Bear & Moose Safety

This morning, Mr. Tom came to discuss bear and moose safety. He was very animated which kept three kindergarten classrooms engaged--this is not an easy task. The kids also got coloring books on bear and moose safety.

Later in the morning, our kids had their unit test. There were improvements. We need to work on color words more--which will be part of my focus for my reading group.

B is Beignets and Beading

To celebrate our alpha friend Benny the Bear, we made beignets (a pastry made from deep-fried dough) and an ABB pattern with beads.

Our mentor, Mrs. Frohlich, went to New Orleans for a week and brought back beignet mix. That worked out well with who our alpha friend happen to be! :) She also bought a book on New Orleans' version of the gingerbread man story, which was about a cajun cornbread man. In addition, she sent postcards to all the kids. What a great idea! The postcards made the kids feel special and it was a great way to stay connected while Mrs. F. was away. :)

To say bye to our alpha friend Tiggy Tiger, we made tie dye shirts. This was a first for me -- fun! :) We had a very full Friday morning rotating kids between three activities: making beignet mix, beading, and tie dying! Phew!!! We had two helper moms, two interns, our TA, and mentor. We needed these adult hands! :)

T is for Tortilla!

To celebrate the letter T, the kids made tortillas for their snacks. They got to choose their own fillings: bananas, jam, peanut butter, raisins, marshmallow creme, cinnamon, or cream cheese or all of the above! I like how we try to cook/make food every Friday to celebrate our alpha friend or a theme. Cooking is an integrated lesson--science, math, language arts, and social/emotional. Plus, kids get a sense of joy out of making something they can eat. Although...some kids did not finish their tortilla creations. It's somewhat funny--all the stuff they chose did not exactly blend well for their palates. ;)

Spelling Lesson

Marie and I tag-teamed to introduce -at words to our students. This way the kids get twice the dosage! We focused on these words because our mentor will be doing lessons soon on -at words.

My part was to introduce -at words by reading a book about a fat cat who sat on a mat and writing -at words from the book and not from the book on the whiteboard. The kids took turns giving -at words and writing -at words on the whiteboard.

Afterwards, Marie explained and demostrated to the kids that they will be fishing for -at words and color words. This was her part of the spelling lesson. The kids took turns being fishermen and being the fish. Each fish had different -at words and color words on them. As they caught the fish, they had to read the words. Some read the words correctly while others needed help. The kids had a lot of fun with this activity. :)

For the most part, Marie and I were not surprised at the kids who did not get this spelling lesson. Our top student was struggling reading -at words. This was surprising. Not sure what happened with her. This was just their first taste at -at words in class. They'll get more lessons on them and hopefully -at words will stick on them like glue! :)

For individual work, the students colored in pieces of a mystery puzzle that had pictures of -at words. What's the mystery picture??

Fall Carnival

This was my first fall carnival at an elementary school. It was a great way to celebrate the fall with fun activities for families. Each activity (i.e. face painting, manicures, etc.) required tickets--so lots of opportunities for kids to figure out how many tickets were needed per activity and if they had enough!

Check out our fun!

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Pumpkins with Buddies

What a fun and slimy activity with buddies! This was a great opportunity for kindergarteners and 6th graders to collaborate with each other. Some worked better with others; it's to be expected. Even adults struggle to collaborate with each other. This was a first experience for me -- so I had a blast watching all the students. :)

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Tallier

One of our routines now is the tallier for the day asks his/her classmates a particular question and records their answers. Here is Dakota tallying what kind of shoes students are wearing. I would do this in my classroom. It's a great way to get kids to count, communicate with others, record data, and interpret data collected. =)