Middle of April,....Already? WOW!

I can't believe it's the middle of April already but wow....my kindergarten friends' work sure shows it! They have become such confident readers and writers and I am amazed every single day! Today in class we did a spring directed draw and I asked the class to write about what they like to do in spring or the things they notice that they love in spring. Their drawings were stunning and their writing was WONDERFUL! Wow, K-1! I am so proud of them!

In HMH, we have been reading books with the theme "Home of the Free and Brave." Today we read a book title Happy Birthday to the U.S. This was a great book about America's birthday and we learned many important facts about the beautiful country we live in. We also learned that good readers visualize when they read and to do this they use their 5 senses. We talked about what they means and we practiced this important skill where I told them a few different stories and we talked about what they saw, heard or smelled as I said the story out loud. They had fun learning how to "visualize" and the loved sharing what they pictured in their minds. Great job, K-1! To go along with this book, we did a mini-book that went along with this perfectly. They had so much fun reading the mini-book as a class and highlighted all the "heart words" we found. Then I paired up the class into partners and they got to read the book by themselves to their partner and taking turns. I LOVED walking around and hearing them read the book to one another. They are becoming quite the readers!

In math, we are just finishing up sorting by attributes. They are doing wonderful learning this math concept and are doing great practicing this skill on their own. They learned they can sort things by one attribute but they can also look at a group of objects and there can be many different ways they can sort them by many different attributes such as by: shape, size, color, number pattern, etc. This was a quick math unit and they did a great job with it! We finished our 2nd math book and I sent it home with my friends earlier in the week. They can keep it at home and it doesn't need to come back.

In social studies, we are learning about wants vs. needs. They are learning that needs are things that they have to have to survive such as food, water, shelter, clothing, etc. They learned that wants are things that they like to have but don't necessarily need to live such as video games, toys, soda, Ipads, etc. I am so proud of how well they have learned this important concept in social studies and how well they can explain both things when asked what the difference is. Yay, K-1!

Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives---WOW!

To practice all we have learned in HMH, I did a cute little project to see how well they can identify nouns, verbs and ajectives. They did AMAZING! They had so much fun showing off what they know by sorting pictures on their puddle and boots to whether they were a noun, a verb or an adjective! Wow....way to go, K-!

The other day, I gave them all an egg template that had numbers written all around the egg 1-19. I showed them how to connect the dots to the numbers by using a straigedge to connect the numbers counting in number order. They did a great job connecting the dots and I was so proud of how well they manuevered the straightedge ensuring they were connecting the correct numbers. When they were done, they went over it with a black sharpie marker. Next, I passed out watercolor paints and they got to color their eggs however they wanted to. After we finished our eggs, we watched a BrainPop Jr. movie about Spring. Then I asked them to do a writing activity where they wrote one thing they can hear, see and smell in spring. They did an excellent job! I hung their spring projects up the hall for all of Olive to see. Their eggs are beautiful and I am so proud of their wonderful writing!

In writing, the class has had so much fun doing "weekend news" on Mondays and directed draws the other days. When we do a directed draw, I ask them to do the drawing in the box on their paper and tnen they get to add detail and color when they are done. After, I ask them to write two or more complete sentences that go along with their drawing. I am amazed what wonderful artists they have become and what brave, strong writers they are! Yay, K-1! I love reading all their wonderful journal entries! I am so proud of them!

In math, we have begun learning Chapter 10 this week that is all about sorting objects. We have learned we can sort objects many different ways such as by color, shape, number of items, etc. They have also been learning how to look closely at a group of objects to decide which one doesn't belong and explain why it is different from the others or why a group of items go together and explain why. I am so proud of all they are learning in math. In social studies, we have been learning about where they are in the world talking about what city they live in, what state, what country and what world. Then we moved on to the next chapter where we talked about how other people live in the world compared to what they experience here in the United States. We learned about some other countries and the languages they speak, the games they play, what foods they eat, and the music they listen to. The class LOVED learning how to say hello in a couple different languages and hearing music from all around the world. They also liked seeing all the different foods they eat as well. It's been fun comparing how other countries are similiar to the USA and how they are very different. It's also been fun to hear their experiences with some things that are mentioned in other countries too. We are learning so much in kindergarten and I am so proud of how much my kindergarten friends are growing as learners. They are AMAZING!!!