Friday News Flash

18 days! 18 days! I can't believe it! That being said lets jump right in to the busy week we had!

Making our Mural with Larry Verdoorn

What an amazing art experience your children had this week. It all began last Friday when we did what is called a "Color Factory." This was where our class painted pieces of paper and mixed colors to create an array of colors to essentially make our own construction paper. Students absolutely loved getting to mix the paint and it really made our mural more meaningful when they saw that we made it out of the paper they made! Here are a few photos from our color factory:

One student painting his paper.

Our beautiful rainbow of papers!

Then on Tuesday Mr. Verdoorn came back to help us assemble our mural! We went with the theme of the life cycle of a butterfly so we had 4 panels. One for each stage: egg, caterpillar, cocoon and butterfly. Students took turns helping assemble the mural and then they got to make their own personal butterfly to go around the edges of the mural. With the butterflies they made they were working on symmetry and keeping one side of their butterfly the same as the other. The mural turned out so gorgeous and I am hoping to have it up by graduation so you all can see it!

A student working on her butterfly.

Students working on cutting and gluing their butterflies.

Students working on their symmetry.

Finishing the cocoon and the caterpillar.

Putting strips of paper on the wings of the butterfly.

Ducks

I'm sure by now you heard that Tuesday morning we lost another duck. The poor guy tried to squeeze behind the pool we put in the trough and squished himself. The students were sad but I also told them that it is part of life. We try things and sometimes get hurt but they seemed to take it much better when I told them that now all 3 ducks that died would be together to keep each other company. So to keep our last duck standing company Grandma Darla ran to Wilco and brought back our little Indian Runner and it was love at first sight. Our two ducks are bonded and doing great! They are also getting so big! We put in a ramp so they can get into the pool by themselves and they are in their own little oasis!

Here is a student reading to our 2 Pekin ducks, before we lost one...

Here are our two duckies using their ramp to go in the pool!

Story Writing

This week we started making our very own Personal Narratives in class. Students got their own book to write about something they have done in their life. In discussing our writing process we are using the starters first, next, then and last. This is a great way for students to tell a story but also to focus on the sequence that the events happened in. I was so amazed at the details students were using and their writing abilities.

While I don't have any photos at this time next week I will post some of the finished products and I think you will be blown away but the caliber of work your students are creating!

Stay tuned 'till next week to see what other adventures we have in our last days of the school year!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Duck Update!

Hello all!

After such an exciting day Friday I wanted to post more photos of the ducks as they grow so quickly!

Our 2 survivors are doing so well; swimming, playing and of course making messes :) 

This is a photo of them when they were first starting to walk:

Then I took them outside to play in the grass since it was so nice outside!

Naturally they had to play in their water dish!

Finally I let them swim for the first time! They loved it!

Here is a short video of them swimming:

Well that's all for now but I can't wait for the kids to see them in person tomorrow! What a fun week it will be getting to watch them grow and change!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Friday Duck Flash!

See what I did there? It took 32 days and me finally deciding to intervene but I got the ducks here! I kept telling the kids the ducks were helping us practice our patience :) What a busy first week of May! I can't believe it is May and I can't believe that we only have 23 days of school left! Where did the year go?! But we are sure going out with bang, busier than ever and learning every day!

Duck Writing

This week after our study of ducks students wrote about facts they had learned about ducks. This gave them a chance to reflect on what we had learned while also practice their informational writing. In general we are also working on stamina, sounding out things for ourselves before coming to teacher! I am amazed with how well students are doing in their writing and as we continue our amazing writing over these next weeks I know it will just continue to get better and better. (Spoiler Alert: each student is also going to be writing a book in the few weeks!)

I know that ducks eat their yolk.
Grown up ducks are white.
Pekin babies have yellow fur. and they lay 201 eggs every year.

I know that ducks they live in water.

Pekin ducks have webbed feet.
Ducks lay eggs.
Ducks eat in their eggs.

The King of "ing"

This week we looked at words ending in "ing" and I introduced our King of Ing! It is really just a fun way for kids to remember that when you put an i and n and a g together it makes the ing sound. I had kids coming up to me all day saying "I found another King of Ing!" Next week we will be diving into bossy e who tells vowels to say their name! It is an exciting time in their reading development that we are diving into more complicated literacy rules! The best part is that they are fully ready for the rules and are constantly reading in class! It is a glorious thing to see every day!

Tens and Ones

Believe it or not your students are already begging their understanding of place value! In class we have been talking a lot about groups of 10 and strips (which are made up of 10 squares). We have also started using vocabulary like "trading in 10 for a strip!) In the worksheet you see below students had to count how many tens they saw, how many extra ones (as I call it) and then how many squares there were altogether. We are just laying the foundation for place value but it is an exciting time in their math journey!

The Ducks are coming the ducks are coming!

What an amazing journey your students are getting to see first hand. Not only have they been waiting patiently for 32 days but this week we have started to get our reward. Wednesday evening I saw the beginnings of our first crack on on of our eggs. Every minute of the day Thursday a student was glued to the incubator watching the eggs shake (some even got to hear the tiny chirps!) and we saw that 3 other eggs also developed small cracks! One even developed 2 cracks (see photo below)! All I can say is the suspense is killing me! 

Here is a picture of our first crack in our egg:

Then on Thursday this egg developed not just one crack, but two!

Then today after our ducks not hatching, I decided to intervene and help them hatch. We had 4 at first but one passed away this afternoon which I explained to kids sometimes happens. Then this evening another little guy passed away. But 2 are doing very well eating and almost able to walk around now!

I will post a video of the hatching process and pictures later this weekend!

Yay Ducks!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Friday News Flash!

Engineering with the High School

On Thursday we had our last trip to the High School to learn about motion. On this trip students worked with their group to build a chain reaction our of dominoes! It was a wonderful chance for students to see how to change their reaction, turn it and to practice working together. What a wonderful community partnership and super fun experience for everyone! Here are a few photos of the kids domino creations!

Working on our Teens!

As we continue through the end of the year students will increasingly practice their teen numbers, and for some continuing into their 20s! This week students had to count out different numbers of objects and used different objects too. This was wonderful practice for students to really become fluent in saying their numbers out loud and to work on their accuracy. If you get a chance please have your students count out loud for you. It is great practice and by the end of the year they are supposed to be able to count to 100! Thank you for your support in this!

Sight Word Sticker Books

This week I launched our sight word sticker books, a way for students to track which sight words they know and don't know. With these sticker books students came up with a goal for the end of the year and each week I will be reassessing them and see how much they are practicing. I am providing students opportunities twice a day to practice these words but please keep practicing at home! If every student meets their goal students get an ice cream movie party! That is what they voted on so that's what they get if everyone meets their goal! This is really helping keep them engaged and improving over the next weeks!

Nine more days until our Ducks begin hatching, a few more weeks until our Music concert, one month until the science/curriculum fair and then 6 weeks until the end of school. Holy moly it is going fast but I am truly enjoying the ride :)

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Friday News Flash

Additional Music with Mr. Johnson

This year our Kindergartners are lucky enough to get 30 minutes of extra music on Monday's taught by the Estacada High School band director Mr. Johnson. He has done some wonderful activities with the kids that compliments what we are working on in class and has been very fun at the same time! This week he did a fun art activity where students were told to scribble with their eyes closed, but their scribbles had to match the music that he was playing! There were moments of frantic lines all over the paper and then moments of calm circles. It was very fun to watch and the kids really enjoyed it! Here are some of their "masterpieces" that they made :)

Plant Writing

To shore up all the work that we did around plants last week, we worked on a writing piece this week that told readers what plants need. Students were also introduced to a new punctuation mark, the comma! As you will see in the photos below some are still getting the hang of it, but now that they know it they point them out everywhere! This was also a great chance for students to use all their writing skills to teach their readers something. They used their picture, labeling and of course their words to convey their ideas. They have come so far in their writing this year!

Right Brain Creative Dramatics

We are so fortunate to have Miss Flinn back this week and her focus was on role playing the varying jobs in a neighbor. Miss Flinn posted a picture of a community and each child got to pick a part to act out! It was wonderful to see kids using their whole bodies to tell a story. The students loved it and are already asking when Miss Flinn is coming back, which is always a great sign :) Here are some photos of the different roles students were acting out:

Two girls who are a swing set!

Students being a fire truck! Sirens and all!

Science with the High School

This Thursday was our second of three trips over to the high school to explore science concepts with the engineering students. This week the focus was on different pushes and pulls that students do in their everyday lives. Students came up with great ideas like pushing in a chair, pulling open a door, pushing a sibling on the swings and more. Next week we are going to finish up our experiments with the high school students. Here are some photos of students working on drawing their examples of pushes and pulls, experiencing some pushing and pulling and of course controlling a robot by pushing a button!

What a wonderful week it was! Next week we will learn more about ducks as we only have 2 more weeks until our ducks arrive! We will also continue working with teen numbers and move into subtraction. I can't wait!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Friday Science Flash!

See what I did there? It is true this week was an all around science week! This is one of my favorite times of year as we are just cruising full speed ahead! Between incubating our duck eggs, growing our beans (which are now huge by the way!) to taking a field trip to the High School to learn about motion it was a week filled with science fun!

Duck Eggs

We are officially beginning our journey of hatching baby ducks. We put them in the incubator this week and are waiting in anticipation for the next 3 weeks while they grow. Hopefully next week we can start candling them to see the veins! Along with our anticipation for their hatch we are starting to study ducks and chicks, their needs and of course their life cycle. This week we focused on responsibility of pets and what we might need once our ducks hatch to take care of them. Students came up with the idea of making them a comfortable home with water and food, and of course love because we all need love to grow :) I even caught a few students reading to them so they would already feel loved! I just love these kids so much :)

We have 8 eggs that we are growing!

Garden Project

This week we finished planting in our garden by adding flowers. Students learned about the difference between treated garden beds and natural ones and why we plant vegetables or things we eat in the natural ones. After we planted our flowers we read to them so our plants would feel loved too! There are some fun photos of kids reading to their plants below.

Also this week our bean plants have taken off! This morning they were sprouting slightly but after spending a whole day in the sunshine they really grew! The kids were so excited we had to take our plants to the office to share! We have 3 more days of recording our plants growth which means Wednesday of next week we will send them home with kids for you to plant at home!

Our bean plants are sprouting!!

High School Science Trip

This week we had our first of 3 field trips over to the High School to learn about motion. Kids did experiments around balance, force, speed and much more. It was a wonderful opportunity to engage with older students in our community and I loved giving the High School students the chance to interact with our kiddos. It was a learning experience for everyone which is always the best kind of trip :) We will be headed back there on the next two Thursdays to continue our experiments.

Students trying to balance a scale with varying objects.

Students learning about the effects of making a taller ramp.

Students experimenting with how much force is need to knock over empty bottles versus full bottles!

Well that is all for this week. Cheers to another wonderful week with your amazing children! Enjoy the sunshine!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Friday News Flash

Can you believe March is over? I can't! But I am also very excited for the next couple months as they are action packed in our class! From hatching chicks, science projects with the high school and growing our garden the next weeks will be full of fun and learning!

Garden Project

This week we finally launched our garden project! First students had the opportunity to weed the garden, which is an important part to helping our plants have the space to grow! Then they got to plant some starts of celery, lettuce, kale and even some herbs! I thought more kids wouldn't want to touch the dirt but everyone was willing to get their hands dirty and help out! Finally students got to plant their very own beans, and boy did they take it seriously. "Miss Adams mines not getting enough sunshine!" or  "Miss Adams I need to water my beans!" They were truly little farmers! Now the fun part begins as we are documenting the progress of our beans every day watching as they grow and change! Here are our bean plants getting some sunshine and a few photos from the garden!

Art Projects

This was a week full of art projects! First to go along with our garden launch we did a project inspired by Eric Carl's 'The Tiny Seed.' We were making a picture of a flower and labeling what elements the flower needed. Students were only given paper and my directions of what they were to make, but they did all the cutting, pasting and drawing themselves. There were many wonderful designs but here are a few examples.

The second art project we did this week was a color mixing project. I gave students circles and they drew the parts to make a bird (wings, tail, beak, eyes). Then students traced their drawings with black marker. Finally we got to the color mixing portion. Students got to mix together the varying combinations of colors to make their own green, orange and purple. I heard many exclamations like "Wow if you keep mixing it makes purple" or "Add more yellow and then it will be more green!" It was so wonderful to see them so excited and they are even more excited to share their pictures with you. I sent home those pictures in their Friday Folders today!

Math: All about Teen Numbers

This week in math we launched teen numbers! Students got to explore the idea of a group of ten and then some more. Students used ten frames to practice counting on (counting to 12 starting at 10 instead of at 1) and they looked at the different ways to make each teen number. Students had fun building their teen towers breaking them into 2 parts and seeing who else in the class broke their towers the same way! It was a great chance for students to build their number sense and look at the different ways to make each number.

Right Brain: Creative Dramatics

Today we had our first lesson with the amazing Mrs. Flinn who worked with kids on controlling and using their bodies in a drama setting. Students acted out parts of a story, practiced their balance and control and even began to learn how to mime! Students had so much fun and loved being able to have creative movement time. I am so excited that we are able to have Mrs. Flinn and I can't wait to see what we do over the next few weeks we have her!

Two students use their bodies to make a tree

Nikki reads them a story about animals balancing in a boat

In a pretend boat on the floor students got to act out the different parts of the animal story we read.

Next week will have many more fun science and art activities as we jump into our next project: hatching eggs! The students already keep asking me when the baby ducks will be here and we haven't even gotten the eggs yet! I think it's safe to say the are as excited as I am!


Smiles,

Miss Adams