October Part I

Good Morning!  I am sitting here with my Diet Coke (terrible habit!  it's my "coffee") because I just have to get these pictures to you.  October is such a busy month for us in Kindergarten so I am going to split it into two posts.  I cannot get my iPhone pictures and my "big camera" pictures to sync in chronological order.  They appear so in my computer's drive, but I've loaded them twice here and this is what I get.  Oh well.  Enjoy!

PAJAMA DAY!  The kids voted, with a quick lesson on democracy, and this was our winning idea to celebrate 60+ Soaring with Pride stickers.  I am really proud of them! 

A little outside drawing time... this group was so excited to draw during recess ;)

 FUN RUN!

We were so fortunate to see so many parents, and grandparents, on this morning.  Thank you all for supporting the UES PTA.  

 That field was wet so we dried out our shoes while we had Literacy Centers and Guided Reading Groups.  I swear a little exercise and room to wiggle our toes made for one of our most productive LA blocks ever!  :) 

I introduced the reading phones.  You would have thought I was passing out gold!  The kids loved using them during reading groups.  

Recess :)

We are so fortunate to have so many visitors in our classroom who share such important information and skills with us.  Mrs. dela Vega visited us on the first Monday of the month to help us with pencil grips and scissors grip.  She is a school based OT who works for the Developmental Center.  She is in our building quite often and she taught a lesson and share a song with us to help remind us about proper grip.  We have been practicing with a puff ball, which the kids hold in their palm with their ring and pinkie finger as the other three fingers control the pencil.  Please ask your child to show you and to sing this song for you :) 

Here is a short video that demonstrates the grip and the song.  

https://safeshare.tv/x/ss58037dd2b42f2 

We had our first "Write the Room" activity of the year and the kids just LOVED it.  I told them that there are many, many more to come.  It gets them moving about the classroom while practicing a particular academic skill.  In this, they search for cards with words that began with the letter G. 

Mrs. R returned to teach us about using our brains and how neural connections form and strengthen over time and as we practice skills and concepts.  

Here is a video link that the kids may enjoy that reinforces the ideas she shared.  

https://safeshare.tv/x/ss57d2ba08987e4

Math Rotations :)

The kids have really enjoyed our unit on Attributes.  

We had a wonderful time at the Urbana Volunteer Fire Station.  We were able to see and explore the various trucks as well as see a fire fighter dress in his gear.  

They even raised the ladder truck for us!  100 feet high!

Finishing up our attribute trains :)

I hope that everyone is enjoying their weekend!   

September

What a busy month September has been! I didn't get my camera out as much as I would have liked... but I hope that you and your family enjoy these shots that I was able to capture.  So much has changed in these past six weeks. They kids are building their stamina for work during Literacy Centers, during Writing, during Math Rotations and during their reading time. We talk about this skill of stamina quite a bit as it is so important in the Kindergarten classroom.  We are also working on their developing independence and ability to work with small groups of peers independent of my direct guidance. We have practiced doing "Kindergarten work" that is complete, thorough and reflects their best effort.  We have looked carefully at work that is rushed and incomplete and talked about how it can be improved.  They kids are taking pride in their work and I think that is just wonderful.  They are growing and changing so quickly.  I am so lucky to witness their progress and development.  

Math Rotations... Counting and Cardinality

Application Centers

Construction Center :)

Reading Corner

Math Center

We earned 30 Soaring with Pride stickers and so we celebrated with a Math Game session :)

Curiosity got the best of us... do we have more girls or more boys in our class?!?!?

More Application Centers

Discovery Table

Construction

Math activity... our favorite number hats!

My artwork portfolio ;)

Writing 

The kids are doing a terrific job building their stamina during our Writing block.  It's hard!  The curriculum has us work under the notion that "when you're done, you've only just begun!"  We talk about professional authors and illustrators who work on their pieces over periods of time all the while making revisions and additions to their work.  Just look at these KINDERAUTHORS!  

In Social Studies, we talked about taking care of special items in our classroom and at home.  The kids really enjoyed sharing their special items with their classmates.  Thank you for helping them choose these items and prepare for their presentations.  

Literacy Center ~ 

sorting "tall letters," "short letters" and "sitting letters." 

Math

Sorting based on the attributes of BUTTONS!  They LOVED this :)

Math Rotations

I cannot tell you how much it made me smile to hear the kids ask ONE ANOTHER, "so what is the attribute of this group that you sorted?" 

In Social Studies we discussed ways in which we can be a good friend, ways to ask a friend for something and way to respond in a friendly manner.  We read The Rainbow Fish and then made our own rainbow fish by sharing scales with one another so that each one of us could have a unique and coloring fish due to the generosity of our friends. 

We listen to music ALL THE TIME but I just had to include this... of course it was Handel's "Water Music Suite" for our handmade rainbow fish :)

I hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend... I had Happy Hawk with me this weekend so that he can begin his visits with each Kindergartener!  He is very excited to spend a weekend with each of his friends.  It will be another exercise in taking turns and being happy for our friends when it is their turn but not ours quite yet.  So far so good with "maybe next time!"  :)