Visit to the Library

On Thursday we get to visit the library and Mrs. Weaver reads a book to the kids.  We get to check out new books to bring back and put in our tubs.  The darlings always enjoy sitting in the fun chairs and bean bags and reading their books.

Abe Lincoln's Hat

In honor of President's Day we read, Abe Lincoln's Hat by Martha Brenner.  We discussed that one comprehension strategy that readers can use is identifying the problem and solution that characters have in the story.  In our book Abe Lincoln was always losing important papers.  To solve his problem he began putting them in his hat.  What a clever idea!  The kids wrote about what would be important to put in their hats and then we made Abe Lincoln and glued our papers on his hat.  Look how cute they turned out...

Students chose a variety of items to put in their hats: teddy bears, lipstick, chap stick, Legos, family pictures, etc.  They were fun to read.  

Happy Valentines Day!!!!!

Pictures from our party...

Kindergarten Pictures

This week along with the door contest, the staff was asked to bring in baby or childhood pictures and everyone gets to guess who is who.  I decided to bring in my Kindergarten picture since even though I am all grown...I am still in Kindergarten!  

Against my better judgment...here it is....

I was in Kindergarten out at Fenton Elementary School.  For those of you who don't know, I have a twin sister, Sherri.  Of course, we had to wear matching outfits.  When the pictures came in I came home with the pictures and my sister was sooooo upset that hers didn't come (apparently, they thought we were the same girl!)  My mom took one look at the pictures and said, "This isn't even you.  It's Sherri!" Then I was sad...

There is your fun fact for the day!

Enjoy the LONG weekend!

Door Decorating Contest

At the Elementary we are having a door decorating contest.  Well, someone called it a contest, but I don't really know if there is a 'prize'.  I do know that it is fun to see all the creative doors and it brightens up the hallway.  Here is the door that we came up with in Kindergarten.

 Who doesn't love Dr. Seuss!?

All About Penguins

Today we finished our All About Penguins book.  We worked so hard on them.  Is is a non-fiction book including some of the information we learned about Penguins.  Have your child share their book with you!

Daily Five

Do your kids talk to you about our Daily Five?  Actually, right now there are just four choices and students visit one to three stations depending on the day.  This allows kids to make their own choices and work at different ability levels.  Here is a glance at the choices students have daily.

Read to Self: Students have book tubs filled with a combination of library books, books they chose, and books that were chosen for them.  They have learned that there are three ways to read a book: read the pictures, read the words, and retell the story.  They are all readers. 

Read to Someone: Students get their tubs just like Read to Someone; however, this time they get to take turns reading with a friend.  Sometimes their partner is called out of the room momentarily, so I have a tub of stuffed animals they can read to also.

Work on Writing: This station basically has the same format each month, but the theme of the papers change.  This month the cards included words about valentines, presidents, and dental care.  Students can make cards, write letters, or tell a story.  

Word Work: Word work includes a variety of activities including write the room, learning palettes, dice, and stamping words.  In a couple of weeks I am going to add an overhead projector option to word work...remember those?  They aren't used very often, but I think the kids are going to love it!

Coming Soon: Listen to Reading: Students will be able to listen to books on CD and complete activities to go along with them.  Can't wait to get this going for them. 

When our time is up for a Daily Five station, I play the theme song of "Happy Days". They love this. The goal is for everyone to be seated at the rug by the time the song is over.  If they succeed, we take turns adding a piece to Mr. Potato Head.  Here is a picture of our most recent creation.

Ask your child about the Daily Five?  Which is their favorite?

Sometimes we read books to be entertained; however, today we were reading a non-fiction book titled, Penguins, to learn more information about penguins.

We added the new information to our chart.

Here is some of our new information. 

 *Penguins play with sticks to practice nest building.

 *They hide from predators.

 *Mother penguins give the fathers the egg to protect while they hunt for food.

 *Papa penguins hold the egg on their feet.

 *Penguins dive in a group into the water to distract predators.

 *Baby penguins tap on the mama's beak when they are hungry.

 *The largest penguin is the Emperor Penguin.

 *Penguins can live in warm weather, not just cold.

 *Some penguins make a burrow to hold their eggs.

 *Some of their predators are whales, seals, and skua (a bird that eats penguin eggs).

 *Penguins keep their flippers close to their body to stay warm.

We also moved the "They are odd." post-it to Misconceptions since this is an opinion, not a fact.

We practiced taking care of penguin eggs and walking around our classroom with them.  This was very tricky!

We had some friends missing today since they were sick.  We sang our "Wish You Well" Song, so hopefully they will feel better and can return tomorrow!

Penguins

Today we started a non-fiction study about Penguins.  First, we listed our Penguin Schema (what we know, or think we know) about penguins.  Here is the chart we made to keep track of our Penguin Schema.  We will also add the new information we learned as the week continues.  

Next, we watched a penguin video and followed step by step instructions to draw a penguin and label  parts.  We will be putting together our own non-fiction penguin book.