Body Shapes

This week in math we have been focusing on the different attributes of shapes - the size, colors, thickness, and names of each shapes. They love watching how the shapes can rotate, grow, and/or change on our Smart Board. We also sorted shapes by different attributes as a group. 
Then, we decided to take over our classroom to see if we move the tables around in our rooms so we could work as teams to create shapes with our bodies! The students did a wonderful job and really showed they understood the basic qualities of each shape. Only the leader could talk to guide the students to they had to use first time listening ears and work as a team to create the shape. Then they had to hold that shape until they were checked off! 

Look at how we did! 
Click on the Pictures to Have them Enlarged!

Winter Wonderland

November News

Check Out all our Cute Classroom Projects in November!

 Turkey Bags
Thanksgiving Number Stories
We are thankful for eachother! 

 Handpainted Turkeys
Fill in the Blank Poems

 Ss is for Scarecrows & 
Rainbow Writing Names on Turkey Feathers

Symmetrical Turkeys

Ecology Bus

Every year we are lucky enough to have the ecology bus come to our school to help us learn more about the animals that we have been learning in our reading and science units! They discuss different animal habitats, families, and what different animals need to survive. The students are always amazed at what they bring in and what they have to share! 
Here are a few snapshots from our day!

Book Character Day!

Every month we celebrate those students who have read or been read to for at least 400 minutes or more at home. As a school we have a 400 Club Celebration. This month, we had Book Character Day! It was so much fun seeing the students excited about their favorite book characters! Here are a few snapshots of the day! 

What to know what's up next? Here's a list of our 400 club days! 

December 5th:  Pajama Day

January 9th:  Grade Colors (more to come)

February 6th: Neon Day

March 6th:  Sports wear

April 3rd:   Hat Day

May 1st:  Wacky Hair 

May 29th:  Twin/Triplet/Quadruplet Day

Macaroni Necklaces

 We have been working on patterns a lot in kindergarten. We work on recognizing patterns, extending patterns, and creating our own. Today we got to make noodle necklaces! We used ABABAB patterns or ABCABC patterns. They turned out great and the students loved making them! Check out our hard work! 

Birthday Graphs

This week in Math we learned about how to read simple graphs - both vertical and horizontal. So as a class we created a vertical and horizontal graph using our birthdays and our age. Then we wrote down our results. Then as a class we asked questions about our graph. 

• Is there more 5 year old or more 6 year olds?
• How many more 5 year olds are there than 6 year olds?
• How many birthdays are in November & December combined? 
• Which month had the least amount of birthdays?

They did amazing answering all the questions and even creating their own questions! Check out our results and I hope you had a chance to look at your child's graph that they brought home. 

Apples, Apples, Apples

We just completed Apple Week! It was such an awesome week filled with lots of yummy taste testing, apple snacks, creative projects, and apple writing! Take a look at all our work!

We made this fun apple project! We used our hands as scissors for the apple bites! And they each cut out their own apple design and apple color! The poem reads: ________ likes apples. Munch, Munch, Munch! _______likes apple. Crunch, Crunch, Crunch!

This was a great writing project! The kids had to retrace or some even rewrote the words to our poem "10 Red Apples!" Then they traced their own hands and dipped their finger in red paint to create 10 red apples! At the end they decorated their apples with stems and leaves!

We also did some free writing about apples this week! They used the sentence starter: Apples are ______. Some students came up with over 5 sentences. And they all wrote the sounds they heard in each word! This is something we are really working on right now and they will continue to get better at, as they learn more sounds this year! Amazing work!

Here were some example sentences: 

Apples are big. 

Apples are smol. (small)

Apples are joose. (juicy)

Apples are red. 

Apples are oosum. (awesome)

Apple are on chrebs. (trees)

Animal Families

This week their writing project was to create an Animal ABC Book. They were all given an animal family and then had to illustrate that animal as an adult and as a baby. Look at just a few of our results! We've been working very hard on adding details to our drawings! 

Fire Safety

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.

All about Numbers

There is so much that kindergartners are expected to know and do at such a young age, but when it comes down to it, they are still kids. They need to move, they need to be silly, and they need to have fun. So rather than just teaching the curriculum from a book. I am always trying to incorporate hands on and interactive ways for them to learn.  Our biggest focus lately has been learning and recognizing those tricky teens! P.S. They are tricky because kids want to say, oneteen, twoteen, threeteen, etc.).

Here are some ways that we have been learning: 

Work on Writing: 

We have written the numbers in paint, in sand, and in clay. The helps us see the number and create the numbers in various ways. 

Memory Match:

For this game the students first have to put the numbers 11-20 in order. Then they have match up the corresponding dots with each number. After they are done with both parts, they can find a partner who has been checked off and flip a set of cards over to play memory match (finding a number and dots that match).

Teen Number Sparkle:

We have played sparkle using tricky teens (this would be good to play with your family for spelling words, counting, or skip counting). With teen number sparkle, we start in a circle, one student starts at 10 and we go around the circle until 19, then the next student says sparkle, and the student after that is out. We continue going around until we have one friend standing to be the Terrific Teen Number Winner!

Teen Tangle:

We also play a game called Teen Tangle. It is much like Twister, but with teen numbers. The kids love getting all tangled up with this game and recognizing their numbers while doing it!

Singing and Dancing:

For tricky teens we have a rap about how numbers in the teens they start with a one! We put actions to it to get their bodies moving and grooving and recognizing those tricky teens!

All About Emotions!

We have been reading books about emotions this week. One area that we've been focusing on is how to cope with our different emotions. We made charts of feelings that we have and then what to do about those feelings. Here were some of our examples: 

Happy: 

- share with others

- smile

- laugh

- give hug or high fives

- color

- sing

Sad/Lonely: 

- ask for a hug

- find a person with a listening ear

- take a break 

- buddy up with a stuffed animal

- ask a friend to play

Frustrated/Angry: 

- count down

- write/color

- take a break (away from the situation)

- talk about your feelings

Then Brynn decided we should make masks with different emotions on them! After we made them, I would give a story example and the students would have to say if that particular situation would make them feel happy or sad! It was such a fun activity and hopefully it got them to understand how to different situations may effect them. 

This is a great conversation to continue at home as well! Come up with strategies, safe places and activities to do in your home, with your family for all different emotions! 

Math: Partner Match

Today in math we played a game called Partner Match. The objective was so students would understand the concept of things that are shorter vs. longer and bigger vs. smaller. Each student randomly received a blue strip and when I said go, they had to find the other student with the matching strip. The difficult part for them was that they had to line the strips up from bottom to top. Some partners measured theirs in the air, while others laid them on the ground to compare. 

After finding their partner, they were to sit facing each other. Once everyone found their partner for that round, they had to answer a quiz question (Tell your partner how many siblings they had, if any. Talk about your favorite place. Share your favorite color).

To practice at home you can walk around and find 2 objects that are the same length. Then find something shorter and something longer. Make sure that they are lining up the items from bottom to top. This helps when we get to our measuring units! 

1st Day of Kindergarten!

Our First Day of School! 

Well the day has finally arrived and already passed - can you believe it?! We started our day talking about how to be Respectful, Responsible, and Safe Robots. But most importantly we discussed how to Try Our Best each and every day! Then we read the story "The Night Before Kindergarten" and shared drawings with the class.

Next we went on tour of Hoover Elementary! There are so many new rooms and places to see! During the tour we discovered that we have an office, a library, a computer room, a music room, an art room, a gym, a cafeteria and A LOT of teachers and classrooms! As one Robot said, "It is a really big house. But I like our room the best!"

We also read "The Kissing Hand" and painted our own hands on puzzles and placed hearts in the middle. This symbolizes how a parent can kiss a child's hand and their love will stay with them throughout the day, no matter where they are.

We had a very busy, yet fun-filled day! We cannot wait until tomorrow! 

Day Two...Bring it On!

Welcome to the Robot Room!

Welcome to our Classroom! Please watch the Classroom Tour below to see how our classroom is set up, as well as daily expectations for your child! Enjoy!

I'm Having a Bad Bad Day

Every morning we have a Morning Meeting in which we greet each other, share something about ourselves, read a morning message and do an activity. One of our favorite activities is doing just dance on the Smart Board. We do A LOT of dancing in my room, but the just dance videos have a lot of fun songs that the students really get into! Here is a glimpse of us having a "Bad Bad Day," from Despicable Me! 

Spring has Sprung!

Although we haven't had continuous Spring Weather, we have enjoyed the little bit of sunshine that we've gotten! Spring has finally sprung! 

3D Shapes - BUILD Video

 For BUILD this week you can click here to watch the video on the 100 Number Grid!

Materials: 

100 grid worksheet

Crayon Cup 

Pencil

Play a game on the internet to practice placing numbers on your 100-grid!

Group 1: Click Here

Group 2: Click Here

Group 3: Click Here

Group 4: Click Here

Group 5: Click Here

Leprechaun Note #3

When we got back from art today we found out the writing center was missing its green tray, we were missing our green morning bins, our green seat baskets and our green scissor bin! 

Where the "GREEN TRIANGLE" sign usually hung, this is what we found: 

Dear Class,
Thank you so much for helping me find my hat! To thank you for helping me out, I left a treat in your classroom!

Your Friend,
Lucky Leprechaun

We sat down at our tables and saw that he had left us a delicious green snack! When we opened them we discovered chocolate inside! We felt very lucky and decided our kindness definitely paid off. Now if he would only bring back all our green items....

Leprechaun Note #2

Today brought many surprises! When we got back from gym class today, we discovered little shamrocks sprinkled all over the floor. At first we didn't think much about them, but then we found out the the green table was missing their "GREEN" table sign and their green tray of water! Where the "GREEN" sign usually hung, this is what we found:

Dear Robots,

I popped in to visit, but you were not here! I have a problem that I hope you can solve. While I was dancing around your room, I seemed to of lost my hat! I was really hoping that you could look around and find it for me. If you can find it, I will come back to get it! Oh, I also borrowed a few green items from your classroom. I hope you don’t mind!

Your Friend,

Lucky Leprechaun

So...it is a leprechaun after all! And not only did he leave his hat behind, he left the trail of shamrocks behind! We followed the trail as a class and we did a little bit of hunting and we found the hat! It was hidden in the front of the room. Therefore, we had a class meeting to discuss if we should give the hat back. As a class we decided that we should give it back, because it is the kind thing to do, and we feel like he must be friendly as well because the note said he was just dancing in our room and it also stating that he didn't "steal" the items, he is just "borrowing" them. So he must be a friendly leprechaun!

So we are going to set it out in the morning with a note. Hopefully this act of kindness pays off!

Mystery Note....

Today, we found a note on SMART Board and we are trying to figure out who it could possibly be from. This is what it said:

Dear Rangers, 

I LOVE green, 

And soon NONE will be seen!
Your Friend, 

?

We discovered that we are some of our green scissors, a green pillow, and two our green "I Can Read" sign. Now, some of us think that it may be a teacher borrowing these items, some think that it is Mr. Green, and some even think it may be an ACTUAL Leprechaun visiting our classroom!!We will keep you updated as our week progresses!

Dr. Seuss

It was Dr. Seuss' Birthday on Sunday. So this month we will be working on earning a invitation to his birthday party! His party will be on Friday, March 21st. We each have a punch card and every time we are spotted giving our best, we will earn another check mark! 

Today we read the book "The Cat in the Hat." On the last page the story asks, "What would you do, if your mother asked you?"Here is their comments on if they would tell their mother's if the cat in the hat came and made a mess, or if they would fib and not tell you! Read their creative comments! 

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Coin Counting for BUILD

We are learning about coins this week. Please watch the video and use your white board to complete the questions!

If time permits, play the coin counting game by clicking here.

Olympic Readers

February was I Love to Read Month! 

To encourage the love of reading we had an Olympic Theme for the month!  We put together an Olympic Reader bulletin board with podiums. Each podium was worth 200 minutes of reading, with a 1,000 minutes at the top! Each student brought in attached reading logs to keep track of minutes read or minutes spent on word work, letter work, etc. Here was our progress throughout this month! 

After adding up all our minutes we read a total of 11,734 minutes this month! 

Week Two

Week 3

Week 4 

They all received a gold medal for their amazing work with reading!
Way to Go Champions!! 

100th Day of School

Even though we had to break our 100th day into 2 separate days, we had a lot of fun with all the different activities. 

We started the day with everyone sharing their creative shirts covered with 100 objects! It was so fun to see the creativity and time that went into their shirts!  Then created our 100 item necklaces created with Fruit Loops – clearly it was a wonderful accessory to their shirts! They had to organize their necklaces in 10 groups of 10 to create 100 items. 

Then to warm up our bodies we did 100 exercises. Once again we broke them up into 10 groups of 10. So we did lunges, jumps, push-ups, jumping jacks and more until we got all the way to 100! 

Next we added on the accessories by creating 100 Day Crowns. They not only had to cut and color the crown they also had to mark it with 100 tally marks – a new skill we’re working really hard on!

For reading stations we also had to show what we’d look like in 100 years! Students had to describe some characteristics of older people to complete this challenge. I heard: crinkly, soft, wrinkly, no teeth, white hair, gray hair, and even no hair! Then they had to take a paper towel, crinkle it up and open it – creating a wrinkly face. That was their starting point. From there the had to draw details of what they would wear, what their hair would look like, and who would be around them. 

Unfortunately, that was our first half of the 100th day! But we finished our celebration when we came back this week! We did some math related activities to celebrate reaching the 100^th day of school. 

First, they had to create a 100-item snack.  Yes, 100 items!  The students moved around the tables in groups to create their snack.   Students brought in a variety of objects so it was fun to see them all laid out. Lastly we read a book called the 100th Day of School! It was fun comparing and contrasting all the things that we did that was the same/different as the characters in the story! 

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Tell your child to kiss their brain, because they successful passed the 100^th day of school!

Check out our pictures below! 

Check Out Our Future Leaders!

We have been talking about leaders, our country, and our flag. We have discussed the responsibilities, hard work, and dedication that it takes to be a true leader. On this President’s Day, for our work on writing, we had to write what we would do if we ever became president of the United States. Here our their creative replies! 

Hope this Smilebox brightens your day and reminds you what a bright future we have! 

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SomeBunny Loves You!

Check out our lovely cards that we made for Valentine's Day! We hope you all LOVED them :) 

400 Club Dress Up Days

Here are the Dress Up Days for the Remainder of School Year for 400 Club Celebrations: 

March 7th: 
Team/Hobby Day (wear clothing that “advertises” your interest or hobby
[Science Fair, Math Masters, baking, Twins, Vikings, local sports team, etc.]

April 4th: 
School colors-Hoover wear

May 2nd: 
Dress up like a Twin or Triplet (find a friend or two and coordinate matching outfits)

May 30th: 
Beachwear Day