EOY Information

We are in the home stretch with only 4 more days of kinder to go! Can you believe it?! Here are a few important dates:

Wednesday, June 19th- Kindergarten Beach Day with all kinder classes
Thursday, June 20th- Last day for students-- report cards issued

Wow! I can't believe our Kinders are turning into first graders! I'm so glad that all of you agreed to be pen pals with me over the summer so I can hear all about your amazing summer and adventures in 1st grade. I was so excited this weekend when I checked my mail and had 3 letters from my first grade writers! I can't wait to receive letters from all of you :)


With the end of the school year quickly approaching, we will begin Unit 5 Math assessments on Monday, June 3. Kinders have been learning all about flat (2D) and solid (3D) shapes. I think it is safe to say they are shape experts! Check out Abbey building a pyramid:

Happy Birthday!!

Happy 6th birthday, Ava!!

100 Days Smarter!!

Wow!!! Do you believe we have been in Kindergarten for 100 days? Time sure does fly when you are learning and having fun!



Miss Minardi and I couldn't wait to see all of our wonderful kinders all grown up. When they came to class, I didn't even recognize them!! If they were 100, that makes me... REALLY OLD!


Our wonderful parents came in to help. They worked at our four 100th day centers. Aubrey's mommy ran our snack center. At this center, kinders sorted snacks into groups of 10 to make yummy trailmix. Before they could dig in, they practiced counting to 100 by 10's.






Isabella's mommy ran our "What Can You Do In 100 Seconds?" center. At this center, Kinders estimated how many time they thought they could do a specific task and then actually did it. After they were finished, they compared their estimations with the actual numbers. They had a ball!






Abigail's mommy ran our "100 year old me" center. Earlier in the week, kinders wrote what they would have or be in 100 years. Abbey's mom helped them make a self portriat of themselves when they are 100. How funny!





Anthony's mommy ran the "100th Day Hat" center. At this center, kinders worked on adding groups of 10 stickers, stamps, dots, etc. to their hats. When they finished, they practiced couting to 100 by 10's and 1's.





Thank you to all of my awesome parents who sent in the yummy treats for our snack center, came in to lend a helping hand, and dressed their kiddies up like they were 100.

Chinese New Year

This week, we learned all about the Chinese New Year. Mrs. Andaloro shared some really great books that taught us many new things about the Chinese culture. Our kiddos couldn't get enough!! With any free time they had throughout the week, I would find them in our book nook checking out some of these awesome books.




At the end of the week, kinders shared two things they learned about the Chinese New Year with the class. Kyah shared that she learned friends and family give red envelopes filled with money. They use the color red because it symbolizes good luck. She also shared that her favorite part of the Chinese New Year is the dragon in the New Year parade. Just like the color red, the dragon also is thought to bring good luck.

Check out Kyah's wonderful illustrations.

Sorry for the sideways picture--no matter what I did, I couldn't get the picture to turn :(


Happy 6th birthday, Brady!!

Writing

Wow!! Our kinder's writing has really come a long way since the beginning of the year. We have been working very hard on sounding out words, writing all of the sounds we hear, and sentence structure. Once we begin the next unit in Fundations, you will see an even bigger difference in your child's writing.

During our writing block, students do 1 of 3 things:
1. Independently write in their journals (this is a time that they get to take what they learned and apply it in their own writing)
2. Work on writing mini lessons in a small group
3. Participate in whole group interactive writing

Here is a peek into one of our interactive writing lessons:


Before writing, kinders brainstormed and shared everything they know about sentences.
1. Sentences begin with a capital letter.
2. There is a period at the end of a sentence.
3. There are spaces in between words.
4. You need words to make sentences.

I provided our sentence starter, "I love my," and kiddos helped me sound out each word. After modeling, we pair-shared things we love, and kinders had a chance to stretch out their words on the whiteboard.

Some things that we love:
family
mom
dad
sister
cousin
elf

Once we finished our whole group lesson, each student had a chance to independently write about what they love in their writing journals.

At home, encourage your kinder to write, write, write!!

...and we're BACK!

Last week we learned all about Martin Luther King and how awesome he was! We read a story called Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King. We learned that MLK made it possible for everyone to be treated the same. At the end of our story, kinders brainstormed and share what their dreams for the future were. Even though they are little, doesn't mean they can't have BIG dreams!

Ryan has a dream to be just like Martin Luther King! How awesome?!

Leilani has a dream to help every animal on the planet!

Loving how wonderful my kiddos are!! They continue to amaze me everyday :)




We began our guided reading groups and our kinders are reading away! Be sure to check your kiddos backpack for their guided reading folder each week.

Happy 6th birthday, Kyah! Thank you for sharing those delicious cupcakes!

ASSESSMENTS, ASSESSMENTS, ASSESSMENTS!!

My apologies! I haven't had a free second to update our blog with all of the assessing going on in Kindergarten--math, DIBELS, and marking period assessments. I'm sure your kinders are exhausted because I sure am!! Please forgive me :( Our blog will be up and running again next week (hopefully). Thank you for being so patient.

SIGHT WORDS!

This week, your kinder was introduced to their second sight word of the year: the. Make sure you practice reading and writing sight words at home.

Words to practice: I, the


Te'Asia and Tyler practicing reading the sight word "the" in The Snowman.

Word Work:

50th Day!

Can you believe we've been in Kindergarten for 50 days already?! Time flies when your having fun :)

Check out our 50's kids dressed to impress for the 50th day of school:

Mr/Mrs. Kueny, Mrs. Gasparovic, and Mrs. Ferriera came in to lend a helping hand at our 50th day centers.


Mr. Kueny ran the record center where kinders traced, cut out, and made records that had numbers that were greater than or less than 50.

Ava working on her "less than 50" record.


Mrs. Gasparovic ran our coke float center. At this center, kinders made predictions whether they thought the ice cream would sink or float in the coke. Almost all of their predictions were right! After helping make the floats and taste testing, kinders graphed if they liked or disliked the floats.

Mrs. Ferriera ran the "Then and Now" snack table where we got to enjoy yummy hot

dogs for snack. During snack, kinders compared things from the 1950's and now.


Our last center was "Race to 50!" Ask your kinder how to play at home!

Thanksgiving Feast!

Our Indian and Pilgrim friends enjoying our Thanksgiving Feast :)

Batty for Kinder

We got to meet with our 4th grade buddies from Ms. Lyon's class. Kinders and 4th graders listened to the story Bat Jamboree. After the story was over, our buddies helped us with our fine motor skills--tracing and cutting our batty craft.

After making our bats, our 4th grade buddies shared some really fun Halloween books with our kinders. We can't wait to meet with our buddies again next month!

Kyah and her buddies reading.



In Literacy, we have been working hard on retelling and sequencing events in a story. We read the story There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat and kinders practiced sequencing and retelling with a buddy. Our friends loved this activity and we can't wait to practice again with There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves!

In Math, we have been working hard solving addition and subtraction number stories. For Halloween, we read a book called Ten Timid Ghosts . As we read the story, we practiced subtraction with our "10 ghosts" and a "haunted house."

Kinders took their ghosts and haunted houses home with them to practice their subtraction with you!


We continued to practice addition and subtraction in our centers. We are doing a really great job! Check out Reagan adding pumpkins:

Here's a peek into some of our centers last week...

Tyler and Abby working hard at our Fundations center.

Kayleigh and Anthony practicing counting and writing their numbers at the Smartboard center.

Ryan and Anthony comparing numbers at the Math center. We have been working greater than, less than, and equal to.


And....last, but not least, a BIG thank you to my wonderful room mom, Mrs. Gasparovic, and all of my amazing parents who helped make our Halloween party a huge success :)

Happy Birthday Reagan!

Reagan has been talking about her birthday all week! On Friday, she brought in some yummy munchkins to share with all of her friends. Thank you, Reagan :)

Happy 6th birthday!

Fire Safety

This week we learned all about fire safety. Before starting our unit, we went on a picture walk. Students worked with partners and visited various pictures around them room. They shared what they knew and thought of fire safety tips at each picture with their buddy.

Emma and Tyler discussing how you should never play with matches.

Reagan sharing what she knew about feeling a door before opening it.


We also read books and watched some really cool videos all about fire safety.

...and even played fire math games!

By Friday, we were all fire EXPERTS! Our firefighter friends were pretty impressed with how much our kinders knew! We met Sparky, fireman Raso, and fireman Bob.

Fireman Bob brought all of his fire equipment with him, and showed us how they get dressed to fight a fire. We learned what each piece was and why firemen use it.

Shapes all around us!

This week was all about shapes. We read a ton of shape books, including one of our favorites, Ed Emberley's The Wing on a Flea: A Book about Shapes.

The book taught us that shapes are all around us, we just have to look close to find them. After reading, kinders had a chance to find different shapes around our classroom. Some of us even found some shapes during snack time!

Reagan found a circle and Anthony found a rectangle.

Isabella found a circle, too!

Aubrey and her rectangle snack.

We've been working on a class book about shapes during writer's workshop. Check out Emily's wonderful writing!!

An oval can be a surfboard.

We also worked and some fun shape centers this week.

Te'Asia sorting objects by shape.

Some friends playing shape BINGO with Mrs. Harverson.

Ava working on her shape book.

Learning all about shapes with the shape song.