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.