Meet A Tree!

This afternoon we took a walk outside and examined a tree in the garden! We discovered that it was a deciduous tree. The leaves had long, narrow, jagged edges. We tried putting our hands, fingers and arms around the trunk of the tree. We discovered that the tree had a small circumference!
Stay Tuned! Tomorrow we look at coniferous trees!

All It Takes Is An Idea!

The children have been working very hard on creating our classroom forest. I love how the children are thinking of ways to use writing and pictures to help clarify meaning throughout the classroom. One child decided that we needed a sign in sheet to keep track of who has an opportunity to visit the "bear cave", "pond" and the computers each day. Another child thought it would be a great reminder for everyone to remember that "bears play and rest" in a safe way while in the cave! A sign was made to remind others! Lastly a couple of children thought it would be a good idea to label and write about how you can tell how old a tree is! This is amazing! ***Remember to click on individual pictures to see things close up!***

Breakfast Club In Kindergarten!

If you would like for your child to eat breakfast at school, they can! Every morning children walk down to the cafeteria to get breakfast and then eat it at our breakfast table! We call it "Breakfast Club" in Kindergarten. Sometimes former Kindergarten students come back and help us out!

Our First Oral Reading Presentation!

This morning the children did an awesome job reading their writing about what they were/are thankful for. This was a great opportunity for the children to practice reading orally, public speaking, using eye contact, being an active listener and also practice being a respectful member of an audience. Wonderful! While we were waiting for our families to arrive we sang some songs and played a couple of great math games. I am going to post individual videos on everyone's kidblog!

Type To Learn 4!

Today we began working on a new program to help us with our keyboarding skills. The name of the program is Type To Learn 4! The children loved it! This is also available for you to download for home use too! I will get the information to you this week.

An ABB Pattern With Spiders and Ladybugs!

How We Make A Difference In Kindergarten In Our Community!

This morning we had a wonderful walk to the food shelf. The children did a great job. The weather was perfect for our walk. I hope you enjoy the slideshow. Thanks so much everyone for your help and support with this project!

Designing and Creating A Forest!

This afternoon we began to create and design our forest! This is a great opportunity to use some of the new vocabulary we are learning, a time to collaborate with others and a time to share and take turns.

Dictation Time In Kindergarten!

One of the the great things that we do during our "Echo Time" is have a daily dictation! Sometimes we write the letters of the sounds we hear. This helps listen for a particular sound and identify it. Today we practiced writing sentences! Wow! The children each have their own Fundations Writing Journal. We write sentences that are dictated to us! This is great practice for using familiar words, letter formation, word spacing, punctuation and we even use our inventive writing to help us write unknown words.

A Mathematical Quilt

This morning the children were able to interact with a mathematical quilt that we created. The children made observations of what they noticed and observed. The great thing about Voicethread is that you are able to share your thinking and even use the mouse to help explain what you are thinking. This is our first thread. Stay tuned for more voicethreads in the future!
We are also able to make comments about our thinking as well. The children noticed the speech bubbles and realized that the bubbles appear when someone is talking. Amazing! Enjoy!

Writer's Workshop!

This morning during our writing time the children began talking about and writing about what they are thankful for. In the pictures you will be able to see some of the great writing that is happening. Today I introduced a "spaceman". This helps to remind us to keep spaces in between our words. Tomorrow we will do a turn and talk about what we are thankful for, then have an opportunity to write some and then create an illustration about our writing!

Math Stations In Kindergarten!

Today the children did an amazing job working at all the different math stations. Each math station is designed for children to interact with the materials and learn a math concept too! Be sure to ask your child what stations they worked at today! *Remember if you click on the pictures in the blog posts, the picture will enlarge!*