KM’s Week in Review:

Monday:
This week we are talking about the letter Aa.  We will discuss both the short a sound and the long a sound this week.  We also had fun learning about ants!  Out of all of the insects, ants are the most intelligent!!  Hmmm. . .   J

Tuesday:

Today we read a fictional book about ants and taking a day off from all of their work.  It was very creative and the students enjoyed sharing their favorite part.  In math we discussed balancing and weighing different objects. 

Wednesday:

We spent some time creating words within the “an” family.  The students played a math game using beginning addition and subtraction math skills.  We also had a great time in PE and music.  We are also thankful the sun is shining!  J

Thursday:

We spent a lot of time today learning about the long vowel sound for a.  The students are doing well with the new skill.  We also celebrated the first day of December.  It is hard to believe we are in the month of December already!  J

Friday:

We spent some time today reviewing the short and long vowel sounds for the letter a.  The kids have had fun this week playing a math train game!  Each child has a new guided reading book and it would be wonderful if they were able to read the book to someone at home. 

All About Me:

Claire Brotea

Reminders:

Nov.21

KM’s Week in Review:

Monday:

Learning about the history of Thanksgiving was interesting.  The students seemed to really enjoy learning about how simple the lives were of the early settlers.  We talked about all of the things we are thankful for in our lives.  We also were able to go to the computer lab and work on the computers. 

Tuesday:

We had a blast today celebrating and preparing for Thanksgiving!  We had a lot of crafts, books and math activities all related to the upcoming holiday!  J  We also were able to get together with our Reading Buddies.  Our Reading Buddies are Mrs. Kalantzis third grade class.  Fun!

All About Me:

John Topolewski

I wish you and your loved ones a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving.  I am so thankful for all of the children in our class this year and I am also very thankful for all of you~the supportive parents!!  Thank you!

November 14-18

KM’s Week in Review:

Monday:
This week we are focusing on the letter Cc.  Our popcorn word this week is AND.  We had fun reciting Jack and Jill, creating scenery and acting it with our puppets.  J  Monster squeeze is a fun game to play in math. 

Tuesday:

In math we worked with the Pan Balance scale and learned about things being heavy and light. We also had fun playing Monster Squeeze and hope we can also play it at home from time to time.  In science we are learning about the four seasons and the reasons for seasons.  It was amazing to think about the Earth turning around each day as well as circling the sun for a year!

Wednesday:

We had “Jessica Germ” visit our classroom and learned all about germs and how they are spread.  We also discussed the correct steps in washing our hands and hope that we continue to do a good job. 

Thursday:

We read the Gingerbread Man today, made puppets and created scenery for retelling.  When we were done creating, we went to Mrs. Brown’s room and retold our stories to each other.  That was very fun!

Friday:
Since we were focusing on the letter Cc this week, we read the book Caps for Sale.  Then we did a sorting activity with the caps and also pretended to be monkeys!  J  Very fun!  The students created monkeys of their own which turned out really cute!

All About Me:
Week of November 28^th, is John Topolewski

Reminders:

NO SCHOOL from November 23^rd-27^th.  Happy Thanksgiving!!  J

Fall Party Pictures

photo sharing and slideshows - klhartmann7 albums - photo printing - photo books

October 24-28th

KM’s Week in Review:

Monday:
Today we read the book Pumpkin, Pumpkin and sequenced the story.  The kids did a wonderful job with this.  In math we worked on number order and continue to work on rote counting by 1s.  We are excited to do our “pumpkin science” and will begin that tomorrow. 

Tuesday:

Today we worked on estimating in math and see how it can come in handy for us.  We also worked on sorting skills in math and discussed different ways you can sort.  We began the pumpkin science activities and are having fun completing them!  Writing the capital letter R can be difficult, but if we take our time, we can do it well. 

Wednesday:

We discussed the similarities and differences between apples and pumpkins.  We are amazed at how many similarities and differences between the two!  Another day of pumpkin science and working on our estimations was fun as well.

Thursday:

Today we read Peter Rabbit and wrote a letter to Benjamin Bunny and created a list of the foods in the story.  There sure were a lot of vegetables!  We tied in a discussion on good nutrition.  We finished our pumpkin science! The biggest pumpkin we had was 12 pounds and the smallest was one pound.  Thank you to all of the students who brought in a pumpkin for everyone to use.  J

Friday:

Busy, Busy, Busy!!  We had a great time reading another nonfiction book about pumpkins and a fiction book about pumpkin seeds.  We learned more fun pumpkin facts.  We also had fun in PE playing an “emergency” game and rolled around a lot on the scooters.  We were tuckered out!

All About Me:

Samuel Jenkins

Reminders:

Halloween Parade begins at 1:50 on Monday, October 31^st.

Please send in a double healthy snack on Monday.  One snack will be eaten during the morning snack time and the other snack will be eaten during our Fall Party.

Please return any LMC books that may be overdue. 

October 17-21

KM’s Week in Review:

Monday:
Today we read a nonfiction book on bats and learned a lot of interesting facts!  Bats are not harmful to people; they help our environment.  J  We also made bats to hang from our ceiling.  It looks creepy!

Tuesday:

Today we read one of Mrs. Magnussen’s favorite books, Stellaluna.  We also were able to take a “quiz” on the computer to test our knowledge on bats.  We did really well.  We played the “number game” in math and we had fun with our partners.

Wednesday:

We are becoming bat experts!!  Another nonfiction book, from National Geographic, filled us with more specific information about bats.  We also read a counting book with bats and made a class book for the parents to see at conferences. 

Thursday:

We finished all of our Jolly Phonics sounds today!!  Our last sound book is coming home tonight.  We love to stretch out words we are reading.  We use our “rubber band or sticky bubble gum."  Our five senses are very important to us and it was cool writing about the things we like to see, hear, taste, smell and touch in the fall. 

Friday:

All of us were able to paint a red, magic pebble!  We think it is so much fun to paint and to add glitter.  We also were able to paint in art today and create a scene of a pumpkin patch. 

All About Me:

Kate Wohlfeil

Reminders:
Parent/Teacher conferences are quickly approaching.  Please watch for a reminder in your child’s folder.  Check the day and time and please send the slip back to let me know if the day and time still work for you.  Thank you!

October 10-14th

Weekly Review

Monday:
Hopefully everyone was able to go outside and enjoy the spectacular fall weather today!!  J

Tuesday:

We learned the popcorn word for this week is my.  We are also focusing on the letter Mm, while working on rhyming patterns.  The class learned a lot of information on Christopher Columbus and we were able to make a craft with the three ships he used to sail the ocean. 

Wednesday:

Boy, were we busy this morning getting a lot of great learning activities in this morning before our noon dismissal!  We are doing a great job in Daily 5 with Reading to Self and Writing.  We read a very funny book today titled Rhyming Dust Bunnies.  We practiced rhyming words after reading. 

Thursday:

Today we had our first Math Centers.  We were able to rotate classrooms and math centers to experience several math activities.  We were sorting, patterning, counting and creating shapes.  We wrote the letter Qq and found out when we see the letter Q, U always follows it!  J

Friday:

Silly Sally is a funny, funny story with great rhyming patterns!  We also worked in our journal today and we are getting better at stretching our words out.  In art we found out we will be painting next Friday and the students are really excited!  We also enjoyed learning about Corina.  J

All About Me:

Adam Hasan

Reminders:

Picture day is Thursday, October 20^th.  Please remember to send in your picture form with your child on Thursday the 20^th or before.  Thank you!

October 3-7, 2011

KM’s Week in Review:

Monday:   We began introducing our popcorn words today!  This week’s popcorn word is a.  We are reading many books this week and making text to text connections between the books.  Ask your child what connections the books Goldilocks and the Three Little Bears and The Three Little Pigs have in common.  We also discussed shapes we see in our world and made a shape collage in math.  Thanks for all of the magazine donations!  They will come in handy throughout the year.  J

Tuesday:  We loved reading and making connections between the two books The Enormous Watermelon and The Enormous Carrot!   Some of the kids said they would want an enormous watermelon and a few of the students said they would like an enormous carrot.  In art we are creating pumpkin patches and we will be painting next week.  The students are excited about painting and using their art smocks!! 

Wednesday:
We compared two new stories today~The Umbrella and One-Dog Canoe.  One Dog Canoe was a funny story!  We also learned the Jolly Phonics song for the letter Yy.  We learned more about our five senses while we took a trip with Ms. Frizzle and the Magic School Bus!

Thursday:
Today we made a class book Kindergartners, Kindergarteners, What Do You See?  It was fun to create our own book and make connections between our classroom book and Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?  Along with the book Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear?   Thank you to Mrs. Wohlfeil who visited our room to kick off our monthly Kin-Connect activities.  The kids had so much fun creating their book worms!  Thanks, Mrs. Wohlfeil!!

Friday:

The weather has been so beautiful this week, we have taken advantage of it and gone outside for morning recess each day!  The students have also completed another “trip around the world” so they had a celebration today.  They were able to have extra social center time.  They loved it!  We compared the two books If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Give a Pig a Pancake.  There are so many connections we can make!  In math we learned about spatial vocabulary.  For example, under, over, beneath, between, inside, around etc. 

All About Me:

Corina Xiong

Reminders:

Please have your child bring their art smocks next week as they will be painting in art. 
No School on Monday, Oct. 10th
No School in the afternoon on Wed. Oct. 12th.  Dismissal is at 12:15

September 26-30, 2011

KM’s Week in Review:

Monday:

The rain came down all day today and we had an inside recess because it was too wet outside to play.  In PE we played a pinball game and we had a lot of fun.  We also discussed what we already know about autumn and we created questions about what we would like to learn about autumn.  Non-fiction books are great resources! 

Tuesday:
Learning about our five senses is exciting; it is amazing to see how much our world has to offer through our senses.  Another discussion about autumn and how/why leaves change color and fall off the trees kept us busy too.  In math we are comparing coins using their sizes, shapes and colors.  Yeah!  The rain stopped long enough for us to go outside for recess.  

Wednesday:
In math today, we worked in partners and used flash cards to put numbers 0-20 in order.  Then we mixed the numbers up and put them in order counting backwards.  In music we had fun singing songs using a variety of letters from the alphabet.  In Jolly Phonics we began our 5^th book of letters and letter sounds.  We also practiced writing the letter Zz. 

Thursday:
In Writer’s Workshop we spent a lot of time discovering how often capital letters are used in writing verses lowercase letters.  The students were amazed to see the difference in numbers and it was a great reinforcement of writing with lower case letters and beginning sentences with capital letters.  We also completed our KWL chart on autumn and realized we learned a lot of great facts about the season of autumn.

Friday:
Today we read a fiction story about sharing and scarecrows and each student made their own scarecrow using different shapes.  The scarecrows are going to go up onto the hallway bulletin board for everyone to enjoy.  It was beautiful enough to go out this morning for a morning recess.  The fresh air felt great!  Today was out first All About Me presentation and we had a fun time learning about Gracie and her family. 

All About Me:

Charlie Lukosus

 Reminders:

Thank you for all of the great magazines you have sent into school!

Progress Reports are coming home today and they do not need to be returned to school. 
Have a great weekend, everyone!  J

September 19-23, 2011

KM’s Week in Review:

Monday:  We are off to a great start this week!  We will be reading a lot of Clifford books this week and making connections between the books and ourselves.  We sorted in math and learned you can sort items by size, color, shape and other characteristics.  In the LMC, we listened to a book and learned that the book fair is at our school this week. 

Tuesday:  Today in Writer’s Workshop we talked about how authors get their ideas.  We made a list of our own ideas for when we are busy writing this year.  We made a Birthday Graph in math and discussed the information we collected.  July is the busiest month, for birthdays, in our class!  Our “reading to self” stamina in Daily 5 is up to 10 minutes!  We are proud of ourselves!  J

Wednesday:  Today we took part in a bus evacuation drill.  We learned safety tip about riding a bus.  It was really exciting for some of us because we had never been on a bus before.  We were so well behaved on the bus evacuation drill we were able to finish our trip around the world!  We had our celebration immediately!  All of us went outside for a morning recess; the weather was spectacular!  Ask me if I know what a deed is?  Clifford has done many good deeds!

Thursday:  Go Away Big Green Monster!  We had so much fun reading this book, completing an activity on the computer and making our own monsters!  We visited the Scholastic Book Fair and filled out our “wish lists.”  The students are able to purchase books on Monday, Sept. 16^th.  In addition, there is an evening where your family can come in and purchase books as well.  Making patterns using different colors was challenging, but makes it fun working with a partner.

Friday:  What would you give Clifford as a birthday present?  It was exciting reading about Clifford’s birthday celebration and then writing about what we would give him as a present.  We were busy this afternoon in Art and PE.  We continue to work on our reading to self stamina in Daily 5 and like using our own book boxes. 

All About Me:  Gracie Hargrove

Reminders:

Progress reports will be coming home next Friday, September 30^th.

Our classroom can purchase books from the book fair on Monday, September 26^th. 

September 12-16, 2011

Thank you so much for coming last night!  It was great to see all of you and give you a sneak peak of Kindergarten.  Enjoy the beautiful weekend!  Autumn is right around the corner.  :) 

KM’s Week in Review: 

Monday: 
Today we read a book titled Ten Apples Up on Top!  We had fun putting the numbers 1-10 in order.  We also celebrated our unique names by writing them in fun ways.  The students were introduced to the question mark and questions.  The weather was so beautiful we were able to go outside for a morning recess. 

Tuesday:
We were really busy today!  It was interesting learning about how apples grow.  It is hard to believe they begin as a beautiful, pink flower!  We also made apple mobiles that are decorating our classroom.  We visited questions again by discussing words that begin a question.  For example: why, how, can etc.  We are still talking about shapes and the shapes we see in our world around us. 

Wednesday:
Apples!  Apples!  Apples!  Today in math, we graphed our favorite type of apple.  It was fun to do and the Red Delicious apple won!  We also continued to talk about questions and had a fun time creating silly questions.  Do YOU like ketchup on your cornflakes?  We continue to work on building our reading to self stamina in Daily 5.

Thursday:

Today we read another non-fiction book on apples and made an apple book.  In Writer’s Workshop, we talked about how authors get their ideas for their stories.  We found it was easy to think of story ideas!  We are all authors, illustrators and readers.  J  In math, we discussed counting forwards and backwards and how numbers are all around us. 

Friday:

We read a couple different books about Johnny Appleseed and had fun learning about his adventures.  We also spent some time discussion the Constitution and what it means to America.  In Science, we looked at the inside of an apple and labeled the parts.  Mr. Popovich kept us very busy in PE and Mrs. Bader had us creating beautiful pictures in art. 

All About Me:

Coming soon. . . . .

Reminders:

Please send in a baby picture of your child on Monday, September 19th.  We will be doing a fun activity.  The picture will be returned to you.