Your a Mean one MR. GRINCH!!!

How the Grinch Stole Christmas is a classic story. It is one of my favorite books of all time. I remember when my teachers read this story to me. They made the story come alive while helping me to understand the meaning of Christmas.  I hope I have managed to make it just as special for our kids. 

What some may see as a silly rhyming book....I see as a teaching opportunity. This week we have talked about characters, setting, author's purpose and how characters can change throughout a story. 

Learning about basic story elements is a critical part of reading success and reading comprehension. 

We also thought about how we would make the Grinch feel less "Grinchy". We brainstormed ways to make The Grinch grin. The kids came up with some really great ideas. You can view all of our ideas on our December bulletin board.

Today, Mrs Pat made a really great GRINCHY punch. It was delicious! Cheers to the holidays and to the weekend. 

 How to make a GRINCH GRIN...

All Aboard the Mayflower!!!

All aboard the Mayflower. We took a little time to imagine what it would be like as a young child on the Mayflower. The kids had a great time thinking of what they would say. I have listed some of the quotes we thought of in class.

" I miss land"
"I miss my toys"
"I am going to be sick"
" I do not feel good "
" I want to play"
" I am squished"
" I miss my own bed"

Turkey....where?!?!?

Wow...good luck finding a Turkey on Thanksgiving if they learn to disguise themselves like our cleaver Turkeys. 

We have some wonderful family projects for November. Thank you so much for helping make this wonderful project a great success. 

To see all our wonderful creations, please visit our classroom display outside of our classroom.  

I look forward to seeing what you come up with next month!

Election Day Videos from Class!

I wanted to include some videos we will use this week as we discover our new president and learn about past presidents. 

We will also briefly cover coins and money too!

 

Word on the street.VOTE!

 
 

Election Day....in K!

Our school recently took part in our own "presidential election". As a school we voted and elected Mr. Mitt Romney to be the next president of the United States. It was VERY close. 

 I have always heard school elections are a great predictor of actual elections. I guess we shall see tomorrow night...... (or maybe by December ha ha)!

Anyways, we have been talking about elections and voting within our classroom as well. We have worked hard on vocabulary. We have learned about polls, ballots and candidates. Surprisingly, the kids have done very well applying the new vocabulary.

We took a short walk to the library on Friday. We got to visit a real polling place and see what it was like for real voters. The kids learned you must be 18 to vote. To become a president you must be at least 35 and be born in the United States. 

Remember.....GO VOTE Tomorrow!

* I also included a few Halloween Pictures of sorting candy and our classroom pumpkin. Enjoy!

All About Bats!

Okay parents....I know I just posted yesterday but these books were too cute not to post. Today the kids proved they have been listening! We made books today that focused on our unit vocabulary words. ONCE AGAIN....I am one happy teacher! They did a super job on the illustrations and the writing. Most importantly, they knew the content.  Please look for these books to come home. Read them with your children and enjoy!!!

Going batty!

We are going Batty in Kindergarten!!
 We are learning about bats this week and we are reading plenty of nonfiction books. The children came up with a list of questions they wanted to answer about bats. We are working on answering questions in multiple ways. We have used texts and thinking maps to chart what we are learning. On Tuesday, we used a venn diagram to compare bats and birds. I have added a picture of our comparison below. We also took some time to write down some information we learned from our morning read aloud.

Today we will begin looking at some fiction texts and discussing elements of fantasy stories. One of my personal favorites is Stellaluna. You can find this particular story online at 

 http://www.storylineonline.net/
( You will have to search for the books....but this is a great read aloud)

Enjoy the pictures below!

* Check our our BEST ATTENDANCE award! *

Spider Facts!

Its only Tuesday and we are learning so many interesting facts about spiders.  These are just a few writing samples from today. We may have the best writers in Kindergarten.What do you think? The children are already showing progress.
The writing process in kindergarten can come easily for some while others may develop writing skills more slowly. You will notice the punctuation, spaces between words and some phonetic spelling. I have been stressing the the kids....IF YOU HEAR IT YOU WRITE IT!

I have also been encouraging them to sing our sight word songs as we write. The writers featured here were able to correctly spell many of he words they used. I am one proud teacher tonight!!!

Row Row Row Your Pumpkin!

The past few weeks have just been a crazy roller coaster. There have been so many special events going on in our school. I finally feel like we may get back on a normal schedule.
We finished up our pumpkin investigations on Thursday with our sink or float activities.
Here are a few pictures of our floating pumpkin, our observation journal and one of our pumpkins at the wedding on Thursday. Our cute little pumpkins made beautiful decorations and added a pop of fall color to the ceremony.

The children will have their pumpkins returned tomorrow and we hope to decorate them soon!
At the end of the month, we will carve our class pumpkin and revisit our unit from this past week.

Next week we will begin our unit of study on Spiders and Bats!

The kids also got to watch this fun video of from the Pumpkin Regatta!

Would you like to ride a in a Pumpkin Boat?

Picking Perfect Pumpkins!

We started our pumpkin unit of study today. The children got to pick out a perfect pumpkin to study. They will be drawing their pumpkin in their math journals. We will measure and conduct several experiments.
We will discover if a pumpkin will sink or float!
I will keep you updated on our predictions and outcomes!

 On a funny note....our perfect little pumpkins will also be featured in a very special wedding this week. That's right, our pumpkins have a wedding to attend. My brother in law will be getting married on Thursday 10.11.12....and his future wife asked to borrow our pumpkins for her tables. So today, the kids helped me give the pumpkins a bath and get them ready for the big day. They thought it was hilarious! They were so sweet when I asked them if I could borrow their special pumpkins. They all happily obliged. What a bunch of sweeties!!!

Nature Center!!

I don't know about the kids but I sure am worn out! We had the perfect day at the Nature Center. We could not have asked for better weather or better kids for that matter. They were so well behaved. The classes that we attended on reptiles were also wonderful. It was nice to see the kids remembering and applying the knowledge they have gained in the classroom.

Thanks to all the parents who helped us today. You guys were so helpful. We could not have made it without you.

Next week, we are planning to compose our first nonfiction piece of writing about our favorite animal at the Nature Center. I will try to post some examples of our work. Please talk with your children about their favorite exhibits this weekend.

In all the hustle and bustle, I did manage to capture a few moments today. Enjoy!

I have more so stay posted....have a great long weekend!!!

Caught Working Hard!

I am doing great today....two posts in one day!  I was walking around the room the other day and happened to snap a few shots of some of our babies. I have to say, they are the best listeners! We have practiced our learning work stations for about four weeks now. They listen so well we are able to visit two stations a day! I always love to catch them working hard. I was ecstatic because they were practicing all the reading strategies and phonics skills I have been teaching in class.  Below you will find pictures of us reading around the room, matching letters and working on our new student computer!

 

 

 

What hard workers we have!

 

 

 

 

I got to meet Dr. Jean!

This past weekend, I had the privileged to go an listen to Dr. Jean Feldman. Mrs. Hunter allowed all of our lower grade teachers to attend. If you have no idea what I'm talking about....I understand. Have you ever heard your child sing the "Tooty Ta" ??? If so you know Dr. Jean. Dr. Jean inspired us all to remember why we love teaching. We discussed the importance of literacy in the early grade classrooms. I encourage you to take a look at her webpage. She has monthly games and ideas for not only teachers to use but parents too!! The best thing about all her literacy and math ideas...they are easy, cheap and they WORK!

To learn more about Dr. Jean visit her at    www.drjean.org

This is probably one of my favorite songs from Dr. Jean :) I included two versions!!! I use the second video in class. I hope you can enjoy them at home.



Stop Drop and ROLL!!!!!

This week we have been talking about community helpers. We have focused a lot on firefighteres, police, teachers, builders and doctors. Next week our Old Fort Fire Department will be visiting for our annual fire prevention program. The children have practiced how to stay safe in the event of a fire. Please make sure you read all the great community helper books we have made this week. The books should go in your child's book box. I hope you enjoy reading them with your child. Check out this STOP, DROP and ROLL video we have used in class. Its quite catchy!!!

WE LOVE APPLES!

Teaching our Apple unit is probably one of my most favorite themes. I don't know about you, but when I see pumpkins and apples come out in the stores....I'M READY FOR FALL! I literally love everything about it.
We are going to be busy this week. We will be connecting our apple unit to our five senses.
Here are some questions we will be learning how to answer! We will even be putting our five senses to use.....with lots of tasting. YUMMY!

How do apples grow? How do apples change during the seasons?

Can  I hear, smell, taste, see and touch apples? How?

How does an apple get from a tree to our plate?

How can we describe apples?

What products can we make or buy made from apples?

Lastly, I will leave you two songs we will be using in class. I LOVE APPLES!

 

5 Senses

Letter Reversals.....try this trick!

I have had several parents ask about letter reversals. This is very common in both first and kindergarten. This is the best way I have found to combat the reversal of B and D. I think this trick is age appropriate and easy to remember. I hope this helps yourguys at home.

Also, don't panic when you see your child has written his/her name backwards. Usually this is just developmental. For some of our little ones, we are just learning the direction in which we read and write. There will be times you see your child forget  and as a result.....a well written name BACKWARDS!

Have an awesome Sunday!

Sorting, Patterns and Graphing....OH MY!

Wow, where is time going? Its almost the middle of September. We have been super busy learning many concepts. We have been working hard on learning to sort and make patterns. During a recent lesson we played a game with sorting. I sorted the children into groups and they had to guess my sorting rule. We sorted by hair color, eye color, shoes/flipflops, boys/girls and tall friends and shorter friends.

We have also been taking the sorting information and creating graphs. We have graphed our hair color, eye colors and the numbers of boys and girls in our classroom. We have been trying to use fancy words like DATA and ANALYZE. I know those are big words for small minds....but you would be surprised at what they can soak up!

Try some of these sorting activities at home. You could sort laundry, pets, toys, shoes....you name it!


***** Thank you so much- for helping your child with their reading treasure boxes. The boxes are on display until the end of this week.....They were just too good not to leave out a little longer- Awesome job ********

First days....SINGING AND SPELLING!

We are already so busy learning routines and rules. We have also been doing a lot of reading too. We are working on singing and spelling many words. This week I have introduced the words red and one. We have worked on letter/sound and formations for letters Bb and Cc.
In my handbook, I mentioned Heidi Songs. Heidi Songs are my number ONE teaching tool. I love them and we use them daily. Teachers and kids have fun learning with Mrs. Heidi. I have attached a link to the Heidi Songs page. I wanted to let you know her resources are available for order. She also has many free videos on YouTube.

It has been a pleasure meeting and talking with each of you. We are really off to a wonderful start. I think I have laughed more this week than I have all summer. We are having a blast!
Please look for a September newsletter soon.....I apologize for not having it ready but we are still putting some dates on our calendars!

http://www.heidisongs.com/index.php
LINK FOR HEIDI SONGS- SONGS  THAT TEACH!

This is an example of a "Sight Word song"...you will be hearing them VERY SOON!

The Kissing Hand

School starts Monday! I was so happy to meet everyone the other night. I think this is going to be a great year. I know some of you may be nervous, but I promise we will make it together! Your child will be having fun before we know it, and all the butterflies will fade away.

The first day of Kindergarten is special, so I have a very special book to share. We will be reading The Kissing Hand (By:Audrey Penn) on the first day.  This book is about a little raccoon and how he copes with going to school for the first time. I have attached a video of the story. I hope you love it as much as I do.
See you on MONDAY!!!!
The Kissing Hand Story (Youtube)

OPEN HOUSE and NEW PRINCIPAL

Its almost time to start school. I am so excited.  I am looking forward to meeting each of you at OPEN HOUSE tomorrow. I really feel like this is going to be an awesome year. I have so many great ideas swimming around in my head.I think I have too many....I can't even sleep! I have to say its all because I work with some of the best teachers. We motivate one another and are really focused on making this year the best yet! So thank you to all of my fellow teachers......I love you guys!

If you have a chance, please stop in and meet our wonderful new principal. Her name is Mrs. Hunter. You can read more about her on the school page. She comes to Old Fort with high expectations for our students. She is going to be Kindergartens biggest cheerleader! We are so happy to welcome her into our family.

See you soon.....I can't wait to meet all of our sweet classroom friends!!!

Read more about our new Principal here: Click on MEET THE PRINCIPAL
http://mcdowell.fort.groupfusion.net/

Pete The Cat Craze!

I was out yesterday and I splurged on four books for the kids....and I'm so glad I did. First of all I won't have to beg and borrow and I can use them all year long. I'm not sure if many of you have heard about PETE THE CAT....but you should probably check him out. Author James Dean, has created a classic. Pete is a groovey laid back cat. I think we can all learn a little something from Pete. If I could suggest one book this year for a beginning kinder....it would have to be Pete the Cat Rocking In My School Shoes. I can't get enough of this cute furry kitten. Learn more about Pete with the link below and check out the video/song I have included for you to use with your kids!
Pete the Cat FREE Songs and Publishing Company

Whole Brain Teaching....wow!

I have been doing some research this summer on Whole Brain Teaching. I love this because it puts children in charge of teaching and taps into so many styles of learning. To the outside viewer this video may look odd at times and boring....however as a teacher, I can tell you that this class is fully focused and engaged. I would not use this method all day,but there are parts I really think could be beneficial to Kindergarten children. I think we are going to hear a lot more about WBT!

Common Core Kid Friendly Standards

Today I compiled a parent and kid friendly list of Common Core Statements. These statements are easy to read and tell you and your child what they should know by the end of kindergarten. Common Core is our National Standards. The goal of Common Core is to create graduates ready for the workforce and college entrance. Common Core gives us fewer standards to learn but plunges our students into deeper thinking and understanding.
I have linked a copy of the Common Core Parent/Kid Friendly Standards here.

Welcome to Mrs Hensley's Kindergarten. I am happy to welcome you to our classroom blog. This blog was created to connect parents, community, teachers and students. A blog is like an online journal. I will be giving you an inside look into our daily classroom learning, projectsand special events. I hope you find this blog helpful as we embark on the 2012-2013 school year together!