BIG DAY! (drum roll please)

Today was a big day. We are now proud owners of a classroom Ipad. It was like Christmas for me. I cannot tell you how excited I am to be able to have this tool in our classroom. I am going to be doing a lot of research on ways to use them in kindergarten. Our Ipads will be used to administer accurate assessments and give me instructional feedback and strategies to catapult our learning !

I did manage to take some pictures with our new Ipad. I  caught the kids working really hard in learning centers....see you yourself!

These photos are proof of how hard they are working on sounding out words and building words. I'm amazed!!
 

Playing - MELTED SNOWMAN!!!

Building Words!

Look at all the words we can sound out!

Just Chillin' in Kindergarten !

Its been a WHILE!

First of all....I hope everyone had a great holiday season. We have been really busy since we got back to school. It has not been easy getting back to the grind but we are managing. 

Since returning to school, we have talked about the winter season. We have discussed how animals and humans prepare for the changing seasons.This week we are having fun talking about snow and blizzards.

Its been really hard to teach about the seasons when its 60 outside!!! I think the kids think their teacher is crazy at times. 

We have also started working really hard on sounding out words with CVC patterns. Today we talked about vowels (only touched on this in the past). We  practiced sounding out words with silent e ( cake, take, make, bake etc.). I have to say they have already blown me away. I think we were ready for a challenge! 

In math, we have been working really hard on solving word problems. We discussed how we can solve and picture problems in our minds. 

I'll apologize for no rotation- I uploaded from my phone ...sorry!

Working on  word families with friends!

Math Journals

You will see in the picture, we are using illustrations to solve mathematical problems in our math journals.

I have attached a few pictures from our first few days back. 

I promise to do better blogging in the coming weeks!!!

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!