March 11

This month we started with an author study on Dr. Seuss.  Our class enjoyed learning about the fantasy genre.  We did several fun activities including inventing our own animal, measuring our foot, and discussing rhyming and opposites.  In math we have been doing many story problems, practicing addition and subtraction, and reviewing concepts like symmetry, 3D shapes, measurement, and graphing.  In science, we finished our exciting unit on dinosaurs and have moved on to discuss healthy habits and the body.

This week, we began one of my favorite author studies: Mo Willems.  If you haven't read any of his pigeon, Piggy and Gerald, or Knuffle Bunny books, you should check them out! He writes very funny stories that are easy for many kindergartners to read.  During this author study, we will be comparing and contrasting fantasy with realistic fiction.  

I hope that the weather will continue to improve as we get closer to spring.  In the meantime, please be sure to send boots and snow pants while it is still chilly.  Or playground can get pretty windy and it was very cold out there today!

Another reminder is to continue to collect pledges for our reading promotion, which begins on Monday.  Let's work together to raise some money for new playground equipment!!!

Over the next couple of days, we will be reading some books about St. Patrick's Day.  We will be discussing ways to catch a tricky little leprechaun and will be designing a plan for how to do this.  If your child is interested in making a trap at home and bringing it in for sharing, you are welcome to do that!  I can't wait to see what these imaginations will come up with!

Here are some pictures from the last weeks in kindergarten:

Our finished dinosaur mural

Some facts about dinosaurs

A fun weight comparison activity: we cut pictures from magazines, compared the weights, and explained the weight differences. Benno's says, "The ball is lighter because it is little.  The board game is bigger because it looks big. Is that cool?"

We wrote biographies about friends in the classroom during our biography unit and around President's Day.

We wrote about what we would do if we were the president.

These are some of the animals we invented during the Dr. Seuss unit.

We wrote our own addition and subtraction problems and illustrated them!

We wrote our own pigeon stories! 

We began talking a bout healthy habits. We learned  about the importance of hand washing.  

We checked on our tree, Army Tank Taylor Swift. We noticed that the leaves are gone.  We made predictions about what might happen in the spring.  Some people thought the tree would grow, grow leaves, and grow berries.  We will see as the weather gets warmer!!