Scientists and Engineers

It's been a great start to 2017. Our class has been busy learning all kinds of new things!

Our literacy block has been filled with informational writing, reading and writing new sight words and learning how to "tap out" words in our phonics program. Our focus for our informational writing unit has been on arctic animals.  We have learned about penguins over the past few weeks but will soon move on to other animals. This week our awesome librarians helped us with a STEM experiment in the library. Our kindergartners put their research findings to the test when we experimented with different cold weather adaptations by putting our fingers in ice cold water. As we hypothesized, blubber was the cold weather adaptation that kept us the warmest. We had a great time experimenting with cotton pads, fake fur, foil, plastic bags and Crisco to act as blubber.  A special thanks to our librarians, Mrs. Marino and Mrs. Bolhman!

In math. we've been learning about 3D shapes (cylinder, cube, rectangular prism, cone, pryamid and sphere). Here we used a ramp and a Venn diagram to sort out shapes that stack and shapes that roll. This week we worked in math teams to complete our own stacking and rolling experiments.

The new snow was exactly what our playground needed!  The kindergartners had a blast with the fresh snow.  Please make sure your child has clothes for outdoor recess each day.

As we approach the half-way point of our school year, we are continually adding new activities to our daily routine to increase student learning and independence.  This past week students were introduced to center work boards. Each day students choose two squares on their work board to complete before they get to choose a center of their choice. Everyone did a great job learning our new center time routine and working responsibly.

Wyatt uses a learning game on the iPad to complete
a square on his center work board.

Kindergartners work together to spell and write sight words.

Brylee and Hayden spell sight words with magnetic letters.

Kindergartners "Write the Room" at center time.

Noah and Taylor work on their art projects.

Holiday Fun

I hope everyone had a wonderful break and enjoyed the holidays.  Our class had so much fun leading up to vacation.  A huge thank you to all of the parents who sent in treats and donated supplies.  It really is a magical time in kindergarten.

Ready to head down to the MPR to sing for our families.

Getting our sillies out right before for our holiday concert.

We had so much fun in our holiday bakery! We practiced
answering the phone, taking orders and working together. 

Taylor and Wyatt fill orders in the bakery.

Jack writes down Noah's order

Our creative kindergartners made up their own puppet show during a recess that
was too cold to go out and play.

Our footprint penguins!  We had fun painting
our feet!

We enjoyed each other's company at our holiday party and book swap. 

All aboard the Polar Express. We found our tickets in the library
and boarded our classroom train to read The Polar Express and
have hot cocoa.

What a surprise to find bells under our chairs!

A perfect day for pajamas...

...and good friends.

A great group of kindergartners.

We were all ready for vacation!

With that being said, it will also be wonderful to get back into our normal classroom routine. During the second trimester, our writing focus will shift from narrative writing to informational writing. Some examples of what informational writing in kindergarten can be: labeled pictures, writing directions and recipes or writing facts about a favorite animal.  In science, we are about to begin a unit on winter animals.  Our lessons will integrate a lot of informational writing.

Kindergartners are learning how to label their drawings.

Everyone labeled their reindeer drawings before vacation.
 Remember in kindergarten, we spell words the way they sound!

In math, we are making sure our numbers to 20 are solid before we begin our trickiest chapter, numbers to 100. In our phonics programs, we are learning how to blend sounds together and how to tap out words. Stay tuned for information about our first field trip! It's so hard to believe we are approaching our half-way point of the school year?! Happy New Year!