Weekly FUN
September 4, 2018: It has been a busy first week in the Kindergarten classroom! The K-kids have been hard at work building our classroom community and learning the daily routine. They are connecting with one another and building on their friendships. It is a blast to see how excited they are to be at school and part of a community.
First Day of School!
In the classroom, we work collaboratively on our Class Promise. This is list of rules that promote respect and kindness towards one another. The K-kids finished by signing their name and making a self-portrait!
The K-Kids painted we watercolors to create their own unique monster! Be sure to check out the Police monster on display!
Literacy stations began this week. The children learned how to work in partners and were engaged in the new literacy skills presented. In the beginning of the year, the stations will reinforce the children's' letter fluency, phonemic awareness, and concepts of print in a fun, intriguing way!
In math stations, the children constructed and linked a number line together.
September 3-7, 2018
The children are playing a number line game at their math station. They are doing a great job transitioning independently and working the whole time! During stations, small groups will be pulled to have direct instructional time at their individual level.
In Reader's Worshop we read the story, Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon and the children responded by sharing their own connections. During this time, the children will get to share their work and ideas in the share chair!
The children take turns being the calendar and weather helper. This interactive calendar keeps the children engaged and participating in the activities. This week we practiced writing our numbers, patterns, and simple addition.
3 Little Pigs STEM challenge. The children had to protect their pig from the big bad wolf. Using gumdrops and toothpicks, they had to build a house!
More children creating their houses for the STEM challenge.
Enjoying the beautiful weather at Alexander Park!
The Monster Store opened this Friday! The children were excited to use their hard earned money to buy a prize. Monster dollars are used a positive reinforcement tool by catching their good behavior, promoting kindness, and teaching the children to be more self-aware of their actions.
September 10-14, 2018
For Reader's Workshop, we read the story Mean Jean Recess Queen. The K-kids retold the story using key details from beginning, middle, and end.
Measuring monsters in math stations! The task was to measure the height of the monsters using unifix cubes and to record on their data sheet.
Two K students read their just right books and tracked the words with their monster fingers.
More fun in math stations counting and adding.
Two friends throwing and catching a ball working on their eye-hand coordination.
The children love visiting the library and choosing their own book!
STEAM Race car challenge: We discussed forces and made a list of push vs. pull. Next, the children built their own ramp and tested out their designs. The favorite part was racing with friends!
A student leading the class in a shared poem.
September 24-28, 2018
The Writing Center is open for business! There will be monthly vocabulary cards and a new skill introduced each week. This week, the children labeled a picture, making sure the words matched and colors made sense.
Harvest Hubaloo was a fun game the children played in literacy centers. Working in pairs, they took turns hiding the apple behind a letter. The partner had to name or say the letter sound to guess where the missing apple was hiding!
Poetry- Apples, Apples sung to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle. The children take singing the poem to each other. We hunt for popcorn words, sounds and letters. They will bring their poetry books home to share with you each week.
WOW pictures- This week we made progressive pictures and talked about making our pictures come to life. Pictures need colors that make sense, details, and color to pop! The kiddos drew their own level 5 WOW pictures and shared with their classmates.
Happy Birthday! This six year old was all smiles passing out pencils and treats to his friends on his big day.
The children loved creating their fall paintings. Using watercolors they painted with red, orange, and red to create a realistic fall scene.
Kindness Tree- We read the story, Kindness Is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler. This story was relevant to our classroom in so many ways. It led to a wonderful discussion about going above and beyond to show and spread kindness, not only in the classroom, but at home and in the community too.
On our classroom door your will see our Kindergarten Kindness tree. Together WE will fill our tree with leaves and examples of kindness in the classroom as well as at home. This will be a great discussion starter for you to have with your child at home.
(Picture to come)
Next week, we will begin our thematic unit on Pumpkins, and we will explore new science concepts. Due to our short day on Friday, we will be begin our week with our STEAM challenge and Monster Store! Also, we will celebrate Roycemore Day with an all school pep rally to show our spirit. Please have your child dress in blue and gold on Wednesday to show their Griffin pride!
