Earth Poems

We have been reading and learning many new facts about Earth this week. Today, the children finished a fun art project that will be displayed in the hallway. Come on in to see our Earth Poems.

Learning About Bees

Today was the last Hands On Nature lesson of the year. Thank you so much Zynnia, Allison, and Karen for volunteering for this important teaching opportunity. This final lesson was about bees. Be sure to ask your child about the types of bees and how honey is made!

Frog Jumpin' Good Time

In math today, the kids turned into frogs. They made predictions about far they could jump. We were also working on making close estimations and the idea that sometimes mathematicians change their minds about their thinking as they are collecting data.

Recent Activities

Learning about time, pedometers, and our May math calendar pattern pieces.

What's Happening in May

Your little thinkers are so busy this time of year putting together all of the learning and skills they have been taught! We have begun a new Narrative Reading and Writing unit. I have used the Rosemary Wells Max and Ruby books to explore the concept that fiction books are also called narratives and they have characters, settings, problems, and solutions. We will move to another character/author theme next week to continue to explore these narrative concepts. In science, the children are continuing to be scientists. In the coming weeks, they will be exploring with an inquiry task where they have to problem solve using balls and ramps. They will also be learning lots our Earth and Sky. The concepts will include the sun as a Earth's heat source, plant and animal needs, and the importance of taking care of our Earth. In our May Math Calendar, the children are exploring the topic of measurement using time. Yesterday the kids made our math calendar pieces and put them in the following pattern: things that happen in the morning, in the afternoon, and evening. They also learned beginning time telling concepts like what makes up a clock and how to make a clock tell time to the hour. The month of May is also a fitness month at SCS. Today and yesterday, I gave the children pedometers and we walked the track at Choice Time. They loved seeing those numbers on those pedometers get bigger! Throughout this month, we will be going outside to move as a class. It would benefit the kids if they started to wear sneakers on a daily basis as walking and class community building games outside will be a huge part of our extra fitness activities.

Kitchen Scientists

On Friday our school will be having a taste test for two types of pear compote. The children were invited to go down to the cafeteria today to help prepare the ingredients. They learned about where pears come from, that nutmeg is not a nut but a seed, and cinnamon comes from the bark of a tree. In small group centers, they each got to slice pears, peel and grate ginger and nutmeg, and grind up cardimom. Of course they taste tested these ingredients as well. Once again they used their 5 senses to explore their world. What lucky Scientists!

Studying Our Five Senses

Today my young scientists explored their five senses using popcorn. After learning the 5 Senses Song (to the tune of BINGO), we popped popcorn and the children used a grid to write about what they observed. It was a very motivating reading, writing, and science lesson.

Word Study -ing Wheels

Spring has arrived and there is no better time to begin studying the ending -ing with the kids. Today they made -ing wheels that they will be sharing with you tonight. Please encourage your reader to spin through the wheel to read all of the -ing words to you.

Thinking Like Scientists

Today our team received a surprise visit from a very special scientist called Dr. Doofenstein. He talked with the kids about what scientists do and then jump started our unit on the five senses by showing the children how he studies bubbles using the scientific method. They loved it! Their budding curiosity makes them such wonderful scientists to work with. Here are a few photos from the skit from Dr. Doofenstein.

Budding Ornithologists

Today we had Hands On Nature. The children learned about Owls. Here are a few photos from today. They enjoyed a puppet show. They dissected own pellets. In Science, our current topic is Thinking Like a Scientist. The children will be thinking about two very important essential questions throughout this unit: What makes someone a scientist? and How do Scientist think? This afternoon I plan to read the children a big book about different types of scientists. How cool that they got to be Ornithologists today...Bird Scientists.

Read Across America Day

Today the children have been having fun celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday. I am including a couple of photos from some activities that we have done so far. SCS had a special assembly in which Tom Messner, the Chief Meteorologist for NewsChannel 5, read Dr. Seuss's There's a Wocket in my Pocket.

What's Coming Up in March

When we come back from vacation, our school will be celebrating National Reading Week. We will celebrate Dr. Seuss day on Tuesday March 5th with a special assembly, Drop Everything and Read (DEAR TIME) whole school, and several guest readers will visit our room from different teaching positions around the school. I have several fun activities already planned including work with books and artwork. During the month of March we will be reading lots of books written by Dr. Seuss as some are great readers for beginning readers. The children will be working with word families within these books and making and writing lots of new words during our Fundations word study and Writer's workshops times. In math, the theme turns to Frogs and Toads. So while playing lots of new games around numbers and operation, algebra, and measurement, the children will be learning about these fun creatures. Our Bridges in Mathematics math program is so great about leaving room to incorporate science themes into the math! This makes it so much fun for the children to remain interested in their learning. This past week the children created sea creature math problems of their own and we will be working in March to solve every one of their problems as our math warm up. These problems will go home as we solve them. Be on the lookout for more sea creature art! Also, conferences are in March and progress reports will go home on Friday, March 15th. I have a scheduling conflict with the late night that I had planned for conferences on Thursday, March 21st. My sons' now have a science fair at their school that evening that they both will be participating in. So, if you signed up for conferences on 3/21st from 4:00 on, please revisit the wiki to reschedule. I am so sorry for any problems this may create. I will contact you after break as a reminder as well.

The Deep Sea Dive

Today was the culminating activity for our two month long Literacy, Math, and Science integrated curriculum unit about sea creatures. The children came together to enjoy some artwork they created about sea creatures and the layers of the ocean, to sing a couple of ocean songs, listen to some quiet ocean sounds music for a Mindfulness activity, shared their sea creature Specialist books with children from TreeHouse, and had a very special snack while watching all of the sea creature fact PowerPoints from all four Kindergarten Classrooms. Very busy little creatures! It was a lot of fun! Here are some photos from our fun today with the TreeHouse team.

Parent Teacher Conference Times

Please be sure to visit our team webpage to sign up for a conference in March. Many parents signed up at Open House. Please view the conference Wiki to be sure the time still works for you.

SCS Book Fair News

Hey there! It’s Book Fair week at SCS! Our class went to view the books that will be on sale at the SCS Book Fair today. Our classroom’s purchase time will be Thursday, February 14th at 9:00 AM. At that time, I will send the children who have brought in money to purchase books with Mrs. Maurice. If you wish to purchase books for your child, it would help me out a bunch if you could come with your child at one of the after school times listed below. If you choose to send your child to school with money, please be sure to put it in a sealed envelope with directions for us on what you wish for your child to purchase. After school purchase times: Tuesday 3-8 PM Wednesday 3-4 PM Thursday 3-8 PM Thanks for you help. Amy

Yikes! Sea Creatures in the Computer Lab!

We did something exciting and new today! We visited the Library computer lab! While there, the kids learned a new Paint program and created a sea creature habitat picture that connected to their research projects. These art pieces will be used for a PowerPoint presentation that the kids will be doing at our upcoming Open House. It will be a wonderful surprise so I hope you can make it.

Word Study Practice

I have been busy reassessing students to see the progress that they have made. This is my favorite part of the year. Their progress is tremendous. Tomorrow your child will be bringing home a list of Kindergarten sight words that s/he still needs to practice reading. For those who know all of the words, I will attach the first grade word list. Keep in mind that they do not need to be able to write these words, just read them. However, writing them does help...that is why they practice "Rainbow Writing" these words. See if you can encourage your child to practice his/her words at home.

Kindergarten Concert and Open House Reminder

Dear Parents: Just a reminder: The Kindergarten students will perform their winter program on Wednesday, February 6th. Please join us in the SCS large gymnasium at 9AM as we perform a variety of songs, and movement activities. Thank you. Sincerely, Diana Burritt Jason Lewis Jude Olson Mary Nelson (You are also invited to stay after for an Open House in our Classroom. More information will follow next week.)

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!