Wednesday, Sept. 30

Today we thoroughly enjoyed our visit with the CLIMB Theater. The actors pretended to be two characters named Macaroni and Cheese. Cheese was trying out for the circus and the ringmaster Macaroni had him try to pass tests in order to join. Our class had to help him walk the tightrope, ( we supported him) and move a piece of cheese across the room (teamwork.) Then we learned how to stay strong, think for ourselves, and say "no" when someone wants us to do something that is wrong. Macaroni wanted Cheese to steal candy bars to be in the circus. We said "No!" The presentation was very funny with lots of physical humor. Ask your child how Cheese bent over backwards and about the magic spell that moved Macaroni and Cheese out of the room!!!
We have done more practice with matching lower and upper case letters. We have been counting words and putting the letters in alphabetical order. Today we practiced writing our friends' names, too. We continue to practice reading the work "the." Yesterday Mrs. George read us a book about Franklin when we were at the library. We also played blob tag in the gym with Mrs. Karg. These kids are fast; they really make me run!! Thursday we will go to the computer lab for the first time to read and play a gingerbread game!

Monday, September 28

Brrr! We had lots of discussion today about the changing seasons! Today focuses on colors and color words at our morning meeting. We graphed our favorite colors and compared the numbers. Blue was the most favorite in the AM and pink was the most favorite in the PM. We did a fun color song/game. We also did an art activity when we created petals for our class color flowers. Students glued many items onto a large flower petal. We will use our petals to reinforce our knowledge of primary and secondary colors. We worked on matching lower case/ upper case letters and reading the word "the". We had phy ed with Mr. Westling. You'll have to ask the kindergarteners what they did with the velcro flags. We read Max's ABC Day. The story protrayed Max's day from breakfast, through school, home for supper, and being tucked into bed. Each page depicted one scene from his day and focused on an alphabet letter and something in the picture that started with that letter. Students looked for lots of picture clues to tell the story (there wasn't text with the pictures.) Kindergarteners are building their confidence and enjoyment of reading through the use of picture clues to tell the story. In this way, they are able to "read" many books on their own. When we study our calendar each day, we count the days of school with tally marks. Today was the fifteenth day of school. This meant drawing a straight across (horizontal) line through our third tally. The students didn't need prompting this time. They already knew what to do to show that group of five. We started having table leaders today that are in charge of keeping their table clean throughout the day. They even wash up with sponges after snack. We had a new friend join our afternoon class. I was so proud of all my students. They welcomed our new friend and were very helpful and kind. I could tell that our new friend already felt comfortable playing and visiting with everyone. Thank you Kindergarteners!!!

Friday, September 25

please forgive my typos - I want to post everyday, but some days I'll be typing very fast!
Mrs. Hanson was the substitute teacher for the morning class and I missed seeing my students! She wrote a very positive summary of the morning. She left a surprise for them to receive when they come back to school on Monday morning! She's a very experienced teacher and I can tell she was at home in our room. Morning Kindergarteners enjoyed seeing the high schoolers at the Lakers Pepfest.
All Kindergarteners listened to the story Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Suess. Many students were able to predict some of the problems that were going to happen in the story. A lion, a dog, and a tiger were all showing off by piling apples on their heads and doing tricks. We did a lot of counting in this story and compared sets of apples. Some bears and birds made trouble, and pretty soon there were apples everywhere. We sang a silly song and put pictures of things on our head that start with 'c' and 'd'. We had some crazy things on our heads! We made pages for our own class book, Kindergarten Apples Up on Top. You'll have to see our silly story when you come for goal-setting conferences.
We also discussed many things that can be made from apples and looked at our Weekly Reader - lots of information about apples. Next week we'll start some cooking projects with the apples students' bring in to class.
Today was Fabulous Friday and we had chocolate milk for snack! Thank you for all the snack donations. Kindergarten mouths have been happy!
We did more object sorting; today we each had more complex collections to sort. Students brought home their workmats with drawings of how they sorted. We did the inside of the workmat together on Mrs. Karg's GIANT new math book. We practiced using our new wipe-off markers in my giant book. We all make mistakes in Kindergarten, and these markers help us erase our mistakes and try, try again.
Please remember to reinforce good hand washing at home and keep training our little ones to keep things (fingers, toys, even shoes!) out of their mouths to stay healthy. I'm washing our room everyday to help prevent the spread of germs. Also, remember to verbally say goodbye to Mrs. Karg if you pick up your child at the end of the day. We are all trying to stay together as a class as we make our way out of the school. Please don't take or wave your child out of line without telling me. Have a wonderful weekend, and I'm looking forward to seeing my bright energetic learners on Monday!

Quotes of the week:
"Mrs. Karg, you shouldn't tell us how to do it. We should try it first and then show us how to fix it. " CK
"We're the doolest dids in the drool!" JV (playing with letter sound)
"I know which month is my birthday. It's the one when all my family comes to my house." TK

Thursday, September 24

Today we practiced skills for our daily five reading. First we practiced Listen to Reading. The goal is for students to do this skill independently on their own or in small group while paying attention to the story, using the equipment correctly, and reflecting on the story they heard. We practiced making a row of friends, operating the cd/tapeplayer, and turning the pages with signals. We practiced with two other versions of the Gingerbread Boy today. That fox was up to his old tricks again. The students did a great job! We have a HUGE library of recorded books, so they'll have many great choices in the future. So far we've read many fun versions of the Gingerbread Man. Ask about the Gingerbread Cowboy. Giddy-up, Giddy-up!
We went "shopping" for more books for our independent reading book bags. Students found lots of great books to keep in their bags. When reading time was done, I heard moans and groans! The hardest part of indepenent reading today was holding back from talking about our books with our neighbor (it's quiet reading time) and stopping our reading. Of course, lots of students are reading aloud to themselves as they "read their pictures" but that doesn't seem to distract our neighbors if we whisper. Everyone is pretty focused on their own books! We also took photographs of ourselves in our reading spots, so we can remember where to go to read by ourselves. Next week we'll start Read to Someone with our book buddies - we'll meet some new buddies from 2nd grade!
We worked in our math journals. First we solved the problem of the day, which was matching objects made of the same shape: Circle donut/circle quarter, rectangle calendar/rectangle crayon box, triangle instrumet/triangle flag... Then we journaled several objects from our lives that start with those same shapes. Some students drew rectangle aliens and giant square tvs! There were some delicious circle cookies and triangle pizzas, too. Students are so proud of their math journals and want to take them home, but we'll wait until they are full!
Afternoon Kindergarten was treated with a visit from Mrs. Olson.
The biggest laughs came today when we sang our hello and goodbye song with a new twist. We're practicing the sound of 'b', so we changed everyone's name to start with 'b' and sang it in a a song. We were the bunniest bounding bids in the bool!

Wednesday, September 23

Today our class read a story called the Quiet Place. This book tells the story of how one boy finds different quiet places where he can get away; these places are real but he uses his imagination to make them even more special. For examples, the quiet place under his backyard lilac bush could be like a cave where he's a pirate searching for treasure. The beauty of the book is in the peaceful imaginative illustrations and child friendly examples of ways/places to relax. We then discussed our own quiet place in our imaginations. Mrs. Karg has a special spot in our room for a quiet place - it's a chair with a frog pillow and something to keep our hands busy. We practiced taking a break in this chair when we need to get away to our quiet place. Mrs. Karg will tell students when their behavior needs to take a break and they can sit in the chair to find their quiet place and regroup.
The morning Kindergarten had a visit from our Principal, Mrs. Olson. She shared photos and stories from her life and read us a story about filling each other's invisible buckets with kindness. She even gave our class our own fancy bucket to use as a reminder to do good deeds.
The afternoon Kindergarten had a visit from Ms. Ready's Kindergarten class. We watched a short movie together about the gingerbread man. "Run, run, as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!"
Boys and girls in school today practiced the sounds of short a and b, matched uppercase and lowercase letters, and sorted words starting with a and b.
It was hat day today! We sorted, graphed, counted, and compared our hats.
Look in those Wednesday folders for lots of special notes home!