Fire Prevention

For the past two weeks we have been learning all about fire prevention. – how to stop drop and roll, staying low to the ground, what to do if we are ever in a fire, and how to prevent fires. We also practiced a fire drill at school once and we will do it once more this week.

 Today we got a special surprise and we had the firefighters come to give us a presentation. They showed us what they wear, how they stay protected and what they do to make sure we are always safe!

Then we went outside and learned about tools and gadgets that make fire trucks unique. We even got to tour the fire truck! We took home some fun fire hats to remind us of all the things we heard, saw, and learned today.

Fire Safety - create a slideshow with music

Challenge: Create a fire safety plan with your family and talk about ways to prevent fires in your home.

Fun in the Fall

In health we have been talking about sharing, caring, feelings and friends. Since we don’t have many fun fall days left, I decided to embrace the weather and take our lesson outside. We talked about how sometimes doing things on your own is difficult – moving things, cleaning up, playing sports, playing games, and even going to Kindergarten. We decided that sometimes, rather than working alone, it is better to work as a team, because as a team, we are stronger.

So for the activity today we had 1 minute to create a leaf pile that went up to our hips. I first let them go at it for one minute alone, creating their own piles. 

Needless to say our piles weren’t very high and it was a difficult feat! Next we had one minute to work as a team to create one large pile.

Our goal was to make it up to our hips again. After one minute we stood around it and the pile was above ALL of the student’s hips! 

We were excited and decided to celebrate. 

 This showed us that working together as a team can be much more rewarding that just working by yourself. 

 Here’s to teamwork and having fun in the fall!

Challenge:

Earlier this year we read a story called “Bundle of Sticks.” Ask your child if they can explain how teamwork is similar to the story “Bundle of Sticks” and what teamwork at home and at school means to them!

Alive, Awake, Alert, Enthusiastic!

This is one family that is waking up right! In our classroom we do a morning meeting everyday, which consists of a greeting, a sharing time, an activity and a morning message. One of our favorite activities to start our day with is "I'm alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic!" We start out slow to warm our bodies up, and then speed up to challenge our brain! We love our morning meetings and I am happy to see that they aren't just taking place in the classroom!

Challenge: This week have your child come up with a greeting (Hello Neighbor song, bow, handshakes, butterfly, etc.), something they would like to share (favorite breakfast, favorite book, favorite vacation, etc.) and a fun activity that we do in the classroom (Oliver Twist, Zoom, Tricky Teens, Letterise, etc). This is a wonderful way to communicate and have fun with your child before the day even begins! Are you feeling alive, awake, alert, and enthusiastic?!

Lights, Camera, Read!

Meet our First 400 Club members! We had 16 students read 400 minutes or more this month! Each month, pictures of the the 400 Club winners will be posted outside of my classroom so the staff, students, and parents can see all the fantastic reading that we have going on in our classroom! Keep up the great work at home! Here is a picture of all the September members and their "Hollywood" pictures!

Numbers Galore

We have been working on learning our numbers in Kindergarten. We start small - numbers 0-9 to reinforce that ALL numbers are created by using these numbers. We have learned rhymes for these numbers, made number books with these numbers and written these numbers. Below are some pictures of us learning these numbers! Next week we begin learning our Tricky Teens! Stay updated for another classroom rap!

 Numbers using Wiki Sticks (Bendables)

 Writing Numbers with Corresponding Dots

 Sandpaper Numbers (scratch and write number words)

 Writing Numbers with paint and salt

 Making numbers using Wiki Sticks

 Making Numbers with Clay

Mm is for Magic!

This week we learned the letter Mm. And, if you didn’t hear already, we had a pretty marvelous week! So to celebrate our magnificent behavior, we decided that we would have a Magic party on Friday! Lucky for us, we had a magican in our very own classroom! So we picked a Mr. Magician, Sam and a Miss Magician, Grace! They both had their sticks on the blue Emergent Layer and they were both willing to dress up and play the part!

So today we had two small magic shows and got to play a Magical Words game! For the game, Miss Magician got to pull words out of a bag. If the words were Mm words all the students rubbed their bellies and said “Mmmm Mmmm Good!” And gave a thumbs up. Then we wrote the Mm word under Magic Mm Words column. Then if Miss Magician drew a Word without an Mm, they wrote it in the other column. 

They all participated really well and their writing was amazing! We have already been working hard on improving our handwriting and writing the sounds we hear….and  I think it shows! 

 In between the game Mr. Magician kept us entertained with impressive magic tricks! He changed dimes into nickels, correctly guessed what picture Miss Magician put in the box, got a stuck sword to easily let loose and popped a ball through two cups! It was a pretty impressive show!

Magic Show - slideshow dvd

At-Home Challenge: Go on a house hunt for Mm words and have your child write down the sounds they hear in each word. They can bring in their list for a sticker!

Up, Down, Under, Around

In math we need to learn direction words – up, down, left, right, over, under, through, and around. So we used the gym to have them not only get a visual of the words, but to actually experience them. They had such a good time and were so good at saying what they were doing, as they were doing this! Thanks to Ms. Johnson and Ms. Schultz for setting this up and helping them navigate through this so effectively! Your help was MUCH appreciated! Enjoy the fun photos!

All About Apples!

Well we just finished our Science Apple Week! We read a story about apples everyday (Johnny Appleseed, Ten Apples Up on Top, Apples, and The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree). The students love learning about how apples are created, the different types of apples, and the uses for apples! Throughout the week they had the opportunity to taste apples in a variety of different ways. We made apple smiles and apple sundaes and we tried warm cinnamon apples, apple juice, and apple jacks. We even tasted a yellow, green and red apple and each student voted on their favorite one. During math we ended up graphing it and red apples had the most (9), then yellow (5), and lastly was the green apples (4). During work stations we also created some fun apple projects that will be up during our Fall Open House! We hope you will be there to check it out! For now, enjoy our pictures from our week! P.S. You can click on the pictures to enlarge them!