Polar Express Week

Ah! The holiday season is so short! We already explored various holidays so this week it was all Polar Express! We had Polar Express Math and Literacy Centers all week long (sorry no pictures in action!)

Oh, and Optimus (our Elf on the Shelf), was found riding the Polar Express on Wednesday!

To review our shape unit form October, we took various shapes and each student made a Polar Express train car.  Then we hung them up, connected them, and let the magic take over our room!

On our Polar Express movie day, the kids got tickets and bells from Santa's sleigh and we hopped aboard the Polar Express to watch the movie! Hot cocoa and 3 musketeer candies followed!

As you can tell... It was a fun day!

Center Update!

We are ROCKIN' centers!

This week, we are working on CVCs, sight word recognition, computers, make it - write it, and positional words. 

I was so proud today when a little guy came over with this...

Last week, we used these same cards to write the CVC words with a marker and the week before I introduced them during our morning routine. Now we are taking those skills and expanding to stamping the words. AND HE DID IT!! Whoo! I was so pumped I showed the whole class!

and then this happened....

I know, it says /l/ /i/ /n/. Which in kinder is lion. This little one didn't know her letters in September and now LOOK! Man, I am just so amazed by little brains. 

It's the little things.... :o)

The fox says...

What Does the Fox Say?

Well...in our room the fox says word families!!

We used this cute template from Pink Cat Studio to develop rhyming words for common CVC words such as "pig" and "cat." Turns out...in our room the Fox says things like "cat, hat, bat, pat, mat" instead of those crazy sounds that never leave my head!

Hey - you gotta use what the kids are interested in right? So much more fun then just writing with dry erase! The template I linked to above is free so go on and get your own to work with at home!

Well... Halloween is long gone, but I wanted to share this math and literacy monsters!

In the month of October, we concentrate on shapes- both 2D and 3D - for our math curriculum. 

We tie in literacy with then Big Green Monster book project.  The big green monster looses and gains the shapes on his face in the book.  We practiced summarizing after reading by making these not-so-scary green monsters!

Mrs. Jakusz found this wonderful resource - Shape Monsters to compliment the math curriculum and Halloween theme.  In this project, the kids got to choose from a number of shapes to make a monster of their own.

After we made the monsters, we counted and graphed how many shapes we used.  We also discussed sides, corners, and angles in this project. So fun!!

Alright, the next post will be more recent - sorry I have been slacking, grad school is taking over! :o)

Halloween Fun

Be boop! Halloween was tons on fun in the K wing. Our team dressed up as minions, which all the kids got a huge kick out of! 

We had a parade around the school and gym, then went back to class for party centers and snacks.

Here's bingo and pin the heart on the skeleton.

Then, we also had bowling, pumpkin (bozo buckets), and a foam craft.

Rewind to Wednesday, when we carved our HUGE pumpkin  to get ready for Halloween. I cut a large whole/mouth for the kids to scoop out the seeds and "guts."  They all picked one seed to wash and take home.  We put the pumpkin out in the hall for all to see!

This week, we will use this jump start activity to finish our pumpkin unit and growth cycle crafts. Goodbye October - Hello November!

Farm Days

Last Tuesday, we took a trip to The Center in Palos. We got to see and pet many animals and pick our very own pumpkins from the pumpkin patch! To get ready for the farm, we practiced chopping out some things we would see there with these Fall Chopping & Stamp Centers.

 We also talked about the many different animals on a farm and their sounds.

By the time we got to pumpkin picking, it was freezing and wet, so I didn't take out the camera, but overall it was a happy day down on the farm!

Parents, if you would like additional pictures, please e-mail or comment so I can send them to you!

Dogs again :o)

First off -its fall. And I LOVE fall. But before long the leave will be gone and we will be stuck in Chicago winter again. And you know what you need to keep you warm? 

This girl! And she needs you! All she wants to do is cuddle and relax on a nice warm couch or doggie bed with you. 

 Her name is Lacy and she is our foster dog through Chicago Pit Stop Rescue. Her life was saved when she was taken out of Chicago Animal Control a few months ago and joined us - eagerly awaiting her forever home.

She is a gentle, cuddly girl who loves a walk and a good toy to play with.  She won't ruin anything that isn't hers, doesn't bark, and plays well with others! She is just perfect and I am going to have a hard time giving her up, but she deserves the best!

Where is my forever family?

If you are interested in making Lacy a permanent part of your life, please contact me or fill out an application at Chicago Pit Stop Rescue.

...Now back to your regularly scheduled kindergarten programming :o) .....

Reading Centers and Reading Buddies

I know this is a little late, but here is a reading center activity that we did a few weeks ago during fire safety week.  The kids had a blast putting their letter sounds together to make words!

 We put our vowels (red magnet letters) on the side of the tray and then used our consonants to make CVC words. It was so fun exploring sounds with the kids and seeing their faces when they made silly words. :o)

And here are our 4th grade reading buddies working on us with a pumpkin project this week! While we prepared to go to the farm and pick our pumpkins, we discussed how pumpkins grew from seeds.  We read Scholastic News about pumpkins, watched a short clip about growing pumpkins.

The kids then worked together to make a chain of the pumpkin growth cycle - so fun!

Fire Station

October 6th kicks off National Fire Prevention Week! 

We are lucky enough to have a fire station within walkable distance from school so we went last Friday to kick off Fire Prevention Week.

The kids we able to walk through the fire truck...

...See a fireman in uniform (and talk about how it isn't that scary)...

Oh! And the fire and police stations are connected - so the kids got a tour of the police department as well.

Here's a little response sheet for parents and teachers to help the kiddos work on a fire safety plan with you.  We haven't worked on this yet - but the school part is in the plans for Monday!

Technology can be such a thrill to students and the classroom it is used it.  I love exploring the ways that technology opens up the world and have experienced the positive impacts it can have on a child's education.

SMART boards are an awesome tool, but not every school can realistically afford them...sooo look what my sister-in-law found!

It is an interactive white board that you can make with a Wii remote and infa-red pen! I am amazed!! I would love to try this out and let the kids go to town on center games, starfall.com, and more!

Happy Friday!

Today is the last day of our apple unit and I am going to try to remember to take pictures of centers!

On Wednesday, we predicted what the inside of an apple would look like, reviewed the parts on an apple and cut an apple open to check out predictions.

You can find this page in my apple unit.

One of my little guys asked if we could plant the seeds. I have no idea if they will actually grow, but ya know what, we are going to try! I guess there's no reason not to plant them...

 So we each took a seed and planted in the courtyard.

Sorry to my administration if we end up with an orchard in a few years! 

But the kids had fun digging a little hole, covering it up and watering it.  On Thursday, they asked if we could watch them grow, which is so sweet.  We read a book about the timeline of growing an apple tree and figured out they have to wait until they are 11 at least.  I guess well see!