Constitution Day, DreamBox and a Birthday ...Oh My!

Of course, it was another busy week...that's just the way it is when you're having fun and learning in kindergarten!  Our class started out the week wrapping up our September assessments by taking the STAR assessment on the iPads.  The data collected from all of our baseline assessments help us to target our instruction for each child.

On Wednesday, we celebrated Constitution Day.  A few kindergartners had heard of the Constitution.  It was a perfect opportunity to review our school and classroom rules.  The 3B's contracts were also introduced.  Please sign them with your kindergartner and return them to school.  We had a nice conversation about voting and that it's okay to think differently from your friends!  Kindergartners voted on their favorite treat, pet and sport.

Mr. Carozza visited our classroom on Constitution Day.
Samantha, Lucy, Alice and Rose show Mr. Carozza how to fill out his ballot.

The highlight of our week was celebrating Mrs. Cowan's 50th birthday!
Our class presented Mrs. Cowan with balloons and a gift from everyone in the building...
a special package of 50 reasons why we love Mrs. Cowan!

We are finishing up our ME Books that we began when school started.  This week we also worked in our Math In Focus workbooks for the first time.  Chapter one focuses on numbers 1-5.  We continued to learn the proper way to form numbers in our Handwriting Without Tears workbook.  Ask your kindergartner if they can explain the Wet, Dry try.  It's a special way we practice making our numbers before we write them in our handwriting book.  Students use a tiny wet sponge on their own chalkboard to write the number for the first few tries.  Once they get the hang of it, we practice with chalk.

We learned the correct way to form the number three in our  Handwriting Without Tears Book.

Lucy and Henry work on their house page in their ME Magazine.

Students were also introduced to Dreambox this week. Dreambox is a math program that our kindergartners will be using this year.  My class had the opportunity to pilot Dreambox last year and the kids loved it!  The program adapts to each child's learning needs.  On Friday, students learned how to sign into the program, chose their avatars and a picked password.  Kindergartners explored the world of furry friends, pixies, dinosaurs and pirates all while being introduced to ten frames and math racks.  Students will be able to sign into their accounts at home once they have tried it at school a few times.  Next week, I will send home the information for their accounts and the school's access code.

 Looking ahead...we will celebrate the arrival of fall this week, have our first lesson with our district's numeracy specialist, Mrs. Jones and go on a scavenger hunt!  Remember this week is a four day week for students, there is no school on Friday.