We have been busy in kindergarten! We are practicing our Heart Words and using them to write sentences on our white boards. We are doing a really great job remembering to begin sentences with a capital letter, put spaces between words and end our sentence with punctuation. I put a tricky two syllable word in each sentence we write and the children are pounding out the syllables then tapping out the sounds in each syllable. Today we read one of my favorite stories called Love Is My Favorite Thing, by Emma Chichester Clark. This is the story of a dog named Plum who has trouble with self-control and gets herself into trouble. She worries her family and friends won't love her anymore but learns in the end that she will always be loved. Ask me to tell you about what Plum does in the story that gets her in trouble. We made a text-to-text connection to a class favorite Oh No George, that we read earlier in the year. For our picture talk on Wednesday, we collected data on favorite Disney movies. It's not looking good for the princesses! Ask me to tell you about the data on our Disney survey. We have been reading about technology in our Benchmark reading, so today we looked at phones from now and long ago. We analyzed these pictures looked at the parts that make up the phones, and compared how they are the same and different. We also shared which phone was our favorite. OK, and I'll confess, I showed them a minute of the Andy Griffith Show so they could see how the phones from long ago worked.
We continued to talk about force and motion today. Next week we will test out different textures to see how a ping pong ball, marble and car move on them, and if the direction or speed changes on the different surfaces. Today when I picked up the class in the cafeteria, we had one table that had children up on their knees, playing around, and pushing lunch boxes and water bottles around. We have kids flipping water bottles both in the classroom and in the lunchroom. I have talked to them about this behavior in the lunchroom and was talking to them in the hall about it when Mr. Smith told me he also had talked to them and told them to stop. We had another talk in the classroom about respecting all adults in the building and doing what they are told. That is the bad news. The good news is they had a substitute in P.E. who actually walked them back to the classroom to tell me he would be happy to sub for me anytime because they were so good in P.E. That is a huge compliment. P.E. is an area where kids could easily get wound up and have trouble following directions especially when there is a substitute. Mr. Tom has built so many good routines with the children that they were able to cooperate with a substitute. I was really proud of them and happy to hear that they behaved so well with a substitute teacher. Have a great evening! Miss Wolfe
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Today we read Before She Was Harriet, by Lesa Cline-Ransome once again. The children listened to remember one important event and the name Harriet was called then. They also listened to this quote, "Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world." This is a quote from Harriet Tubman and we used it to think about what we could do, no matter how small, to change the world. I shared ideas with the students and they wrote their dream of how they could make life better for others in some way, big or small. I will send these papers home tomorrow so the children can tell you all about Harriet as well as their dream.
Later in the day, we continued with that theme with our read aloud book before recess. We read Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed, by Emily Pearson. This story starts with Mary picking blueberries and leaving them on the porch of her neighbor. Ask me to tell you what happens next. In Really Great Reading, we worked with long vowels. Right now they are learning to listen for the long vowels, but not spell them. Because there are so many ways the long vowels are spelled, we are stretching a bit into looking at how to spell words with a long vowel with a silent e at the end of the word. We have also talked about how two ee's together make the long e sound. Have a nice evening! Miss Wolfe We started our day studying these interesting nests. The children were particularly interested in the octopus nest and the nest on the cliff. Ask me to tell you which nest I found the most interesting.
We had another SEL lesson about worrying. We read a really great book for helping children learn about their worries called Avocado Feels a Pit Worried by Brenda Miles. Avocado, the main character in the story, worries about everything. His "what ifs" make it impossible for him to do anything. His just sits in his house doing nothing. He finds a way to turn his what if's around to make them positive. I highly recommend this book for anyone who struggles with anxiety or worries. In the back there is a lot of information about how to help your child with worrying and anxiety. This author has a few other books we will be reading as well that are really great! In math we are working with story problems, and representing them with pictures, number bonds and number sentences. We can use the words "and" and 'is" in our number sentences or use the symbols + and =. We are working with numbers 6, 7 and 8. Have a nice evening! Miss Wolfe Avocado Feels a Pit Worried: A Story About Facing Your FearsAvocado Feels a Pit Worried: A Story About Facing Your FearsAvocado Feels a Pit Worried: A Story About Facing Your Fears We started our day talking about leaders and teamwork. We watched some short videos and talked about what the leader did and how the others worked together.. This is a topic we will be talking about throughout the month. I am putting the videos below if you would like to take a peek yourself! Ask me to tell you how the animals and characters worked together. In Benchmark reading, we read about technology in the future. We read about a space elevator and jet packs. We have some pretty brave friends who are all ready to try both! The space elevator seems to be an idea that ran out of steam, and probably won't ever be built, but I couldn't help myself and showed the children a short clips of the space elevator simulation at Epcot's Space 220 restaurant. It shows going up and how everything below gets smaller and eventually we are able to see the state of Florida from space. Then we saw the reverse from space, back to Epcot. The children were especially interested in the jet packs. We identified key details in the text. Ask me to tell you about the space elevator and the jet packs and which I'd like to try! We read a beautiful story today called Before She Was Harriet, by Lisa Cline-Ransome. This beautiful book tells about the many amazing things Harriet Tubman did in her life. I introduced her as a super hero who didn't need bat belts and being able to fly, but instead was brave, patient, and was determined to make life better for so many whose freedom and choices were taken away. I shared this with the students on the board today because there is a wonderful recording of the author reading it, and I'll post it below for you to enjoy. In math, we worked with finding numbers between other numbers. For example, I asked the children to write a number on their whiteboard that is more than 8 but less than 12. They did a great job. We went on the show how to draw a quick number line to show our number. We will work with number lines more, but this was a good opportunity for children to use it to explain their thinking.
We continued working with number bonds, and represented our decomposition of numbers with a number sentence. For example, we wrote 7 = 3 + 4 to show the whole group we started with and the number partners that we broke apart from 7. Keep reading for the Read-a-Thon. Have a nice evening! Miss Wolfe |
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April 2024
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