Zoo visit

On Friday the Zoo came for a visit and brought some wonderful animals and we learned all about habitats.  We learned that an animal's habitat provides it food,water and shelter.  We got to pet a python and a hedgehog and discussed their different charachteristics.  Here are some photos to enjoy.  We have 1 more visit from the zoo in April and can't wait!

Turn and Talk

Throught out the course of the day, I have the students engage in what I call turn and talk. Language is a child's most powerful learning tool.  By engaging students in intentional talk it allows them to process ideas and information more effectively.  It is also lots of fun!  Here is a short video of the children engaging in turn and talk with each other.  They are discussing the different ways to make ten.  If you look and listen closely you can hear and see the differnet strategies they are using. 

What's Happening This Week?

What a busy day we had!  This week we will start Theme 10: Neighborhood Helpers.  We will learn the new popcorn words for and me and  letters Yy and Zz.  In Writer's Workshop we will be focusing on sentences making sure they have a who and a what and expanding them to a when, where and why.  In honor of St. Patrick's day yesterday, today we graphed Lucky Charms for math.  The rest of the week we will continue with our measurement unit.  Our thematic unit will be Spring-wishing for warmer weather!! The Zoo will be here on Friday for another visit.  That is always great fun.  In Religion, we will continue to learn about the Stations of the Cross.

Keep reading and playing games with the children!  It is the most authentic age appropriate application of math and reading skills.

Hey Diddle Diddle-toontastic

Each week we take a nursery rhyme read and learn it.  Nursery rhymes are amazing learning tools.  We learn  vocabulary, rhyming, phonics skills, sight words, and so much more.  At the end of the week, we put the nursery rhyme in our poetry journal and illustrate it.  At the end of the year, there will be about 20 nursery rhymes in each poetry journal for the students to keep. 


I discovered an ipad app called Toontastic.  Yesterday, we took the nursery rhyme Hey Diddle, Diddle and created a cartoon for it.  The kids had so much fun creating it!   Here is a link to watch what we have done so far.  We had so much fun doing it, they asked if we could do every one! 

Here is a link to view it on Toontube.  Enjoy!
    <iframe src="http://toontube.launchpadtoys.com/embed/199669" style="border:0px #FFFFFF none;"
        name="ToontasticiFrame" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" marginheight="0px" marginwidth="0px" height="363px" width="396px">
      </iframe>

What's Happening This Week?

We have so many things going on this week!!  Today we met with our 7th grade buddies to read with one another. On Wednesday we will get to see the dress rehearsal for the GA producation of Beauty and Beast, Jr.  Thursday all the kindergarten teachers will be out for a math workshop.  We will also be going to mass that morning.  On Friday, we will have a pep rally for the GA Heavenly Hog Jog on Saturday morning.  I hope you all can make it on Saturday.   (The class that has the highest participation rate gets a prize.)  It is a very fun day.  I will be out there doing my race walking!  Of course in between all this, we will be doing a lot of learning as well.   


Here are some photos of the girls reading to one another.  The boys went up to the Jr. High hallway.  The kindergartners read their books from their read to self book bags and the 7th graders choose picture books to bring and read.

Literacy Stations/ Word work

Every literacy rich classroom has literacy centers for the students to complete.  Many times it is the children's favorite part of the day-except of course recess.  What are they?  literacy stations or centers as they are sometimes called,  are hands-on activities that reinforce concepts taught in the classroom.  It provides the students the opportunity to work independently, with others and problem solve.  Every month we change stations.   Different stations we take part in are write the room, phonics, big books, library, computer, phonemic awareness activities, puzzles and of course much more.  Here are some photos of the students engaged in different stations.

 

 

There is so much meaningful learning going on during this important part of the day.  

What's Happening This Week?

This week will be lots of fun as we celebrate and do an author study of Dr. Seuss.  Today we learned a little bit of information about him and made some Cat in the Hats.  We will be reading many of his books over the next several days. 

In Math this week, we will continue to discover solid shapes.  In Religion, we will start to learn about the Stations of the cross.  We will start new literacy stations today as well.  In Language Arts, we will learn the short sound of the letter Ee and begin decoding and blending short Ee words.  Keep reading together at home!  It would be a great time to go to the library and check out some Dr. Seuss books, or even better reread the ones you have at home.  I always tell the kindergarteners that good readers read the same books as many times as they want, and we always learn something new each time we read it!

Please remember to sign the report card envelope, keep the information inside at home and return the empty envelope.  Thanks so much!  Have a great week.