Fun Friday

What a fun Friday!!! It sure flew by!!! This morning, we had another visit from the Hersey seniors that came to our class a few months ago. This time, each Hersey student took a group of 4-6 kids to play two Building Fact Fluency games. These two games were great ways for my kidergarten friends to work on addition and subtraction within 10. They LOVED playing both games and I was so proud of how well they work with the Hersey seniors and their partners! Way to go, K-1!

This afternoonn during our literacy block, we read a story called Not a Box. A box is just a box...until it's not a box. This story was about a rabbit who turned a box into many different things such as a rocketship, a mountain, a racecar, etc. It was how you could take a shape and use your creativity to turn it into something amazing with your own imagination. In our HMH workbooks, the kids got to draw a box in the middle of the paper and use their own creativity to turn it into something. After they were done drawing, they colored it and wrote about what they turned the box into. I was so amazed with all their creations and I loved how detailed they made their drawings and how well they sounded out the words they wanted to write! Wow....amazing job, K-1!

Happy Earth Day!

 With it being Earth Day yesterday, we spent a lot of time in class today and yesterday learning all about what Earth Day is and why we celebrate it. We also learned about ways we help our Earth clean and healthy. My kinders learned A LOT and I was amazed with their writing both on the Earth Day project and in the mini-book we read. They have grown so much as learners and I am beyond proud of all of them! Their reading and writing is phenomenal!!!!! Way to go, K-1!

Today in social studies, I did a lesson about Earth Day through a Superhero family called the “Green Family.” They taught us about reducing,reusing,recycling and what is considered garbage. The students learned a lot and had fun showing what they discovered by creating their own Earth Day recycling trucks.Here are some pictures of the class with their trucks! They loved making them and are excited to bring them home to share what they learned with you. They of course asked if we could take a few "silly ones."

In math, we did an Earth Day color by number subtraction. I am so impressed with how quickly they are able to figure out the answer and in some problems, they don't even have to use their fingers. They just know it! WOW! Way to go, K-1!

Last Stop on Market Street

Today in class, we began our day with the reading portion of MAP testing. My kinders did WONDERFUL! They all took their time to do their best and I was so proud of how well they logged on, listened to the questions and tried their best! In reading, I read the class a story called Last Stop On Market Street. This beautiful story was about a boy named CJ and his grandmother who take a bus ride every Sunday where they go to church and take the bus to a soup kitchen to volunteer their time to help serve food to those in need. They don't have a car and CJ expresses his admiration to his grandmother and bummed out attitude when they have to take the bus. On the bus ride to the soup kitchen CJ's grandmother teaches him how to find beauty and gratitude in their everyday world, even with poverty and urban challenges. This story had a beautiful message and the class loved it! After we did a comprehension activity to ensure they were understanding the story as we read it and we did a cute activity that went along with it. For the activity, I gave the kids a piece of paper with a head outline. I asked them to make the outline to be a picture of themselves and showed them how to add eyes, a nose, mouth, detail to the ears, eyebrows and hair. They had so much fun turning the outline into a portrait of them using realistic colors for their eyes, skin and hair. Next, I gave them some paper glasses, on the left it said something people see with a cloud with rain. On the right side, I asked them to draw something they would see if they saw rain what could they find that's beautiful from it or gratitude in the moment. They did a great job drawing something and had so much fun adding lots of fun detail. They were excited to bring them home to share with all of you. We talked a lot in this lesson about how important it is to walk through life and find the beauty in it and be thankful for the things we have. We live in a beautiful place with beautiful people who give a lot of themselves to help others. Here is the class with their gratitude sunglasses project:

In math, I partnered the class up to play "Boom, Boom, Clap Subtratton." They LOVED it and had so much fun practicing subtraction within 5. They are starting to know them by memory and not needing to use their fingers to get the answers. The answer is becoming automatic when I give them a subtraction sentence. Way to go, K-1! It was a great day!