Applicious Week!

This week, we began our unit on apples.

In language arts, we read fiction and non-fiction books about apples.  Your child should be able to tell you the characters and setting of a fiction book (and use the terms "characters" and "setting" correctly!)  They should also be able to tell you how a fiction book differs from a non-fiction one.

We learned one of the characteristics of a non-ficiton book is labeling.  Labeling helps a reader understand more about a picture.  We labeled our apples:

During writing time, we created a list of foods we like.  I was so surprised that foods like "broccoli, asparagus, and green beans" made our list!  We then used the list to write independently about what foods we like. 

In math, we worked on the concept of counting on.  This is counting starting at a number other than one.  For example, we made a pile of 15 blocks.  Instead of starting at one and counting all the blocks again, we started at 15 and counted on as we added more blocks.
We also worked on counting to 20 by 2's.  We love playing a game where we stand in a circle and count :)

In social studies, we learned about Johnny Appleseed.  We created a web organizer with all the neat things we learned about him.  We then made our own Johnnys and wrote a fact about him.

During Science, we finished our unit on the five senses.  This week we learned about the sense of touch.  Did you know that your foot has the most nerve endings and the middle of your back has the least? 
We then explored the sense of taste by tasting lots of great apple treats.  We ranked them on the happy apple/rotten apple scale to show if we liked them or not.  I was so impressed with the kids willingness to try new foods.  Most of us really love the taste of apples! 
Here's a sample of some of the great things we tasted:

Reminders:
*Thursday, October 11 is our field trip to the Main Street Theater to see Duck for President.  It should be so much fun!  Please send a sack lunch on this day.  We will be eating at the school, but we return after our usual lunch period.
*Dads and Donuts is on Friday October 5 on the hardtop area.  It starts at 7:10.  Yum!
*Monday, October 8 is a school holiday (Columbus Day).
*Please remember to come to your scheduled Fall Conference.  I look forward to sharing your child's progress and what we will be working on this year.

A Beary Fun Week!!

We have had so much fun learning about bears!
The kids said they had a great time bringing a bear to school last Friday.  I was sad to miss it, but enjoyed looking at the drawings they did of their bear.

It was a beary busy week...

Writing:
We continued to create lists.  This week, we used our list of things that are red to write individual pattern books.  Everyone did a fantastic job!
We also worked on labeling.  We learned that you can often find labeling in non-fiction books and that labeling helps the reader understand.  The kids did a really great labeling of a panda bear:

Reading:
We read non-fiction books about bears.  We discussed the characteristics of non-fiction (close up pictures, labeling, table of contents).  We learned that a fact is something that is true. We then created a web graphic organizer and used the organizer to help us write two facts about bears:

Math:
It was a busy week in math.  We worked on our patterning using colored bears.  We also made patterned Wilchester necklaces. 
We continued to work on tally marks.  We reread one of our favorite books, Pete the Cat Rocking in My School Shoes.  In this book, Pete has a great time through various events in his school day.  We then made a tally mark graph of our favorite part of the Kindergarten day.  The results were a little surprising...our graph shows that most people like morning language arts centers and the fewest people like lunch!! 

Science:
We continued our study of the five senses.  We listened carefully and tried to identify different sounds.  We also learned that the smallest bones in the body are in your ear!
We used our sense of sight to view the results of a color mixing experiment.  We added food coloring to water. We observed and recorded the results of combining different primary colors.

Reminders:
*Fall picture day is Tuesday.  Our picture time is approximately 9:50. 
*Please return your red conference sign up form as soon as possible.  I plan on making the schedule early next week.  I will send you a confirmation of your conference time.
*If you have not done so already, please return your field trip permission slip.  I will be drawing names of the two chaperones this week. 
 

A busy week...

Wow!  The four day week went by so quickly!

During writing this week, we worked on creating lists.  Next week, we are going to use these lists to create patterned books. 

We have also been practicing reading and writing our sight words the, me, and look.  We have been singing our Color Farm song to help us learn to spell the color words.

In language arts, we discussed characters and setting.  We also worked on making text to self connections using the book Yoko.   We  had fun reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and looking at all of the capital and lower case letters.  Your child should know and correctly use the terms "capital" and "lower case" when referring to letters.

During math, we have been creating and interpreting graphs.
We created some great pictographs:

After reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, we tasted coconut and made a graph of whether we liked it or not.

With much difficulty,  I finally managed to crack open a coconut so we could take a loser look (I would not make a good contestant on Survivor!) :

This is our cute Eye Color Graph.  After we construct graphs, we interpret them. (Ex. "how many more people in the class have brown eyes than blue?"  "how many people have either blue or green eyes?")  They are doing really great at this!!

As you can see from the graphs, we have also been working on tally marks....so busy!!


We made a Venn Diagram to represent if you have a brother/sister/neither.  We had a lot of fun getting to know more about our classmates families.

In social studies, we learned that we need to follow rules to stay safe.  We really enjoyed Officer Buckle and Gloria.  The police dog in the book was so silly!

In science, we made a scientist person.  On the inside, we wrote about some of the neat things scientists study:

Reminders:
*Register to become a SBISD volunteer.  You must do this each year to volunteer in the school or go on our field trips.
*Library is on Wednesday.  Please return last weeks book by this Wednesday in order to check out a new book.
*Please do not let your child wear any watches, bracelets, or other jewelry.  These items usually become a distraction during instructional time.

Wonderful First Week!!

We are off to a fantastic start to Kindergarten!  I have been so impressed with how well all the students have learned our class routines and rules.  They are AWESOME!   I have been having such a great time getting to know each of them. The kids are all so sweet and so much fun! I am lucky to have such a great group.

Last week, we did a lot of community building and getting to know our new Kindergarten friends.  We talked about things we like to do, our favorite colors, what we did over the summer break, and many, MANY other fun things!

In language arts, we discussed characteristics of fiction and non-fiction.  We also learned what the author of a book does and what the job of an illustrator is.   We read lots of fun beginning of the year books such as The Kissing Hand, Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten, and Timothy Goes to School.

We also learned some valuable lessons from books. We read The Little Engine that Could. From this book, we learned that you need to try and have a positive attitude. We also loved reading Pete the Cat books. From Pete, we learned that if something doesn't go your way, you shouldn't get sad or upset....you should just "keep on going".   We discussed how we can apply these two valuable lessons to our Kindergarten year.  Our Pete the cats:

Our little engines.  We wrote "I can...."

In math, we reviewed sorting, patterning and counting to 40. We had fun constructing class graphs.  

In science, we read books about all of the wonderful things scientist study. We are looking forward to studying many of the fun science topics this year!

 Notes:
*Our library time is Wednesday from 12:30-1:00. The kids will be allowed to check out one book from the picture book section of the library. In order to check out a new book, you must return your library book by each Wednesday. There will be a container in the classroom, so you may return your library book as soon as you are finished with it.
*Lunch time has been running so smoothly. If your child wishes to buy their lunch, they do not need to have their six digit number memorized. I have cards with their number on it, and a teacher will help them type it into the keypad.
*The best way to send me a note is pinned to your child's shirt or stapled/taped to the front of their green folder. 
*Remember to check the Tuesday folder on line:
http://wce.springbranchisd.com/