The 100th Day of School

INFORMATION ABOUT THE 100th DAY OF SCHOOL:

       Our one hundredth day of school is coming up on Friday, February 4th.  We have many exciting activities planned to celebrate this day, but we need some help from you!

100 Snacks: We will be making a snack mix of 100 snack items together as a class.  We need you to send in a bag of exactly 100 snack items.  Some examples include m&m’s, pretzels, pieces of cereal, raisins, gummy bears, etc.  There is a 100 chart on the back of this note if you would like to use it to help count out the items. 

100 objects: We will be filling a jar with 100 objects.  We need you to send in a bag of 100 small objects that can be glued onto construction paper.  Some ideas include pieces of string, cotton balls, pieces of cereal, stickers, toothpicks, or anything else you can think of!  Please remember that the objects need to be small (around 1 inch or less) so that they can fit into the construction paper jar!   

**Please send 100 snacks and 100 objects to school by

Tuesday, February 1^st**

      

Donations: We will also be doing some fun centers in each classroom and need several people to volunteer to donate items.  Please return the bottom of this note as soon as possible if you are interested in buying items for our class!

Thank you for your help in celebrating our 100^th Day of School!

The Kindergarten Team

Friday, January 28

On Wednesday we made a layer book about different types of weather.  We have been talking about -an words all week and making different words like and, man, fan, sand.  Our class has had lots of fun finding these words in books!  We continue to rotate through our math centers this week.  The kids are having a great time - especially at the balloon toss and the toothpick building.


We became authors of books this week as well.  We have been talking about different things that authors do and different types of stories they write.  We started stories about things we know a lot about.  They are a lot of fun and our class enjoys working on them!  Writing stories at home is a great way to practice reading and writing, and to tie in the literacy skills we have worked on all year at school. 


Today we will be learning about Chinese New Year.  We will be making a lantern for Chinese New Year as well.  We will be illustrating a predictable sentence and writing a book page for our friend, Angelynna, whose last day is today :(  We will miss having her in our class!


Next week we will be celebrating Groundhog's Day and the 100th DAY OF SCHOOL!!!  We have many, many fun activities planned.  If you are interested in donating materials for our projects, please let me know as soon as possible.  I will also be sending out information about Valentine's Day next week.

A picture of most of our class :)

We compared two stories about the mitten using a Venn Diagram.



Our last page in our Jan Brett journal.

 I hope you all have a great weekend!

January 25

We have been busy since last week!  On Thursday we used the shaving cream paintings and the pictures that Mrs. Skeels took to make ourselves into ice skaters.  They turned out great!  We reviewed color words and did some writing in the afternoon.  On Friday, Mrs. Skeels was gone.  With our guest teacher we made and illustrated a predictable sentence and made a book for our book bin drawer called "Where are my mittens?"  





Ice Skating Pictures



Monday was an early release day.  Our new sight word is an.  We talked about the vowels a, e, i, o, and u and when to use the word a or an.  In our journals, we wrote sentences with the word an in them.  We went to different literacy centers to practice our sight words, writing, and reading.

 

On Tuesday, we wrote in our journals.  Everyone did an amazing job of using their ABC chart and writing sentences on their own!  We spent a lot of time making detailed drawings to go with our sentence, too!  Our literacy groups each had one job to do and then were able to choose centers around the room while Mrs. Skeels met with guided reading groups.  In the afternoon we did some fun math centers.  We had a great time!

Our 100th day of school is coming up soon.  Watch for the note coming home about the help we need from you!





"The cat comes in the house and barn." By Adyn





"I like to go to the zoo.  It is fun to see the zoo animals."  By Kyle



"I like to smell flowers.  I like flowers too." By McKenna





Sydney, Isabel, Ali, and Kyle build a village.



Keep the balloon in the air!

Make a necklace pattern!

Make a pattern with stickers!

Build a structure with clay and toothpicks!

Wednesday, January 19

In the morning, we wrote in our journals.  We had to use the word come in one of our sentences.  We also made a little book about the story The Mitten to put into our book bin drawers.  We met with Mrs. Skeels and our reading groups for a guided reading lesson while the rest of the class visited different literacy centers to practice sight words, reading, and making sentences.  In the afternoon, we went to Life Skills and Gym.  In math, we learned about symmetry and used mirrors to try and find the lines of symmetry for letters and pictures.  We also painted shaving cream for a project we will be working on tomorrow!

Tuesday, January 18

We have been very busy since last week!  On Friday, we began discussing 3D shapes: cylinder, sphere, cone, cube.  We began by searching our classroom to find the different shapes and sorting them into groups.  Then, we tried rolling and sliding each of the shapes down a ramp.  We finished our exploration by completing a Venn Diagram, comparing how each shape moves.  We had a lot of fun doing this!

 

cones



spheres



cylinders



cubes





This is the ramp that we used to try to slide and roll the objects.

   

Our Venn Diagram

On Monday, we read another Jan Brett story called The Mitten.  We used flannel board pieces to retell the story.  Our new words this week are come and in.   We practiced making these words in our word work and then at letter stations around the room.

The Mitten flannel board pieces for a retelling of the story

Monday was also Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  We read a book about Dr. King and watched part of his famous "I have a dream" speech.  We also wrote about what our dreams are!  Below is an example.  It says, "Kyle has a dream that everyone will have enough food."

We read another book by Jan Brett called The Umbrella.  This was a fun book that reminded us a lot of her book The Mitten.  We responded to the story in our journal and wrote about the setting, characters, and a part that we enjoyed.

We did a fun new writing activity this week.  We have lots of picture cards in our room with the word spelled on the back.  Each student chose a card and then had to write a sentence using that word.  They also illustrated the sentence.  This was a creative writing activity!





"Pumpkins can turn in to jack-o-lanterns."

  
The last pictures on this post are from some centers in the classroom. 



Shane and Ali making ABCDE patterns



Students play in the house area during choice time!

 

Thursday, January 13

Today we did two fun art projects.  We traced a hat, mittens, a face, and a jacket to make a picture of a person in a snowsuit.  We also learned about symmetry and painted mittens with watercolors to make a matching pair. 

We finished chapter 4 in math today, so we will soon be starting chapter 5.  We will be learning about 3D figures like spheres, cones, cylinders, and cubes.  Two other fun math activities included a dot-to-dot using numbers 1-25, and putting a snowman story in chronological order. 

Tomorrow we will be reading a second story by Jan Brett and responding in our journals again.  This story is called Hedgie's Surprise.  We will also visit the library and computer lab.  In the computer lab, we will be taking a literacy assessment for the second time this year.  I hope everyone has a fun weekend!



All of our snow people hanging in the hallway!

 

Add caption

Mitten Symmetry





"Shane made a snowball one fine day, but it fell from his hand and rolled away!  It rolled to the store."



January 12, 2011

Monday, January 10:  Today we read nonfiction stories about polar bears and then wrote facts about them.  We began practicing the word do.  Our high school helper, Ashley, taught a math lesson where we put bears into our mittens to see how many could fit!  We also practiced graphing and writing.

Tuesday, January 11:  We made a little book for our book bin drawer with our new sight word in it.  We read the Jan Brett story, The Hat and responded in a journal.  In math, we reviewed different types of patterns and practiced writing numbers to 20.  I will be assessing number writing next week.  This is a skill you can practice at home! 

Wednesday, January 12: This morning we talked about animals that migrate, hibernate, and stay active.  Students visited several different literacy centers in order to practice sight words and initial consonant sounds.  In the afternoon, students went to Life Skills where they talked about the difference between a "tell" and a "tattle."  In gym, our class has been playing floor hockey! 

We have also been practicing letter formation since returning from winter break.  I am very impressed with how well everyone is writing!  This is something that you can continue to practice at home with your child!

   


Words for January

 

Polar Bear Facts



Making a Sentence with Sight Word Magnets

Little Book with our New Sight Word



Story Response to Jan Brett's book The Hat

    


Number writing to 20



January 7, 2011

 Today we read a book called The Jacket I Wear in the Snow.  We made a snowperson that will help us retell the story at home!  We went to different literacy centers today to practice all the sight words that we have learned this year.  We did an experiment in the afternoon that you can also try at home!  I froze a small ice cube colored with food coloring.  We put the cube into a cup of vegetable oil and observed what happened.  It was very interesting!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Ice Cube and oil experiment

Sight Word Game - I will be sending a copy home next week!

Making sentences with sight word cards

Die roll with sight words

Stamp the missing letter for each sight word

Wednesday, January 5th



Today we read books about different types of penguins.  We made a penguin journal and wrote facts about penguins in them.  In the afternoon, we rolled dice to make a snowman.  During guidance with Mrs. Fjelstad we talked about goals and learned that she will be having a baby this summer!

A book about Penguins

Penguin Fact - Interactive Writing



Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all!  I was happy to get back to school and see everyone again!  On Monday, we spent some time in an assembly talking about hallway expectations and then we revisited our classroom rules together.  We decided that the rules for our classroom will be: 1. Be Safe  2. Be Kind  3. Do our best.

On Tuesday, we made snowboys and snowgirls and wrote about the things we like to do with our snow friends.  Through the rest of the week, we will continue to read stories about snow and snowpeople, write in our January journals, review our sight words at several literacy centers, and continue to work in our math book.  In chapter four, we have been practicing numbers 6-10, graphing, and problem solving.  In science, we will be learning about polar animals. 

Thank you for returning our Winter Break Journals!  We have enjoyed reading about everyone's vacation.  If you did not get a chance to complete your journal, continue working on it and bring it in later in the week!

Below are some pictures of our Pajama Day!  The kids are posed with gifts that I bought for the classroom (bowling, books, twister, and a new puzzle!)  Their favorite is bowling!