MLK and the 100th Day

We have had a fun week this week in Kindergarten!  We "officially" celebrated the 100th day of school on Thursday!  But, we have been celebrating in Kindergarten ALL week!  We separated Fruit Loops into ten groups of ten to make a necklace with 100 Fruit Loops, we made a book about 100, we made Derdnuh (hundred spelled backwards) which contained 100 pieces of snacks!  Enjoy the pciture below of Mrs. Ottis's class and our class SMILING with our Derdnuh snack!  We have had a really fun time practicing counting to 100 by ones, tens, fives, and twenty-fives!  We are definitely 100 days SMARTER!

The Kindergarten students have also been learning about Martin Luther King Jr.  The students learned in our past people weren't always treated fairly and Martin Luther King worked hard to change that!  We were proud that Martin Luther King used his words to help change peoples' beliefs and make life fair for everyone!

We continue to grow as writers in Writer's Workshop.  We are working really hard to use descriptive words in our writing.  We used a lot of adjectives to describe our winter hats.  We placed all of our winter hats on the floor.  I read the descriptions and we had to guess which hat the author was writing about!  I am very proud of our progress!

In Reader's Workshop, we have been working hard to identify the problem and the solution in the stories that we are reading in class and the stories that we are reading indpendently!  We learned that sometimes the problem/solution isn't directly stated in the story and that you sometimes have to "read between the lines" to figure it out on your own!  You can practice this skill at home when reading with your Kindergartner!

Our schedule for next week:
Monday-A Day
Tuesday-B Day
Wednesday-C Day
Thursday-D Day
Friday- A Day

Snowmen and 10 Frames

It's been another busy week in room 222! We have been working hard in math on 10-frames. This helps students to visualize how to "make" the number 10! It is a series of boxes-5 on the top and 5 on the bottom. We've used pictures and played a game like memory to help us "see" ways to make 10. For example, I will put a 10-frame on the board and count quietly to 3...then I will remove that 10-frame and the students will need to tell me the math problem. So, students have to WATCH and concentrate! If there are 3 dots, then they would tell me the math sentence of 3+7=10. There are 3 black dots and 7 empty boxes making 10 altogether! Today we had a great time making our own 10 frame with frosting, graham crackers and white chocolate chips! We really enjoy using manipulatives when learning all sorts of skills! THANK YOU for all of your donations! The students really enjoy working with different items, and of course eating the snack when we are all done! See pictures below!

During Reader's Workshop & Writer's Workshop we've been working on "retelling" stories! We've used books in our book bags and stories that Mrs. Hellbusch has read to retell the beginning, middle and end. We have learned that we don't have to retell EVERYTHING, just the important parts of the story in order! We will continue to work on this strategy while reading!

Our schedule for next week:
Monday-No School
Tuesday-A Day
Wednesday-B Day
Thursday-C Day
Friday-D Day

January Rules

We have had a great week in Kindergarten. We have been reviewing our classroom rules (quiet mouth, quiet body, eyes watching, ears listening, nice to others, finishing my work and doing my best). We made a book about our rules. After we finished our books, the students in Mr. Winkleman's fifth grade class helped us make our very own movie showing the students modeling the rules! We had a lot of fun working with the fifth graders!

In math we worked on making numbers! We are learning about "turn around facts". We have been connecting cubes to make different numbers. Next week we are going to focus on the number ten. We will be using 10-frame cards to show pictures and represent a math sentence!

Next Week's Schedule:
Monday-D Day
Tuesday-A Day
Wednesday-B Day
Thursday-C Day
Friday-D Day

Welcome Back!

The Kindergarten kids were very excited to come back to school! We have had a lot of fun learning and celebrating our hard work during second quarter! We graphed our progress toward our Kindergarten learning goals in our Data Notebooks. We had a ribbon ceremony where we recognized students who have met learning goals! Please continue to practice skills with your students at home!

Our favorite activity of the week was making words with our friends in Ms. Mehwald's room with letter Cheeze-Its! It is amazing to watch the kids work together to make some really complex words like dinner, basketball, sweet, etc. We are getting so smart!

Your child's second quarter report card comes home Monday! Our schedule for next week is as follows:

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