Thankful Turkeys

 With Thanksgiving happening next week, we made some thankful turkeys today in class. The turkeys we made were a BIG project that required a lot of listening and following directions. I taught the class how to do three steps and then they would go to their table spots and complete it on their own and we would then learn three more steps. We kept doing this routine until our turkeys were finished. When our turkeys were all put together, I asked my kinder friends to write something they were thankful for on each feather. They all did a fabulous job sounding out the words they wanted to write with their "brave spelling!" I am impressed each and every day with how much growth they are growing as learners! Here are some of my adorable kinder friends with their amazing turkeys that they put so much hard work into:

In handwriting, I have been working hard with my kindergarten friends in learning how to write more and more lowercase letters on the lines where we have been learning about line placement and what letters are skyscrapers, diggers or small letters. This week, we have begun learning how to place words on the lines the correct way and how to write sentences that begin with a capital letter and end with punctuation. I am so proud of how much growth my kinder friends are making with their handwriting through our Handwriting Without Tears program. Way to go, K-1 and K-3!

In Jolly Phonics, we are plugging along learning the last few sounds of our Jolly Phonics program. A lot of the ones we have learned this week are digraphs. They are doing a wonderful job learning the new sounds and applying it to reading and writing words on their own. I am so impressed! We have three sounds left to learn which means we will be finishing our Jolly Phonics program the Monday we return from Thanksgiving break. Yay! After we finish this program, we will be working really hard on reading and writing where we will be applying what we have learned through this wonderful phonics program. Way to go, K-1 and K-3!

 Today we learned the "qu" sound in Jolly Phonics. We only have 5 sounds left to learn until we have completed learning the entire Jolly Phonics program. We will be learning a letter each day next week so we can finish before the Thanksgiving break. I am AMAZED with how well they are able to put the sounds together to read unknown words or write words all on their own! It has been so exciting and each time they get to read or write words with me, they are beaming with pride! They are all taking off as readers and writers and it's beyond exciting! Have a great weekend, everyone!

In the afternoon, we had a very "special" Veteran's Day assembly where we learned all about why we celebrate Veteran's Day and we got to honor some very "special" veterans who are family members of the Olive community. It was such an honor to celebrate them today for all of their years of service and their bravery. At the end of the assembly, we got to line the halls with the entire school and we got to have a parade where the Veteran's got to walk through the halls of our school and we cheered and clapped for them. It was such a fun way to celebrate those who served and fought for our freedom!

 With tomorrow being Veteran's Day, I spent some time in class today teaching my kindergarten friends about what this holiday is and why it is so incredibly important to celebrate. They learned a lot about Veteran's Day from watching a Brainpop movie about it. After the movie we had a good discussion about what they learned and some friends in the class shared if they knew someone that is a Veteran in their family. Next, we made American flags out of construction paper. In order to make their flags, they needed to follow my step-by-step directions so that theirs turned out like mine. As we were making the flags, we learned that the strips represent the 14 colonies and the stars in the blue rectangle on the flag represent all 50 states. They were so proud of their flags and I was so proud of how much time and effort they put into making them. I am keeping them so that we can bring them to the assembly with us tomorrow but they will be bringing them home at the end of our school day.

Great job, K-1 friends!

Great job, K-3 friends!

After we learned about Veteran's Day, we took a well-deserved "brain break" and went outside for recess to enjoy this GORGEOUS day we are having today!  They had fun swinging on the swings, playing tag and playing with one another on the playground!

When we got back inside, we did a Jolly Phonics review sort to practice all the sounds we just finished learning. The sounds we practiced were: y, x, sh, ch, th. They did a WONDERFUL job on their sorts and I was so impressed with how quick they were to sort the pictures in the right place with the sound they heard within the word. Way to go, kindergarten friends! The th sound was tricky because it has two sounds and they needed to listen carefully to ensure they were gluing the pictures under the correct th sound. They did great! 

Have a wonderful day everyone and enjoy the beautiful weather we are having today! It was a fun day in K-1 and K-3!

Today in Jolly Phonics, we learned the letter "Xx" sound like in the words: x-ray, fox, box, fix. The motion is to pretend you are taking an x-ray with a camera saying "ks, ks, ks." The class did a great job learning all about the letter "Xx" and showing me what they learned about the new sound in their Jolly Phonics packets.

In handwriting today, we learned how to write three more lowercase letters that belong to the "magic c" family. We learned how to write the letters a, d, and g. My kinders did a great job learning how to make the correct letter formation for all three letters and with practice, did a great job writing them in their workbooks. In their workbooks, I am working hard to remind them to write slowly to ensure they are writing the letters the correct way and doing their best work! I always tell them that "Practice makes better!" 

We also had math today where we are learning the "tricky" concept of composing and decomposing numbers within 10. They did a great job learning this new concept and practicing it in their math workbooks!

With all the hard work today, the class had fun taking a well-deserved "brain break!" I always LOVE seeing all the creative things they make with the colored blocks, bristle blocks and legos. It's fun to see them working together to build something and just having fun with one another! Kindergarten is a magical place! So much fun!