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!

Can't Catch Me!

I'm the gingerbread man!

This morning we read a story about the Gingerbread man and how he continues to run from different animals saying, "Run, Run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!"
After we finished the story we took our bathroom break and Marissa found a gingerbread boy popping out from one of our bathroom signs! But we couldn't catch him that easy, when we looked closely at him we found a clue saying:

Run, Run
As fast as you can, 

You can't catch me,
I'm the Gingerbread Man

Look for me where there are lots of books!



So we decided to go back to our room to look in our reading center. Unfortunately, we didn't see any other clues. Mackenzie decided that we should check the library since that also has a lot of books. We all agreed and grabbed our Ranger hats and worked our way down to the library. We discussed how we cannot talk or he might hear us. So, if we were to see the gingerbread man, not to yell out, but rather to stop, look and point so we can sneak up on him. Shortly after arriving at the library we found another clue. This time he said:
I've read lots of books,
But I'm gone, can't you see?
I'm a gingerbread man
And you can't catch me!
Look for me by the friendly face who answers the phone in a busy place.
After some discussion we headed to the Hoover office. There we found:

The secretaries have a friendly face,
And answer the phones in a busy place.
Next, find me by the leader of our school.

We tried to think of who the leader of our school was. One student even shouted out, "It's Mr. Green!" (our school custodian). Although that was a good guess, we decided we should venture off to Mr. Kamphoff's office instead!  This is what we read:

This is the Principal's office.
He is nice, you know.
But he told me not to run,
But to walk, wherever I go. Now go find me where we eat together.

Right away we knew we were headed to our lunchroom. As soon as we approached the door we saw this: 

This is the lunchroom. 

These friends like us a bunch,

And always make sure we have a good lunch.

I'm getting a bit tired as you can see,

Room 220 is where I'll be! 



We couldn't wait to get back to our classroom. One friend made sure to remind us that there was absolutely no talking, and that we should tip-toe just in case he was still walking in the hall to our classroom. When we made it to our room, we searched high, we searched low, but we didn't find him. The whole day we worked so hard to stay quiet and do our job. We thought if we were quiet enough, that he might pop out, or give us another clue.
Toward the end of the day, we realized that we still needed to have snack. So I opened the cupboards to grab our goodies and we finally discovered our last clue! We figured he was probably hiding in there the whole time watching us all day! This is what he said:

I've run and run and I need some rest.
I think this room is the best!

I've left some cookies, for you to enjoy! 

Don't eat gingerbread, Eat Chips Ahoy! 



And we did! Each one of us got to enjoy a small chocolate cookie. We had earned it after our long day of reading about the gingerbread man, hunting for the gingerbread man, graphing if we were a gingerbread boy or gingerbread girl, and most importantly rapping about the gingerbread man! It was too cute not to capture on camera! Hope you enjoy our Rapping Rangers! They can definitely bust a move :)



Our Field Trip to....Hoover!

For the past week we have been learning about bus safety. Today we finished off our unit by getting to  go on a bus to practice the rules that we learned. But, no matter how many times I explained that we weren't actually going anywhere on when we got on the bus, I still had many disappointed/confused friends after we did this drill. I heard:
"Mrs. Rehder, why isn't the bus moving?"
"Can we go to my house?"
"This isn't my bus Mrs. Rehder."
So I explained again that we were just practicing for a future field trip and overall they did an awesome job showing that they are ready to do that! They were sitting on the bus, using quiet voices, exiting out the front, and even jumping out the back safely! Sorry there is no class picture by the bus, but started sprinkling again when we were out there, so we decided to forgo the picture and just get inside!  Hope you enjoy the pictures we could get!
At Home Activity:
1. Try having your child tell you at least 3 important rules to follow when riding the bus.
2. Have them explain to you what the danger zone is.
3. Compare and Contrast: How are rules for the bus similar to rules when riding the car? How are they different?

 Steering Clear of the Danger Zone!

 First Time on the Bus!

Exiting out the Front

Coloring in our danger zone

 All Smiles on the Bus!

 Our Bus Snacks!

Getting ready to eat our buses!