Merry Christmas!

I want to wish all my students and parents a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I have pictures of our Polar Express day and Winter party. However, I left my camera at school, so I'll update after we return to school on January 4th. Good thing, I bought my mom a camera for Christmas or I would be taking pictures with my phone. When we return on January 4th, we will be learning about New Year's traditions. If you get a chance, talk to your child about something new they want to learn in 2010.

Story Time with Mr. B!

Every other week, we go to the library for storytime with Mr. B. Mr. B spends 20 minutes just reading us different stories for fun. The students look forward to this time. Mr. B always reads the stories using different voices for the characters. We love Mr. B!

Force and Movement

We are learning about force and movement. We went to the science lab and learned that most objects need a push or pull (force) to move. We worked in small groups to create something that would move down a ramp. Then we tested to see which group's would go the furtherest. We learned that the groups who truly worked to together made objects that moved farther.

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Graphing Fun

We have been constructing and interpreting graphs in math. We took one bite out of a gingerbread man cookie and graphed which part we bit off. We sorted and graphed candy canes by color. We also tasted eggnog, hot chocolate, and apple cider and graphed our favorite winter celebration drink! We also sorted and graphed hard Christmas candy by shapes. Then we analyzed our data and drew conclusions. We used comparative language (more than/less than/same as) to describe our data.

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Christmas Presents

For our December family project, the students were given a present cut out to illustrate on the inside a present they want to give someone and then decorate the outside of the package.

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Animal Needs

We have learned about animals needs and how they are very similar to the things people need to survive. We also learned about how the Earth provides for their needs. We played a survival game, where we pretended to be animals. We had to find food, water, and get in a chair (shelter) to stay in the game. After each round, we took away some of the food/water/shelter to show what happens to animals when people come in and change animals' habitats.

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Thanksgiving Feast

We completed our study of Thanksgiving with a feast. Each class brought one food item to share and we ate together in the kindergarten kitchen area. We had turkey, corn, mashed potatoes, rolls, pie, and juice. Thank you to all the parents who prepared or sent food for the feast. Some classes dressed like Pilgrims and some classes dressed like Native Americans (like our class!). We had a lot of fun recreating the first Thanksgiving!

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Storyteller Presented by Target

On Friday, we heard a storyteller. She talked to us about how to take care of books. She told us the story The Kissing Hand and Mean Soup. She chose one boy and one girl from the audience to help her tell the stories! She also talked to us about going to the Grand Prairie Public Library and getting a free library card. All students really enjoyed the presentation.

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Native Americans

This week we learned about Thanksgiving. We talked about how the Pilgrims came to escape persecution. We discussed how the Native Americans helped the Pilgrims learn how to grow crops and hunt to provide food for their families. We also talked about how the Native Americans helped the Pilgrims build homes. On Friday, we had a Thanksgiving feast. Before that our class made Native American vests from grocery sacks and decorated them using markers. We also made headbands from sentence strips and construction paper feathers. The students had a lot of fun creating their outfit and choosing their Native American name for the feast!

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Animal Creations

This week we've been learning about animal needs and how the Earth provides for their needs as well as ours. On Friday, we went to the science lab and observed all the animals. Then we created and illustrated our own new animals in our science journal and showed their shelter, food, and water. The students were really creative! We had a kangafly (kangaroo and butterfly) and spidaturtle (spider and turtle). Below I've included pictures of our animals, the students working in their journals, and some of their creations.

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Math Grab Bag

This week in math, we have been working on using comparative language (more, less, same) to describe sets of objects. Today we worked with a partner to grab a handful of cubes from a bag and build a tower. Then we stood our tower next to our partner's and described them using comparative language. Students also reviewed and practiced math concepts in math tubs while I work with small groups.

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DEAR Time!

The students had a blast reading for fun during Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) time today! They read library books and books they have read with me that are in their book baggies.

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Animal Needs

This week we are learning about animal needs. We have learned that animals need most of the same things people do. The way their needs are met is different though. On Monday, we made a graph of pets students in our class have. Then we analyzed our data. We also discussed how our pets are dependent upon us to help meet their needs. We compared/contrasted the way we take care of our pets with the way our parents take care of us.

Turkeys in Disguise!

Each child was sent home with a turkey picture last week for homework. Students were to "dress" their turkeys in a disguise so they wouldn't be eaten at Thanksgiving dinner! Thank you to all the students and parents who disguised a turkey! There were some really creative ones!

If You Give a Moose a Muffin

Last week, we read If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Joffe Numeroff. We made a class book about what animals like to eat using alliteration. We also worked on sequencing story events.On Friday, we made and ate chocolate chip muffins.

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Earth Science: Soil

Last week, we learned about soil. We took a tour around the school building and made a circle map of the way soil is used around school. Then we went to the science lab and compared/contrasted four different types of soil. We examined them using hand lenses. Then we journaled what soil is made of. We read the story The Wonderful World of Worms and made a "dirt" treat!

I am thankful for...

Several students decorated an ear of corn with photographs or pictures they drew to share with us what they are thankful for. They worked on these projects at home with their families!

PAW Pride

These are a few of the students from our class who were caught showing PAW Pride in the hallway last week!

P-Positive Attitude

A-Act Responsibly

W- Wise Choices

Sorting Rules

When we went to the computer lab this week, we worked in Pixie 2 to create three sets of objects using a sorting rule we created. Then we switched with a partner and they had to determine what attribute we used to sort our pictures.

Button Sorting

We read The Button Box by Margaret Reid. We worked with a partner to sort buttons by different attributes (color, size, shape, etc.) Then we recorded one of the three different ways we sorted our buttons.

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A Vegetable Is

Last week, we learned about harvest and vegetables. We shared the pen and wrote together about vegetables. Then we painted our vegetables and sequenced our sentence. We made it into a book and put it in our library center for the students to read.

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Camp Read A Lot

Tonight kindergarten through 2nd grade students and parents enjoyed Camp Read A Lot. Students started out eating a snack in their classroom and listening to a read aloud from their teacher. My class heard The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. Then we went to the cafeteria to flashlight read in tents. The next station was listening to a storyteller in the library. We ended the night by drawing a character from our book on the character mural. Every student who attended received a free new book.

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Zany Z Fun!

This week one of the letters we focused on was Zz. We practiced Zz, its sound, and substituting initial sounds by finding our zany Zz names. On Wednesday, we called each other by our Zz names and we put the letters in order and decorated them!

Special Guest Author

Today we had a special guest author visit our class and read us a story. Sabrina from Arnold Middle School read to us a story she wrote about Thanksgiving. Her and her classmates brought enough books for every kindergarten student to take home and keep. The students were so excited about our guest and their books!

Seasons in the Science Lab

We went to the science lab and read the book Colors of the Seasons by Margaret Perez. We discussed how trees look in each season. Then we used Q-tips and paint to illustrate how a tree changes through the seasons. We labeled the trees with the season they represented.

Tea Tasting

We read Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk. Then we tasted cherry, peach, and raspberry tea. We chose our favorite and graphed the results. Then we drew conclusions about our data. It was close between cherry and raspberry but cherry won.

Then we made a spider snack in response to Miss Spider's Tea Party and our poem Tommy's Pet Spider. We also made spiders using paper plates, paint, and construction paper.