What's New



Week of May 20th

Language Arts~ We started a new unit this week and it's all about farms.  All of the information we learned about farm animals was told from the perspective of Old MacDonald (a familiar name to many of our friends and they even started singing the song!).  We learned about the various tools used on the farm as well as fruits and vegetables grown on farms.  As the week progressed, the children heard about some of the animals farmers raise including cows, chickens, pigs, and sheep.  Animals raised on a farm also provide important products such as milk, cheese, eggs, bacon, sausage, etc. to farmers and families.  In the weeks to come, they'll learn more about crops, the seasons of farming, and farm to market.

Math~ We explored story problems this week as we revisited addition and subtraction.  The children also played several adding games with a partner.

Science/Social Studies~ In Science, we explored force and motion.  The children learned all about push and pull while exploring a Let's Find Out from a previous year.  They worked with a partner as they experimented with building ramps, changed the slope., and explored steepness.

Enjoy the long weekend!


Week of May 13th

Language Arts~ This week we reviewed deciduous trees and took a closer look at evergreen trees.  The easiest way to remember the difference is evergreen trees are always green.  They learned that plants provide 2 very important things for humans and animals to survive: oxygen and food.  We saw pictures of corn and wheat fields, a rice paddy, and cotton crops.  They learned about sap from rubber trees and maple trees.  Our week ended by learning about George Washington Carver, who became famous for his love for and work with plants.  Phonics lessons this week focused on silent e (found at the end of words).  The children listened to The Mighty Silent e, a sweet story about little e that teaches spelling in an exciting way.  They practiced reading words without silent e as well as how they changed once silent e was added (i.e. cap-cape, hop-hope, tub-tube).

Math~ The children played a couple of games with their partners to review the numbers 0-20.  In Capture the Number, they used 10 frame and double ten frame cards and located those numbers on a number line.  After all of the cards were drawn, they had to write the numbers they captured, the numbers their partners captured, and compare them.  Double Top Draw was introduced as well and it was another comparing game with just double ten frames.  

Science/Social Studies~ The children listened to My Life as an Oak Tree and learned about the life cycle.  On a separate day they completed a sequencing activity to help them recall the life cycle of an oak tree.  We looked at a Let's Find Out paper titled Wink to Say Hello which explored the many ways animals say hello and talked about some of the ways we greet others (wave, handshake, fist bump, cardinal wing, etc.). 

Have a fantastic weekend!


Week of May 6th

Language Arts~ Our week kicked off by learning more about flowers and the pollination process.  They listened to a couple of stories about Polly the Honeybee where she shared the many ways honeybees help flowers and learned what the fruits of someone's labor meant.  Some of our vocabulary words included nectar, pollen, pollination, and produce.  As the week went on they heard a tall tale about Johnny Appleseed which was a perfect transition into learning about deciduous trees.  Deciduous tress lose their leaves while evergreen trees are always green.

Math~ The children learned how to play some new math games this week.  A few of them revisited teen numbers and they also played a game which measured handfuls.  In measuring handfuls, they had to estimate how many unifix cubes they grabbed in one hand and then counted the number of cubes they actually had.  We also worked on comparing weights to see if they were exactly 1 pound, less than 1 pound, or more than 1 pound.

Science/Social Studies~ We worked on a couple of special projects for our mom's this week in honor of Mother's Day this weekend.  The children also listened to Just Me and My Mom and Mother's Day Mice.

A HUGE shout-out to the PTO for an amazing teacher appreciation week and to all of our families and students for their kind, encouraging words as well as notes of gratitude!

Wishing all of the moms a Happy Mother's Day~ enjoy your weekend!


Week of April 29th

Language Arts~ This week we began to learn about plants.  We talked about how all living things have certain things in common such as needing food, water, and air and how plants can make other plants.  Our world is filled with many different living things and some plants can only grow in certain environments.  We explored what types of plants live in the forest, desert, underwater, and even inside our homes.  They learned about the parts of a plant and their job as well as the life cycle of a plant.  The story The Gigantic Turnip was read as well as The Enormous Turnip and we compared and contrasted both versions.  We began looking at 'ee' and the sound it makes.

Math~  The children learned how to play several math games this week involving the many ways to make 5, 6, and 7.  They spent a lot of time working with their math partners.  We started May Number Corner and our calendar markers feature either a story problem or math equation.  When we see a story problem, we work to solve it and when we see an equation, we work to come up with a story problem.  This month's spinner has a cat and a dog instead of a frog and toad and it's not divided equally in half.

Science/Social Studies~ We worked on a project for our mom's this week in honor of Mother's Day.  Our study of fabrics wrapped up by brainstorming a list of things made of fabric before drawing a picture and adding a label into science notebooks.  We also looked at 2 Let's Find Out papers~ Abraham Lincoln and Drip, Drop, Birds.

Have a great weekend!

Week of April 22nd

Language Arts~ We wrapped up the pilot of our second program and we had the opportunity to explore informational texts.  The children listened to a story about Martin Luther King, Jr and one about President's Day.  They learned more about author's purpose as the week went on.  When an author writes an informational text it is to inform or teach the reader something.  In writing, the focus was on planning out our writing about a specific topic.  They worked really hard on remembering all of the details they wanted to include.

Math~ This week we spent a lot of time reviewing teen numbers and exploring the many ways to build them (using 2 ten frames; with one dime and some pennies; unifix cubes).  A lot of our games focused on making combinations up to ten using unifix cubes or beans (plastic counters).  The class also saw their 5th grade buddies and made tissue paper butterflies before working on a booklet about the life cycle of a butterfly.

Science/Social Studies~ In honor of Earth Day, the class wrote about their favorite thing about the earth and we listened to a few stories which included: My Friend Earth; Our Planet: There's No Place Like Earth;  Plant a Tiny Seed.  We finished exploring different types of fabric and used our senses to describe how each one felt.

Have a fantastic weekend!


Week of April 8th

Language Arts~ This week we spent a lot of time exploring the book, Take Me Out to the Yakyu.  It's a story about a boy who enjoys going to baseball games in America with his pop pop and going to games in Japan with his ji ji.  We were able to compare and contrast baseball in both countries as well as talk about author's purpose.  The children explored some more examples of how to writing and we also continued to talk about open and closed vowels.

Math~ Our math games this week focused on the concept of place value with teen numbers.  The game A Dime and Some Pennies, offered another way to investigate 10s and 1s.   Our class had a special visit from Mrs. Whitman's 2nd graders too!  They're working on measuring so they came to measure the height of our kindergarten friends~ it was so much fun!

Social Studies~The class explored a couple of our Let's Find Out papers~ Find Baby Birds Mother and Goats Eat Poison Ivy.  In honor of Ollie's upcoming birthday, his parents came in to visit the class.

Pajama day was so much fun and we did a lot of bedtime themed activities!

Have a safe and fun break!


Week of April 1st

Language Arts~ We began our 2nd pilot this week, Into Reading.   Our books focused on learning more about the United States of America and what makes it special.  Before listening to America the Beautiful, the children learned it was originally written as a poem before becoming a song.  We also looked at the nonfiction text In Our Country and explored some of the beautiful places in the United States.  The writing portion of our week focused on informational writing and learning about how to book.  We looked at some samples including "How to Pack Up" and "How to Make Enchiladas".  In addition we continued to work on blending and isolating sounds as well as taking a closer peek at long vowels (a and i).  We even talked about closed and open syllables.  Our popcorn words are said and will.  Next week we will be sending home our last 2 popcorn words for the school year along with a list of all 50.  Please continue to practice them at home.

Math~ We looked at some 3 dimensional shapes: cube, cone, sphere, cylinder, and rectangular prism.  The children thought about real life objects that had these shapes, practiced sorting them by shape, and learned the flat sides of them are called faces, and played 2 new math games.  They also practiced building a cube and triangular prism with polydrons.

Science/Social Studies~ This week we talked about the signs of spring around the school and at home.  The books Grow Flower, Grow and When Spring Comes were read to learn more about plants in spring.  We talked about the upcoming solar eclipse when we explored our Let's Find Out paper titled Something Big is Coming!.  The children learned why it's a big deal along with ways to stay safe during the solar eclipse.

Have a fantastic weekend!


Week of March 25th

Here's a peek at our short week~

Enjoy the long weekend!


Week of March 18th

Here's a few highlights from our short week~

Thank you for taking the time to meet with me during parent-teacher conferences!  

Have a wonderful weekend!


Week of March 11th

Language Arts~ Our focus this week was folktales and we listened to a few (The Bremen Town Musicians; Momotaro, Peach Boy; The Story of Jumping Mouse).  After Momotaro, Peach Boy the children thought about why he was a hero and learned that a hero is someone who does something brave or generous for others.  We learned heroes can exist in fiction stories and also in real life.  They can include firefighters, doctors, family members, etc.  The children wrote about someone they thought was a hero and why.  This week's popcorn words were one and have.  Our poem this week was "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and the children found several popcorn words before adding it to their poetry notebook.

Math~  The children continued to explore shapes and worked on ways to compose/decompose them.  We played a game as a whole class called The Shape in My Pocket, where they had to guess what shape was hidden in a pocket.  They also played several shape games throughout the week with their math partners.  They explored triangles and squares as they created paper quilt squares.  This week we'll assemble our quilt and talk about the number of rows we create and how many are in each row.

Science/Social Studies~ We've also continued to talk about what it means to be a good friend and enjoyed listening to some Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems (I Love My New Toy; Can I Play Too?).  One of our Let's Find Out papers titled Once Upon a Time tied in nicely with our reading lessons.

Have a great weekend!


Week of March 4th

Language Arts~ The children listened to a few stories (Chicken Little, The Three Little Pigs, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and Little Red Riding Hood) and a folktale (The Wolf and the Seven Kids).  They learned stories come from a person's imagination and folktales are stories that are passed from person to person orally or by word of mouth (instead of being written down).  We reviewed character, plot, and setting and practiced retelling the stories we heard.  This week's popcorn words are do and are.  Please continue to practice reading them at home with your children.  Our final digraph was ck, which says /k/, and is only found at the end of words.  We also began talking about consonant blends and focused on l blends (bl-, cl-, fl-, etc.) and r blends (br-, cr-, fr-, etc.).  They learned when we see consonant blends, they each say a sound (which is a bit different from our digraphs!).  

Math~ During Math, we continued to observe patterns on our March calendar and talk about lion/lamb weather days.  We focused on the properties of 2 dimensional shapes and used sorting cards to sort shapes by various attributes.

Science~ In Science, we learned how wood is turned into paper and explored various paper samples (wax paper, cardboard, tagboard, chipboard, newsprint, paper towel).  We thought about the many ways to describe each sample (soft, smooth, thick, bumpy, etc.) and added it to a chart.  The children also glued each sample to a piece of paper before adding it into their science notebook.

Enjoy the long weekend!


Week of February 26th

Readers' Workshop~ Our new popcorn words this week are by and my.  This week we learned about the digraphs ch, th, and wh.   C and h love hanging out together and have so much fun, but there's just one problem....when they get together they can't stop sneezing!  When they get too close they say /ch/.  The kids loved pretending to sneeze when making this sound.   We explored th and they discovered they act a little rude when they get together because they're always sticking their tongue out at people and saying /th/.  Lastly was the digraph wh and learned when w and h are together, they're often confused and ask questions (What? When? Where?).

Writers' Workshop~ During writing time we began talking about writing how-to books where we teach others how to do stuff.  As a whole group we brainstormed the many things they know how to do (pick up their toys, tie their shoes, clean their room, brush their teeth, etc.).   We added the poem My Dog to our poetry notebooks.

Math~ The children learned how to play a new game called Circles & Squares Race to 20 with a partner.   One player was a circle, while the other one was a square and they had to roll a die before coloring in the same number of spots on the game board.  While playing, they asked their partner questions- “Who has more?”, “Who has less?”, “How many more do you need to get to 20?”.   We continued to talk about characteristics of shapes and worked together to sort shape cards based off of different attributes- size, color, edges, type of sides, and shape name.

Science/Social Studies~ In Science, they learned that we can change the shape of wood by using sandpaper and that it creates sawdust.  Sawdust is super fine and looks a lot like sand.   We've also started to talk about what it means to be a good friend and enjoyed listening to an Elephant and Piggie book by Mo Willems titled I Really Like Slop.

Have a great weekend!


Week of February 12th

Readers' Workshop~  Our popcorn words this week are but and him.   We continued to talk about the sounds letters make and began exploring digraphs.  A digraph is a fancy phonics word for 2 letters that stick together to make a new sound.  We took a close look at sh~  s and h say /sh/ when they're together and before long they're shushing everybody.

Writers' Workshop~ During one of our writing activities the children worked on a special project.  They cut up a sentence before gluing it in order and the sentence said "Will you be my Valentine?".  They worked really hard on this and added such beautiful pictures too.  We've also been reviewing the formation of some of our uppercase letters.

Math~ The children explored pattern blocks, named and sorted shapes, and began describing attributes.  We looked at the difference between circles and spheres using PlayDoh.  They were also excited to spend some time with their 5th grade buddies.  Their buddies read fantasy stories they had been working on and colored some pictures together.

Science/Social Studies~ The children decorated bags in preparation for Valentine's day and listened to a couple of stories.  They were excited to exchange valentines with their classmates on Valentine's Day and have their families join them.

Have a restful winter break!


Week of February 5th

Readers' Workshop~ Our reading lessons focused on zooming in on letters and sounds.   Sometimes we can sing the alphabet song, getting to know all of the fun ways that letters and sounds go.  When we read, we can use all we know about letters and sounds to help us read the words in our books.  Q is for Duck was a wonderful alphabet guessing book where the children had to think about the "why?" behind the letter for each animal.  This week we only have one popcorn word (like) and we talked a little bit about the job of silent e at the end of words.  In honor of World Read Aloud Day on Wednesday, February 7th we made crowns and decorated them with some first grade friends.

Writers' Workshop~ In honor of the 100th day the children wrote about what they'd do if they had $100.  As we continue to explore writing true stories we worked on adding details to our pictures and our words.  They shared their stories with a partner to see if they had any suggestions.  We also talked about some of the ways we can make our writing easier to read.

Math~  We looked at 2 coins this week and talked about how much they're worth~ the penny and the nickel.   The penny is worth one cent, while a nickel is worth five cents.  During Number Corner we collected a penny for each school day and found 5 pennies is the same amount of money as 1 nickel.  Two new games were introduced, Money March  and Race You to 15 Cents, and the children were able to play with a partner.  The spinner for Money March featured nickels and pennies which encouraged the children to count on from 5 and with the other game the children could trade 5 pennies for 1 nickel.

Science/Social Studies~ In Science, we continued to explore wood samples, but our focus changed a little bit as we learned about wood and water.  Looking at the same samples from last week (cedar, basswood, pine, plywood, particle board) they carefully observed what happens when drops of water are added to each type.  They thought about whether or not the water soaked in (absorbed), spread out, or beaded up.  We thought about what would happen when we placed a piece of pine wood in a basin of water and made predictions (Will it sink or float?).  After our predictions we tested it out and discovered the wood floated.  The book Who Sank the Boat? was read and next week the kids will make foil boats.  In Social Studies, we looked at a Let's Find Out titled What Is In the Red Envelope? about Lunar New Year.

The 100th day was filled with fun activities......they counted out their collections and grouped them into 10 groups of 10 before going on a tour to see what other classes brought in.  We made Fruit Loop necklaces, colored pictures, and played a math game with a partner.

Have a fantastic weekend!


Week of January 29th

Readers' Workshop~ During our reading time we revisited checking our reading.  It's important to ask ourselves~ Does it make sense?  Does it sound right?  Does it look right?  Just like writers check their writing, readers check over their reading.  When things seem off, readers can reread to fix it up.  We also continued to explore patterns in books and talked about how often those patterns will change to include a surprise ending.  Our mentor text this week was Cat and Mouse.Our popcorn words this week are go, no, and so.

Writers' Workshop~ We worked hard on rereading our writing this week and thinking about some of the ways we could make it easier to read.  Some of those ways include using finger spaces between our words, making our writing and pictures match, using a capital letter a the beginning of the sentence and a period at the end

Math~ We explored longer and shorter again this week by measuring some of the objects in our classroom using popsicle sticks.  Some of the things we measured were our meeting area rug, a window, and even a friend volunteered.  After measuring various things we compared them using the terms longer than, shorter than, and the same as.  They also looked at 2 straight paths on the floor created with tape and discussed which path was longer.

Science/Social Studies~ In Science, we began exploring different types of wood and looked at posters of 3 different trees (linden tree, cedar tree, and pine tree).  They also learned about plywood and how it's made from wood and glue as well as particle board which is made from sawdust/wood chips and glue.  They took a closer look at all 5 of these wood samples and added an entry into their science notebooks about their findings.  In Social Studies, we talked about Groundhog Day this week and made predictions about whether or not he would see his shadow (most of the class predicted he would).

Have a wonderful weekend!

Week of January 22nd

Student appreciation week was a huge success and we're so grateful for our wonderful PTO!  The children enjoyed a fun-filled week!  On Tuesday, they enjoyed a marionette show.  The children were amazed by a Mad Science show on Wednesday.  Thursday was popsicle day and our week ended with a surprise gift.  

Readers' Workshop~ Our new reading unit, Bigger Muscles, talks about noticing books getting harder.  The children can get themselves ready to tackle new challenges by remembering the super powers they already know and use.  This week we'll revisit patterns in our books and noticting when they change.  Our popcorn words this week were as and has.

Writers' Workshop~ As we continue to explore writing true stories we worked on adding details to our pictures and our words.  They're working on using an uppercase letter at the start of a sentence, spaces between their words, and puntuation at the end of a sentence.  They also added the poem "Different Friends" to their notebooks.

Math~ They began exploring length this week as they compared various lengths of ribbon to our sample length of ribbon.  We used the terms longer than, shorter than, or the same as during our comparisons.  Our teen number booklets came home this week too as we finished learning the formation of the numbers 11-20.  The children also learned how to play "The Forest Game" and "Beat You to 20".   In “The Forest Game,” students added or subtracted numbers and took squirrels in and out of the forest!  "Beat You to 20" is another variation of a game they're familiar with where they roll a number die and add the corresponding number of unifix cubes until they reach 20.

Social Studies/Science~ We checked out a Let's Find Out featuring animals in winter and the things they do when it's cold outside.  They also listened to a couple of books about winter.

Enjoy the weekend!



Week of January 15th

Our short week went by in a flash and here's a few things we did:

Have a fantastic weekend!


Week of January 8th

Readers' Workshop~ They worked on rereading and retelling Caps for Sale.  We learned we can add labels to books to help us remember the important parts.  Some of the labels we added on sticky notes were man, caps, tree, nap, monkeys, and mad.  This week we have 2 popcorn words an and can.  Similar to last week with am, we realized we can make rhyming words by changing the initial sound.

Writers' Workshop~ They brainstormed the many things they loved, shared one idea with a partner, and then with the class.  We looked at the heart map in their writing folders and talked about its purpose.  It will be used as a guide to help them with writing topics.  They also worked on their January self portrait and the poem I Can!.

Math~ This week they played a game called Read My Mind where we reviewed greater than and less than.  All of the children used whiteboards and wrote the numbers 0-10, tried to guess the number the teacher was thinking of, and by using the terms greater/less than they crossed out the numbers until the correct one was guessed.  They also played a few variations of Roll, Add, and Color as well as Scrambled Numbers 0-10.

Social Studies~ Social Studies~ The children learned about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and all agreed he was a wise person.  They read about him in their Let's Find Out, listened to a biography about his life, and did a little experiment with eggs.  Mrs. Brydges held up 2 raw eggs, one of them white and one of them brown.  We talked about what they noticed about the eggs.  They noticed and commented on the color right away and also noticed some other minor differences. Before cracking them into clear containers the children predicted if the eggs would look the same inside or different.  After Mrs. Brydges cracked them and we could see they looked the same, we talked about how people are like eggs... how we look different on the outside, but how we are the same on the inside... with our bodies and our feelings.

Enjoy the long weekend!


Week of January 2nd

Readers' Workshop~  Our mentor text this week was Caps for Sale.  We're learning more about the parts of a book, continuing to develop concepts of print, and building on skills learned in our previous unit.  Our popcorn words are not and am.  We found we can add a letter to the beginning of -am to build some rhyming words.  

Writers' Workshop~ The children cleared out their writing folders in preparation for our new writing unit.  Our poem this week was titled Happy New Year and the children enjoyed singing it to the tune of "Happy Birthday".   We also looked at the poem I am Unique.

Math~ We've started a new unit and launched our January Number Corner.  This month, we're working on investigating and decomposing numbers.  This week we looked at the ways to make 3.  The children explored a real life number line when we built one using some tape on the floor and number cards.  

Science/Social Studies~ We talked about New Year's and some of the things we did with our families.  The term resolution was defined (something we'd like to get better at) and listened to the book Squirrel's New Year's Resolution.  Several animals in the story made resolutions and the children thought about some of their own (become better readers, learn to tie their shoes, ride a bike without training wheels, etc.).  One of our Let's Find Out featured a post office in Antarctica~ many of us said we'd love to see penguins, but it's super cold there.  Lastly, we watched a cool Mystery Doug video about how January got it's name.

Enjoy the weekend!


Week of December 18th

Here's a glimpse at our busy week:


Thank you all so much for your donations and help with making gingerbread houses~ it was so much fun!

Have a fun and safe holiday break!


Week of December 11th

Readers' Workshop~ This week we listened to several different versions of The Gingerbread Man and practiced retelling them.  Some of those read alouds included The Gingerbread Man, The Gingerbread Girl, The Gingerbread Baby, and Gingerbread Friends.  We talked a lot about how they were the same or different as well as the characters in each version.  Our popcorn words are be, me, and we.  Please continue to practice reading all of these words at home.

Writers' Workshop~ Our poem this week was "The Gingerbread Man".  The children filled in some popcorn words, drew a picture, and read it with a partner before adding it to their poetry notebooks. 

Math~ They played lots of math games this week including Grab Bag More or Less, Build it to Ten, and Bicycle Race. 

Social Studies/Science~  The kids were excited to see their 5th grade buddies this week to work on a reindeer headband for our upcoming winter concert.  Our classes will be doing the reindeer pokey with their 5th grade buddies next week.  We continued to talk about weather, update our daily weather chart, and listened to a couple of stories about Christmas.

Enjoy the weekend!


Week of December 4th

Readers' Workshop~ We listened to different versions of The Three Little Pigs, practiced retelling them, as well as compared and contrasted the different versions.  These included The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by A. Wolf; The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf; The Three Little Superpigs: Once Upon a Time; and The Three Little Javelinas.  It was so much fun listening to these books and thinking about how they were alike and different.  We celebrated finishing up our Super Readers unit!  Mrs. Root, one of our school secretaries, read Superheroes are Everywhere to our class and Ms. Eaton's class.  They loved wearing their capes and coloring a special certificate!  Our popcorn words this week are he and she.

Writers' Workshop~ They started a new book all about our classroom and drew a picture of their desk on the first page.  As the week went on they added a page with their cubby and their favorite spot in the classroom.  We're working on continuing to add labels to our pictures, completing a sentence starter (This is my ______.), and using spaces between words.  Our poem this week was titled My Bunny and we buttered up the word he several times.

Math~ The concept of equations was introduced as we looked at regular five frames with a combination of red and blue dots.  We used numbers and symbols to write the number of dots of each color as an equation.  They learned the meaning of the plus sign (putting 2 groups of objects together to form a larger group) and equals sign (the same as).  We did a lot of counting and worked on our fluency within 5.  During Number Corner this week, we've been tracking a bear every day on our calendar to see what position it will be in (inside the box, outside the box, to the left of the box, etc.); collecting pattern blocks in 4 different shapes; and counting down the days until winter break on a paper chain.

Science/Social Studies~ We looked at a weather words booklet and they have started tracking the weather each day in their Science notebooks too.  The book Eight Candles to Light was read and made a cardinal craft.

Have a great weekend!


Week of November 27th

Readers' Workshop~ Ms. Kim came for her last visit to our classroom and taught us a few more strategies we can use if we're sitting at our desks.  They included tongue pushes (push tongue to roof of your mouth for a 5 count), spidey fingers (curling and stretching fingers), chair pulls, and leg wraps.  We worked on our retelling power as we explored the books My Lucky Day and The Wolf's Chicken Stew by author Keiko Kasza.  Our popcorn words this week are at and that.

Writers' Workshop~  We wrapped up our favorite meals books by adding our favorite lunch and dinner.  They also worked on creating a cover for their books.

Math~ This week we continued to work on counting forward and back from 20.   Two and three dimensional shapes were reviewed and the children made a shape fox.  

Science/Social Studies~ We talked about the different types of weather and listened to a couple of books ( It's Your Cloud and Storm is Coming).  Next week we'll start tracking the weather each day in their Science notebooks too.  We began talking about the holidays we celebrate and this week we started to learn about Hanukkah~ a Jewish celebration also known as The Festival of Lights.  They learned about the menorah and how a candle is lit during each night of Hanukkah.  The books Chanukah Lights Everywhere and I Have a Little Dreidel were read.

The Scholastic Book Fair kicks off next week and our class will be visiting on Tuesday at 9:30am.

Thank you so much for your generosity and sending in gifts for our baskets.  Our class is collecting gifts for a 3-4 year old boy and a 3-4 year old girl. 

Enjoy the weekend!


Week of November 20th

Here are some highlights from our short week~

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving!




Week of November 13th


Readers' Workshop~  Two letters were introduced~ q (qu, queen, /kw/) and z (z, zebra, /z/).  We learned that the letter q rarely stands alone and saw that when we took a peek at our sound cards.  Our popcorn words for the week were or and for.  We're continuing our unit Super Readers and talked about slider power, pattern power, and expression power.  The mentor text Yo! Yes? was used as we explored how punctuation impacts our expression when we read.  Ms. Kim also came in for a visit to review the green & yellow zones as well as the strategies (hand squeezes & hand pushes) from last week.  She introduced the blue and red zones before the children practiced sorting feelings into all of the zones.  The children learned 2 more strategies to help them get back into the green zone~ thinking caps (go to the top of your ears and gently walking to the bottom of your ears, do it 3 times) and giving yourself a hug and gently squeezing.


Writers' Workshop~ We continued working on our Show & Tell Books about our homes.  This week they added a page featuring their kitchen, a final page of another room of their choosing, and drawing a picture of their house on the front cover.  They also did some interactive writing about something they were thankful for and added the poem Baa, Baa, Black Sheep to their poetry notebooks.


Math~ They learned how to play a grab bag game where they took turns grabbing a handful of unifix cubes, counting them out onto a ten frame, and determining if they are a double (even number) or not.  We also introduced a butterfly race game which they played with their math partners.  They listened to a book titled Butterfly Countdown, which explores the concepts of one less and counting backward.   Our week ended by introducing and playing a game called Spill 10 Beans.  


Science/Social Studies~ This week we talked about Thanksgiving, listened to Feeling Thankful, and thought about something we were thankful for.


Have a fantastic weekend!




Week of November 6th


Readers' Workshop~ Ms. Kim visited our class again this week to review Whole Body Listening Larry and to introduce the Zones of Regulation.  She introduced the green and yellow zones.  The green zone is when we're feeling happy, focused, and ready to learn.  We'd always like to be in the green zone, but it doesn't always happen.  When we're in the yellow zone we often feel frustrated, wiggly, distracted or overwhelmed.  Ms. Kim talked about 2 strategies the children can use to help them get back into the green zone~ hand squeezes and hand presses.  We also explored a decodable text titled The Rat.  The children were so excited to discover they could read most of the book independently and use their sound power to sound out other words.  They also had a special visit with their 5th grade buddies and read The Rat to them.  The 5th graders also brought a book to share with them.


Writers' Workshop~ We did some guided meditation as we tried to visualize the rooms in our houses as a way to get our brains ready for writing.  They worked diligently on drawing a picture of their bedroom.  Our poem this week was Fuzzy Wuzzy~ the children went on a popcorn word hunt before illustrating a picture to match the words.   We introduced "space man" to help us remember to use spaces between our words.  Everyone put a "space man" inside their tool kits to help them when they're writing.


Math~ We started a new unit with an exploration of bicycles and wheels.  They used ten frames to model the number of wheels a bike has and kept increasing it by 2 as we added another bike.  As a class, we counted by 2s to 20, which was a bit tricky.  They each drew a bicycle too, which we'll use next week as we continue to explore counting by 2s.


Social Studies~  In Social Studies, we talked about Veterans Day and checked out a special Let's Find Out.  The children each colored an American flag and glued it to a popsicle stick.  They will be sent home with some of our friends as a small token of appreciation to their parent(s) who have served our country.  A huge thank you to all of the veterans! 

Enjoy the long weekend! 





Week of October 30th


Readers' Workshop~ We focused on our sound power this week by practicing sounding out and blending words.  In honor of Halloween we listened to Room on the Broom and completed a story sequencing activity before retelling the story with a partner.  Ms. Kim came into our class to read Whole Body Listening Larry in School, a fun story that teaches children that their whole bodies communicate (eyes, ears, hands, feet, body, brain, heart) and affect others around them.  It was a great activity to help students focus and actively listen with more than just their ears.  Ms. Kim will be spending some time in our classroom over the next couple of weeks.  Our 2 new popcorn words are is and his.  Please continue to have your child practice reading them at home.


Writers' Workshop~ The children finished up their Show & Tell writing with their objects from home.  We worked on adding more labels and stretching out words to write all the sounds we hear.  Our poem this week The Sharing Song featured the popcorn word is.  The children went on a popcorn word hunt before drawing a picture of themselves sharing with a friend.  They also wrote about their favorite Halloween candy and what they dressed up as for Halloween.


Math~ We've started to compare 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional shapes during Number Corner.  We're learning 2D shapes are flat while 3D shapes are solid.  The class learned about tallying this week and explored various groupings using craft sticks.  We learned what we can do when we make a group of 5 (5th stick is placed diagonally across the other 4) and it’s called a "gate".  The children thought about whether using this method made it easier to count (yes!).  They practiced building numbers up to 10 using math mats and craft sticks.  The game "Which Bug Will Win?" was introduced and they played it twice with a partner.


Social Studies/Science~ We wrapped up learning about fire safety by looking at a Let's Find Out titled Robot to the Rescue and listening to the book A Day in the Life of a Firefighter.  The class also drew a picture of our adopted tree and we were amazed to discover there are only a few leaves left at the very top of the tree.  It has changed so much in less than a month!


Celebrating Halloween was a huge success and it was wonderful to see so many families!  Thanks for hanging out with us, helping the kids work on various centers, and checking out our costumes during the parade!


Have a fantastic weekend!



Week of October 23rd


Our short week went by quickly and here are a few highlights:





Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me this week for parent-teacher conferences!  I appreciate your kindness, support, and playing such an active role in your child's education!  Have a great weekend!



Week of October 16th


Readers' Workshop~ We launched our new unit (Super Powers) by listening to Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? The children were so excited to see some familiar words and many knew the book by heart!  We learned that we are super readers as we looked around the classroom and took turns pointing to and reading various words.  They can put their finger under one word, then the next, and the next and read the words they see.  We practiced this skill with our predictable text Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?  Each child got their own special pointer to use during independent reading time.  Our popcorn word this week is to~ the children worked on a popcorn word puzzle and to booklet to add to their book bins.


Writers' Workshop~ Mrs. Salvatore modeled thinking aloud while looking at her show and tell item (a ladybug paperweight).  After drawing a picture of it, we worked together to think of words to describe it including what the item was, the colors we saw, features, how it felt, etc.  The kids were excited to talk about the items they brought in for our new writing unit, Show and Tell.    They practiced using 3-5 words to describe their object.  Our poem this week was Jack O' Faces about a jack o' lantern.  Each time we add a new poem we read it together, go on a hunt for popcorn words, illustrate it, and glue it into our poetry notebooks.


Math~ The children learned how to play a new math game this week called Count and Compare.  They worked on counting objects one by one in a group and practiced counting them in a different way to see if it changed the total number of objects.  The words greater than, less than, and equal to were introduced.  We explored two color ten frames (some red dots while others were white) and practiced building what we saw using unifix cubes and individual ten frames.  Lastly, we checked out a number rack, built our own with a pipe cleaner and beads, and practiced using them in their small groups.


Science/Social Studies~ We looked at a couple of our Let's Find Out papers~ Things That Go Bump and Awooo in the Night and Can You Make a Spooky Face?.  They also made tissue paper pumpkins and marble painted acorns.


Have a great weekend!



Week of October 10th


We had a short week with the Monday holiday and our field trip on Thursday!  Here are a few highlights from our week~


Thank you to our chaperones for joining us on our field trip to Brown's Harvest!


Have a fantastic weekend!



Week of October 2nd


Readers' Workshop~  Our mentor text, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, was used a lot this week.  We spent our time rereading the story, retelling the story using special connecting words (then, after that), and practiced sounding like the characters in our story (that was really fun!).  The children practiced retelling the story with a partner and using their puppets.  We listened to The Carrot Seed.  Prior to reading we practiced taking a book walk before we read.  This is where we looked at the pictures as we thought about who the characters were, what they might be thinking or saying, and making predictions about what would happen next. 


Writers' Workshop~ We continued to work on thinking of an idea before adding anything to paper.  The class thought about their favorite choice activity (blocks, kitchen, library, free art, Lincoln Logs, Legos) and the things they like to do when they're in that space.  After brainstorming they added their thoughts to paper.


Math~ Patterns with up to 3 elements were explored.  We looked at patterns in books, sorted ourselves, and explored unifix cube patterns.  The children continued to play games and use math manipulatives during their work place time.  They finished their number booklets too by learning the formation of the number 10 and practicing the numbers 0-10.


Science/Social Studies~ In Science, we talked a lot about apples.  The children sequenced the life cycle of an apple, learned about the parts of an apple, listened to A Day in an Apple Orchard, and made apple prints.  We also adopted a tree on the playground and will observe it each month.  This month we noticed some of the leaves are beginning to change color.


Enjoy the long weekend!



Week of September 25th


Readers' Workshop~  We finished reading The Beetle Alphabet and learned readers can learn from pictures and words.  The mentor text, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, was introduced at the end of the week.  After listening to the story we practiced retelling the story and the children made little character puppets to add to their books bins.  Next week we'll continue to look at the story and act it out with a partner.  Our popcorn word this week is "of".  They worked on an "of" booklet to add to their book bins for independent reading.  Please save the yellow word cards that come home each week and practice reading them.


Writers' Workshop~ This week the children "wrote" about their favorite fall activity and their favorite season.  We're continue to practice the formation of our lowercase letters too.


Math~ We explored the number of dots on a set of ten frames and practiced using 2 hands to show the numbers we saw.  The class practiced matching the numeral to a corresponding ten frame with the same number of dots.  They learned how to play 2 new games as well~ Beat You to 5 and Which Numeral Will Win?.  We also continued learning the formation of some of our numbers (5, 6, and 7)


Science/Social Studies~ We started Science by talking about the 4 seasons.  The children listened to It's Fall, The Apple Pie Tree, and The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree.  They worked on a story sequencing activity to go along with The Apple Pie Tree and looked at one of our Let's Find Out papers about school.


Have a great weekend!



Week of September 18th


Readers' Workshop~ We have our first word wall word this week~ the.  In Kindergarten, we call them popcorn words.  They also learned "the" is a heart word, which means some part of the word we need to know by heart because it doesn't follow the "typical" sound pattern.  We continued with our We Are Readers unit and introduced what it looks like to read with a partner.  The children practiced sitting side by side, sharing one book, and taking turns reading to each other.  We also learned about the importance of rereading our books to notice things we might not have seen the first time around.  The children shared the titles of some of their favorite storybooks.  We talked about when you have heard a story a zillion times, you can practically read it all by yourself. 


Writers' Workshop~ The book If I Built a School was read and the children thought about what they'd like to have if they could build a school.  They had so many creative and imaginative ideas!  Everyone "wrote" one or more things they'd love to see in their dream school.  Our poem this week, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, featured our first popcorn word "the".  The children have also been working really hard on the formation of some of our lowercase letters.


Math~ We finished up talking about fives and ended our week with introducing numbers up to and including 10.  The children talked about the things they noticed about a 10 frame and how it was different from a 5 frame.  In Number Corner, we've finished our 3rd week of collecting unifix cubes.  This week there were 15 unifix cubes collected and the children compared it to the amount collected during week 1 and week 2.  The cubes were also placed on 10 frames and we talked about counting on from 10 when a 10 frame is full.


Science/Social Studies~ We explored friendship and the importance of using kind words.  The children listened to Meesha Makes a Friend and Have You Filled a Bucket?.  On Wednesday, our caterpillar was emerging from its chrysalis during our math lesson and it was so cool to see!  We released it on Thursday afternoon with the rest of the kindergarten classes right before dismissal.


Enjoy the long weekend!



Week of September 11th


Readers' Workshop~ We began our first reading unit, We Are Readers.  The children were introduced to their book boxes and everyone has a special reading spot in the classroom.  Sometimes as readers we might be able to read familiar signs in our environment when we're in the car or out with our families such as "Big Y" or "STOP".  The class walked around the school to do an environmental print walk and looked at words in our school building.  We read words like stairs, EXIT, Mailboxes, elevator, and stop.  The children also have a paper booklet in their book boxes that feature these familiar words in our school building.  We discussed how sometimes we read to learn as we looked at the book Fly, Butterfly!.  The book Mrs. Wishy Washy was read and we talked about starting our books on the front cover and turning one page at a time.  After the story we practiced retelling it as a whole group.


Writers' Workshop~ A poem about names was added into their poetry notebooks this week and we talked about how they can be short or long.  We also practiced clapping out everyones name and found that most were either 2 or 3 claps.  We've also been working on writing some of our lowercase letters.


Math~  We continued to explore the many ways we can sort shoes (laces, velcro, color, type, etc.), counting and comparing them to our own shoes, and playing the game "Guess My Rule".  We are currently working with quantities within and including 5.  Students will work on decomposing within 5 (5 is 1 and 4, etc.).  They will also learn to subitize within 5 (quickly identify unstructured and structured quantities).


Science/Social Studies~  As a group we talked about quite a few big topics~ persistence (the ability to keep trying even when things are hard for us), optimism (staying positive even when things are challenging), resilience (staying strong when things are hard), and flexibility.  Some of our mentor texts were Elephants Cannot Dance; Oh no, George!; Bunny Cakes; and The Recess Queen.  Last Friday, Mrs. Salvatore found a caterpillar on a milkweed plant as she was going across the esplanade.  She put it in a container and we watched it chomping on a milkweed leaf (they also noticed it pooped a lot!).  She took it home over the weekend to make sure it was fed daily and when it came back into our classroom on Monday morning it was already in its chrysalis.  The children are really excited to watch it transform! 


We had our first school-wide assembly on Friday and the children did such a great job!


Have a fantastic weekend!




Week of September 4th


Tuesday~ Using our mystery box, we introduced a new tool~ glue sticks.  The children loved trying to guess what was inside the mystery box by how it felt and sounded.  They also listened to the book Too Much Glue and we talked about glue expectations.  The children were letter detectives as they walked around the room searching for any letters they saw and wrote them down.  The 2nd time we used our mystery box was to introduce scissors.  We talked a lot about scissor safety and the fact that we only use them to cut paper.  They looked at a name puzzle that had their first and last name before cutting it out and putting it back together.


Wednesday~ We read The Mixed Up Alpahbet, talked about the abc's, and sang the aphabet song.  After our story, the children cut out paper letters and glued them in ABC order on a bowl to make alphabet soup.  In Math, we listened to The Shape of Things before moving on to our math lesson.  Mrs. Salvatore asked for a brave friend to take their shoe off and put it in the middle of our meeting group.  The children took a look at the shoe and thought about ways we could describe.  We looked at the many colors of the sneaker, thought about whether it had velcro, or laces and compared it to our own shoes.  After the lesson the children explored another math manipulative with their group.  We talked about being a good friend and listened to The Rainbow Fish.  Afterwards the children created their own rainbow fish to hang in our classroom.


Thursday~  A new school year always brings up lots of different feelings and sometimes our feelings change throughout the day.  We read The Kissing Hand as we talked about missing our families and some of the things we can do when we feel sad.  Our calm down corner was also introduced as a place the children can go when they need a few minutes to themselves wheter they're feeling mad, sad, nervous, etc.  There's a variety of tools in there for them to use too (a soft bunny, a stuffed dinosaur with a different texture, bubble timer, gel pad, and a variety of fidgets).  We know it's not a space to "play" in our classroom, but rather a safe space to take some time for ourselves.  In Math, we took another look at shoes, but this time 2 shoes.  Two friends volunteered to take off one shoe for us to observe.  Again we talked about the things we noticed, what was the same, and what was different.  We also listened to Round is a Mooncake and went on a shape hunt by playing I-Spy.


Friday~  The children looked at lowercase letters and tried their best to write the matching uppercase letter.  Poetry notebooks were introduced as we looked at our first poem, "Who's Here Today?".  They wrote their name on a line, drew a picture of themselves and glued it into their notebooks.  We listened to Leonard the Terrible Monster and talked about empathy (being able to know how someone else is feeling).  Next week we'll talk about persistence and optimism.  In Math, the children practiced putting numbers 1-10 in order.


Have a wonderful weekend!



Week of August 28th


Wednesday~ What a wonderful first day of school!  Our day was spent making new friends, reading books, exploring our mystery box, coloring our crowns, and learning about some of our routines.  We even had our first special, P.E., with Mrs. Capotosto and Ms. Gauthier.  The day flew by in a snap and so many friends said they were exhausted by the end of the day.  They all seemed to have a great time! 


Thursday~ The book Listen Buddy by Helen Lester was read and we talked about what it meant to be a good listener.  As a class we thought about what would keep us safe in the classroom and brainstormed some classroom rules.  We also read I Went Walking before taking a tour of our school.  The children visited the front office, waved to the nurse, and saw where all their specials will be.  They also had a chance to test out our sensory path in front of the library!   We used our mystery box again, where we place an object inside and the children try to guess what is inside by how it felt and sounded.  We used it to introduce 2 kindergarten tools~ a crayon and a pencil.


Friday~ We listened to Alma and How She Got Her Name and some friends even shared how they got their names.  Your child may ask you about it this weekend.  We talked about the alphabet before creating our first class book with all of our friends' names.  Keeping with the same theme we read Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes and practiced counting the number of letters in our names.  We also read The Family Book by Todd Parr and each drew a picture of our family.  This work was saved as their first writing piece.   We're working on using our pencils to write our name and draw our pictures, then using our crayons to color them.   In their small groups they explored a new math manipulative (unifix cubes, pattern blocks, geoblocks) with their friends.


Enjoy the long weekend and we'll see you on Tuesday, September 5th!