Toys at Choice time?!

What an exciting week we had this week, even though it was only 3 days! We have so many fun events coming up including Valentine's Day and our Hundredth day of school, so stay tuned for all the fun!

Toys for Choice Time

As some of you may know our school sent out a newsletter saying toys were no longer allowed at school. Well students came to me and said that they didn't think that was fair saying that they would keep their toys in their backpacks until Choice Time so it didn't distract them. I then told students that we could write Mrs. Hudson (our principal) a letter asking her if we could still bring toys for choice time. In the letter students promised to keep their toys in their backpacks until choice time and that they wouldn't bring them out any other time of the day. After we wrote the note all the students signed it and 3 students chosen at random took the letter and read it to Mrs. Hudson. A few days later we received her response:

Students were overjoyed! So small toys may come to school for choice time once again!

The Mitten

We have read the Mitten for the past weeks and been using it to discuss characters, setting and to practice sequencing a story when we retell it to someone else. One activity that we did with The Mitten was making our own mitten sequencing craft. Students colored the different characters and using their mitten were able to practice retelling the story. Hopefully they brought them home to share with you too!

A student pulls his story telling strip through to practice retelling the story.

Snowy Owl Adventure

This week we were learning about snowy owls as part of our arctic animals unit. We made snowy owl masks and went on an adventure of the school seeing what "owls" see by using our masks. The students loved it and it was such a fun way for them to use their masks and see from an owl's perspective. I heard "Wow I have to move my head a lot to see" or "I like my eyes better I can see more!" It was great to see and hear!

Write the Room

One activity that students are loving is our write the room activity. Basically I post cards around the room and the students get to walk around answering questions about the cards on their recording sheets. You may notice them coming home about rhyming, segmenting, addition (and soon subtraction) and even with missing letters. The students work so hard and want to share them with you so you will probably see a few of those popping up on SeeSaw as well!

Well that is all for now. We are finishing up our arctic animals unit this week and getting ready for Valentine's as well as starting our community helpers unit!

Cheers to a great week ahead!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Arictic Animals Poems and more

Weekly Poems

Each week as a class we learn different poems. This weeks' poem was Up In the Arctic since we started our Arctic Animals unit this week. Each week students learn a new poem and we use their knowledge of the poem to find words or letters or rhyming words in the poem. We do this as a class and then students also circle words and letters individually in their small book versions of the poem that they bring home every Friday.

To help students with their fluency re-read those poems with your child having them point to each word looking for sight words or going on a hunt for capital letters or lowercase letters! If you have any questions please let me know!

Here is a picture of our big version of the poem that students practice with during centers and also a picture of the student poem book.

Our big version of the poem where we have circled and underlined sight words.

A student circled the sight word and and then bears and hares (rhyming words!)

Writing

This week students have really jumped into writing cards. We have talked about what cards are for, when you have something important to say to someone, and how to write cards. I'm sure you have seen a few come home but we have been working on saying more than just I love you. We call it making our sentences "juicy." This week a student made this card for a friend in class and I had to share it with you:

Arctic Animals

This week we kicked off our arctic animals unit by learning about arctic foxes and caribous. Students have an arctic animals journal that they record fun facts about each animal in, as well as labeling the parts of the animals so we can see what features the animals have in common. I can't wait to keep learning about more arctic animals as well as learning about their different types of shelters, food sources and of course doing some fun crafts along the way!

This has been a great few weeks back from winter break and I can't wait for more fun in the next few weeks with valentine's approaching and our 100th day of school! 

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Centers and Reindeer Art!

How are we already in our last week before Winter Break? This week we talked a lot about how everyone feels differently going into winter break. I explained that I am excited for Christmas but sad because I would miss them. Then one student said "I'm going to miss everyone in our class!" I think that statement really shows how bonded students are with each other and it warms my heart. Here are just a few of the things we did this last week.

Literacy Centers

In our literacy centers students have learned the routines to work completely independently at each station for 25 minutes! It seems like a big task but students are doing a great job at working quietly and staying focused. I snapped a few photos from activities students were engaging in this week. First I saw two students who were sharing a laundry basket to read in during library. Then I saw three students who were working together on a rhyming puzzle, helping each other find matches and working as a team to complete them all. I also saw students making cards for their families and for each other. So sorry if there has been an influx of cards coming home, but students love getting to say thank you and making something special for the people they love :)

 Reindeer Directed Drawing

Perhaps my favorite directed drawing we do in Kindergarten is our Reindeer drawing. Like all directed drawings first we followed step by step directions to draw our reindeer, then we traced our reindeer in black sharpie. Next we colored in our reindeer's with brown colored pencil (and red noses it students wanted to do that!) and finally we got to watercolor the background. They turned out so great I can't wait to hang them up for us to admire!

I truly enjoy every day I get to spend with your children and while I am excited to have a few days to rest and recover I will miss seeing their smiling faces everyday. This will be the last blog post until we get back so to all of you have a wonderful winter break and Happy Holidays!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

All about Winter

This week we did lots of winter activities focusing on Elves and learning about Hibernation. We will be doing more winter themed activities leading up to winter break that use all of the different skills we have learned so far this year. It should be lots fun :)

Elf Directed Drawing

Like all of our directed drawings students started by drawing their elves (following step by step directions). Then we traced our lines in sharpie and finally colored in our pictures. We used watercolors as our art medium this time. Students spent over 45 minutes on these, I was amazed at their focus and desire to make them look just right! I am so proud of how they turned out. Here are a few photos of the process:

Hibernation Writing

Our winter poem for the week is called Winter's Here and it talks about animals that hibernate during the winter. We then took what we knew about hibernation to write about it in our journals. I was so impressed by students diligence and desire to get their writing just right. They have come so far from the beginning of the year!

Bears hibernate in the winter.

This student wanted to write "The bears hibernate in the winter."

 Sorry I don't have more this week. We have been so busy that I have totally forgot to take pictures! Only 10 school days until winter break!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Thankful Turkey's and Career Day

Thankful Turkey's

This week we started talking about what it means to be thankful and what we are thankful for. We started out by reading a book about being thankful. Then we brainstormed a list of things that we are all thankful for:

After we made the list we made our thankful turkeys. Students got to write and draw one thing they were thankful for on every feather of their turkeys. Students were only expected to do 3 feathers, but most chose to write more! They turned out so great! Here are some photos of students working on their turkey's and the wall of turkeys!

A student writes that they are thankful for their toys and house

They turned out so great!

Career Day

On Wednesday we had the wonderful opportunity to interview different people from varying careers for our Career Day. Before we went to see the varying jobs that were present as a class we brainstormed some questions that students would like to ask them. Here is what we came up with:

In the gym there were jobs like forest rangers, stenographers, face painters, chiropractors, computer engineers and more. Students loved getting to walk around and ask them about their jobs!

Students look at the varying tools a park ranger uses.

A stenographer shows students how to type on her special keyboard.

Then the fun continued as we went outside to discover jobs that use slightly larger tools, especially their vehicles! Outside we saw a Firetruck, multiple police officers and sheriffs, PGE vehicles, a Garbage truck, and more. It was so fun and engaging for students to see all the varying careers that are out there. Such a fun day!

Seeing the tools on a Firetruck.

Seeing a PGE truck lift in action!

Seeing how this truck pours garbage in the back. 

The Forestry service and Timberlake Job Corps show students how they
could put out forrest fires and some tools they would need.

We only have one more week before conferences and Thanksgiving! I can't believe we are almost to December already! But you know what they say, time flies when you're having fun!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Writing, Poems and Pumpkin Patch!

Writing

In our writing time we have moved to the point of sharing our writing with others. We have talked so much about the purpose of writing and the main purpose being to save our ideas and share those ideas with other people. This week I introduced writing partners where students sat and read their writing with their partners. They were so wonderful at listening to each other and were so proud to share off their writing! I can’t wait to share their writing with you at conferences as well!

5 Little Pumpkins

We do lots of poems in our class. Poems are a great way for students to quickly learn a piece of writing and then they can use that poem to find words and letters they know in that poem. I send home paper books of the poems when we do them and those are a great resource to practice at home since the students know the poems so well they can point to the words as they read them!

This week we did the poem 5 little pumpkins. First we read the Pete the Cat version in a story book. Then we assembled our 5 little pumpkins lift the flap books. The students loved the activity and they turned out so well! It was great to see the kids reading them to each other!

Pumpkin Patch

We had so much fun at the Pumpkin Patch this week. Students got to make a dirt baby (please put those in a cup of water in a window sill so the grass will grow for the hair!) see a few farm animals and of course see how pumpkins grew. The kids were so excited because we got to see almost every stage of the pumpkin life cycle. We saw lots of flowers from the pumpkins and a few flowers that had the green pumpkin starting to grow from the flower. We also saw different vines, green and brown, and of course got to see a wide variety of pumpkins. It was wonderful to see kids running around going “Miss Adams look here is a flower, next will grow a green pumpkin” or “Miss Adams this vine is still green so I don’t think it’s ready to pick yet!” Not only was it fun but it was a wonderful hands on learning day! Thank you to everyone who met us there or chaperoned and made the day truly special.

A student decorates his dirt baby.

A student puts the eyes on his dirt baby.

Students enjoying the hay ride.

A flower that has a green pumpkin bulb!

A pumpkin flower that we saw!

Students enjoying the view at lunch!

Can't wait for the exciting week ahead!

Smiles,

Miss Adams

Pumpkin Experiment and Shared Writing

We did lots of pumpkin activities this week as we are anxiously awaiting our pumpkin patch field trip! We will be finishing up our pumpkin activities this week and moving on to weather very soon!

Pumpkin Writing

To start off our week we learned a poem called 10 Little Pumpkins (ask your student to sing it for you!). Then after we learned our poem as a class we each took a part to write down the poem. 

A view of some of the writing!

Once we had written out the entire poem students worked with a partner to make 1 pumpkin. This was quite the challenge for some groups. I heard lots of great compromising "I'll draw and you cut" and I even saw some Rock-it-out (basically rock paper scissors) happening to solve problems. It was really great to see.

Students making their pumpkin and stem.

One student makes the pumpkin, the other the stem.

Once we finished our pumpkins I put them up on a bulletin board in the hallway so everyone in the school could see the hard work we put into making it!

The finished product :)

Pumpkin Lifecycle

This week we continued working on our understanding of the pumpkin life cycle. Not only did we read books about the pumpkin life cycle but we also wrote about it too. We started by putting the life cycle in the correct order and then from there we were able to complete our sheet about the life cycle. Students loved getting to mix up the cards and put them back in the right order!

Pumpkin Experiment

To top off our week we did our pumpkin experiment. We measured our pumpkin to see how tall it was, we put our pumpkin in water to see if pumpkins sink or float and then came the huge task: counting the pumpkin seeds. On a piece of butcher paper I put out lots of 10 frames and with a partner students sorted through their pile of pumpkin guts to pick out the pumpkin seeds and put one seed in each spot on our ten frames. We had roughly 450 seeds in our pumpkin! It was so much fun and the kids really enjoyed it!

I am so excited for our field trip this week and I know the students are too. I promise I will take photos of all the fun!

Smiles,

Miss Adams