Finding the Gingerbread Man and Highlights of the Week

Did you hear about the gingerbread man? He kept us on the go most of the afternoon one day last week. After reading The Gingerbread Man, a strange puzzle piece dropped out of the back of the book. There was also a clue, the first of many! The clues led us on a tour of the building as we tried to figure out where the gingerbread man was hiding. At each stop there was also a piece of a puzzle. We visited the library, the arts (music and art) room, the MPR, the office and the nurse's office! The last clue led us back to the classroom where we discovered that the gingerbread man had left us our own mini gingerbread people to decorate.

One of our favorite books so far...

We found these clues all over the building.

We searched high and low in the MPR..

The gingerbread  man left us a clue in the kitchen.

When we returned to our classroom,
the gingerbread man left us our very
 own gingerbread people to decorate.

Kindergartners enjoyed decorating their own
gingerbread people.

Our hard working kindergartners!

After deciding the gingerbread man was too quick for us,
we played a gingerbread math game to help us practice
writing numbers.

We were able to celebrate two birthdays in our classroom already.  Happy Birthday Izzy and Eden! We celebrate the birthday student throughout the day in our classroom.  The birthday child gets to be the leader and take home a poster made by the class.

Kindergartners create a birthday poster for Eden to bring home.

Thank you to everyone who came to visit at Open House.  Kindergartners were proud to make projects and get our space ready for families to see.

Wyatt, Taylor and Jack work on our "kindergarden"...

...Lily and Chana help with the finishing touches too.

123, 123...How many friends make 123? We enjoyed this literacy activity this week as we are still working on getting to know our classmates and practicing writing our names.

Students worked together to draw themselves and their friends.

Did you hear about the library?  Our class recently had their first visit.  Everyone got to choose a book.  Books can be kept at home for up to a week but can be brought back to school sooner.  Your child's book should travel back and forth to school in the while Dr. Suess book bags.  These bags were not in during the time of our visit so only children who have brought their first book back have received book bags.  In kindergarten, students may go to the library any day (or every day) during our learning centers.   This month we will be teaching students how to use the library independently.  Once kindergartners get the hang of how to use the library passes and the book keys in the library, they will be able to go to the library with a buddy...no teacher!  It's pretty fun to see them skip down the hall the first time they are allowed to go with just a friend!

Brylee and Corbin check out the reading tent in the library.

We continue to enjoy our sunny playground.  Remember to send a sweatshirt or jacket as the weather gets colder this week.

Enjoying the playground on one of the last summer days.

The climbing wall seems to be a kindergarten favorite this year.

Did you hear we had a visit from a Hopkinton Police Officer?  Thanks to Hayden's dad, Officer O'Connor for stopping in to read us a Curious George book.

Everyone had lots of questions for Officer O'Connor. Thanks for sharing your dad Hayden!

Celebrating the first day of Fall...

...with some silly faces!

Welcome to the School Year!

It has been a pleasure to be back at school with such a wonderful group of kindergartners!  It is going to be another great year of learning and growing.  We are taking the time to learn about one another and how to take care of our classroom. The focus of the first days of school (and this upcoming week too) was building the foundation for a cooperative and caring classroom community. Students explored tools and learning centers that we will be using all school year long.

Rowan builds a rocket ship using pattern blocks.

Taylor explores the rice in the sand table.

Eden enjoys a feast in the dramatic play learning center.

Kingston uses the fancy scissors at the writing center.

Wyatt uses playdough at the fine motor center.

Autumn explores with playdough too.  Thanks to
Lily's family for donating playdough to our class!

Jack reads a story after snack time.

Noah and Hayden play with dinosaurs in the block center.

Connor and Camden share marbles using the marble maze.

Brylee uses the iPads for the first time.

Hayden, Lucy and Lily use the iPads.
Thanks to everyone who sent in headphones.

Izzy sorts animals during center time.

We've also really enjoyed our time on the playground.  Together we are learning about playground expectations and meeting new friends from all of the kindergarten classes.

Chana, Lily and Autumn swing together.

Corbin tries the monkey bars.

Making new friends inside....and outside.

As the year goes on, we will add more text to the blog and have students update the blog with their own words. I will also update the blog with links to websites or other tools we are using in the classroom. On a really hot afternoon this week, students were introduced to TumbleBooks.  The TumbleBook Library  is an online collection of animated, talking picture books that students love.  Harold Martin pays for a subscription to this website but you can use it at home too.  The link is also listed on the right side of the blog.  The username is: haroldmartin. The password is: hms.

This week we will continue to focus on building a strong foundation for our classroom community. Mrs. Jones, our district's numeracy specialist will visit our class for our first math lesson on Monday. We will also get to visit with our school librarians on Tuesday when our class is introduced to the school's library.  On Wednesday, don't forget Open House is from 6:00-7:00. Friday our class will get a visit from our school guidance counselor, Mrs. Kleiner to begin our weekly guidance lessons.  Phew...sounds like our first five day week will be a busy one!

Last, but not least, I would like to thank everyone for their patience as we develop our classroom routine.  It takes time teaching four, five and six year olds all of the different parts of our day.  Soon they all will be very independent and know exactly the type of milk they drink and how they are getting home.  Until then, all of the notes and emails about where your child is headed after school are VERY helpful. 

Thank you for sharing your wonderful children with us. I'm looking forward to a great year!

Wrapping Up Kindergarten by Guest Bloggers Anthony, Amelia and Helena

We've enjoyed our time together in kindergarten! Over this past school year our classroom has become a close community!! As the year comes to a close, we've spent time reflecting on our year. Here are a few of the activities we've done in the past few weeks as told by Guest Bloggers Anthony, Amelia and Helena.

We have been writing and making pretty things to
finish our journals.  We are going to take them home today.
We wrote about a time we were kind. Some examples 
of our writing were,"I helped my friends work
 out a problem." "I gave a very special flower to a friend when he was sad."
We also wrote about a time when we tried something new.
We wrote letters to next year's kindergartners too. 

We were drawing ourselves and coloring in our
friends for a special page at the end of our journal.

We spent time making patterns and sorting with manipulatives.
We used fruit, car, bear, animal and inch worm manipulatives.

We got to meet the Veterans at our Memorial Day assembly.  We thanked

 them when we were leaving the assembly.

We recited a poem called I Promise for the rest of the school and
the Veterans.  Everyone really liked it.

A high school student got to visit our classroom for the morning.
He was learning about becoming a teacher.
He loved us.  We loved him too.  He was lots of fun!

We had WIN group performances to wrap up our WIN groups this year.
Each group came up with an idea, play or a poem to share with the group.
We liked watching our friends from all of the kindergartens!

This group read Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

We hoped you liked reading our blog post. By Anthony and Amelia and Helena

Science Centers...Exploring Bubbles by Guest Bloggers Lilly Mae and Kameron

We've finished all of our assessments and are wrapping up our science lessons too. Our class loved reading Scholastic News this year.  One of this month's topics was about bubbles.  We also learned about experiments that scientists conduct. We decided to conduct some of our own experiments. Guest Bloggers Lilly Mae and Kameron describe our science centers.

Anthony was blowing bubbles in soaping water.
We made predictions about what would happen
when you blow bubbles in soapy water.

When we blew the bubbles our faces got a ton of
bubbles on them at the bubble center.

At this center, we blew bubbles but in a different way.
We had fun. You had to blow slowly so the bubbles wouldn't pop.

We used shaving cream at one center. It was all over the
table. We made designs, letters, numbers and drawings
with our fingers in the shaving cream.

Owen really liked the shaving cream table. He got it everywhere!

We wrote messages in the shaving cream too.

At this center, we poured and measured water
with bubbles in it.

Kameron used a pot to scoop bubbles. Owen used a cup
and Tyler used a shovel to scoop up the bubbles.

This day was fun and we made a big mess...but it was a clean mess because there were soapy bubbles everywhere!