Happy Thanksgiving

Our class really enjoyed learning about Thanksgiving.  Before vacation we were busy writing about what we are thankful for, learning about the Pilgrims and Native Americans and playing Thanksgiving math games.  We also read many fiction and nonfiction books about Thanksgiving and discussed the difference between fiction and nonfiction writing. We've been so busy I have been forgetting to take pictures!

We continue to add to our Poems and Charts folder.
The Turkey was our favorite November poem.

Everyone loved showing off the turkeys they created at home.  This was part of a
school-wide project sent home from the spirit committee.  Thanks for your help with
this project!

As we approach the end of November, our kindergartners are taking on more responsibilities in the classroom.  The leader of the day has always had a few responsibilities like leading the line but now each day our leader brings the lunch envelope down to the kitchen.  The leader has also taken over the daily calendar routine.  The routine consists of the leader asking the class to count the days on the calendar with them, figure out the pattern of the calendar pieces, spelling and saying the month and the year.  The leader builds a weather sentence and asks the class to read it with them.  Lastly, the leader helps keep track of how many days we have been in school.


Did you hear we are learning about addition?  Mrs. Jones visited with math racks last week.  Students have practiced using the math racks on DreamBox and enjoyed using them in class too.

Mrs. Jones helped us practice subitizing numbers
and creating number combinations to five.

Waiting for instructions while using the math racks.

Four beads on the top wire.  How many do you
need on the bottom wire to make five?

We've been working with some new games at
learning centers to help develop our fine motor
muscles. One of our favorite games is called
Hammer and Nails.  Students nail shapes to a corkboard
to copy design cards or make their own designs.

Another game we've enjoyed using is Magnastiks.
Kindergartners practice creating sculptures
using magnetic pieces.

Holiday Bakery

The holidays are an exciting time in kindergarten. Now is the time that we turn our dramatic play/housekeeping area into a BAKERY! Kindergartners will be “baking” cakes and cookies, taking phone orders for pies and making their own menu in our holiday bakery…BUT…we need your help! We need parents to volunteer to make us some special play-dough for all of our baking. Batches of play-dough with cinnamon or nutmeg and batches with glitter have been favorites in the past. We could also use any old baking items you aren’t using such as muffin tins, spoons or aluminum pie plates.

Halloween Fun

Just treats...no tricks in our kindergarten group!

We are so lucky to have so many great resources available in our school and classroom.  Each week our kindergartners see many adults come and go in our classroom. From the school nurse to the reading and the behavioral specialists, lots of people help to make our classroom a special place.  The children become so familiar with other building staff that they usually ask if they get a turn to visit their office or classroom.  This week we had our visitors run a math game while in the classroom.

Mr. Montano, our behavior specialist lends a hand during a math group.

Mrs. Earley, our speech pathology assistant helps run a math game too.

Halloween is the perfect time for some fun pumpkin math.  In our All Around the Pumpkin book, students were introduced to the concept of estimation and reading graphs.

Before carving our class pumpkin, we voted on what
 kind of face it should have.

We estimated how much our class pumpkin weighed.

Our school nurse, Mrs. Conley weighs our pumpkin
so we could see how close our estimates were.

Once we estimated the weight and circumference of
our pumpkin, we scooped out the insides.

We saved all of the seeds to plant pumpkins this spring.

We had a blast celebrating Halloween on Friday with a parade and a school wide snack. Students loved showing off their costumes. Check out pictures from the special day below.

 

Fire Prevention Week and Artist in Residence Visits

Did you hear about our "zigger zagger" week?  Wow.... were we busy! It is always one of our favorite weeks at here at HMS...the week that the Artist In Residence visits us. This year we were fortunate to recruit Allison and Hunt Smith from Nelson, NH to share their love of folk music and traditional dance with the elementary students and faculty. Hunt and Allison's residency is supported in part by a grant from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. This week we listened to Hunt and Allison play on traditional instruments and learned dances that would have been familiar to residents of Hopkinton 200+ years ago. Our kindergartners enjoyed two assemblies and two morning sessions learning new dances with every student in kindergarten.   Our students really enjoyed the experience!

Artists in Residence Allison and Hunt.

Kindergartners moved to the music and practiced
freezing when the music stopped.

Kindergartners danced "down the ally" while singing
about the Grand Ole Duke of  York.

We learned a line dance and danced with friends from other classes.

And of course, every good dance ends with a bow
or a curtsey.

We found some time during our busy week to enjoy the amazing weather. Our creative kindergartners used sand toys to rake up a leaf pile to jump in!

Our favorite recess activity this week!

Soaking up the beautiful fall weather...

....and jumping in the leaf pile!

We continued with our introduction to the computer lab and building our mouse skills.  Our time in the computer lab was spent on a fun math game that involved counting and sorting.

We are getting the hang of the brand new computers in the lab.

Chana and Hayden count and sort fuzz bugs using the mouse.

We ended our very busy week with a fire safety presentation from the Hopkinton Fire Department.

Firefighter Martel and Firefighter Delude taught us all
about fire safety.

We learned what a firefighter looks and sounds like in their gear.

We also learned to never hide from a firefighter if there
is a fire.

Firefighter Andrew taught us about different tools on the fire truck.

We enjoyed checking out the fire truck,....

...all of the equipment and the tall ladder.

We learned how much water comes out of the hose.

Eden and Lily wait to check out the ambulance.

Charlotte and Izzy

Autumn and Brylee

Lucy and Jack

Noah and Chana  

In our classroom, we  learned how to stop, drop and roll.

It was a fun and exciting week in kindergarten  Thanks to Hunt and Allison for the dances...AND... thanks to the Hopkinton Fire Department for their fire safety presentation!

A Big Week of "Firsts"

We've been hard at work in kindergarten!  This was a week of firsts for us: first visits from our librarians, first visit to the computer lab and our first nature walk!


We enjoyed a visit from our favorite town librarian, Mrs. Maynard!  She came to share some new stories that are available and teach us about some of the programs happening at the town library!  Our class loves a good story!

Mrs. Maynard read us a silly book about a dog
who shares his ice cream with dinosaurs!

We also welcomed our two school librarians, Mrs. Marino and Mrs. Bolhman into our class this week! They introduced us to  the books that were nominated for this year's Lady Bug Book award. There are 10 books nominated for the award.  We will be reading them all over the next few weeks and voting for our favorites books in December.

Mrs. Marino and Mrs. Bohlman act out
Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins. A very silly story
about a bear and baby geese.

We had a beautiful afternoon to go outside and observe some of the signs of Fall. Our class really enjoyed exploring outside which makes me think they will love snowshoeing this winter! Each kindergartner kept track of what they found using a scavenger hunt checklist. It was a perfect afternoon to end the week!

Our class has done an amazing job learning our classroom routine and expectations.  We've come together as a community and are working well together! Learning centers is a wonderful time to witness how students are working together.

We also visited the computer lab for the first time this week.  The focus of our first few lessons in the computer lab will be getting students comfortable with the mouse. We began our formal phonics program this week, Fundations. (More information to come about Fundations as we get the program rolling.) We also continued to work in our math books with the focus being on numbers to 10 and same and different.