Writers celebrate

Writers picked one "how to" book and shared it with their peers today.  Students were proud of their work and gave specific compliments on their peer's writing.  It was an awesome opportunity to listen, reflect, give feedback and learn something new!  These kids did an amazing job speaking/presenting their work, listening to their peers and giving feedback.  What a beautifully orchestrated event by 5 and 6 year olds.

Writers prepare

Writers practiced reading their steps in their "How to" books in preparation for the class writing celebration today.  Students revised their pictures, steps, words, spelling, and thinking over the past two days to make sure they had the necessary steps for another person to learn how to do whatever it is that we are teaching them.  Enjoy!  Writing was sent home in backpacks today for you to enjoy too!  

Mystery Reader #7

Mystery Reader #7 shared a family favorite called A Mother for Choco.  The students loved the book and the idea that a mother is a mother no matter what she looks like or does not look like but rather how she treat you.  

The big day...

Today was a much anticipated day in kindergarten.  Q and U officially got married.  Q told U that he could not be without her and they decided to make it official.  Ella was the star student and she chose to be U and she picked a stick from our jar for a partner at random, Miles was the lucky Q.  We played the wedding march, threw scraps of paper and celebrated the fact that whenever we write Q in a word, he will always have his partner U.  It was a day to remember.

Mystery Reader #6

Mrs. Sorenson was Mystery Reader # 6.  She introduced our class to a fun interactive book called Press Here.  We LOVED pretending to press the buttons and watching the magic happen in the book when the buttons were pressed.  We made predictions, checked patterns and followed directions. Wheeeeeew, Mrs. Sorenson you worked us hard and we loved it!  Thank you for being Mystery reader #6.

Mystery Reader # 5

Mystery Reader # 5 was Mrs. Shuff.  She brought a family favorite from home, Where is my T.R.U.C.K?  The class learned about how this book uses periods to tell the reader that the word truck is spelled out like T - R - U - C - K, when they read.  Thank you for taking us on this fun adventure Mrs. Shuff.

Mystery Reader # 4

Mrs. Stockfisch started our day with a Todd Parr book called The Feel Good Book. The students were able to connect to the other Todd Parr books we have read this year and were excited for a book from a familiar author.  Students made connections about things that make them feel good.

• Helping my mom with the dishes
• Reading books
• Laughing 

Thank you Mrs. Stockfisch for being Mystery Reader #4 

Making Connections

Our classroom met Spinny the Spider yesterday.  Spinny the Spider makes connections to everything that he touches, readers in our classroom are learning how to make connections to the books that we read.  Cam, a fourth grade friend, was in the classroom when our class met Spinny and read the book Leo the Lightning Bug.  Leo wants more than anything to be able to light up, he tries everything but it does not seem to be Leo's time.  Once Leo decides to be okay with not being able to light up and not worry about what what others think about him, he decides to practice and he has success.  Cam shared a story about getting devil sticks for Christmas and how he wanted to be successful and keep the devil stick off the ground.  He shared how he practiced a lot and even watched videos of experts using devil sticks.  After a lot of practice, patience and looking at what other people have done to be successful, Cam is able to keep the devil stick off the ground and he even knows a few tricks.  Today Cam brought his devil sticks into school to show the students the skills he has developed from practice and patience.  The students loved watching Cam, listening to his story and many of them were able to connect to the story after listening to Cam.  

Mentor Texts

In writing we have been writing "How to" books and practicing giving directions step by step.  Our writing includes numbered steps, pictures that support the directions, words that tell precise directions on how to complete each step, labels that help the reader understand the pictures and diagrams that clarify a step.  

Today we explored mentor texts to help us get new ideas on what we could add to our how to books to make them even easier for a reader to read and learn how to do what ever it is that we are teaching them.  

Students noticed:

• All of these books have steps with parts of things, then they add just a little bit so the reader can do what they are learning.
• Some of these books have numbers. for steps.
• Some steps have more than one picture.
• Their covers have words to tell you what you are learning how to do.
• The covers have pictures to show you what they are learning how to do.
• The covers have an author's name.

After we explored these books we went back into our own writing and looked for an opportunity to add one of these things to help our reader be more successful in learning whatever it is that we are teaching them.  Many students added covers with a title and a picture to match.  

Mystery Reader #3

Mystery Reader # 3, Mrs. Shedlock read a family favorite with a twist.  Hooper Humperdinck...? Not Him! where she added each of the students names to this fun book.  Everyone loved hearing their name in the book and giggled at the story.  Thank you Mrs. Shedlock for sharing a family favorite and for helping make the day of each of the readers by including them in the story.  

Mystery Reader # 2

Mystery Reader # 2 was Mrs. Gatzke.  She read How to Catch a Star.  This book is a favorite in their house.  The students loved the story and shared their favorite part of the story with their rug partners and why it was their favorite part.   

Mystery Reader # 1

Friday we kicked off our Mystery Reader visits.  Mr. Houghton started our day with a favorite from their home, Stuck.  The students loved listening to the clues about the mystery reader and guessing who it could be.  If you want to visit our classroom this month and read a favorite book please fill out this form and I will email back confirmation of your date and time.  We will work around your schedules.  Grandparents, aunts, uncles are welcome! 

Crazy Hat Day

Friday was crazy hat day and we each made a hat to wear to celebrate Dr. Seuss.  We were thing 1 - 19.  Students loved reading each other's numbers and finding someone one more than their number and one less than their number.  Crazy hat day was a crazy math day in our classroom too! 

Drop Everything and Read

March is reading month and it is packed full of surprises.  Last Wednesday the students had their first Drop Everything And Read opportunity.  They loved this and have been asking each day to do it again.  Set a random timer at home and have everyone in the house stop what they are doing and join in the fun.  They will love it especially if they see that you stop cooking dinner to make time to read for 10 minutes.  You can read to them or everyone can read their own books.  Have fun with idea and enjoy their love for reading!

Mathematicians and Scientists look at data

Students were mathematicians and scientists this week as they explored our weather data. The students looked at the data from February and were asked to make a true statement about what they saw.  Being able to look at data and interpret it is a life long skill that students are working on developing now in the most basic form.  Here are a few of the statements students made by looking at the weather graph below.  

Each of the statements that students made was followed up by their evidence to support their thinking.  (What makes you say that?)

• There were more cloudy days this month than any other kind of day.
• Windy and snowy had the same amount of days.
• There were less snowy days than sunny days.
• There were no rainy days.
• There were more snowy days and more windy days than rainy days.
• There were more sunny days than windy and snowy.
• There were 17 data points on this graph (my follow up, tell me what that means) 17 days we collected weather data.

Patterns with shapes

Students practiced shape names by making patterns.  They made several different types of patterns AB, AABB, ABB, ABC, etc.  They played a game with partners where they predicted what would come next in their patterns too.