Spring!

     It is our first week of Spring!  The students remembered that we needed to wake the bear up who has been hibernating all winter.  In January, we put a stuffed bear in a box labeled "den" and put  the den up high on a shelf.  The students were very careful not to disturb the bear all these months.  After we woke up the bear, the children wrote in their journals what the bear was going to do now.  Most wrote that he was going to eat.  But Taryn wrote that the bear was going to color now that he was awake.

     When we started our fish unit, many of the students showed a strong interest in sharks.  So this week, we have been studying sharks and learning many facts about them.  We have been reading non-fiction books and reviewing National Geographic kids on-line.  This is one of our favorite web sites for finding information on animals. 

     We worked with our table groups to create a fish mural.  The students created many different species of fish on their mural.   Sharks, whales, sting rays, jelly fish and rock fish were included.  It was great to see the students working together to create their projects.

 

     The word family ark arrived in our classroom to join the word neighborhood.  In our ark house, we added the words bark, dark, shark, etc. 

     To welcome in Spring, we made beautiful wind socks.  We used bingo markers to stamp the polka dots and added colorful streamers.

    

          

   

Rhyming

      
       I know I have been teaching a lot of years in kindergarten when I double-knot my own shoes.



     Our class has been working on recognizing and making rhyming words. 

     In the past, we have done Rhyme Aways where I give a clue that ends with a rhyming answer.  Today we completed a Color-A-Rhyme.  Students were given a picture of a leprechaun.  A clue was, "The leprechaun likes to strike a pose.  I wonder if he can smell without his ____."  The word pose had to be rhymed with nose to see what part of the leprechaun ccould be colored.  The students really enjoy these rhyming activities.

     As a group, we worked on the writing frame:

           All the _________    wear big green   _________ on St. Patrick's Day.

     The blanks had to be completed with words that rhymed with each other.  This activity was done as a whole group and then the students had to write their own rhyme.  

      "All the bees wear big green trees." - Ava B.
      "All the ducks wear big green trucks." - L.D.
      "All the parrots wear big green carrots." - Gerald  

     I was very excited about the students' writing today.  They wrote in their journals about what they would do if they caught a leprechaun.  A couple of boys who have struggled with sounding out words, leaving spaces and staying on task this year wrote wonderful, creative stories using these skills.  This is the time of year when all the skills we have practiced this long start making sense to our little people,  and amazing writing and reading happens.  

     Kindergarten is the best place to be!
   

Leprechauns

       We learned about the legend of the leprechaun.  He is a little shoemaker who makes shoes for the fairies.  You might find him by listening to the sound of his small hammer tapping as he makes his shoes.  If you find a leprechaun and catch him, he must give you his pot of gold.  It isn't very easy to catch one, though.  The leprechaun is a sly fellow, and he will trick you into looking away.  When you do, he will take his gold and escape.
      
     Where do you think the leprechaun hides his gold?  Well, the students had many bright ideas today.  We wrote a class book, Leprechaun, Leprechaun, Where is Your Gold?  Each student completed the frame, "It is _______."  


     Taryn wrote:  "It is on the bat's back."    
      Ava R. wrote:  "It is by the sun."
     Brandon R. wrote:  "It is under the ground.  Deep underground."


     Our class loves the class books that we write.  They love seeing their page in a book and enjoy reading the pages of the other students.  


     We are also writing our own books about fish.  The students could write an information book with facts about fish or they could write a fiction book.  They have to title their book, write the text and illustrate the pages.  When we first started writing books in our class, some of the students could not believe that they could actually be an author and illustrator of their own book.  Now when I give them a book with blank pages, the creativity takes over and I see many confident authors and illustrators.  (I love book writing!)

     


     These are two pages from Brandon R.'s book.  He choose to write an informational book.  To see enlarge pictures, double click on them.

Spring Musical

     Our Spring Musical was last night, and the children did an awesome job with their  Disney performance.  They were so cute, all dressed up and excited to perform for their parents.  There is nothing much better than watching children sing.  Mrs. Robertson, our music teacher, deserves many warm thanks for her hard work in producing on our school musical show.  She is a terrific teacher!

     Do you know the body parts of a fish?

     Do you know that a fish is cold blooded and do you know what that means?

     Do you know that a fish is a vertebrae and do you know what that means?

     Do you know that a goby is the smallest fish?  And a whale shark is the biggest fish and can grow to be 50 feet long?

       Well, our kindergarten friends know all of these facts now and many more.  Our writing today was to write one fish fact that we learned.   

      Our sharing today was to bring two items that rhyme.  Many of our friends brought a cat and a hat.  Emily was very creative and brought a carrot and a parrot.  Loagen shared a snake and a picture of his brother, Jake.  

Syllables

     I introduced the students to syllables for the first time.  We have spent much of our time in segmenting each sound in a word so it was a little difficult to transition to counting "beats" in a word.  The students caught on after practicing syllables with our names.  We chanted:

         "Higgley Piggley bumble bee,

                       Can you say your name for me? "

      After chanting, the students would clap out the beats in their name, give the number and chart it on a graph.  Most of the class have two syllables in their names.

     Fish were in the room this morning waiting for the students.  The goldfish and guppies are a part of our science unit, Animals 2X2.  We will begin by observing and comparing the two kinds of fish.  We will be discussing differences and similarities, learning facts about fish and developing a sense of responsibility where living organisms are concerned.

      Using our schema, we developed a chart of all the things we already knew about fish.  We included a column on our chart of things we wondered about them.  The last column will be what we learned and will be completed at the end of the unit.

     After completing our chart, the students went and watched the fish. They observed how they looked and how they moved.  They noticed the different body parts.  We had many good detectives using their sense of sight to make different observations.

       It is Spirit Week at Lincoln.  Today we wore blue.  Tomorrow the students should wear yellow or gold colors.

     Tomorrow night is our Spring Music show.  Please have our kindergarten friends at the high school at 6:45.  Our performance will begin at 7:00 p.m.

 

Hop on Pop

     It was a fun week of Dr. Seuss!  We read 2 or 3 of his books each day, and the students are now very aware of rhyming words when they hear them.

     We read Hop on Pop and added a new word family, op, to our neighborhood.  We made a word slide so we could practice reading the words.   A list of the words were sent home so you can help your child read them.

      The Promethean Board provides a great opportunity for us to participate in rhyme-a-ways.  A picture of The Cat in the Hat is on the board.  I give the clue, "This tall hat is really wise, but we will have to erase his _____".  I leave off the last rhyming word.  The students have to tell the missing word.  For the person who gets it correct, they come to the board and only erase that part of the cat.  The is an engaging activity for all the students.

     Dr. Seuss Week was a fun, engaging, learning week for all of us.

     "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.

     It's not."

                                          Dr. Seuss from The Lorax

 

Wacky Wednesday

     Wacky Wednesday!  To celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss, we had Wacky Wednesday in our classroom.  Some students wore their clothes backwards.  Some wore mismatched shoes.  Payton even wore his Sam I Am pajamas.  It was a fun, fun day of wacky things!

     We read both The Cat in the Hat and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.   Then we made The Cat in the Hat.  They turned out so cute.

    

Green Eggs and Ham

     Green Eggs and Ham was our Dr. Seuss book today.  Most of the children were already familiar with this book and enjoyed reading along with me.  

     I gave the students the sentence, "I like green eggs and ham."  They cut the words apart and arranged the words into a silly sentence.  The sentence might say, "like ham and I eggs green".  We went to our partners paper and read their silly sentence.  Upon returning to our own paper, we put the words in the correct order, glued onto  a piece of paper, copied and illustrated the sentence.  

     We turned the paper over and wrote our own sentence using the frame:

                        I like ____________     _____________   and ____________.

                                     (color)                    (food)                            (food)

     So the sentence might say, "I like purple fish and pizza.

   

     I shared the Seussville web site with the students today.  The is a site with many fun activities and games for children.  Please click and check it out if you are interested.

     Tomorrow is Dr. Seuss' birthday and to celebrate we are having Wacky Wednesday!  The students can dress "wacky".  This could include mismatched socks and shoes, backward clothes, inside-out shirts, crazy hats, etc....

     Also tomorrow is a free choice Sharing day.