Today we finally played Stand and Deliver! I had it on our morning plans for three days and we were able to do it today. Stand and Deliver is a warm-up to share vocabulary for a topic. We will be learning about weather this marking period in Science so we started with the very broad topic of weather. Everyone stands in a circle or rectangle and we go around with each student saying one word related to weather. The children have listen well to each other because they may not repeat a word. When they run out of words to share, they sit down. Then we read Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, by Judi Barrett. The children listened and made a W with their fingers when they heard a weather word in the story. Then they drew a picture of their favorite type of weather and a picture of their favorite food/s falling from the sky as in the book. I will send these pictures home tomorrow so they can tell you about them.
We also listened to a story called Yoko Writes Her Name, by Rosemary Wells. Ask me to tell you the problem in the story. Yoko writes her name in Japanese and some of the children say she will not graduate from kindergarten because she cannot write her name. We talked about how special it is that she can her name in Japanese and that just because she can't write her name the first week of school doesn't mean that she will not learn. Ask me what Angelo does in the story that shows empathy toward Yoko. We had a class meeting today and read a book called The Golden Rule, by Ilene Cooper. The book introduces the golden rule and how it is part of many religions. A grandfather is teaching his grandson about the golden rule and he tells him that it is important to use your imagination to think about how other people feel in different situations. Then you are able to think about how you would feel in that same situation and treat them the way you would want to be treated. They use the example of a new student at school and how they might feel shy and nervous, and how a smile would make them feel more comfortable. I introduced the word empathy to the students and we related it back to our morning story with Yoko. I highly recommend this book for your family or as a gift. It's visually stunning and it's so the message is so simple, yet so important for learning how to be part of a group. Please be sure to go over the discipline policy with your child that was in the Back to School Night folder last night. It needs to be signed and returned to school after you have talked about it with your child! Thanks again for coming to hear more about what happens at school each day! I enjoyed talking with you last night! Have a nice evening! Juliet
0 Comments
We had a great Tuesday, after a nice, long weekend! It's often hard to come back after a fun weekend and remember routines, but our kinders did a great job!
Today we went to the library. The children were able to borrow a book from the library today. They may keep the book for one week and return it next Tuesday. Ask me to tell you how I will take care of my book at home. Today we read a story by Kevin Henkes called Chrysanthemum. This story is about a little girl who is teased because of her name. We answered questions after listening to the story and zoomed in specifically on characters and how Chrysanthemum's feelings changed throughout the story. Ask me to tell you the story of Chrysanthemum! Today we talked about what a workshop is and began Writing Workshop. Today we had a brief mini-lesson to learn about making lists. We will continue to work with making lists the next week or two. Our lists will be with letters, words, and/or pictures. Today we made an I Can list. We also worked in Math Workshop today. I was doing some informal assessing of counting and sorting as the children worked so I know what they can do so I can build on that during our small group lessons. Tomorrow night is Back to School Night at 7:00. The meeting begins in the All Purpose Room. After the brief PTA meeting, you will come to the room and I will have two sessions to talk about our day, assessment, class and school expectations, communication and homework. I hope to see you there! Have a nice evening! Juliet What a great end to our first week of school! Our class is doing an awesome job of learning routines, following directions, and working hard. But the best thing I heard all day was the way they were encouraging each other and working together during our play time. They are helpful to each other and are using such nice manners and kind words.
Today we talked about My Job, Your Job. We thought about different tasks and identified who needs to do that task. We also talked about the other teachers we will be working with this year, as well as other adults in the building. We talked more about making friends. Today we read Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend, by Melanie Watts. This was a very funny story about a very cautious squirrel. Ask me to tell you about this story! Today we opened one Literacy Station. We were really just learning the routine of stations, but we explored some of the materials we will be using in the ABC Station. Next week we will be opening more literacy stations. Today we went to Art. We will go to Art every Friday. Ask me to tell you about Art class and the art room! Next week, students do not need to wear the big name tags. Thanks for all your support this week! We are off to a great start! Have a great weekend! Juliet This morning we met Mrs. Kanter, our school counselor. Mrs. Kanter will come in from time to time throughout the year to do lessons with our students. I had to luxury or sitting and watching, and I was so impressed with the behavior of our students. They sat, looked at Mrs. Kanter, and were very good listeners. Today we also talked about another school and classroom Bear Necessity. We talked about "I listen and follow directions." We talked about what we can do to be good listeners. We know when any teacher is talking we need to stop (and put down what is in our hands), look at them, and listen to understand and remember. Sometimes, at the beginning of the year especially, directions have to be repeated several times. But soon, we need to work hard to listen and do what we are told without having to hear the directions again. But every once in a while, we might forget. We have a list of things we do to get help. First, we think again on our own about what we were to do. Then, we look to see what others are doing to help ourselves remember. If we still are unsure, we ask someone close to us. If no one at our table knows, then we ask the teacher because it probably is something that wasn't clear and needs to be repeated. Today we went to music class. We will go every Thursday to music. Mr. Sheets is our teacher. Ask me to tell you what special instrument Mr. Sheets plays! We enjoyed another special story about making friends called You Will Be My Friend, by Peter Brown. The little bear in the story wants to make friends but goes about it the wrong way. Ask me to tell you about what happened when Lucy tried to make friends. The author, Peter Brown, had some advice for students when making friends. We explored some of the materials we will be using in Math Workshop this year. We also practiced keeping track of our counting when counting a large group. We also looked at the September calendar and learned how the calendar works and why people use a calendar.
Have a nice evening! Juliet We had an awesome day today! The children are becoming so independent in our morning routines, and they are pros at signing in on the Promethean Board to show what they are doing for lunch. Today we learned about collaboration. We watched three short commercials that clearly illustrate collaboration. We talked about how the animals in these commercials had a plan and worked together to overcome some problem. Ask me to tell you how these videos show collaboration! We read a great story called Friends, by Helm Heinie. This story is about three friends who do things together they could not do on their own. Ask me to tell you about the story! Today the students are bringing home a picture they drew to show something they like to do with their friends.
Today the students went to P.E. with Mr. Romans. We will go to P.E. every Wednesday so it's important for students to wear tennis shoes and comfortable clothes on that day. They had a great time from what I heard! We had our first fire drill today. Our class was phenomenal! They walked quickly down the sidewalk and lined up and were quiet. I was so proud! We played Hot Potato today to practice remembering the names of our classmates. I will be sending home a list of our students soon, but our copier has been broken. I'll also soon post pictures of kids in our class, so when you get the list of kids, you can look at the pictures with your child and at the list so you help your child learn the names of their classmates. I just want to thank all of our families for sending such thoughtful, kind children to school. Already they are helping and encouraging each other as we learn new routines and try new things. It's great to see how they are taking care of each other! Have a nice evening! Juliet Today we continued to work on our morning routines. The kids did a great job unpacking their Daily folder and putting it in the green basket in front of my desk, putting their lunchbox in the blue bin by the door, and reading a book. We learned how to sign in on the Promethean Board to order our lunch or show that we are packing. We talked about the morning time being a time to get a drink or use the restroom before class starts so we don't have a lot of kids wanting to go during a lesson. That's a lot of new things to do in the morning, so we will continue to practice and help, but before long they will be doing those routines independently! I'm so proud of them for working so hard to do these things on their own! We began talking about feelings today, which is our focus in health. We made a graph of how we felt yesterday on the first day of school. We talked about what we know from looking at the data on the graph. We also read a great story by Melanie Watt called You're Finally Here! This story was about a bunny who was waiting for someone. Once they arrive, the bunny shares all the different feelings he had while waiting. Ask me to tell you some of the different feelings the bunny had! Almost every morning, we will study a painting, photograph, or some kind of visual image. We will work with thinking and communication skills during this time. This marking period, our critical thinking skill we are focusing on is analyzing. We practiced this as we studied a painting. We looked at the parts of the picture and thought about what might be happening in the painting. We used our own experiences to help us make sense of the painting. We zoomed in on clues in the picture that would give us a better idea of what might be happening. Ask me to tell you about what I notice in the painting, and what I think what might be happening. We learned about self-portraits today and made our own self-portraits with crayons. Be sure to look for our pictures at Back to School Night!
Have a great evening! Juliet |