What's new...

Here are a few of the new and exciting things we are learning:

Science: Now we are focusing on animals. Our main focus is learning what animals need to survive: food, water, air, and shelter. We have also talked about reptiles, birds, insects, arachnids, fish, and mammals. I didn't think the kids would be so engaged, but they are extremely interested in all of the new facts about animals. Plus, they get to tell stories about their own animal experiences at the end of every science lesson.

Reading: This week our story is about Antarctica. The book is non-fiction and has photographs and information about life in Antarctica. Our "amazing words" or vocabulary words include: penguins, seals, whales, continent, Antarctica, and icebergs. The students have enjoyed this non-fiction book more than many of the fiction books we have read in the past. In order for the kids to get a better understanding of the geography of Antarctica, I brought in a globe from the library, and we explored the different areas on it. The students now know a little about the location of North America compared to the location of Antarctica. Also, Miss Thomason is going to present a slide show to our classes to give them more information and display additional pictures of life in Antarctica. It is nice to see the boys and girls excited to learn about things in their environment and in the real world! It is also good to be able to tie reading and science together. This whole week while the boys and girls have been learning about life near the south pole, they have also been utilizing reading strategies without even knowing it-- and having fun too!

Next week: I hope to have some student posts on here next week. I will ask them a question and type their responses-- exactly how they said them. This could get very interesting!

Help-- We need supplies.

We are running low on antibacterial wipes. We use these every day to wipe down our tables before snack. Our class supply will be depleted before the second week of March. It would be great if we could stock up on about four more containers of the 72 count antibacterial wipes. That should last us until the end of the year. I appreciate all of the time and money you all put into our classroom! Hopefully, wiping down the tables and chairs before we eat snack each day will help limit the spread of germs in our class. Thanks again!

March is almost here!

I am excited to be back to school! This morning has been great. The weather is just barely "warm" enough for us to go outside at recess. But, it doesn't look like the warm weather from the weekend is going to continue throughout this week.

There aren't any exciting events going on at school this week, but next week is "Read Across America" week. This is the National Education Association's (NEA) national reading celebration that takes place each year on or near March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss. Across the country, thousands of schools, libraries, and community centers participate by bringing together kids, teens, and books.

Bernie schools will be celebrating Read Across America week (March 1-March 5) with several events:
Monday- Pajama Day- Relax and Read day
Tuesday- Red and White Day- Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss
Wednesday- Hat Day- Hats off to Readers
Thursday- Sunglasses Day- Readers' futures are so bright they have to wear shades.
Friday- Blue and White Day- Bernie Mules love to Read!!!!
Friday afternoon magician Marty Hahne will be here to perform for our students. His show is based around reading and the summer reading program.

It has been a while...

We are back in our routine and everything is going great. We are finally getting to go outside, and the kids could not be happier. I hope the snow and cold weather are gone, and I hope spring weather comes soon! Read below to get an update on some of what we are focusing on in each subject.

Reading: We started working on beginning and ending blends. The boys and girls have to determine the blend, its sound, and be able to write the letters that make the blend. Beginning blends are easier than ending blends. Here are examples: "slide" the blend is /sl/ or "fast" the ending blend is /st/. We are also focusing on comprehension skills such as reality v. fantasy, sequence, main idea, character, cause and effect, classify, and setting.

Math: In math, we introduce most of our concepts early in the year, then reteach them repeatedly as the year progresses. This is called spiralling. So, we generally aren't teaching new concepts in math; instead, we teach them more in-depth as the year progresses. Something new we are practicing is counting by 5 up to 100. Most of the students have mastered this already! Next, we will work on skip counting by 2.

Writing: Every Monday we write to 100. In the past, I have provided the students a guide-- a 100 chart. Starting next Monday, the students will be writing to 100 without a guide. Many of the students can write to 200 and above. I will be working with those students that can not make it to 100 yet. The goal is for all of the children to be able to write to 100 by the end of the year. We can do it!!! But, it will take work. Also, we are still journaling. Our journal prompt for tomorrow will be "Valentine's Day was fun because..." The kids are now writing at least two sentences and drawing more detailed pictures. They still love journaling!

Science: We have finished our Plant Science unit, and we started Animal Science. The kids can talk about animals all day! There won't be as many neat experiments with animal science though. The attached pictures include a current picture of our Chia Pet--I cut his hair this morning. Also, we are watching beans turn into bean sprouts. We have given them water, air, and sun. Hopefully by Friday, more of the beans will have sprouted.

Have a great afternoon!

Chia Pet

Bean Sprouts

Valentine's Day Party

Today we are celebrating Valentine's Day. For many of the kindergarteners, this is their first school Valentine's party and they don't know what to expect. That makes it even more exciting for them. We will start the party around 2:00, after they get back from PE. The boys and girls also love PE. Two exciting things in one day-- PE and a party. It has been a pretty exciting day around here. Also, we have some really neat Valentine's boxes. Some of the themes include bumblebees ("Bee Mine"), Saints football, teddy bears, penguins, pets, SpongeBob, and of course many heart themed boxes. Well, the kids are about to return from PE. I hope to post more later! Have a great weekend.

NEW Picture Painting Link

I have added a new kid-friendly link near the bottom of the page titled Picture Painting. It is similar to the general paint feature on your computer. However, this program is a little easier to use and more fun (in my opinion). The kids could also practice writing their sight words using any of the drawing functions. Once you visit the sight, you will understand more of what I mean. I want to give credit to my friend, Mrs. Bailey Christian, for showing me this picture painting website. Mrs. Christian teaches kindergarten at Dexter, and we are always sharing ideas with one another. Thank you for sharing!

Thank You!!!!

I want to say THANK YOU to all of you that have commented on my class blog. Your kind words are very encouraging, and I am excited to see everyone enjoying it. Thank you for all of your support. It is great to have such wonderful parents, family, and friends.

Also, I have updated my school website with new pictures from January and have attached the February newsletter. Follow the link at the top of this blog to navigate to my regular school website.

It's the weekend again.

I haven't had a chance to post in the last few days. I will catch everyone up on what we have been studying:
Reading: In reading, we focused on ending sounds. Since we focus so much on beginning sounds, it is hard for them to listen for ending sounds. For example, I would hold up a picture card of an "elevator" and the students had to tell me the final sound of /r/. They were really good at it, but sometimes wanted to say the beginning sound. We will continue to practice this.
Math: We were practicing using the words most, least, greatest, fewest, more, and less, when comparing objects in a set, on a graph, or in a table. The idea is to increase their vocabulary. Most of the students are familiar with more, less, greatest, and most. They get stuck on least and fewest. I guess we don't use those words in our everyday lives as much as the other comparison words. If you are a parent reading this, please try to practice comparing everyday objects with your child and asking him/her, "which has the fewest?" and/or "which has the least?" This could be done fairly easily while you are at the grocery, ballgame, or a restaurant.
Science: We are still studying plant science. We will finish plant science this week and begin animal science next week. We started another small experiment, and I will post pictures soon. The experiment is simple-- we placed celery in a tub of blue (food coloring) water. We are to observe how the water slowly disappears as the celery soaks it up its stem. Also, the celery will slowly turn a shade of blue as the colored water is absorbed into the leaves of the celery. This is to prove to the kids that plant stems take water up to their leaves and this helps them live. This is to go along with the lesson "What are the parts of a plant?" (roots, stem, leaves, flower, fruit, seeds)
I hope to post again tomorrow. Have a great weekend!

Back to school.

We are back to school after having four days off, due to the snow. The playground is still completely covered in snow, so I don't know when we will get outside recess again. I hope it is soon. The kids really want to run and play.

If you are wondering about the Chia Pet-- it has grown a lot! I predicted it would grow an inch, and I was about right. Some parts of the hair are even closer to 1 1/2 inches. The kids all touched the hair (grass) this morning. They are still amazed at how fast it has changed from seeds, to sprouts, to grass! Hopefully, this little "experiment" will be something they never forget about doing in kindergarten. (You can click on the picture to view a much larger version.)