WOW! Facts

Cute...I know! Today the kids learned that when they are reading informational texts they get to learn new cool facts. We are calling these "WOW FACTS". Ask your child to show you how we identify new interesting facts as we are reading.

What's Happening in Our Classroom

Happy 2013! I hope everyone is staying healthy and that resolutions are in full swing. Your children came back from vacation eager and ready to learn. It may not seem that way at home but I have to say that all workshops (Reading, Writing, and Math) continue to run smoothly and every one of the kids surprised me with their personal best writing pieces last week. I was so proud! I keep telling them that they are beginning to dive into First Grade work. Of course that brings instant smiles to their cute little faces. We are beginning a new unit on sea creatures that will incorporate all subject areas for the next couple of months. I have been working closely with my Kindergarten colleagues at SCS and from around the district for the past five Teacher In-Service days studying the new Common Core State Standards. As Kindergarten teachers at SCS, we had the opportunity to develop a common unit about Sea Creatures that connects science and technology with math, reading, and writing standards from the new Common Core Standards. Your children will be reading and writing about creatures of the sea. They will be learning what it means to be a specialist about a creature topic of their choice and will be writing "Specialist" books about their topics. They will be working with the Art and Music teachers to help inspire them to create and sing about this exciting topic. Our Bridges in Mathematics Program already used sea creatures as the manipulative the children used to dive into higher number recognition, addition concepts, and other fun math games. Math is where the sea creature topic came from and we were able to creatively design a unit that the children are VERY EXCITED to dive into! We have a very fun end of unit celebration scheduled for the end of February for both our Journey and TreeHouse teams. Be on the lookout for some fun activities coming home in the upcoming days!

Skulls and Teeth

Yesterday was Hands On Nature and the topic was very interesting. It began with a puppet show that had local wild animals as the characters. The children explored the differences between herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores. They observed real skulls and teeth to determine what type of animal they belonged to. With a teaching snack during the lesson and an art project where they created their own animals using the outline of a skull later in the day, the lesson was truly a wonderful learning experience for the children. Here are a few photos of the experience.

Save the Date

On February 6th, the Kindergarten students will be singing some songs and doing some dances as part of SCS's traditional Kindergarten Concert. This year, all of the Kindergarten classes are inviting parents back to our class spaces as part of an Open House. There will be a scavenger hunt to work through as your child shows you the classroom. A big part of the Open House will be for you to come and play some of the fun math games with your child that are part of our Bridges in Mathematics math program. So, please save this date and time. More information will come home this Friday as well as a note from our Math Coordinator, John Madden, detailing some new cool ways to talk about math with your child. Please be sure to let me know if you cannot make it to these events on February 6th. It will be a lot of fun!

Thai Exchange Teacher

Today our class had a visit from a teacher from Thailand. Her name is Nina and she came in to talk to the kids about what life is like for Kindergarten children in Thailand. Did you know that Thai children begin Kindergarten at age 3 and remain Kindergarten children until they are 6? They also learned about the uniforms they wear to school and saw photos of a Kindergarten day there. Nina taught the kids how to say "hello" (Sa-wad-dee Ka-girls, Sa-wad-dee Krub-boys). They also learned how to count and write numbers to ten.

Reading to Pre-Buddies

Our class has been hard at work writing books that incorporate a patterned sentence structure. They have also been learning the first three reading strategies for reading predictable books. This week the children wrote two predictable patterned sentence structure books and they shared them with the Pre-School kids right next door today.

Starfall.com

Today the children were introduced to starfall.com. This is a fun interactive website that they can work on at home as well. They each have a designated computer time during the week in which to practice computer skills. They will be exploring several more learning websites in the upcoming months.

Rainbow Writing Popcorn Words

Today the children enjoyed eating popcorn while rainbow writing their popcorn words! Yummy!

We Are Readers & Writers!

Wow! These kids are really proud of all the reading and writing they are doing. Today I introduced a recording sheet for them to use while they are reading. On this sheet they have a list of eight sight words that have been formally introduced. They were instructed to use their "Super Hero Reading Powers" to read to find these words and to record the ones they found. They loved it, especially since they were also introduced to clipboards as a new "cool tool" for learning in our classroom! Here are a few photos I snapped as the children were quietly working during Reading Workshop today:

Upcoming "Mindfulness" Seminar For Parents Hosted by the SCS PTO

On Tuesday evening, November 13, from 7:00-8:00 PM, Shelburne resident Marilyn Neagley will present a free seminar on mindfulness to all interested adult community members in the SCS Library. This presentation will be of particular interest to parents and care-givers of children at Shelburne Community School, where mindfulness training has recently been introduced and integrated into parts of the curriculum. The goal of this forum is to inform parents & care-givers of what's already going on in schools. Marilyn will introduce mindfulness to parents and show how mindfulness can look when introduced to a classroom. Then parents & care-givers can help reinforce the mindfulness exercises that the children are learning in the classroom. Marilyn is the Director of Talk About Wellness (www.talkaboutwellness.org) and co-editor of Educating from the Heart (www.marilynneagley.com). She has led three in-service trainings for SCS and has most recently presented at the Vermont School Counselors’ Conference and at the Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children. This seminar is presented by the SCS PTO as part of its mission to strengthen the partnership between the home and the school. Marilyn’s presentations are sponsored by grants from the Ferguson Foundation and from Holly Bartlett Johnson of Wind Ridge Publishing. Free babysitting will be provided by the PTO. Please contact Alice Brown, 985-4918, if you have any questions.

New Classroom Restaurant

Welcome the to Journey Team Restaurant! May we take your order?

The children have been having fun incorporating reading and writing skills into this Choice Time Center. It's very popular as you can imagine!

What's New?

A new month means new topics and learning tools within our classroom. Please be sure to ask your child about our new writing center. The children have been invited during Writing Workshop to become authors and to begin writing their own books. You will probably see and hear some book making happening at home. I showed them how to create some very small books using one sheet of paper, scissors, and a stapler (limit of two staples per book:)! We read the story Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk which is about a mouse that secretly writes books and hides them in the library stacks for children to find. This book inspired the children to write little books of their own. We have created a display shelf for them to place their books. Very cute! Next week we will be working on choosing topics to write about and stretching words out to write the sounds they hear.

Class Photos

This is just a reminder that class photos will take place on Wednesday, November 7th. Our team's photo time is 8:30. This is also picture retake day if you wish for your child to have pictures retaken. Please email me if you are wishing for your child to do this so that I can make plans. Thank you!

Volunteers Needed on Thursday, Nov. 8th

Next Thursday and Friday the Vermont Symphany Orchestra will be at SCS for a K-2 presentation of the instruments. It is called the VSO Petting Zoo. Our team needs 8 "handlers" from 10:30-11:30 on Thursday. Please email me at ahazen@cssu.org if you are interested in coming in to help for that hour. I think "help" means being at one station to help the kids handle the instruments. I would like to get 4 volunteers from our classroom. Please let me know asap.

Journey Team Important Notice for October 31st

Journey Team Special Notice For October 31st • The Journey Team will be having a Pajama Day on Wednesday. Please remember to be sure that the children are dressed for the cooler weather. (Mrs. Kendrick’s class has P.E. on this day so it may be beneficial not to send them in footed pajamas as they will get very hot running around the gym.) • We will also be walking to the Pierson Library on Wednesday (weather permitting). We plan to leave at 12:45pm to go to enjoy a story or two with the Kate Bosley, the Children’s Librarian, at the Pierson Library. We plan to return by 2:15pm. • Please note that the children should not bring costumes to school to wear on Wednesday.

Confence Sign Up

This is just a reminder to be sure to go to our team webpage to sign up on my classroom wiki for a conference. The day is November 12th and it is approaching rapidly. If those times do not work, please email me and we can figure out another day/time.

Plans for October 31st

Halloween is almost here and I thought I'd jot a quick note about what our team does for this day. We plan to invite the children to have a pajama day. Please do not send costumes to school for this day. Our classroom will be having a special healthy morning snack together that is being coordinated by our room parent. I have asked that she contact only a few parents to help supply food and other items. Please do not send in candy for this special snack. We have all of the fun and food covered!:) I am also trying to coordinate a special walking field trip to the Pierson Library for a story or two in the afternoon but am playing phone tag with the librarian trying to make this happen as part of our Me and My Community unit.

What's happening this week?

Here is a quick breakdown of the academic topics that the students are studying this week. Reading: Being a Reading Problem Solver, We study books to grow ideas, and How to Read for Deeper Understanding. Writing: We are writing problem solvers, When you think you are done you have just begun, beginning book making. Math: Numeral formation, patterning. Social Studies Theme work: Me and My Community-What does a community do for its members? How can a community meet its members basic needs?

It's Workshop Time

This week the children have begun Reading and Writing Workshops. In each, there is a 10 minute mini-lesson that targets a whole group skill. Then the children independently read from their book boxes books that are "Just Right" books. They have many books that they have made and are now choosing books from within our classroom library. While they are book box reading, I am pulling small groups of children to work on target skills that each child is needing. These groups were formed based on data that I collected during the month of September from assessments. Some groups are working on alphabet letter and sound recognition, some on phonological/phonics skills, and others are beginning guided reading groups. I love this time of year! They are all blossoming so much!

Beaver Fever!

Today the children learned about the beavers and muskrats in Hands On Nature. They watched an interesting puppet show, worked in small groups to eat like beavers, and observed some beaver/muskrat pelts and skeleton skulls. Very cool! Be sure to ask your busy beaver about what s/he learned.