We began our day today with handwriting where we are continuing to learn how to write the lowercase letters correctly on the lines. Today we learned the correct letter formation for the letters: i, e and l. Both classes are doing a wonderful job recognizing how to place the letter correctly on the lines and making them the right size too. With each letter we learn, I am seeing their handwriting transform. They all have beautiful handwriting and I am so proud of the growth they are all making with our Handwriting Without Tears program. Here are some pictures of my kinder friends during handwriting today:

In Jolly Phonics, we learned the motion and sound for the "ch" digraph today like in the words: cheese, chair, cherries, chicks. The motion for this sound is to pretend you are a steam train, moving your arms back and forth like you are piston rods saying ch.....ch....ch.......ch. When learning this sound today, both classes thought of a lot of words that contained this new sound. After I taught the Jolly Phonics lesson, the classes did their ch page in their Jolly Phonics packets and they had the opportunity to find objects that contained the newly learned sound. When they found things that had the new sound, they circled it and wrote the words themselves using their "brave spelling." I am so proud of how well they wrote the words they wanted to write and the confidence they have found in themselves as writers. Way to go, K-1 and K-3! After Jolly Phonics, we went outside to enjoy the beautiful weather for a well-deserved "brain break." They had so much fun playing on the playground and playing tag with one another. When we came in from recess, we practiced writing our names on the big chalkboards on the lines. I want to transform their handwriting from writing their name in all upper case letters to writing their names beginning with a capital letter and the rest being lowercase. They did a great job writing their names today and the more we practice it, the better they will get! We had a great day today and I couldn't be more proud of all they are learning! They are doing AMAZING! I am looking forward to another wonderful day tomorrow. Please remember that my morning class (K-1) has library tomorrow so they need to bring their library books to return when they come to school in the morning. My afternoon class doesn't have any specials tomorrow. Have a great night, everyone!

In the beginning of our day today, we finished our scarecrow projects we made yesterday. To go along with the book, The Scarecrow's Hat, I asked both classes to finish a writing prompt that Mrs. Martens and I prepared for them. The prompt was:

My scarecrow's hat is _______________.

I would swap a ________________   for a ____________________.

This was the first time I have really asked my kindergarten friends to write on their own and they did absolutely AMAZING! I was so proud of all the creative ideas they came up with and how well they all sounded out the words they wanted to write with their "brave spelling." Way to go, K-1 and K-3! I hung them in the hallway this afternoon for all of Olive to see and I had many teachers and students commenting how wonderful the scarecrows were and how impressive their writing is! I am SO proud of all my kindergarten friends!

K-1 finished scarecrow projects

K-3 finished scarecrow projects

 The morning class was able to have a Jolly Phonics lesson today because they didn't have any specials. The afternoon didn't have time because we had library with Mrs. Dufern today. In the morning class, we learned the Jolly Phonics letter sound for the letter "Xx." The class did a wonderful job learning the sound and motion for the letter and I was so proud of how well they did incorporating this new sound into reading and writing words on their own. The motion for the letter "Xx" sound is to pretend you are taking a picture with an x-ray camera and say ks, ks, ks. I LOVE when my kindergarten friends get to practice the learned letter in their packets because it's so fun to see the growth they are making as writers. They are doing an excellent job sounding out the words on their own and spelling them with using the sounds they have learned in Jolly Phonics. Yay, K-1 and K-3!

The remainder of our day was spent having recess and doing two report card assessments. The assessments helped me get a better understanding on how they doing with writing numbers and their upper and lowercase letters. They all did great and I couldn't be a prouder teacher! 

Have a wonderful night, everyone!

 Today was a fun day in kindergarten! We did some handwriting, learned a new letter sound in Jolly Phonics and we read a book and did a directed draw activity to go along with it. Both classes LOVED doing the scarecrow directed draw and I was amazed with how beautiful all their scarecrows turned out when given the same directions. They were excellent listeners today and with that, they did a fabulous job drawing their scarecrows on their own. Way to go, K-1 and K-3! Here are some pictures of both classes during our fun day today:

We got to celebrate two birthdays in K-1. Julia S.'s birthday was yesterday and Fiona's birthday was today. It was so much fun celebrating both of their birthdays with them and they both did great being the calendar helpers!

Happy 6th Birthday, Julia!

Happy 6th Birthday, Fiona!

In handwriting, we learned how to make the lowercase letters of a, d, and g. We learned how to form the letters correctly on the lines and they did a great job using our wet, dry, try method on the chalkboards to practice on the lines. Next they transferred what they learned about each letter formation into their handwriting books. They all had beautiful handwriting! 

In Jolly Phonics we learned the sound the letter "Yy" makes. Both classes loved learning this letter sound and motion and did great finding words that began with this letter sound. I was impressed how well they all did in their Jolly Phonics packets when finding a picture of something that began with "y" and spelling it on their own using their "brave spelling." They are becoming confident brave spellers and I am so proud of all the wonderful growth they are making as readers and writers!

For the last part of our day, I read them a book called The Scarecrow's Hat.  Both classes loved hearing this cute story about a scarecrow who wished he had a walking stick to rest his tired arms. A chicken comes to the rescue and finds a way to trade things with other animal friends so the scarecrow's wish could be granted. After reading the story, I did a scarecrow directed draw activity with the class. For this activity, I gave the whole class step-by-step directions on how to draw the scarecrow until our drawing was complete. When we were done, I gave everyone a black sharpie marker to trace their pencil lines and we colored specific parts of the scarecrow specific colors. Then, I gave the class watercolor paints and big paint brushes and they got to finish their picture with painting their scarecrows with fun colors. I was AMAZED with how beautiful all their scarecrows turned out! Both classes were so quiet during this lesson and they were all very focused on doing their best! It was such a fun activity to do with the class! Here are some pictures of both classes making their scarecrows today:

It was another wonderful day in kindergarten! Have a great night, everyone!