Highlights From Our Classroom

 Wow!  It has been a busy few weeks!  The kindergarteners have learning and growing so much!  Please read on to see what we have been doing.

October was full of fun events!  The students did such a great job working together to earn their first classroom celebration.  They chose to have a pajama day!  What a cozy way to celebrate!

A definite highlight from this month has to be Halloween!  What fun the students had during our Halloween parade and party.  Thank you so much for Mrs. Bradtke, Mrs. Conklin, and Mrs. Lamb for coming to help during our party!  We had so much fun with you!  Please hit play on the slideshow below to see some of our Halloween fun!

Happy Halloween 2016 from Heather Coyle on Vimeo.

Reading

We have finished our first unit of our Reading Workshop!  During this unit, the students have been introduced to many different genres of books, while getting to know themselves as readers.  Each student now has their own book bin, where they have selected books that they are interested in reading.  During each reading workshop lesson, students have the opportunity for independent reading time.  I am so proud of each of them as they continue to build their stamina and stay focused on their books.  Their excitement about books is contagious!  

Writing Workshop

The kindergarteners have been working so hard on their latest writing project.  Each student is writing their very own "Ouch Story" about a time that they got hurt.  Each writer had to THINK of an idea, DRAW a picture with details, LABEL that picture, and then WRITE a sentence that matches the picture.  As a class, we came up with a rubric to help the students know what to include in their writing.  It was great to see the students go back to their story to add more detail!  What fantastic authors they are becoming!

Handwriting

The kindergarten handwriting curriculum we use is called Handwriting Without Tears.  This program has a variety of materials to help students learn the proper formation for upper and lowercase letters, as well a numbers.  The students have loved using different wood pieces to create the letters, while learning the different strokes needed to make each letter correctly.  They especially like using the small chalkboards, chalk, and sponges for our routine called Wet, Dry, and Try.  During this routine, students use a wet sponge to make a letter, then a cotton ball to trace the wet letter, and last, they use the chalk to write the letter.  These routines help the students build their fine motor skills in a fun way!

Math

The kindergarteners have been exposed to so many math concepts lately.  We have been working hard with our ten frames.  A ten frame is a simple graphic tool that allows students to "see" numbers. Understanding that numbers are composed of tens and ones is an important foundational concept, setting the stage for work with larger numbers. A strong sense of "ten" is a prerequisite for place-value understanding and mental calculations.  

We have also been hunting for patterns!  It was fun to find patterns right on some of us!  The kindergarteners are doing a great job of finding, making, and explaining patterns.

Centers

Our center time remains a class favorite!  The students love listening to stories on the computer, using manipulatives to practice math, playing fun games to practice sight words, and using blocks to create amazing structures!

Art Appreciation

We were so fortunate to have Mr. Turcotte come in for our first Art Appreciation lesson of the year!  He introduced the painting titled, "The Cave".  Students had fun drawing their own version of this painting!

All About Me Bags

We loved learning more about Ellie when she brought the Me Bag to share.  We learned that Ellie loves to travel and play.  We also learned that Ellie is a big fan of Barack Obama!  Ellie's mom was a guest reader and shared the very inspiring book, Of Thee I Sing, written by Barack Obama.  

We also learned about George when he shared the Me Bag.  We learned that George loves the Beatles, playing soccer, and the Boxcar Children books.  George's dad was a Guest Reader and read the book, Home, to us.  The students loved this fun book!

Highlights From Our Classroom

Fall is in the air!  As we change the calendar to October, the students are continuing to do amazing things in kindergarten!

Reading Workshop

During our Reading Workshop the past two weeks, the students have been doing a great job listening, sharing, and discussing the stories and poems we have read.  

While reading the book, But Excuse Me, That is My Book, the kindergarteners had a chance to get to know themselves better as readers.  They were able to talk about what types of books they like and even what they don’t like.  Then, they had a chance to look at different books and choose one they would like to read.  Thank you so much for returning those surveys about the type of books your child likes to read.  Those will help when it becomes time for us to choose books for our book bins during our independent reading time.  

We also had the chance to really observe the different illustrations in the poem, “Catch the Moon” and see how the pictures can help us figure out new words.  

In another lesson, we learned that books can be fiction or nonfiction.  We made a chart that highlighted the different features of both types of books.   

The students also learned how important it is for readers to know their sight words while reading, so those words can be read quickly.  While reading, we learned about the different punctuation marks that readers may see in text and what each mark means.  We listened and practiced, while paying special attention to how our voices may change depending on what punctuation mark we encounter.  

Writing Workshop

The kindergarten authors are doing a fantastic job during Writing Workshop.  Each student has a green writing folder where they keep their writing.  We spent some time labeling our folders with red and green stickers to help us organize our work into writing that is finished (red side) and writing that is still being worked on (green side).   

The students also learned a new saying:  “When we think we are done, we have only just begun.” This helps the kindergarten authors remember to look closely at their writing to see if they can add any other details to their drawing, labels, and/or writing.

As the students have become more comfortable with this writing process, it has been so exciting to see them share their work with each other!

Math

We have been busy during math time!  We have had so much fun learning many different mathematical concepts.

The students explored the concepts of volume and capacity using containers of different sizes and shapes.  What great conversations they had as they predicted which one would hold the most and then tested those predictions.

We also spent time learning about different types of patterns.  The students enjoyed having a chance to paint their own pattern!

We had our first introduction to money this past week as the students had an opportunity to closely observe the different coins. They did a great job working together to sort the coins based on the similarities and differences that they discovered.

We had a chance to practice the concept of measurement again as the students hunted for objects in the classroom that were shorter and taller than they are.  

Jolly Phonics

We have learned another 6 sounds during Jolly Phonics.  The following sounds have been added to your child's ring that is in their blue book bags.  It is important that these rings, as well as the sight word books and cards, are returned to the blue book bags, as we add to them each week.

The sounds that have been added are:

/c/ /k/ as in cat and kick

/e/ as in egg

/h/ as in hot

/r/ as in rabbit

/m/ as in meal

/d/ as in drum

Each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we spend time listening to a short story introducing that day’s sound.  Then, we learn a song that practices that sound.  Afterwards, we may a class chart where the students share words that begin with that day’s sound.  Students then work on a coloring page practicing that sound and have a chance to begin on their Jolly Phonics notebook.  I am so pleased to see that students are beginning to try to add more sounds to their labels in their notebooks.  At this point of the year, it is perfectly fine if the students are only able to write the first letter of their label.  Please don’t feel as if you need to help them spell the entire word.  We are looking to see what they can do independently with our new sounds.  

Name Centers

The students had a chance to explore several different centers that helped them work on the letters of the alphabet, as well as their names.   

Working on an ABC puzzle

Name Puzzles

Name Puzzles

Name Puzzles

Using magnetic letters to spell names

Using letters to spell our names

Practicing spelling the names of our friends

Sorting uppercase and lowercase letters

LMC

The students have loved heading to the computer lab each Thursday.  They are learning how to use the laptops and have been practicing their click and drag skills with a shape sort.  

Me Bag

We have started our Me Bag schedule and have loved getting to know a couple of our classmates!  We learned that Abby loves puppies and was recently a flower girl in a wedding!  A big thank you to Abby's mom for coming and reading the incredibly funny book, Dragons Love Tacos!

We also got to know our friend, Maddy!  Maddy loves purses, cooking, and Frozen!  We loved having Maddy's mom join us and read the crowd favorite, The Night Before Kindergarten!