Friday, September 30, 2016

I super LOVE this class!!! They are quick to learn new procedures and impress everyone with their ability to walk in a hallway with respect, while being safe, and responsibly. :-)

This morning we practiced the "structure' called "Hand Up, Pair Up." It was fantastic, because: 1. I didn't put kids into pairs at all (they did all the work); 2. each student had a chance to talk to multiple partners; and 3. they smiled the whole time!

The discussion points were how can you be safe, responsible and respectful at your home?

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!!

Thursday, September 29, 2016

YES!!! I got some photos today!

A new character showed up today. Meet Jenny Jaguar.

Recess has many Kinders practicing on the monkey bars. They are tricky because they are tall, round, and move. Some Kinders are getting brave and trying them out, and finding that they can do it!

A few photos of us working during ELA rotations.

Good readers are always asking "I wonder" questions while they are reading. To make this easier to remember, Quincy the Questioner came to see us. He is rubbing his chin and says "I wonder..." Loved watching the kids get this and practice this.

Math. We have "completed" our study of numbers to 10. And now we will review and add on to this information for the rest of the year!

For math intervention today I picked a random number (0-10) from a bag, and then each student showed it on a ten-frame with marshmallows. The best part was randomly eating a marshmallow!

We ended the day with some nursery rhyme reading. This is super for pointing to each word, which is tough, but we will be pros soon enough!

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Golly! I have to get better at taking some photos!

But a quick run-down of some of our activities:

1. Directed drawing and dictated sentence with "star."

2. ELA rotation fun!

3. A re-read of The Recess Queen, and a review of the playground expectations. Not that they are having any trouble, just making sure everyone knows what I expect for playing Safe, Responsibly, and Respectfully.

4. More counting and writing numbers to 9.

5. PE and music.

So, this morning... As we were coming back to our class from recess, the line was so quiet (without me prompting) and keeping up (no big gaps) that I swelled with pride. And after lunch I rewarded the whole class with 3 extra minutes of recess for it. Boy were they thrilled. :-)

Hopefully tomorrow my phone will blow up with photos...

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

These shirts say it all!!!

Kindergarten Rocks and Reading Rocks!!!

These smart Kinders learned a "new" sound today. It is the sound "ar" makes like in the word "smart." Arnie Aardvark is the character and he loves art and hanging by one arm.

Many of the kids tried hanging by one arm at recess. I loved watching them make this wonderful connection to reading!

Reading time was great. More work, and rotations. And then Mrs. Gering got to spend 20 minutes with them making a word map of our school using senses.

Later in the day Miss Becky and Miss Denise helped during our reading intervention time. Kids were practicing sounds and counting words in a sentence. Can you say Proud Teacher???

And then it was math. We counted. And worked on writing numbers 0-9. Soon we will be ready to practice them every day!

Here the kids are counting objects and writing the number to match. Such great (and tricky) kindergarten skills.

And this is just great!!! A masked teacher came in from recess with us! (I sure do love teaching with a great partner--Mrs. Weimer!)

Monday, September 26, 2016

I'm getting soooo excited about the reading and writing! 

Today the directed drawing was a rat in a hat. 

ELA rotations had kids reading and writing. 

We are reviewing our senses and we made a writing map of what our senses can learn on a farm. 

Math was great also, but we were so busy writing numbers 1-8 and making combinations to give that no photos. 😟

For social studies this year we will focus a lot on being a responsible, respectful person. Today I read a good book and then we drew a picture and wrote about how we can show peace. 

Mrs. Weimer and I hope to post these papers on a bulletin board near the library. 

My end of the day hugs are amazing and I kinda just want to keep teaching!!!

Thursday, September 22, 2016

First thing in the morning we have Animated Literacy/Writing time. Animated Literacy in part are the characters/sounds/gestures. It is really cool.

I follow a two-day routine. Day 1: introduce a new character, their story and gesture. Work on finding that letter on a page in the kids book and perhaps (if time allows) some writing with that sound. Day 2: I lead a directed drawing and a sentence writing lesson. It is very teacher led because I model correct letter formation, spacing and punctuation. It will be awesome when the kids start doing more of this on their own, but I will support them as long as they need it. 

Each day begins with a review of the letters we have already learned. It's a flash card type of activity. Letter names. Character names. Letter sounds. And writing a letter from the sound I give. These photos show that the kids are "ready" for the next sound, and that today we did it on whiteboards. 

I'm super proud of their progress and look forward to this time every day. 

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Oh my! The learning today was amazing!!!

I loved using a non-fiction book to introduce signs before we drew a stop sign. And then we learned "r." Rosie Racoon rides a rhino. 

Then to practice the new sight word "we," we wrote a book. Awesome!!!

And rotation time was magical!

Math was a bit rougher, but learning right after lunch is hard, so we did the best we could. We started to count on from five, but didn't finish, so we will have to continue tomorrow. 

And a birthday cupcake to celebrate our friend. It was great!

With just a couple of minutes to spare just before specials I pulled out a favorite book "We Share Everything" by Robert Munsch. Oh we laughed. And then I noticed...

Several kids were signing "problem." A word we talked a lot about last week. Oh my! My heart was signing!!! They had noticed the problem in the story (a skill that fifth grade teachers will be glad we taught) and now they are recognizing a problem in a story without me promoting them. 

Know what that means??! Comprehension!!! Yay Kinders!!!

This picture is blurry, but I had to take it, they are signing problem. 😍

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

I was so happy to see the kids today and hug them!!!

I learned so much yesterday and loved trying out my new learning today. 

It was fun to read and gesture the story The Napping House. 

We sang "Are you sleeping" and rewrote some verses with the kids' names. 

And recess is always fun, even if it's really hot!

Math we did lots of counting and writing numbers (today we practiced 5 and 6). 

And a game for reviewing writing numbers to 5.

They enjoyed our "game" of "hand up, pair up" to find a partner and answer a question and then doing it again. They loved moving and talking. 

We ended the day with another drawing and sentence writing (I hope it came home) "The pup can jump." I LOVED it and have high hopes for this year!!!

Friday, September 16, 2016

Happy Fun Foodie Friday! More on that later...

We began the day with more letter name and sound work. I love doing directed drawings with kids. It is when I give specific directions (one at a time) and the kids follow. It's good! Today we make a top.

Then we got into our next Constitution Week symbol (The Flag). To make it a bit fun, we made flag crowns.

And then had our foodie fun!!! A flag to eat. Yum!

We caught up on a few reading activities we had not gotten to this week and did our reading wheel time.

After lunch (and our second inside recess of the day :-( ) we found combinations of 4 (in a very concrete way), and then practiced a bit with a worksheet.

Even with the rain it was a great day and a wonderful week. Rest up! Next week will be even more fun with Kindergarten learning!!!