We are Thankful

Shiv- I am thankful for Mario.
Collin- I am thankful for Treats for Troops.
Caitlyn- I am thankful for my dog.
Camille- I am thankful for my birthday.
Ellis- I am thankful for playing football.
Kennedy- I am thankful for Mrs. Knapp.
Lucy- I am thankful for my family.
Jarrett- I am thankful for my brother who plays with me.
Lauren- I am thankful for Hayden's birthday.
Evan- I am thankful for this school.
Kelsey- I am thankful for my cat.
Scarlett- I am thankful for all my friends.
Grady- I am thankful for my pillows.
Isabella- I am thankful for horses.
Ethan- I am thankful for my mom.
Ava- I am thankful for zebras.
Toby- I am thankful for my dog.
Arnav- I am thankful for my dad.
Hayden- I am thankful for my family.

Sid's Scary Adventure

Evan had the Writers Backpack last week.  Check out his great story!

Writers Backpack

Yay for our 1st blog post for the year!

We recently started our "Writers Backpack". This backpack is filled with materials for creating books and will go home with each of my students this year for a week. During that week, my kindergarten writers will write a story and create a book to share with the class. 

Scarlett had our backpack 1st. Check out her awesome story!

Metaphors

This week in writing we're learing about metaphors.  Here are some we came up with today for a class book.

Kennedy- Happy is when my baby brother hugs me.
Nathan- Happy is a whole Nascar week.
Sunny- Excited is when I score a goal in soccer.
Kai- Happy is when my football team wins.
Gavin- Surprised is when I get an interception and a touchdown.
Saba- Excited is when my cousins pick me up from school.
Nadia- Scared is the dark.
Emily- Sad is when my sister's volley ball team loses.
Lily- Sad is when I get hurt.
Noah- Surprised is when I open a present.
Vivek- Excited is riding on a train.
Reese- Sad is when I lose my softball game.
Ben- Surprised is when my brother jumps out at me.
Mercer- Scared is monsters.
Lucas- Proud is when I got my orange belt in karate.
Iasabella- Happy is seeing dolphins.
Joshua- Scared is ghosts.
Dhanush- Excited is when I get a turtle.
Cooper- Proud is scoring a touchdown.
Christopher- Happy is riding my bike.
Medeline- Happy is going to a party.

Daily 5

Every morning during our literacy time, the students work in their Daily 5 stations while I pull small reading groups.  This has become my favorite time of the day and I think many of the kids would say the same (only of coarse if recess and lunch wasn't one of their choices.  Ha.)

Here are some "in action" pictures of the 5 stations they practice.

1. Read to Self- Students have individual book boxes with their guided reading book, poetry folder, books we've made in class, and a few self selected books from our classroom library.  They're able to sit anywhere around the room while they work on reading independently.

2. Read to Someone- For this station, students choose a partner and read in our classroom library, read poems we've learned and look for rhyming words an word wall words, or use our flannel board to retell stories we've read as a class.

3. Listen to Reading- Students can listen to reading on our computers at www.starfall.com (great site for beginning readers), use our listening center to work on phonics cards with dry erase markers, listen to books on tape, or listen to reading with our Tag Reader.

4. Word Work- Students choose one of 5 word work tubs.  These tubs change throughout the year an include things working on building and breaking apart words, hearing sounds in words, etc.

Sorting picture cards by their vowel sound

Identifying middle vowel sounds in words to complete the puzzles.

Building sight words.

Blending sounds to read words.

5. Work on Writing- In this station students work on their handwriting, use dry erase boards to work with printing cards for handwriting and writing their names and word wall words, use chalkboards from Handwriting Without Tears to practice writing letters, or Write Around the Room looking for words with certain beginning letters.



Happy Valentine's Day

This week for Valentine's Day each of my students finished the sentence "Love is..."  Here are their responses along with a few pictures from our Valentine's party. 

At the party they had 4 stations...

They passed out their Valentine cards...

Joshua- Love is great.

Gavin- Love is kind.

Emily- Love is a friend.

Lily- Love is special.

Mercer- Love is Amy (Mrs. Knapp).  :)

 They played Tic Tac Toe on cute heart shaped game boards...

Kennedy- Love is fun.

Ben- Love is really good friendships.

Lucas- Love is awesome.

Nadia- Love is family.

Kai- Love is Valentine's Day.

They raced to take candy hearts out of a bowl and sort with chopsticks... (sorry Cooper I didn't realize you were so blurry in my picture when I took it)

Madeline- Love is you.

Saba- Love is God.

Cooper- Love is kind.

Isabella- Love is my mom.

Christopher- Love is family.

Dhanush- Love is Valentine's Day.

They decorated baby food jars with Hershey kisses and markers to make candy castles...

Reese- Love is fun.

Noah- Love is my mom.

Nathan- Love is love.

Sunny- Love is a friend.

Vivek- Love is good.

At the end of they party they enjoyed some popcorn for a snack and a Valentine video.  Thank you to all the parents who helped plan the party and were able to attend.  Everyone had a great time!



We are thankful...

This week we've been talking about things we are thankful for and today we made a "predictable chart".  Each student completed the sentence "I am thankful for..." and we will put these together in a class book later this week.  Here's what they said...

I am thankful for...
Reese-my birthday
Ben-my doctor
Gavin-my teacher
Kai-my class
Emily-my school
Lucas-God
Nadia-my friends
Mercer-my mom and dad
Vivek-the United States of America
Sunny-my brother
Christopher-my teachers
Gabriel-my sister
Madeline-my family
Joshua-God and Jesus
Lily-my dog
Isabella-my dog
Dhanush-my cat
Cooper-my brother and my sister
Kennedy-my sports team
Noah-my mom's birthday
Saba-my birthday
Nathan-my cats

Let's Make Sense

To end our science unit on the 5 senses, we had some real scientists from High Touch High Tech come do some really cool investigations with us.  They are awesome!

Hyper Space Heather

They observed their pupils grow and shrink when we turned the lights off and back on again.

They looked through some really cool lenses that make things appear upside down.  They even got to keep these and take them home!

They observed their papilla (bumps on their tongue)...

and tasted something bitter, something sweet, something sour, and something salty.

 They used their sense of smell to "waft" and guess what several "mystery solutions" were.

They made vibrations with a fork on a string to hear sound.

Then they did the same thing while holding the string to their ears to amplify the sound.

And they watched the colors change on these touch pads as the pads felt the warmth ftom their hands.



Boosterthon Pep Rally

Our Boosterthon Fund Raiser is well on it's way.  We kicked it off at our Boosterthon Pep Rally last week.  The kids are really pumped up for our big Fun Run this Thursday.  They're doing great getting pledges for our run too.  We've already reached our 1st 2 team goals and have celebrated with extra recess and will have a hat day on Monday.  Keep up the good work kids!



Happy Birthday Lily and Sunny!

Lily and Sunny have the same birthday!  How cool is that!  We had fun celebrating their birthday with yummy cookies and cookie cake. 



WatchDOGS

We had our 1st WatchDOG visitor last week.  Thanks Mr. Greg for reading a Mat Man story to us.