Happy Birthday, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.!

Today was such a fun day in K-1! We learned all about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in honor of having the day off from school this coming Monday due to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We watched a Brainpop Jr. movie and I read them a book to learn all about him and why we have a "special' holiday in honor of him and all his hard work. To go along with all we learned, we made a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. TLC project. I am SO proud of what AMAZING listeners all my kindergarten friends were and their projects turned out absolutely amazing! Here are some pictures of the class with their adorable Martin Luther King, Jr. projects and some making them in the classroom. Yes....they had to take some silly photos too!

Have a great long weekend everyone and enjoy the extra day off this weekend! I will look forward to seeing my kindergartne friends on Tuesday!

What a week in K-1!

We have had quite a busy week in K-1! We had MAP testing this week in both reading and math. Boy, my kindergarten friends blew me away with how well they did! They did OUTSTANDING!! Way to go, K-1! The highlight of our week was meeting with Mrs. Muhr's class for our 5th grade buddy time. My kindergarten friends LOVED meeting their buddies and doing a few activities. We did a "get to know you" activity and they also had the opportunity to show off what good readers they are by reading their book bag books. SO much fun!

In math, we have begun a new book with new concepts that focus on the learning all about the teen numbers 10-20. We are learning all about the quantity, how to write the numbers the correct way and understanding how many 10's and 1's are in each number by showing the amount on ten frames and doing many hands on activities. We have also begun learning addition as well. They are learning how to add small numbers within 10 and how to write an addition sentence correctly such as: 2+4=6. They have loved learning these new math concepts and picking them up quickly!

In literacy, we are focusing on those tricky digraphs and learning how to read and write words that have them within the word. We have also been doing a lot of activities where my kindergarten friends are reading sentences and matching pictures that go along with the sentence. They are reading for content instead of stopping to sound out each word. The more we practice these skills, the more fluent they are becoming as readers and writers. We have also learned some new "heart words" and we have added them to our heart word ring. We have been doing a lot of activities to practice these new words so they become automatic when seeing them.In writing, we have been working on being illustrators where I ask them to draw a picture to a writing prompt. Then I ask them to write one or two sentences that go along with their picture using their own "brave spelling." They are doing a WONDERFUL job writing sentences on their own and I am so proud of how much growth they have made in the last few weeks. We have been talking a lot about what good writers do and plugging those skills into their own writing.

We have begun guided reading groups this week. I have four groups and in each group we practice specific heart words, learn some reading strategies that "good readers" do, read a book together and talk about the book to ensure they are reading for comprehension. When we finish all that, we do some "word work" where the kids get to work with me in writing words. All these activities help my kindergarten friends to grow tremendously as readers and writers. I LOVE this time with my kindergarten friends because I get to meet with them in a smaller setting and really get to know each and every one of my friends as readers and writers. This helps me to see what they are doing well and what I can help them learn more about.

In SEL, we have been talking a lot about feelings and how to self-regulate our feelings with specific strategies. We have read many books that go along with these lessons which has helped us to have a lot of wonderful discussions as a class. They are doing great using these strategies in day to day interactions with their classmates and their time at school. In social studies, we have been talking about holidays and we will be talking a lot about one in length tomorrow and why we have Monday off from school next week. We will be learning all about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and we will be making a fun project to go along with all we learned. We are learning so much and I couldn't be more proud of all of their growth! They are doing AMAZING!!

Aah----choo! Poor Sneezy The Snowman is very cold!

Aah....chooo!!!! Poor Sneezy the Snowman is very, very, very cold! What can he do to warm up? He tries drinking hot cocoa, sitting in a hot tub, wewaring warmer clothes, and standing in front of a fire but all these things just made him melt. The kids tried many things to help warm him up and each time he just melted and they had to keep building him back up. Finally they found the perfect idea to make him feel much better at the very end. Ask your child to tell you what worked. To go along with this cute story, we made our own Sneezy the Snowman projects where the kids got to do a reading response to the story where they wrote one idea of how they would melt if they were Sneezy. Then, they got to use a mixture of shaving cream and glue to paint on the paper to be Sneezy's snow. This mixture looked liked melted snow on the paper. Then they used orange, black and brown paper to make the snowman pieces that were left behind in the melted snow such as his carrot nose, arms, eyes, mouth and hat. The projects turned out SO CUTE!! I have them hanging from the ceiling in the classroom. The kids are having so much fun looking at them all! Way to go, K-1!

In math, we have continuted learning about 2D and 3D shapes and this week we are wrapping that unit up with learning about shape patterns. The kids have LOVED this unit and they all have become quite the shape experts! They can name all the 2D (flat) and 3D (solid) shapes while also identifying the ones that can roll, slide or do both. They can tell the differences among the shapes and we have also learned about how many corners, sides and flat surfaces they shapes have as well. While learning about all these shapes, we have also been working on learning the positional words such as: in front of, behind, next to, above, under, etc. We have been learning A LOT in math and I am so proud of how quickly they have mastered these new math concepts! In literacy today, the kids had so much fun playing a few phonics games with a partner. It was so fun walking around and seeing how well they were finding pictures with the sound they rolled and their strategic moves to try to win the game! Way to go, K-1!

It's been a fun week back at school! I sure missed my 18 kinder friends over the LONG break! It was so fun greeting them all on Tuesday and seeing all their adorable, excited faces and sharing lots of snuggles! Have a great weekend, everyone!