The Cat In The Hat Comes Back

Our morning started out today with a literacy lesson with the book called, Ish. This is fiction story about a young boy named Ramon who loves to draw. He was a confident drawer until one day when his brother told him he didn't think his drawings were very good. Ramon's love of drawing started to fade until he walked into his sister's room and discovered something amazing. Ask your child what happened next and why the story is called "ish." We LOVED reading this story today and we had a great discussion on identifying the chacters, setting and main idea. We also talked about what lesson the story was trying to teach us. Next, we had a cultural arts assembly called "Crossing Borders Assembly." The kids LOVED attending the assembly and having the opportunity to learn all about the music they played today. They learned the names of the instruments the musicians had and we also got to learn some important music language. It was a great assembly and I was SO proud of how well my kinders sat through the performance! When we got back, we had recess and listened to the story, The Cat In The Hat Comes Back by Dr. Seuss while they ate their snack. They liked hearing this story and how it would be different from The Cat In The Hat we read on Monday. After I did a directed draw Cat In The Hat with the class. They did a great job following my step-by-step directions in drawing the character as I drew mine on the board. I am so impressed with how far their drawing skills have grown this year! Their drawings turned out amazing!

This afternoon, the class had gym and music. I got invited to attend gym today and it was so much fun participating with all my kinder friends. When they got back, we did science. I did a lesson with the class on motion and how to get a car to move. It is one of the lessons in our "pushes and pulls' unit. I made a baggie with science supplies for this activity and I paired up the class in groups of 3. They got to sit down with their group and they had to think about how they could use the supplies in the baggie to get their car to move. With each attempt, I asked them to think about how they could change the speed and if they could change the direction the car was moviing. They had so much fun working with one another and listening to eachother's ideas on how they could get their car to move fast and how to get it to move slow.

Then we met as a group and we talked about what they tried as a group and which was their favorite to get the car to move. I LOVED hearing all their creative ideas! For the last part of the lesson, they went to their seats and took out their science journals. I asked them to draw their favorite way they got the car moving. I also asked them to color and label it. I was so impressed with all their detailed drawings and how well they did recording what they tried in class today! Way to go, K-1!

After science, I got to meet with two reading groups where we read a story together and we worked on comprehension. We also did a little word work too and I am so proud of how much growth my kinders are making as readers and writers! Yay! It was a fun Dr. Seuss week in K-1 and I am amazed with all their learning! Have a great weekend, everyone!

K-1 and their silly socks

 We had so much fun reading Fox In Socks today by Dr. Seuss. It had so many rhyming words that it sure was a tongue twister to read out loud. As we listened to the story, we started giggling because it was so hard to listen to the words as they were read to us in the story. All the words started to blend together as one big tongue-twister! To go along with the book, all my kinder friends came to school today dressed in their favorite pair of silly socks and they got to write their own page for our class book where they drew the socks they wore and why they were silly. I was so proud of the drawings and the fantastic writing they all did! I was also very proud of how nice and neat their handwriting was as well. Wow!!!! I added this new class book to our class library in the classroom.

After that we also did a fox mini-book where they had to circle the word that completed the sentence and write it on the line. We also highlighted the words on each page that rhyme. I was so impressed with their wonderful reading today and how well my friends did identifying the words that rhyme. They have become rhyme experts! One of the favorite activities they did today was a rhyming around the room. To do this activity, I partnered the class up and they went around the room to find hidden pieces of paper that had pictures with two words displayed on them. They had to decide with their partner if the words rhymed or didn't rhyme. If it did rhyme, they colored the smiley face. If it didn't, they colored the sad face. The class did a FANTASTIC job working with their partner today for the activity and I was so impressed with how quickly they were able to identify it it rhymed or not. When they were done they grabbed their heart word baggies and practiced reading those with one another. Way to go, K-1!

In math, we learned more about subtraction stories.They are getting a hang of it. I have been impressed with how well they are able to look a picture and tell me a subraction sentence that would go with it. Way to go, K-1!

In literacy, we read a story called The Little Red Hen on Stage and we compared it to the story we read before it called, The Little Red Hen (Makes A Pizza). We identified the characters and setting in each. We also talked about how we can describe the characters such as: The Little Red Hen is hard-working because she got all the ingredients, mixed it together, and made the bread and pizza all by herself with no help. We also talked about how she is so kind too because she shared the pizza and bread with the other animals in the story even though they didn't want to help. We also learned about plays and what a folktale is. We talked about how the Little Red Hen on Stage had a page that listed the cast of the characters in the play and what a cast is. We also talked about how a play is a script where characters are given lines to memorize or read to create the story. They learned how a play is when a story comes to life on stage. We learned that when you read the play you don't say the name of the character when the lines are shown. When we talked about plays, many of my friends anxiously raised their hands to share a time they went to see one and they shared what it was about. I LOVE that my friends have had experience going to one. They are fun to see!

At the end of the day today, we met with our 5th grade buddies and we did a rhyming matching activity. They had to cut out the bottom and top of hats that rhymed and write the words next to it. After that, they read their heart word baggies from their cubbies that had the word with a sentence below it containing the learned word. They had so much fun showing off what wonderful readers they are all becoming.