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. =)

Super Science

Even on Saturdays, teachers make the time to learn...for the love of teaching and love of children. :)

Mrs. Frohlich, Mrs. Lacher, and I attended the Literacy Super brought to us by Summit McGraw-Hill School Education. I only attended the science portion where we did the gravity experiment with water. I tried it twice and lost my fluids! On the second try...I got my mentor teacher wet! You think she'll still pass me??? ;)

Spilled Milk

One of the art activities for our Kindergarten Color Book was 'spilled milk.' You put white paint on black paper and do this...

To get this...

Reading Group Activities

Here are some developmentally-appropriate activities we do with our reading groups. I think Howard Gardner would approve. :)

TEXTURED ALPHA CARDS - helps kids 'feel' the letters' shapes
DIFFERENT BOARD GAMES
DIFFERENT MANIPULATIVES
WHITEBOARDS & MARKERS
READING TOGETHER
GROUP DISCUSSIONS
HANDWRITING WITHOUT TEARS Curriculum

Eye Exam

During our morning routine with language arts, the kids took turns getting an eye exam. Four our kids who do not know all their letters, the nurse had a letter chart so they can point to the letters that they can see.

Wrapping up with M

Today we did an art activity celebrating the letter M. Whenever the kids do activities with M, we ask them for the sound and a word that starts with M. Simple things to help them learn about M. Repetition helps!

Colors

White Rabbit's Color Book by Alan Baker is a great color book for kids. Our kids really enjoyed this book and our related art activity was mixing blue and yellow paint to make GREEN -- my favorite color! This art activity is part of their Kindergarten Color Book.

Air Force Band during Red Ribbon Week

What a special treat to hear the Air Force Band play during Red Ribbon Week (no to drugs!). It's great to spend time teaching and telling kids in different ways to say no to drugs at an early age.

Wait for each song to finish playing before clicking to another one:

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Dental Hygiene

This morning we got a visit from a dental hygienist, Ms. M. She taught the kids how to properly brush and floss their teeth. Here is a picture of Delaney, Lyssia, and Dakota posing as teeth. The white-spotted red snake is acting as the floss. This is a great opportunity to extend this visit with literacy, art, math, social studies, and science activities. =)

Fun with Literacy

The Reading Tigers had fun with three different literacy games:
(1) Recognizing lower-case letters
(2) What's Missing? (comparing two pictures)
(3) Rhyming words (the Tigers couldn't read the word so they relied on the pictures)

Patterns with the Tigers

For our reading group time today, the Tigers worked on making patterns. This was the first time this pattern game was opened in our classroom, so, it was nice to have the kids do patterns with different materials. They also automatically sorted the shapes.

We also learned how to write the letters F, G, H, I, J, K on individual whiteboards.

After we were finished with our reading groups, I got to read I See A Song by Eric Carle. I've been saving this book for the right time and today was the perfect time. In the past two weeks the kids learned the words "I" and "see." This book has no words, only pictures. They kids decide what beat of music they hear when they look at the pictures. I played songs from my iPhone after they said what beat (fast, slow, happy, sad). They all liked the book...me, too. Love Eric Carle!

M! M! M!

This week the kids were introduced to the Alpha Friend, M. Mimi Mouse is the character for the letter M. In the morning, the kids worked on M worksheets.

Then, we met with our reading groups. My Reading Tigers read the book Colors by Mary Thurber. I had the kids write each color on the whiteboard. We also learned how to write the letters A, B, C, D, and E. To end our reading session, we played a game that was about alphabet recognition. The Tigers really liked this game. It's also a great opportunity in learning to take turns.

Afterwards, it was Big Buddy time with the 6th graders; our kids really look forward to this time. Together they worked on sorting and math problems involving M&M's! =) Of course, they got to eat them after they finished the entire activity. The second activity the kids work on together was the kindergartener's shape book. They're going to be tested on shapes and colors soon, so, it was good to get in more practice with their big buddies! :)