Happy Thanksgiving

Throughout the month of November, the children and I expressed our gratitude and thanks for so many things.  Last week, we were able to celebrate all of what we are grateful for.  The children had many things to share what they were thankful for: their pets, families, cousins, and toys, of course!

The children began with making their Pilgrim hats and setting the table for our feast.  We even "carved" our turkey.  The children were very surprised to see that it was filled with popcorn!

We all hope that you were able to spend time with your family and friends over the Thanksgiving holiday and wish you the best during this holiday season!

Thank you to all of the parents who donated water bottles, popcorn, napkins, plates, and corn muffins.  The children even got to make their own butter.  Some were adventurous enough to try it!  It was delicious!

I am so thankful that I get to teach each of your children.  The look of excitement, wonder, and laughter everyday makes my day.  Thank you to you, the parents, for your support, understanding and kindness.  Working together with all of you is amazing.

Wishing you all a Happy Holiday Season!

Scientists

Good morning kindergarten scientists!

Today our student teacher from Endicott College, Miss Ryder, led the class in a literature based science experiment.

First we read the hilariously funny book by B.J. Novak called The Book With No Pictures.

After reading the story, the children were shown the special ingredients they used for our experiment.  They were then asked to go to a table and assigned a task.

Each student got to add their ingredient to the bowl: glue, liquid starch, and acrylic paint. The mixer was the first one to begin to squish and knead.  With each ingredient, the children were asked if each ingredient is a liquid or a solid.  Then the real fun began as the mixing began!  The laughter, giggles and faces were so fun to watch as the Bluurf was began to take form!

After the Bluurf was made, the children gathered at the rug for a discussion about the experiment.  The children had to explain whether the Bluurf was a liquid or a solid.

If you would like to make your own Bluurf, here is the recipe:

1 cup Elmer's glue

1 cup Liquid starch

Acrylic paint- just a squirt

Squish and knead for about 4 to 5 minutes.

*It makes enough for 4 children to share so if you don't want that much decrease the recipe by half.

Please share with a comment and picture if you make this fun science experiment at home!

Twenty Yawns

Over the past few weeks, the children have been a part of Global Read Aloud which is an author study that is done internationally.  We have been reading books written and illustrated by Laura Castillo.  Last week, we read the book Twenty Yawns by Jane Smiley and illustrated by Lauren Castillo.

It was a story about settling down after a long day at the beach and snuggling with your favorite stuffed animal.  We asked the children to bring in their favorite stuffed animals and talk about their favorite things to do with it.  The first reading was done by Mrs. Baker.  Each time she read the word "yawn" the children had to raise their hands.  Needless to say, this brought about many laughs and giggles. Then, Mrs. Marshall came in to talk to children about calming strategies.  The children learned breathing techniques and listened to calming music.

These children are really beginning to show their writing skills!  The prompt was "What do you like to do with your favorite stuffed animals?"  Every one did a great job!

Check out our awesome video!  It was so much fun making it!

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Please comment below to let us know what you think of our movie!

Happy Halloween

Halloween 2016 is in the books!  We had a blast celebrating Halloween on a Monday!

Here we are ready to go and then so tired from the parade!

Costumes were great and the smiles, even the silly faces, were even better!

A huge to thank to all who helped to organize, volunteer their time, and donated items to make our Halloween party so successful!  We were able to enjoy an arts and craft activity with coloring and foam stickers and delicious snacks.  We kept to a healthy party of popcorn, pretzels, apple slices, and fruit along with water.

The last night of October homework was to count your candy.  Please comment below to share how many pieces you got trick or treating!

Also, please remember the Fuller Meadow School Council is collecting Halloween candy (cards and letters, too) for Operation Troop Support.  If your family would like to participate, please send in your candy donations to school by November 9th.

Stick and Stone

Over the past few weeks, the children having been reading the story 

Stick and Stone written by Beth Ferry.  

The story focuses on two individuals who are wondering the earth lonely and alone. 

They have a chance meeting at the playground and through an incident with a "bully", 

they become friends.

Each Wellness block, the children were asked questions about the story,

 friendship, and bullying.

For example: 

What is bullying?

Bullying is behavior that is unwanted and harmful emotionally and/or physically that is repeated.

What is a bystander?

A bystander is someone who sees or hears about a bullying situation.

In the story, the character being treated unkind was Stone and the character 

who was seen as the bully was Pinecone.  The bystander was Stick.

Ask your child: What did Stick to do "stick up for" Stone?

The last Wellness block, we reread the story and worked on retelling the story.

The children colored and cut the pieces taping them to popsicle sticks. 

 We then took turns retelling the story using specific details about the story. 

Ask your child to retell the story to you.

The children really enjoyed the story about friendship and 

seemed to learn many concepts throughout our Wellness blocks.  

We all learn that together Stick and Stone make a perfect 10!

Friends make a perfect 10!

Daily 5

The children have been working very hard at building their stamina during our Daily 5 block. 

 What is Daily 5?  

Daily 5 is a time of the day when the children work on skills either by themselves, in a small group, or with me.  Daily 5 consists of Read to Self, Work on Writing, Writing Station, Listening to Reading, or Word Work.  All of these centers are a time for the students to build their skills and stamina.  

What is stamina?  

Stamina is training your body and brain to do it the right way!

Read to Self is an opportunity for the children to build their reading skills independently.  The children choose books for their book boxes that they are interested in reading or enjoy their Poetry Binder and enjoy reading the poems.  We have been working on the 3 ways to read:

1. Read the pictures.

2. Read the words.

3. Retell the story.  

This is also a time for the children to practice touching each word and looking for those trick words or sight words we have been learning.

Word Work is another opportunity for the students to build their skills and stamina.  Often times, it is a game or worksheet where they are practicing a specific skill, such as trick or sight words, rhyming, identifying letters or beginning sounds of words, and other phonemic awareness games.

Listening to Reading is another choice for the children to listen to literature on tape or CD.  They are becoming experts at a CD player.  The children listen to the story and respond to the reading.  The children illustrate and label their drawings to respond to the reading.  This is a time they children reflect upon the story and answer the questions.  There are many prompts the children are answering. 

 What is your favorite part?

What is the setting of the story?

Who was the main character?

What happened at the beginning, middle and end of the story?

Work on Writing is another choice the children can choose from.  Each student has their own Writer's Notebook kept in their book boxes.  They have the opportunity to write about anything!  The students are beginning to write and are sharing what they wrote.  These little ones have lots to share!

The Writing Station is changed monthly to go along with different monthly themes.  Each week the children have a different task to complete.  They might have to label a picture, or write a list, write a story or write a letter.  The children use the vocabulary cards hanging on the wall to help support their writing.  Each task has "I can" sentences on the worksheet guiding the children to become their very best writers!

Daily 5 sure is a very busy time of the day where the children build their stamina and reading/writing skills.  I am so proud of how much they have grown in such a short amount of time!

Halloween Math Stations

For the past two weeks, the children have been exploring different mathematical concepts through the 4 different math stations.

The first math station was called "Witch's Brew".  The children have to pick a number from the cauldron and identify it.  If they can name it, they keep it.   If not, then the number goes back into the pot.  There are many interesting cards added to the brew to keep the game interesting, like "Magic Frog" where you can go again  or "Spider" to take a number from a friend. The "Lose a Broom" card makes you put one card back into the brew.   The "Witch's Brew"cauldron cards ends the game.

The next math station is Halloween playdough mats "Spooky Numbers Mats".   The children are counting, practicing number recognition, one to one correspondence, building numbers with the playdough, and using the ten frame to build the number.  

The third station was called "Costume Count".  The children had work mats and used their "eagle eye" to count each costume using the strategy of crossing out each one while counting in a scattered picture.  The children then had to write the number and color the corresponding amount.

The fourth and last math station was by far the favorite.  It was called "Boo Brew" which is a number recognition activity.  The children used the pocket chart to hide the cauldron behind a number.  Each student picked a number to find the hidden cauldron.  The one who picked the right number got to hide the cauldron next.

Each math station involved lots of mathematical concepts, as well as turn taking and team building, and the children had so much fun learning and exploring numbers!  We have math stations four days a week and are able to play with them at least 2 times. 

K.CC:3 Write numbers from 0-20. Represent a number of objects with a written numeral.

K.CC 4 Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities.

K.CC 5 Count to answer "how many?" questions about as many as 20 things arranged in a line, a rectangular array, or a circle, or as many as 10 things in a scattered configuration: count out that many objects.

K.OA 4 Given a number between 1-9 find the number that makes 10 when added.