Fun Friday!

We have been having so much fun reading a Gingerbread story each day and discussing the similiarities and differences with each one. They LOVE sharing what they notice with each story and I am surprised with how closely they are listening to find the differences and similiarities. Way to go, K-1! With each story, we also identify the characters, the setting, if the gingerbread cookie gets eaten and how they got eaten or how they got away. Today I read a gingerbread story in the morning and another one this afernoon. Yesterday, I read The Gingerbread Girl so this morning, I read the sequel. I read The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers. Many of my kindergarten friends hadn't heard this story before so it was fun to read and have them predict what they thought would happen. They LOVED the story! This afternoon, I read The Gingerbread Boy which took place in New York City. They loved all the characters in the story and how the story unfolded. Both books were so fun to read today!

To go along with our gingerbread stories, we made a paper gingerbread man or girl that they got to decorate however they wanted to. They were excited to bring them home to share with you. While the class was working on them, I pulled friends to my back table to make a holiday gift for their mom and dad. They were so excited to make this cute gift and they turned out SO CUTE!! I can't wait for you to get them!

In math, we are continuing to learn about 2D/3D shapes and positional words. They are LOVING this unit with learning about shapes and I love the excitement on their faces when I tell them it's math time! They are growning so much as learners and it's so exciting!

In writing this afternoon, I did a snowglobe directed drawing with them and then I asked them to color their picture and label it with their own "brave spelling." I was so proud of how well they all listened to the directions following the step-by-step directions to draw their snowglobes! All of them turned out AMAZING and they were all so proud of their drawings when they were done! I was blown away! WOW!! When they were done coloring and labeling their pictures, I asked them to write one complete sentence on their own that went with their picture. They all did a great job! I know it's hard and they are nervous to write on their own but they did GREAT!!! I was so proud of them! As they wrote, I walked around and helped those friends that needed it to ensure they were hearing the right sound when spelling words on their own. I was so proud to see complete sentences on their papers that began with a capital letter, had fingers spaces and punctuation at the end. They all have such neat handwriting and I loved seeing how they all took the time to ensure they were placing the letters on the lines in the correct way. Each time we write, they are growing more and more as writers! I have noticed a lot more confidence too! Wow! It's so exciting!

In reading this afternoon, we read this informational text called Map My Neighborhood. They really liked this story and had fun with the activity that went along with it. I asked them to make their own map of their neighboorhood. We tried making a key for their map but it seemed really challenging. They did a great job trying and I LOVED all their maps they made! They had so much fun drawing their houses, their neighbors' houses, parks near their house, our school and other fun places they like to visit around town. I saw a lot of fun places like Target, McDonalds, Chuck E Cheese and Traders Joe's on their maps. I was so impressed with the creativity and detail they put into their maps! Way to go. K-1! They are all growing so much as learners and this time of year is so exciting! They are all taking off as readers, writers and in math! They are all just having so much fun learning which makes my teacher heart so very happy!

Hangin' With My Snowmies

With it being the month of December and the weather getting colder and snow beginning to fall, we have been doing a lot of activities in the classroom with gingerbread men and snow. I am absolutely amazed with all they are learning in my classroom and each time I hear them read or write in their journals, I tear up with so much joy! I can't believe what wonderful readers and writers they are becoming! Today, we made the CUTEST snowman project with their names. They each received a piece of paper with a snowman face and circles on it. In each circle they wrote a letter of their name ensuring that their name began with a capital letter and the ones that followed were lowercase. Next, they cut out all the circles and they glued them on a blue piece of paper to create a snowman with their name. Their favorite part was adding all the fun detail to their snowman and the background. They had so much fun making their snowmen today and it was fun walking around the classroom to see all the smiles and joy they were having in their learning today! Here are some pictures that I took of the finished snowmen. I hung them up in our kindergarten hallway for all of Olive to enjoy! Each time we walk in and out of the classroom, my kindergarten friends have so much fun finding their snowman and looking at all the ones their classmates made. It was such a fun project to make today!

With our HMH program, we have been busy owls learning the letters and the sounds they make. With each new letter we learn, they are opening up their reading world with being able to read and write more and more words. I am blown away with how well they are reading words and sentences on their own. In our "Know it, Show it" journals, we did a few pages today where they had to match the word to the picture it belonged with and it had some practice pages with the letter we learned yesterday. Their favorite page was the roll and read game. They rolled a dice and got to read a word in that column. They kept playing the game until time was up. I LOVED walking around the classroom and listening to all my kindergarten friends reading the words on their own. Their faces lit up with so much pride! When doing writing writing activities, they are becoming much more confident in sounding out and writing words on their own too. They have even been writing in their December journals writing one complete sentence and labeling their pictures. I am so proud of all of them! Way to go, K-1!

In math, they are continuing to learn all about 3D shapes. Today's lesson focused on learning about the differences of 3D shapes. We talked about which shapes can slide, which ones can roll, and which ones can stack. We talked about why they can do those things and which shapes can do more than one. They are loving this math unit and are becoming quite the shape experts! Way to go, K-1!

December Calendars

It was so much fun seeing all my kindergarten friends today after the long Thanksgiving break! I was greeted with BIG hugs, smiles and excitement as they walked in today. It was so much fun hearing about all the fun things they all did last week with their families! We had a fun filled Monday today! We learned reviewed a letter sound, read a Gingerbread story to kick off our December gingerbread unit, learned about 3D shapes in math, made our December calendars, read a information text about community helpers and finished our day with playtime! They LOVED making their December calendars today and reading our first Gingerbread Man story today. This month we will be reading a different gingerbread story each day and doing a lot of things to go with them the next three weeks. Here are some pictures of my kindergarten friends making their calendars today. They turned out SO cute!!!!!