day
Friday-A-day

Paradise Park and Measurement

It was another great week in kindergarten! We enjoyed our new schedule to accommodate MAP testing. We are excited to get back to our normal routine.

We started our week with a great field trip to Paradise Park. We explored all about seeds/plants! We even planted a seed in the dirt and ate it (chocolate pudding, graham crackers, gummy worm and M&M)! We played in the water station, outside, the ball pit and the imagination station! Thank you to all the chaperones that joined us on the trip! We couldn't have done it without your help! We enjoyed a picnic lunch in the cafeteria when we returned!

This week we have been learning about measurement! We are discussing measuring length, weight and volume. Our goal is to know what measurement "tool" we use to measure different objects. We are working with the new math series that our school district will be implementing next year.

Next week's schedule:
Monday-C-day
Tuesday-D-day (kindergarten teachers at district office in the afternoon for meeting-substitute teachers in the classroom)
Wednesday-A-day-kindergarten field day 9:00-11:00 am...bring a water bottle and wear sunscreen
Thursday-B-day
Friday-A-day

Solar System and Fractions

We have had a great week of learning this week! Our topic has been the Solar System and our students have LOVED every minute of learning about the planets. We learned that the sun is a star and it is the most important part of our solar system. We learned about our moon and the kids learned why it appears to change shape! We have learned a lot of facts about each planet. We will continue our solar system learning next week!

Our class has also been studying fractions. We have learned that a fraction is when something is divided into equal parts. We learned that the "numerator" or the "top number" tells us how many parts and the "denominator" or the "bottom number" tells us how many pieces there are all together. We have been drawing shapes and creating our own fractions. We have also been identifying fractions and problem solving with fractions. Fractions are a a challenging topic but we are really beginning to understand!

We have been having a lot of fun imagining in writer's workshop. We have written about what it would be like to be an astronaut exploring space. We pretended that we discovered a brand new planet and wrote about what it would be like on this planet! It is fun to see the excitement for writing when we are being creative.

I have included a picture that I received from our "Piggy Opera" musical! It is an oldie, but a goodie!

Our schedule continues to be a little different due to MAP testing in the older grades. Our specials are from 10:30-11:20 in the morning. Our afternoon recess is from 2:40-3:00. Our specials schedule for next week is as follows:

Monday-PARADISE PARK FIELD TRIP
Tuesday-Art
Wednesday-PE and Music
Thursday-Library
Friday-Music and PE (back to normal specials and recess times)

Earth Day and Time

We have had an awesome week in Room 222! We've continued our work with time to the hour and time to the half hour! We are getting "tricked" on time to the half hour...it's difficult to figure out where the "hour hand" is pointing too! We will continue to practice this skill the remainder of the year! The kids are really enjoying learning how to "read" the clock!

We spent a lot of time learning about "how to take care of the Earth." We discussed the 3 R's...(reduce, reuse and recycle)! It is always fun to hear how the students will take care of the Earth! Our class learned about how big a landfill can grow by making an "edible" landfill.  Each ingredient in our landfill represented trash that gets thrown away (oil, yard waste, styrofoam, dirt to cover up the smell, paper, etc.)  We talked about how the 3 R's could make a lot of that waste disappear from our landfills!

We have focused on the comprehension skill of making inferences.  We have been writing "clues" to help our classmates "infer" what the author is feeling and thinking.  Then we share our clues and the class gets to "infer"!  This is a challenging skill and we are having a lot of fun practicing!

 Next week's schedule:
Monday-NO SCHOOL
Tuesday-C-day
Wednesday-D-day
Thursday-A-day
Friday-B-day

Weather, Time and The Three Piggy Opera!

It's been a great week in kindergarten! We've made clocks out of paperplates. We know what each part of the clock is called (face, minute hand, hourhand and second hand)! We are telling time to the hour and writing time to thehour. We have a few students who have figured out how to tell time to theminute! We will keep working with time through next week!  We read the book "The Grouchy Ladybug" and had fun making a book that we can use to retell the story at home!

 
We have been reading non-fiction books about the weather. The students have learned a lot of facts about different types of weather.  We have made some fun books about weather.  Make sure you have your child read his/her books to you!

We performed our musical for the entire school on Wednesday afternoon!We had a great dress rehearsal! Thursday night we had a big crowd! It is alwaysfun to see everyone perform!

 
Next week's schedule:

Monday-B-day
Tuesday-C-day
Wednesday-D-day
Thursday-A-day
Friday-B-day

Science Fair

Our science fair project was on display this week! It has been fun "observing" our plants (grass) and recording our data! We've continued our learning with plants. This week we have sequenced the plant pictures as it grows and labeled the parts of the plant along. We've learned special jobs that each plant part has!

We've continued on with our computation problems (addition/subtraction)! The students are getting faster and some are learning those facts by memorization! Please continue to work on these problems through the rest of the year and in the summer. This week we mixed the problems on the same paper (both addition and subtraction) so we REALLY had to pay attention to the sign!

In music we're practicing for our music performance! It is next Thursday, April 18th! We can't wait for you to see it!

Next week's schedule:

Monday-A-day (Musical Stage Rehearsal - all Kindergarteners will go to Music)

Tuesday-B-day (Musical Stage Rehearsal - all Kindergarteners will go to Music)

Wednesday-C-day  (Music Performance at 1:40 dress rehearsal)...

Thursday-D-day ***Normal Specials this day*** (Music Performance in the Evening at 7:00)...

Friday-A-day

Plants

It's been another busy week in kindergarten! We've been working hard on our class science fair project! We are learning about the scientific method and plants at the same time! We've enjoyed observing or "watching" our grass grow! Our testable question is: What Do Plants Need to Grow? We've learned that plants need 5 things to grow: air, water, space, soil and sunlight! Plants will NOT grow without water! However, plants will grow in the dark (but they are yellow-need sunlight to be healthy) and plants will grow with NO air for just a little while, but they will soon wilt and turn brown!

Cup A-water, seeds, sunglight, air and NO soil (some are actually growing, just a little)

Cup B-seeds, sunlight, soil, air and NO water

Cup C-water, seeds, soil, air and NO sunlight (growing, but is yellow in color)

Cup D-water, seeds, soil, sunlight and NO air (growing, but will soon wilt)

Cup E-water, seeds, soil, sunlight and air....(growing and GREEN)

Check out this fun video/song on the needs of plants!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQT6piZOX7c

We've continued our work with addition/subtraction problems every day! We are using manipulatives (teddy grahams, counting bears and some use their fingers) to help us master the problems!

We're also working hard during writer's workshop to write 5-finger stories! We've been writing non-fiction stories about ourselves and our families!

Next week’s schedule:

Monday-D day
Tuesday-A day
Wednesday-B day
Thursday-C day
Friday-D day

Fiction and Teddy Bear Slumber Party

We've had another FANTASTIC week in kindergarten!!!! We studied fiction and used bears to help us learn! We've read SO many bear books! While reading each book we discussed the fiction parts of the story!

We enjoyed reading, The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and The Big Hungry Bear! After reading the story we thought of ways we could "hide" the strawberry from the bear! We have some very creative friends in our class! Of course we had to enjoy a very special treat, strawberry shortcake! THANK YOU to all the families that donated something! You make these activities happen!!!

Last night our teddy bears spent the night at school! We couldn't believe what we saw this morning when we came into our classroom...the bears had hopped out of their special spot and were all over our classroom "playing"...can you believe the bears came to life??? Fiction is so much fun!

Next week's schedule:
Monday-C-day
Tuesday-D-day
Wednesday-A-day
Thursday-B-day
Friday-C-day

Nonfiction Bears and 3rd Quarter Celebration!

The students came back from spring break rested and ready to learn!  We all agree that we are ready for the weather to feel like spring, instead of WINTER!  This week we have been having a lot of fun learning around a "bear" theme.  We have been reading many nonfiction books about bears!  We have been identifying nonfiction text features such as a table of contents, glossary, and captions under pictures.  The students have enjoyed making their own nonfiction books to share their knowledge.

In math we have been practicing our adding skills by playing some fun dice games.  We have also begun to practice subtraction.  We are learning that addition and subtraction work together.  The students have been using Teddy Grahams to solve subtraction problems!  We like this challenging work. 

In writing we have been writing our own nonfiction book about ourselves.  We have been busy brainstorming and writing rough drafts.  Next week we will practice editing and will be writing final copies.  We hope to publish our final copies using a really cool website to make a book!

We have been celebrating our success this quarter!  We had a ribbon ceremony where many of our friends were recognized as "Kindergarten Experts" (they have earned ALL 8 Kindergarten ribbons).  Continue to work with your children at home to meet our ribbon goals.  Our goal is to have a class full of Kindergarten Experts before we graduate to first grade.  We also celebrated with the first graders!  Enjoy the pictures below of our quarterly celebration!

Our schedule for next week is:
Monday-B Day
Tuesday-C Day
WednesdayD Day
Thursday-A Day
Friday-B Day

Dr. Seuss and Main Idea

We have had a great week of learning this week! The students have had a lot of fun listening to many Dr. Seuss books! We got to read The Cat and the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, The Lorax, and Yerttle the Turtle! The students voted for their favorite book. Our class favorite was The Lorax.

We have been spending a lot of time being reading detectives and identifying the main idea of all the stories we are reading in class! We have also been identifying supporting details that help us identify the main idea!

The students wrote about their snowy day pictures! They had so much fun using word choice (describing words) and voice (writing how you feel) to describe their snow day adventures!

Next week we will not have school for Spring Break! I hope you enjoy your long vacation! The schedule for the week of March 18 - March 22 is as follows:

Monday-A Day
Tuesday-B Day
Wednesday-C Day
Thursday-D Day
Friday-A Day

Enjoy our Center Time pictures!

Snow Days, Coins, and Teeth

We hope you enjoyed your snow days! We have been working hard on identifying the coins and stating their value! We've learned poems for each coin, made a puppet for each coin and have learned a few songs! At the end of this week, we assessed kindergarten students on the green ribbon (coins)! We will reassess those that didn't earn their ribbon next week!

We're busy getting ready for 3rd quarter assessments! We have worked SO hard this year! If your child has not earned all of the ribbons, please keep working on those skills at home! It is VERY important to have mastered thses skills before 1st grade!

We started talking about teeth and how to take care of your teeth! Today we worked with a partner to write a "how to"...How To Take Care of Your Teeth...we used a sequence paper of a puppy that was brushing his teeth to help with our writing! We worked on writing "5 finger" stories! Each story needed a beginning...first, next, last...and an ending! The picture helped with the writing process! We will be finishing our How To books next week.

And of course on a popcorn Friday we enjoyed a little treat!

Next week's schedule:
Monday-A-day
Tuesday-B-day
Wednesday-C-day
Thursday-D-day
Friday-NO SCHOOL...

March 11-15-SPRING BREAK

Valentine's Day

We have had a great week in room 222. In math, we have been busy learning how to recognize each coin, state the name, and the value. We ended the week playing games to help us practice this skill! Continue to practice at home so all our students can earn the GREEN ribbon!

In Reader's Workshop we have been been reading some fun Valentine books. After reading the story, the students have been responsible for identifying the characters, setting, problem and solution. The students have also been identifying the story elements in the books they are reading independently.

We had a wonderful time making a book with all our Valentines. We also had a blast at our Valentine party! Thank you to all the parents who donated items for our party and to Mrs. Ortiz for leading the activities! Enjoy the pictures below from our party!

Schedule for next week:
Monday-No School (President's Day)
Tuesday- D day
Wednesday-A day
Thursday-B day
Friday-C day

Student-Led Conferences

We have had a busy week preparing for student-led conferences on Thursday! The students were so excited to show YOU how smart they are! We identified personal strengths and personal weaknesses. The students are eager PRACTICE so their weaknesses can become strengths! Enjoy the pictures below of us practicing and preparing for our conference with our third grade buddies! Thank you for attending this event! Our students are so proud of their hard work!

We have also been busy learners this week! In math we have been learning how to identify the coins and the value of each coin! Please practice this skill at home! The students are eager to master this skill and earn a GREEN ribbon.

In writer's workshop, we have been learning how to write a "How To" book. We brainstormed a list of topics that we are "experts" at. Then, the students began writing books to "teach" someone!

In reader's workshop, we have been learning about verbs! We learned that "ing" means that the action is happening right now and that "ed" means the action already happened. We practiced "breaking the words into parts" to sound out words with these endings!

Specials Schedule for Next Week:
Monday: C day
Tuesday: D day
Wednesday: A day
Thursday:B day
Friday: C day