Wow! What a week we have had in K-1 and I cannot tell you how very, very proud I am of all 20 of my kindergarten friends. We had math MAP testing on Tuesday and reading MAP testing on Wednesday. They did such a great job navigating on the Ipad with my step-by-step directions to get to the testing site and trying their very best on both tests. It was a "tricky" process for new kindergarteners to do and wow, they did great! I was SO PROUD of them!

In structured literacy, we wrapped up learning how to write all the uppercase letters with the correct formation and now we have moved on to our first lowercase letter with learning the sound it makes. Yesterday we learned all about the letter Mm and the sound it makes along with the HMH motion that went along with it. The motion for the letter "m" is to pretend you are a mouse eating cheese and say, "mmmm,mmmmm, mmmm." They did a great job learning how to form the lowercase letter m on the lines the correct way and we did a few activites to practice it on their own. On the back of the Mm letter mat there were pictures and my kindergarten friends got to practice finding things that began with that letter. If it started with Mm, I asked them to circle it and color it with crayons working hard to try to stay in the lines. They all did such a great job! To finish learning about Mm, we glued that letter page in our sound book and we drew four things that began with that letter too. They had a lot of practice the last two days learning about the letter Mm sound, how to write both the upper and lowercase letter Mm the correct way on the lines and naming things that began with the letter. Way to go, K-1! In reading, we have been reading "Squiggle Story" and "One Happy Classroom" where we have been learning about: what an author and illustrator do, what the setting of a story is, identifying the characters and retelling the story by sequencing. We have also learned all about singular and plural nouns and my kindergarten friends are doing a wonderful job identifying them in a sentence. Way to go!

In math, we finished Chapter 1 where it focused learning all about the numbers 0-5. We learned about the quantity, how to write the numbers the correct way from top to bottom with cute rhymes and how to show each number in different ways. We also talked about "ordering numbers 0-5" in order. Counting up to 5 in order and counting backwards from 5 in order. They did a great job with our math chapter and yesterday, I gave them a math test to see what they learned. They all did fabulous on it! Way to go, K-1! Next week, we will be learning about numbers to 10. We are plugging right along in math and they have loved learning all about numbers!

The class is learning so much and are having so much fun playing with one another at outside recess and during our purposeful play block. I love their imaginations and all the creative things they make together. We are building a class family and working hard to ensure we treat eachother with kindness, love and our room is full with lots of fun! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Squiggle Story

Today in reading, we read a book called Squiggle Story by Andrew Larsen. This was a story about a little boy who admired his sisters ability to write neat stories with great illustrations. He didn't know how to write a story because he only knew his letters and not words. He began writing a story with just letters and using shapes to stand for thoughts for his story. With a few letters, some wonderful thoughts, and an incredible imagination he wrote the perfect story. The class loved reading this book and we did a cute project to go along with it. We did a story sequencing where the kids had to cut pictures apart and glue them in order in how they happened in the story. Last, they cut out pencil pieces and put it together to decorate the top. Their projects turned out great! They were excited to bring them home to you!

In structured literacy, we learned how to make some more uppercase curved letters from top to bottom. They are all doing such a wonderful job ensuring they are forming the letters on the lines the right way and putting spaces between them. I am so proud of how well they are writing the letters nice and neat on the lines. Way to go, K-1!

In math we have been learning all about numbers 0-5 and today I made them a little packet to practice writing the numbers more with correct number formation. They had fun practicing the numbers and finding things at the bottom of the page that showed that quantity. My kindergarten friends are learning so much and I am so proud of them! Have a great long weekend, everyone!

Fun week and WOW...my kindergarten friends are learning so much!

We have been busy owls this week and I am amazed with all my kindergarten friends are learning! I can't believe it's already September...time is flying by! I am have been so proud of ALL of my kindegarten friends and how well they have adjusted to full-day kindergarten following directions, sustaining stamina throughout our long day, being kind and respectful while at school to everyone around them and getting all their work done. They have learned SO MUCH in the past 10 days of school! I am so proud of them! In structured literacy, we have finished all the uppercase letters that use straight lines and are now moving on to letters that have curved lines. Today, we practiced making curved lines with proper line placement and ensuring they were making the shapes from top to bottom the correct way. We practiced on whiteboards first and then they showed me what they learned by completing a workbook page with the same shapes. Way to go, K-1!

In reading, we have been learning all about nouns. Today we learned about the difference between singular and plural nouns. We practiced this skill together and then they showed me what they learned by completing a workbook page. I am so proud of how well they can identify nouns! What smart owls I have in K-1!

In math, we have been learning all about the numbers 0-5 understanding how to write them the correct way from top to bottom and understanding the quantity of them. We have also been working on one-to-one correspondence to ensure they are counting things correctly. I have taught them to cross things out while counting on paper. They are doing such a great job learning all about these numbers and the cute rhymes that go with forming the numbers correctly!

Besides curriculum that we have been working on all week, we made our first class calendar yesterday. When it is a new month here at school, we make a calendar that has all the events happening here at Olive and in our classroom. Each month will have a theme to go along with the month. For our calendar today, it was a school house for September since it is the beginning of school. To make this calendar, I first handed out a school house color by number to the class. I showed them how to read the color key at the top and I showed them that they look at the numbers on the picture and color that part the color it says in the color key. They had so much fun coloring the school house yesterday! When they were all done, I gave them the Septemeber calendar and we talked about all the important dates on it. THey were excited to see Iris and Jayden's 6th birthdays on the calendar. We will be excited to celebrate with them here at school. I showed them how to trace the numbers 1-30 with a pencil and to ensure they traced the numbers correctly from top to bottom. Next, I gathered them on the rug and I showed them how to put the whole calendar together. They glued the calendar on the bottom first, their cut out school house on top and then I asked them to add some fun detail with crayons. Their calendars turned out great and they were all so proud to show me their finished products and they couldn't wait to hang them up at home!