Monday, December 21, 2015

Crafting

THANK YOU to all of the amazing volunteers who made this day possible.  The students had a blast and loved being creative while creating gifts for their families.  
Sugar Cookie Fun
Grandmas make the best helpers!

Sneaking in reading minutes even during the party, creating a culture of reading.
Mrs. Houghton also snuck in some reading time during our party.


Students loved making predictions and talking to their peers and grandmas
about their thinking.





Getting creative


Making reindeer food



Beaming with pride from all of their hard work.




Mrs. Walter even got to get her craft on...

Goodwill Inn

The 4 Kindergarten classes collected boxes and boxes of necessities for many people in the area that have needs beyond our own comprehension.  This project has prompted many conversations about needs vs. wants of our own.  What a great opportunity at the Holiday Season to think of others and be grateful for all that we have.  Merry Christmas!


Book Shopping for Just Right Books

Book shopping weekly is the favorite activity in the classroom.  We are learning to find books that are not too easy and not too hard.  We call these Just right books.  If we stumble more than 5 times, it is not a good fit book yet!  




Friday, December 11, 2015

Snowballs

We created our own snow today during Morning Meeting.  Students wrote their name on a piece of paper, made it into a snow ball and threw it into the room.  Their task was to find a snowball, open it and find that person in the room to share with about their family.  They did this 2-3 times.  It was great reading activity and sharing opportunity with their peers.  Morning Meeting changes everyday and the students look forward to the fun and engaging activity within it!






Thursday, December 10, 2015

Math Workshop

Students practice composing numbers and are beginning to record their equations.

Roll and Record numerals or dice patterns

Students use math apps to practice their new skills of composing and decomposing numbers.

Roll and Record fun

Hands on fun, students roll and cover an equal amount with their chip.  
Math Workshop has begun!  
Each day, students have a whole group lesson and then are allowed to practice their skills in two of the following assigned centers for the day.  
 
M- Meet with the teacher
A- All by Myself
T- Technology
H- Hands On

We are working on building stamina and being independent in our work time.  Students are moving into the driver's seat of taking ownership of their learning.  Watch out, we are going to move mountains!

Spider web

We experimented with a new way to share at morning meeting, we made a spider web.  Each student shared their favorite dessert and passed the yarn to a friend.  At the end, we had a beautiful spider web.  Be sure to ask your child about our messy spider web. 


Christmas came early



Christmas came early to room 45.  Our Donors Choose items have started to arrive.  Stay tuned for more pictures of the students exploring the materials!  

Monday, December 7, 2015

Warm December days

Fifty degree December days make for serious fun at recess.  I loved watching these friends play, laugh and enjoy the sunshine and warm weather.  




Morning meeting

Morning Meeting has been blossoming into a fun part of our day that students look forward to each morning.  Here students' share activity was to walk like a zombie and pinky shake a friend and tell them their favorite part of their Thanksgiving weekend.  



Our star student now leads morning message.  We use our pointer power and make sure each words gets just want tap regardless of the number of the syllables it contains.  After the message is read whole group, the star of the day uses a word finder and locates known and unknown words and shares their strategies for identifying those words.