Today we worked with our word wall words. We practiced writing the letter Ee, and then worked with the words no and like. We continued to work in Writing Workshop on zooming in on a topic to write a short story. In kindergarten these stories are often just a sentence or two. We have a short lesson before we start writing, then students turn and talk to rehearse what they are going to write. This helps them to think about their topic and how they are going to start. We use pencils in Writing Workshop for writing and drawing. We know writers often don't finish what they are writing in one session, so we have a work in progress side of a folder where we put writing pieces that we can finish another day. During the workshop time, I am able to go around to different tables to support the writers. Most days we can share some of the students' writing, or we might share some writing before we start writing before we start writing.
In math, we worked with keeping track of our counting by pointing and organizing our counters. We also worked with looking at the items in groups to see how they were grouped. We noticed how we can just look at some groups of items and know how many there are without counting. Please remember that tomorrow is Walk to School Day. Tomorrow I have to be out for a doctor's appointment, so I will have a substitute teacher. Mrs. Bekdash will be waiting with our group at Cabin John, as well as the substitute. We have patrols assigned to every class as well, so we met the three patrols who will walk with our class. There will be some emergency vehicles at school for the children to look at as we walk to the playground for some speeches by some very special visitors we will have at our school. Later that morning, we will have a special assembly about safety. Have a nice evening! Juliet
0 Comments
Today we began to learn about wind. We know wind can be strong. We read a poem called I Am Small. We played Guess the Covered Word. Some of the words in the poem were covered up, so we had to use a strategy readers use all the time, and that is to think about what would make sense. We made a guess and then checked the first letter. We changed our guess if we needed to, then guessed what the next letter would be and checked the remaining letters one at a time The person in the poem had a problem with being small. Ask me to tell you why the person in the poem said they thought they would hold on tight today. Our copier was not working so I have posted the poem below: I Am Small The wind is shaking every tree. The wind is strong But trees are tall. The wind is pounding every wall. But walls are strong And they won't fall. I think I'll hold on tight today I'm small. Ask me to tell you what words rhyme with tall. We read The Wind Blew, by Pat Hutchins. This story is about a strong wind and the things it blows away. After we listened to the story, we collaborated to name all the things the wind blew away in the story. Today we also worked on "reading" wordless picture books. We read very short, simple stories by Mercer Mayer. These books have a frog and a boy in all of them, but some have additional characters. We analyzed and collaborated with a partner to first look through the book to get an idea of the story, then told the story with words from the pictures. We thought about how the pictures helped us to tell the story when we had Writers Workshop later. We made sure our pictures and words matched our story. We added details to our story because we know the illustrations in books help tell the story, and often tell more than the words! We ended our day with a collaboration challenge. We used bathroom size paper cups to build the tallest tower we could. We worked in our table groups. We know when we collaborate we are working together to complete one task, and we had to respect the ideas of others in the way we built. I saw some amazing collaboration today! It's not easy to build with the paper cups because they fall down easily, but after trying different ways to build with the cups, most teams found a way to make their towers more stable. Another great outcome of this activity was that we learned that mistakes happen, and even when towers would fall, we could rebuild. You will see from the smiles in the pictures below, that even when the tower was bumped and cups fell, our friends were patient and just rebuilt their tower. This is a great activity for families as well. The bathroom size Dixie cups work best because they are quiet, and if stepped on can be reshaped. Plastic cups may be more stable, but are broken and not able to be fixed.
This was the best thing we did all day. I heard children encouraging each other and helping each other, and the best thing of all is that they were patient with each other because the towers fall if they are bumped. We will be building with cups throughout the year and will add additional paper building materials. I did a few updates on our homepage, and will be updating the content pages over the next few days. I will also be sending out Sign-Up Genius e-mails for conference times, computer lab help, and Mystery Reader. Enjoy the beautiful, fall weather! Juliet Today we worked on making flags to represent who we are. First, we took inspiration from Will I. Am singing If What I Am. We watched and listened to the way different characters named a trait that describes how they act. We listened closely to the words of this song and added motions. Here's Will I Am singing on Sesame Street. Ask me to sing along and show you the motions we did as we sang. Then we made flags that represent each of us. We thought about what we are like, what we like, what is important to us and our favorite colors. Today we had Show and Tell with children sharing a souvenir from a special place they have visited. Check out the pictures below to see what was shared! Have a great weekend!
Juliet This week I have been working hard to finish the Maryland Kindergarten Readiness Assessment with the children. We were given a computer application that helped speed up the testing and made it possible to test two children at a time so I was able to finish the testing today with all the students.
Today we learned a game we will use in literacy stations to practice writing word wall words. Ask Me about Roll a Word! We also read Yoko's Show and Tell, by Rosemary Wells. This book was about a little girl disobeying her mother and taking something very special and delicate to school for Show and Tell when her mother told her not to because it might get broken. We talked about how Yoko was honest with her mother and told her what happened, even when she knew she had disobeyed. Ask me to tell you about what happened in the story! In Writing Workshop, we wrote about a favorite place we have visited. We used our stretchy snakes and alphabet cards to help us with the sounds and formation of the lower case letters. We worked today with sorting once again. Today each child is bringing home a baggie with picture cards to sort. Ask me to show you at least three ways I can sort these cards. Tomorrow we will have a quick Show and Tell. Children can bring in one item that is a souvenir from a special place they have visited. Please do not bring in anything of great value or that is so special it could not be replaced. No glass items or toys. Tomorrow is an Early Dismissal Day. We will be dismissed at 1:20. Students will eat lunch but will not have recess on Early Dismissal Days. Sorry for my absence on the blog the past two days. I was having some difficulty with the site, and today they announced an upgrade so it might have been due to that. Every so often I have trouble posting, but I will continue to try and keep you informed of what we do each day so you can talk with your child about it at home. Have a safe evening! Juliet |