February Fun

A huge thank you to all of our parents who sent in donations for our Valentine's Day party!  The room was filled with excitement as students shared Valentines and snacks with each other. It truly was a special day and we appreciate your support! Check out our class reading a poem from Valentine's Day called I Like Hearts.

We delivered our own Valentines...

...and practiced reading our friends' names.

Fun times checking out our Valentines!

Our Fancy Friendship Party was a great time.

Our 100th day of school was filled with math activities. We practiced counting by 1s, 5s and 10s. We thought about 100 things we would like, 100 things we would not like and even read stories about 100th day.

100 days in kindergarten....

...time flies when you are having fun!

Have you heard our dramatic play area has turned into a flower shop?  We've been having a great time receiving and filling orders for flower bouquets. It's such a fun way to practice writing numbers, letters and working together.

Brylee and Lucy take an order in our flower shop.

Our class has been visiting the computer lab every week.  We've worked on creating labels and diagrams for our informational writing unit, practiced typing our names and using the SHIFT key as well as coding!  When we return to school, we will continue to learn about coding.

Kindergartners create diagrams in the computer lab.

Sometimes we work together and other times we work alone on a project.

Ready to add labels.

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.

Fall Fun

It's hard believe we just finished our sixth week of school!  As part of the Responsive Classroom approach to teaching, the first six weeks of school are spent laying the groundwork for a year that is productive and full of learning.  The thought is that by slowing down and taking the time to build a strong foundation in the first six weeks of school, the class will be able to move through the school year with increased motivation, cooperation, responsibility and self-control.  It certainly feels like the sixth week of school in our classroom.  There is already a strong sense of community where students and teachers respect each other.  Many new friendships have formed and everyone has a clear understanding of the classroom expectations.

In math, we've been busy learning proper number formation.  We've just completed Chapter 1 in our Math In Focus program which concentrates on numbers to 5 and the concepts, same and different. We will begin Chapter 2 this week and we will learn about numbers to 10. We are using poems to help us remember how to form each number.  We will send them home soon...be sure to ask your kindergartner about them. Keep practicing counting at home too!

Anthony and Beckett count out blocks together at a math center.

Owen demonstrates counting too.

Mrs. Jones, our district's numeracy specialist, also visited our
classroom this week.

We worked on counting out objects and
adding and taking away objects.

There was lots to do on the first day of Fall.  We began the day by reviewing the sight words I and see. We wrote this sentence on a sentence strips: I see leaves.  We broke the sentence apart by carefully cutting the spaces between words. Each kindergartner got a chance to hold a word as the class tried to put the words of the sentence in the right order.  We made a lot of silly sentences and had lots of laughs as we tried to put ourselves in the correct order.  After we practiced a few times, everyone got their own sentences to cut apart and build again.  We glued the sentences on to the colorful trees we made.

Eloise, Joab and Kameron work to build their sentences and cut out
the trees we made to celebrate Fall.

In literacy, we continue to work hard in our Fundations program.  We have been introduced to the letters and sounds of  t, b, f, m, n.  This week we will learn about vowels and their important job when we are introduced to i and u. We are also learning tons about books and how they work.  Kindergartners made their own I See A Rainbow book to keep in their book boxes and practice reading on their own.  

Makayla and Tyler work on their I See A Rainbow Books.

Jack and Oliver get ready to buddy read once their books are complete.

Book Buddy bags were sent home Friday.  Please practice reading the books sent home
 with your child for a night or two and then return them to school.  Your child will practice reading
new books at school and will then get to take those home too.  Practicing reading at home
is an important part of your child's literacy development. Some students have letters in their bags
to practice saying the name of the letter and the sound that it makes.

One of the highlights of the past two weeks has been visiting the computer lab.  Once a week, usually Fridays, we will work on a project in the lab.  Over the last two weeks we have introduced Kid Pix. Students learned how to log in, open the applications folder found on the dock and find Kid Pix.  Everyone used the program to draw an apple and type their name in a text box.  We learned how to use the shift key when typing our name and how to print our picture.  Next week we will write sentences on these pages and turn them into a book.  It was very tricky using the mouse!!  Most students were used to working on an iPad or a laptop without a mouse.  Next week, we will continue to practice using the mouse, the proper way to hold it and where to click when using it.

Eloise and Amelia show off the apples they made.

Tristan gets to work creating on Kid Pix too.

Makayla is proud of her Kid Pix creation.

We been so lucky with the weather since school has started...
only one indoor recess so far!

Recess is a wonderful time to make new friends in the other
kindergarten classes!