Already Friday-----Wow! Time flies when you are having fun in kindergarten!

 Wow! How is it Friday already! This week flew by! It was a fun week and I am amazed with how much my kinder friends are learning! Today we got to celebrate Kyle's 6th birthday with him and it was so much fun! This week we had three friends who had a birthday. So fun!

In literacy and phonics, we learned another few sounds and have added them to our letter name/sound library. With each new sound, they are beginning to blend them together to read more and more words. It is so much fun to see! We have also been reading a few stories where we have been making the connection letters make up words and words make up sentences. Words have meaning! We have also talked about how when we read stories, we can connect them with our own lives. It was fun reading a story with the class the other day about school and how they were connecting what the kids were doing at their school that was like their experience at Olive or not like it. We also have dove a little into opinion writing as well where we are just drawing pictures right now to express their ideas.

In math, we have continued learning about the numbers through 10 focusing on 7,8,9, and 10 this week. We learned how to form the numbers correctly from top to bottom and we also talked about the quantity of both. We practiced showing those specified amounts on a ten frame. They are doing great understanding these numbers and how to write them the right way! 

We also started social studies this week where the focus of the lessons was on how to get along with others. We talked about what it should look like when someone is talking and how to be a "good listener." We also discussed what our body should look like when we are really listening to someone that is talking. We also discussed the importance on not shouting out and raising our hand when we want to share so we don't interrupt someone that is talking. We want to be sure we are giving the speaker our full attention so we hear all they have to say in it's entirety. We also discussed turn taking too and the importance of that sill in our interactions with other people. To practice these skills we learned, we played a game of "telephone" as a class. We sat in a circle on the edge of the rug and we had one person start off by saying something in someone's ear and it got passed around the circle in each other's ears until we got to the last person. When we got to the end, did the message get passed correctly where each person heard what the first person had said or did the telephone message get broken as we went around the circle? They did great playing this FUN game and we played a few rounds because they loved every second of the game. They are really good listeners!!! When we finished, we did an activity where I asked them to draw a picture of themselves and a friend and what it would look like if they were being a good listener. It was so much fun discussing these important skills in social studies this week! 

Have a great weekend, everyone! 

Math, Literacy, Writing, MAP testing....Wow....what a busy three days!

In math this week, we have been learning about all about the numbers 6, 7, and 8. We have learned how to form the letters correctly from top to bottom and having some hands-on experiences to understand the quantity of each number too. I took it a step further where we learned about a 10-frame building off their knowledge of a previous lesson last week learning about a 5-frame. They did great learning about a 10-frame and how to show the number on it the correct way. We also talked about if we have 7 counters in a 10 frame, how many more would we need to make 10? They were able to count the blank squares left in the 10 frame to understand we would need 3 more to make a total of 10. It has been fun learning about these numbers and seeing how quickly they are learning about these numbers! Way to go, K-1!

In literacy, we are continuing to learn how to write the rest of the uppercase letters on the alphabet. They are doing a great job writing the letters on the lines with correct line placement. It's tricky to break the habit of writing numbers from bottom to top but they are doing a great job! We have also been reading a few stories that are helping my kindergarten friends to learn about how to identify the characters, setting, plot, and we discussed identifying the beginning, middle and end of stories today too. They have been learning so much and many of them are hard concepts! I am amazed with how quickly they are understanding them and we have had some great conversations about the stories we have read together! 

In SEL, I have been reading a few read alouds which has opened up some wonderful conversations about feelings and how to react in a kind way with a peer. We have discussed bad choices and good choices and how we learn from all the choices we make to grow as learners. In the classroom, we learned that we treat eachother with kindness and we follow the "golden rule" which is we treat our friends the way we want to be treated!" In the past 14 days, we have been building a little classroom family where we have gotten to know eachother, grown as learners together and have built some wonderful friendships with one another! It is so fun to see the adorable interactions amongst the class and see the kindness they spread with one another each and every day! I have LOVED witnessing these interactions during our afternoon "playtime!" 

The past two days we have had MAP testing too in reading and math! They did AMAZING! I am so proud of how well they did following my directions to get logged into the assessment and how well they all did focusing on the test and trying their very best!

Today we got to celebrate Keller and Ellie's 6th birthdays. How fun they share the same day! They were our calendar helpers, we sang "Happy Birthday" to both of them and they got to be line leaders for the day! We had so much fun celebrating our two wonderful little friends today!

My kindergarten friends are growing as learners everyday and I am so proud of the growth they have made both socially and academically in just the 14 days we have been together! I can't imagine what the whole year will bring! Thank you for sharing them with me each day!

What a fun Friday!

Today, I have to share with all of you that I stood in front of my classroom and actually started crying but in tears of JOY!! Today was so much fun being their teacher! I saw students spreading kindness with one another, doing an excellent job following directions and working hard at their table spots while the room was also filled with giggles and BIG smiles! Today truly warmed my heart! Friendships have formed and comfortability has set in where each and every one of my friends feel safe taking risks in trying new things and even asking friends to do new things with them! Oh...what a fun day!

In literacy, I carried over the lesson we learned yesterday about nouns. Yes! Your child is learning about what a noun is in kindergarten and they did a great job learning it! They learned it's people, places or things OR anything they can point to. We learned a song about nouns and we had fun singing it plugging in classmates names as we sang it out loud. Then we did a little activity at their seat where I asked them to draw themselves in a box and write their name because their name is a noun and they also had to draw a picture of a friend in the class and write their name too because that person is a noun as well ( I helped by writing the friend's name), When drawing the pictures, I have shown them that they should draw the picture first with pencil and color it with crayons. Only because we cannot erase crayon so if they make a mistake with a pencil, we can still fix it. Their drawings of themselves and their friends were FABULOUS! On the other side was a description of what a noun was and I asked them to color it on their own with their best coloring. This side would help them tell you what they learned about nouns. I was blown away! Great job, K-1!

Then, we learned all about the letters Xx, Yy, and Zz. We learned how to form the letters the correct way from top to bottom and how to place them on the lines correctly! It is tricky using the lines but they are making progress each and every day. On the backside, the practiced making some shapes on the lines that will help them with line placement and forming future letters. Great job, K-1!

In math, we did a few review pages where they are showing me what they learned about the numbers 0-5. They are number experts in those numbers now and I am so impressed with how well they are writing them on their own now. The numbers 2 and 5 were a bit tricky to learn in making them from top to bottom. 

After lunch/recess today we had gym and music. It's always their favorite day when we have the two specials! When they came back I did a fun project with them. We did a name project where they had to trace the letters of their name with glue and put on confetti pieces of paper to have their name stand out like lights. They turned out so cute! I can't wait to hang them up in our classroom on Monday when they are fully dry! With today being our first day using glue bottles, I was very impressed!

After that, we cleaned up and we did a "following directions" activity. I gave each friend a picture of a house and I gave them step by step directions where they had to listen to what I said and color it at their seat with those specific directions. Wow!!! They did wonderful! 

These were the activity directions. The kids did great!

Lastly, we ended our day with their favorite time of the day....PLAYTIME!!!!!! Today we had a doctor's office, a restaurant, and lots of friends building some amazing creations and houses out of magna tiles, blocks and other things. Seeing the interactions amongst the class and the cute friendships melts my heart! The joy I experience seeing the fun they have with one another during playtime is just the CUTEST! Have a great weekend, everyone!