June 3, 2011

Wild Learning in Kindergarten

-The reading strategies we practiced this week included rereading and identifying cause and effect.

-During writing, we finished up our pirate books.

-We also worked on a memory book this week.  We drew pictures and wrote about some of our kindergarten memories.

-In math, we finished up by practicing some addition problems.  We had a picture and needed to figure out how the addition problems fit with the picture.

-Our community centers this week included some of our favorite centers that we have had throughout the year.

-This is the last post of the year!  I have loved working with you all!  It's been great having such supportive parents!  I have also really enjoyed teaching your child.  It is amazing how much growth they have made over the year.  Watching all the growth your child has made is one of my favorite parts of teaching kindergarten!  Have a great summer!! 

May 27, 2011

Wild Learning in Kindergarten

-Continue reviewing heart words so your child can read and spell them correctly.

-The reading strategies we worked on this week included rereading and using the illustrations when we do not understand something.

-In writing, we started creating a fiction book about pirates looking for treasure.

-During our math time, we practiced solving addition and subtraction problems.

-A few of our community centers this week had a pirate theme to them.  At our art center, we made telescopes out of paper towel tubes.  In dramatic play, we reenacted a pirate song about someone looking for treasure.  We also made our own treasure maps.

May 20, 2011

 

Wild Learning in Kindergarten

-We are all finished with heart words.  Review old heart words!

-We read some dinosaur books this week and practiced asking questions to ourselves to help us better understand the story.  We also worked on distinguishing between fantasy and reality while we read the dinosaur books.

-As a class this week, we wrote a fiction story about a lost caterpillar!  We practiced brainstorming, using transitional words, and creating a story that has a beginning, middle, and end.

-In math, we were introduced to two new math centers.  One math center gives us "blue prints".  From these "blue prints", we have to build a 3-D creation.  The other math center works with pattern blocks.  We have to manipulate the pattern blocks so they all fit together and fill one large shape.

-Our science time focused on learning about some of the body parts of butterflies.  We also learned about some of the functions of those body parts.  One of our favorite activities was acting out the life cycle of a butterfly.  While we were a butterfly, we were able to apply some of the information we learned about butterfly body parts.

-Many of our community centers continued to follow our butterfly theme.  We really enjoyed our art center!  We cut out a butterfly, painted one side of it, folded it in half and discovered that it made the exact same design on the other side!

-On Thursday, we played a little game to learn that Mrs. Matulis is having a boy!  Afterward, we enjoyed a special blue treat!

May 13, 2011

Wild Week of Learning in Kindergarten

-Last heart word of the week: where

-The reading strategy that we focused on this week was categorizing.  We practiced thinking about how to group things together.

-During our writing time, we did a variety of activities.  As a class, we practiced using the words "first", "next", "then", "last", to write about the life cycle of a butterfly.  Also, we added some writing to our butterfly garden.  We made labels and speech bubbles to teach people what is in the garden.

-For math, we added a new center called, Frog Jump Measuring.  We jump like a frog and measure how far we were able to jump.

-In science, our focus this week was learning more about caterpillars.

-Our community centers were once again full of butterfly activities.  One of our favorite activities was making a caterpillar out of grass seed, dirt, nylons, and pipe cleaners.

-This week, we also had the opportunity to work in the garden!

May 6, 2011

Wild Learning in Kindergarten

-Heart word of the week: me

-The reading strategy we focused on this week was asking ourselves questions while we are reading.

-In math, we finished up making and solving our frog and toad story problems.

-For science, we began our unit on butterflies.  This week, we focused on the life cycle of a butterfly.  We also created a butterfly garden within our classroom.  We constructed plants and flowers.  We also made all the different stages of a butterfly and hung them in our garden.

-Our community centers were full of butterfly activities.  In our butterfly garden, we acted out the life cycle of a butterfly.  We also practiced retelling some butterfly books in our butterfly garden.  Another highlight from our centers this week was observing our caterpillars.  We enjoyed checking them out with magnifying glasses and writing about them in our butterfly journals. 

April 29, 2011

Wild Learning in Kindergarten

-Heart word of the week: my

-The reading strategies we practiced this week were making conclusions and figuring out the story structure.

-We finished our nonfiction book about plants this week.  We put it together, shared it with friends in our classroom, and shared it with Mrs. Ashley's class!

-In math, we created and solved frog story problems this week.  Some of them practiced addition and subtraction skills.  Others really made us think hard by having us comparing quantities and putting frogs into groups.

-Our theme focus for the week was on recycling.  We read some books about the importance of recycling and some ways we can recycle.  We were also visited by Princess Wasteful.  We were able to teach her some different ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

-Our creation station was a highlight of our community centers this week.  Many of us spent most of the week at this center.  Another highlight is our recycle center in our dramatic play area.  At this center, we practiced sorting recyclable materials.

April 21, 2011

Wild Learning in Kindergarten

-Heart word of the week: with

-We read a variety of stories this week and practiced the reading strategy of retelling.

-We have enjoyed two different writing projects this week.  One project focused on writing a nonfiction book about plants.  Our other focus was on writing poetry.  We learned about writing poems that describe something, poems that have onomatopoeias (sound words), and pattern poems.  On Friday, we were able to publish our favorite poem!

-In math, we started solving a new batch of story problems.  For these story problems, we used pictures and numbers to help us solve them.

-We continued our focus on plants this week.  We looked closely at the different parts of plants and what their job is.  We also went over various plants parts that we eat.

-Many of our community centers were the same this week.  Our flower shop has remained open and we are enjoying arranging flowers and delivering them around the classroom.  We also have dirt with lima beans in our science table.  It has been a lot of fun watching the beans in the dirt start to grow roots and a stem.  A new center this week focused on examining and sorting seeds.  We used tweezers to help us pick up the seeds, which also helped us with our fine motor skills (hand and finger muscles).