Let's all just agree we are done with snow and cold.  No more snow days, late openings or early release days!  As of now, the 100th day of school will be Wednesday, February 13.  I sent home a copy of the 100th day project as well as the valentine list, and it is also on our Homework tab.
Earlier this week we read Love is My Favorite Thing, by  Emma Chichester Clark.  This story is told by a dog named Prune who has a little problem with self-control.  He forgets and doesn't listen sometimes.  Ask me to tell you three things Prune did that got him a time-out. Prune worries his family and his friends next door will no longer love him.  
We did some writing today about what love is to us.  We worked carefully, trying to think before we wrote down letters or words so we don't have as many cross-outs.  We also thought about the presentation of our piece.  We know we were writing to tell our audience what love is to us, so our audience needed to be able to read what we wrote.  Ask me to tell you what writers do so their audience can read what they write.  

Hopefully tomorrow will be our last cold morning, and we can get back to as normal a schedule and weather as possible!

It was so great seeing the kids come in this morning and be so happy to see their friends. 
Have a nice evening!
​Miss Wolfe 

We had a few kids absent today on the last day of our first semester, but here are some of the kids I have had the pleasure of working with every day!

Don't even try and tell your kinder those are giraffe eggs.  I already tried it.  We started our day with this photograph.  We talked with a partner, and then shared out with the whole group what we noticed and wondered about.  The main idea of our day was change.  We talked about how plants, animals and people change over time.  Ask me to tell you two ways people change over time.
Then we read The Koala Who Could, by Rachel Bright.  This is a story about a koala who did not want to leave his tree.  He wanted to cling to the tree and not take any risks, like going down to the ground where it was loud and fast.  Ask me to tell you what cling and risk mean. We talked about how as we have been learning this first semester, we too have been taking risks.  We take intellectual risks when we are trying to learn new things like writing, reading, spelling, counting, and sharing our ideas.  We wrote about something we are proud to have learned this first semester.  
Then, we shared our amazing timelines.  I cannot tell you how proud the kids were of their pictures and accomplishments.  I always look forward to seeing these timelines, especially those baby pictures!  Thank-you for helping your child create such a great representation of their life so far.  
We put the timelines around the room and did a museum walk to examine the timelines of our friends.  Then we listened as each child shared a special accomplishment or event from their life.  Here are a few pictures of our museum walk.

Have a nice weekend!
​Miss Wolfe

We read a beautiful book called Thank You, Omu, by Oge Mora.  The author wrote this book about her Nigerian grandma who always invited those who stopped by to have dinner.  Omu, in Nigerian, means queen, but to the author, she was grandma.  As we read this story, we listened for words we hadn't heard before, and stopped to use the illustrations and context clues to figure out what the new word means.  We thought about the words scrumptious, scent, wafted and stew.  In the story, Omu shares her thick, red stew with all those who stop by after smelling it as it wafted out her window.  At the end of the story, it is time for Omu to have dinner, but there is no stew left.  But there is another knock at the door...Ask me about what happens at the end of the story. 
We learned how to write thank=you notes today.  We know we need to write who we are writing to, a good message in the middle that tells our purpose for writing, and to write who the note is from at the bottom of our note.  We wrote a thank-you note to someone in our family, a friend, or someone at school to thank them for something they have done for us.
In math, we continued to work with decomposition.  We used our fingers to show different ways to decompose 3, 4, 5 and 6. 
We have finished most of our testing and are looking forward to sharing our timelines on Friday.

Have a nice evening!
​Miss Wolfe  

Today we thought about how animal moms and dads are like our own parents.  We studied these photographs to see how animals care for their young.  ​

Have a nice evening!
​Miss Wolfe

We had a busy day!  We continue with testing.  The class had a new assessment that was done on the Chromebooks with the students wearing headphones and a microphone.  This is another assessment that will give teachers information about how the students are doing in reading.  While some of the students were doing that test, I was assessing the students on other tests.  We are almost through all this testing although there are some make-ups we need to do. 
In math, we talked first about the word decomposition.  We talked about what that meant, and what it means in math.  We began taking numbers apart.  Today the children used cubes that can be put together on any side.  They were able to make different formations to show six.  We picked several and the students copied what they saw, then talked about the parts.  Then, we made a number sentence with words.  For example, we said "3 and 3 is the same as 6," using and for the word plus and "is the same as" for equal.  We will continue with decomposition over the next quarter with different numbers.
Today we welcomed a new student to our room.  Ask me to tell you about our new friend.  We passed the Talking Fish and said our name loud and proud and shared something we like to do so we could get to know our new friend.

I'm hoping we can complete almost all of our testing tomorrow and get back to a more normal day.  If we can get those kids outside soon that would be a huge help!  

Have a nice evening!
​Miss Wolfe

Today we took our MAP-P test in math.  This is a test that is not used as a grade, but for instructional decisions.  It's done on the Chromebooks, and the children have to listen carefully to the directions to be sure they are answering the questions correctly.  
We learned about Martin Luther King,  Jr. today.  We watched a video that told about his childhood and how he became so interested in civil rights.  We also listened to the story, Martin's Big Words, by Doreen Rappaport.  This book shares some of the Dr. King's most important messages.  We talked about how important it is to treat everyone with respect and kindness.  
Next week, our student government will be sponsoring Random Acts of Kindness Week.  This is an outline of the activities planned for the week.

o    Tuesday, January 22 - Thank-you Tuesday (Who deserves a thank you for helping you?)- there will be a table set-up in the cafeteria on Tuesday with thank you cards that students can write
o    Wednesday, January 23 - What Can I Do to Help Wednesday?  
o    Thursday, January 24 - Thoughtful Thursday - Do something to make someone feel good!
o    Friday, January 25 - Friendship Friday - make a new friend today.
In the classroom, we will be reading a book each day that relates to these activities.

It's been busy in kindergarten wtih all the testing we have to do this time of the year.  Most of my testing is complete, but I have a little more to do with students who have missed certain sections of the testing.  Hopefully, I will finish on Tuesday, but the children have another test they will be taking on the Chromebooks that day with our reading specialist.  After that, we will be back to a more normal instructional day with the usual progress checks.  The kids like the testing, in fact, one little friend wanted to take the math test on the Chromebook again.  

We had a few minutes before our specials today, so I showed the kids this quick one minute video, that we watched twice because it's so cute.  The kids insisted I put it on the website.  It had nothing to do with instruction, so we are just going to call this a Brain Break.  Enjoy!

Have a relaxing and safe weekend!
Miss Wolfe

Yesterday we watched a funny, older video about sneezing and coughing.  We have a lot of sneezing and coughing going on right now in the classroom.  Some of the kids are doing a great job of sneezing or coughing into their sleeve, but we have some who do not even attempt to do this right now.  We watched this video then practiced sneezing and coughing into our sleeve.  Ask me to show you how I do it in my sleeve!  Here's the video.  It's good for a chuckle!

We worked more with short o today.  We read a poem and found words that have parts of words with short o in them.  We worked with op and made as many words as we could.  We also added endings to some of the words.  So we made words such as mop, hop, and even hopping and mopping.   
In math, we worked more with story problems.  We made sure we understood what the problem was asking and what we needed to know to solve the problems.  We practiced drawing a picture to solve the problem.  We know this is just a quick sketch, but it's important it's done neatly so it's accurate.  We also added a number sentence to show the answer to the problem.  After we sketched and solved the problem, we read through it again and wrote a number sentence that goes with the problem.  We know that we add when we join or put together two groups, and we are subtracting when we take apart a group.

Have a nice evening!
​Miss Wolfe

Although our day was short, we got a lot done today!  On late openings, we do not have recess.  Our lunch menu is changed for the next few days.  Here is the lunch menu for the remainder of the week.
Wednesday, Jan. 16:
Pancakes, Yogurt and Cheese Stick or
Teriyaki Meatballs/WG Veg. Rice


Thursday, Jan. 17:
Chicken Patty Sandwich w/ WG Hamburger bun and French Fries or
Grilled Cheese Sandwich and French Fries


Friday, Jan. 18
Personal Pizza - cheese or pepperoni or
Spicy WG Chicken Patty on WG Bun

Do not even think about snow this week!

We wrote about snow adventures today.  The children were so proud of their work, but I only caught a glimpse of it since I was testing.  I have a couple students to do all the test on when they are in school, and a few more subtests in reading.  Friday, the children will all be taking a math test on the Chromebooks.  It's important that the children are on time so we have time to get settled and go through how the test works.  This is not a test for a grade, but it gives some good information about what the children know in different areas of math.  In kindergarten, it's important the children take their time and really think instead of answering quickly to give us the most accurate picture of where they are in their understanding of math.
I will be doing some math testing this week in the afternoon with the students.  This testing is much easier than any of the other testing I have been doing in math, but it does take some time.  The students will be doing some review and math games as I test.  I'm hoping to get most of it done this week with just a few make-ups next week.

I'm trying to get as much done as quickly as I can because I keep hearing that snow word in the forecast!
Have a nice evening!
​Miss Wolfe

Yesterday as we were studying our mealworms, we noticed one was molting.  Ask me to tell you what the word molt means.  Today we watched a video that showed a mealworm molting.  It's a pretty fun video to watch, so we want to share it with you.  

We continued our testing in reading.  We have gotten through a very big part of our testing, but still have more to do next week, as well as some math testing.  We will be able to get back to a more normal schedule next week!  I apologize for forgetting to send home Read to Me, Talk to Me books.  I really was taking every spare moment to get this testing done and it completely slipped my mind today!  I'll send home the books on Monday, and if you would like to keep them for two weeks, that's fine with me!

Have a great weekend!  I hope we get some snow so the kids can get out and play in it!  They are pretty excited at the possibly of snow!
​Miss Wolfe