Gobble, Gobble, Gobble....   Happy Thanksgiving

We started our 2nd Unit in Language Arts learning about things that symbolize America.  We focused on The Statue of Liberty, The American Flag, and The American Bald Eagle.  The students created a graphic organizer to write facts about each symbol.  The students favorite symbol was the American Flag.  We learned that it has 13 stripes to represent the 13 original colonies and it has 50 stars to represent the 50 states of America.

This week we learned about  Pilgrims and The Mayflower.  We also wrote about what we are thankful for and reviewed all the sight words that have been introduced since the beginning of the school year. We played sight word bowling and whack a word. 



In Math, we are continuing our 4th unit on Counting and Cardinality.  We are rote counting from 1-80; and I am so ecstatic to hear that some students are coming home and counting to 100 all by themselves!!  We are also counting in patterns by 2's,5's, and 10's. We also learned about comparing numbers.  We learned about Ally The Alligator and how she likes to eat big numbers. We are also continuing to work on forming our numbers correctly  and differentiating what a particular number looks like.

On Tuesday, we had a great time at Cagle's Family Farm.  We went on a hay ride; fed baby animals; learned how to milk a cow; and had a picnic lunch!!

I hope that everyone can join us on Monday, Nov. 19th at 10:15am for our Thanksgiving class performance with Mrs. Ellis' class and enjoy a Thanksgiving Feast in the cafeteria afterwards!!

On a side note, here are some of the things that I am thankful for:  I am thankful that I have a job that meets my passion.  I never have to work a day because I am so happy.  I am thankful for each of you, allowing me to be apart, of your child's educational journey and creating a foundation for the love of learning.  I am thankful for each of my students that make me laugh and cry!! I am thankful that I have a FAMILY.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving,
Mrs. Malone

October 25, 2012

Firetrucks, Bats, Spiders....Oh My!!!

Dear Parents,

Oh My!!!  I did not realize that it has been 24 days since my last post.  We are so busy having fun learning new things that we are too busy to blog about it!! :)

Earlier in October, during Fire Prevention Week, we had special visitors to come and teach us about how to prevent fires and what to do in case of an emergency.

In Reading, we read several texts about Bats and Spiders.  The students really enjoyed sequencing the story Stellaluna and making bats.  We also read the story The Very Busy Spider during Curriculum Connections with Mrs. Driggs.  They loved making edible spiders from marshmallows.

In Math, we are continuing our unit on Counting and Cardinality.   Practice.....Practice....Practice
The students are expected to count from 1-100; count from a given number except for number 1; such as start at number 53 and count on; counting in patterns by 2's, 5's, and 10's; and compare numbers 1-100.  The students are having most difficulty with teen numbers.  Most of them ask me "what does number_____ look like" when I am calling out random numbers.

Today, we participated in Pumpkin Math.  We measured our pumpkin; counted how many ridges it had; estimated the number of seeds it would have; counted the actual number of seeds (can you believe that we counted by 10's to 550!!) and described the texture of the pumpkin.  BTW, ice cream is on me tomorrow!!
I had to encourage the students to feel the "guts" inside the pumpkin by promising to purchase them ice cream!!

Thank you, Mrs. Maganelli for the pumpkin and thank you, Mrs. Driggs for volunteering and cutting out our pumpkin!!
Thank you for all of your support!!  Happy Halloween-
Mrs. Malone

Happy Fall Ya'll

I apologize for not posting last week, but I have been SUPER busy with conferences and amending all my students' paperwork before a set deadline. :) And, we started new units in both Math and Science! We have had so much fun with our new science unit on senses and physical properties.

To introduce our unit, we had our first visit to the  discovery lab! Thanks to all the parents who volunteered, the kids LOVED having you there! The focus lesson was "All About Our Five Senses".

We also made OOBLECK! Hopefully some of that crazy substance made it home in their baggies for you to see! The students were mesmerized about how quickly it turned from a liquid in your hands to a solid once it dripped onto the table!

The fun continued with using our sense of taste, smell and touch to try and guess different foods that were put in front of us. (Lemons were not the most popular food choice!) :) Then, we sorted the foods by color, smell, taste, seeds/no seeds, etc. 

In math, we practiced making our shapes using shaving cream and hair gel. This was definitely a hit and something we will do again.

Thursday we made models of apples and labeled them, to hang all around our classroom to make our room look a little more "fall-ish." Today, to add to our decor we made leaf people that turned out so cute!

We also had Curriculum Connections on Friday with Mrs. Kampling.  Thank you so much for the wonderful taste test experiment with apples.  Hands down, our class favorite was apple pie!!!

Thank you for coming to the Fall Festival on Saturday! It was so much fun! The best part was sliding down the SUPER SLIDE with Eva.



 

Dear Parents,

We are loving this time of year!!!  We are so busy learning about "Everything Fall".  We have enjoyed making many apple activities and correlating them to reading and writing.  For example, we read the book, The Seasons of an Apple Tree, and we created an apple and labeled its parts.  We also finger-painted an apple and wrote one fact that we learned from this non-fiction story. 
We are continuing to discuss the roles of an author and illustrator, as well as, comparing fiction to non-fiction books.
Next week, we will begin to discuss story elements such as the main characters, setting, and sequencing events in order from beginning, middle, and end.  We will revisit the story Chrysanthemum and Nubs. We will also complete an apple sequencing activity.
I hope that your child is enjoying practicing their sight words on the rings for "homework".  When you think your child is fluent in reading each word, please send them back and we will continue to add new words in small increments to ensure success.
In Math, we are continuing to elaborate about shapes.  Today we learned two new skills. One, you can take a small shape and make a new picture using that shape; and two, you can cut a rectangle in half to make a new shape.  Two squares can make a rectangle and two triangles can make a rectangle.  What two shapes put together make a pentagon?  what two shapes put together make a rhombus?
Next week, we will compare a solid shape to a flat shape and discuss their similarities and differences.  For instance, how can you compare a circle to a sphere? or a triangle to a cone? or a cube to a square?
In Science, we will continue our exploration of textures and using our 5 senses to sort given pictures.

Thank you so much for your support at Chick-Fil_A community event on Tuesday.  We had the most participants and won a free lunch for the entire class!!  Way to go!!!

Please do not forget about the Fall Festival on Saturday, September 29th from 2-6!!  I am looking forward to it!

"This is fun"

Dear Parents,

I typically do not post anything on Fridays but I was so excited about our day today; that I just had to share!!!  We had a terrific day during Curriculum Connections.  Thank you so much, Amber Manganelli, for preparing all the activities!!  I emailed some pictures, but I also wanted to post a few.  We completed an apple shape matching; we read the story 10 Apples on Top by Dr. Suess; we matched lower-case letters to upper-case letters; and the best of all we made homemade apple sauce!!

Have a great weekend!!

"Not too much!!"







Thursday September 18, 2012

Thank you so much for attending Curriculum Night!!  I hope that you enjoyed seeing what "Life as a Kindergartener" is all about!

In Math, we started our 2nd unit of Describing and Comparing 2D and 3D shapes; as well as; counting up to 40, counting in patterns-10's; and making sets of objects up to 20.

We are working hard counting out sets of objects and recognizing numerals of set objects.

In Reading, we are continuing our theme about Friendship and we read the story Nubs: A story about a Mut, a Marine, and a Miracle. We are discussing the roles of an author and an illustrator.  We are also comparing fiction and non-fiction stories. Next week we will focus on comparing two non-fiction stories about Apples and Fall.

Here are some pictures of Daily 5 in Action

They all seem to enjoy having the opportunity to read to themselves and read to a "buddy".

Thank you so much for the additional listening CD and books!! Also, I wanted to send out a special shout-out to Mrs. Driggs for coming in and leveling our books based on Fountas and Pinnell.  Thank you so much!!

We will finish our 2nd unit in Social Studies about Me on the map on Friday.  On Monday, we will start our first Science Unit about identifying different objects based on different attributes such as texture and buoyancy.

Dear Parents,

I hope that everyone enjoyed their 3-day holiday!! Even though this is a short week, we are working hard on a variety of projects.  In Reading, we are enjoying our read-aloud about Frog and Toad are Friends and Frog and Toad Together.  We are learning about the value of friendship and qualities that make a good friend.  The students are currently completing a friendship journal that will be sent home on Friday. 

During Daily 5, we are continuing to work on letter identification and sounds; sight words; rhyming words; and segmenting words into syllables.  The students enjoyed their Popsicle on Tuesday.  YEA!!! we met our goal for reading independently for 15 minutes. We have started our guided reading groups and will continue to work on skills based on individual needs. 

We are having so much fun experiencing shapes with hands-on activities.  I hope you all have enjoyed your pictures of us making shapes out of marshmallows and completing our food sort.  I hope these activities have helped your child understand the difference between flat and solid shapes, as well as, see shapes in our everyday lives. Our next unit will begin next week.  We will focus on counting 1-40; counting in patterns: 2's,5's and 10's; and making sets of objects 1-20. 

Yesterday, we started our 2nd unit in Social Studies entitled Me on the Map.  The students are expected to know the difference between a map and a globe and know where they are in relation to the world.  Tomorrow we will begin a two-day activity where we will make the world and break down each component of the world, continent, country, state, county, city, and home.

I can't wait to see everyone tomorrow night for Curriculum Night. Also, Fall pictures will be taken on September 11th.

Thanks,
Amanda Malone

I can not believe that August is almost over! Time flies when you are having fun and I hope that your children are having fun LEARNING!! We have worked very hard to build our stamina up to 10 minutes reading to ourselves.  We have also practiced buddy reading with a stuffed animal and our friends. I hope you have enjoyed reviewing our word work with sight words.  They LoVeD the stamping activity today!

We are looking forward to building 2D and 3D shapes tomorrow with marshmallows and doing our food sort on Friday. Of course, I will take pictures:) Thank you so much for your support and contribution to our fun activity!

In Social Studies, we are continuing our unit on Labor Day and discussing the difference between needs and wants.  We had a lively debate about having a television is NOT a need! Our next unit will begin on Tuesday. The unit is entitled Me on The Map.

Please do not forget that Curriculum Night is September 6th at 6:00. 

Wednesday, August 22nd

I am so proud of how all of our friends are continuing to learn our classroom routines and expectations in Kindergarten! We have made some fun projects and have learned so much in just 8 days!

Last week, in our Daily 5 literacy block, we learned how to read a book three different ways.  We can look at the pictures, read the words, and retell a story.  We have built our stamina up to 8 minutes.  Shhh, it's a surprise--but when we reach our goal of reading for 15 minutes independently, we will celebrate with a Popsicle or popcorn party!!  On Monday, we introduced a new component of Daily 5: Work on Writing.  We have been writing about our favorite things. Also, we are learning how to pick a "just right book" for ourselves using the I-Pick method. 

In Math, we our continuing our 2D shape unit.  We call these shapes flat.  We really enjoyed going on a Shape Hunt today. Tonight, ask your child what a quadrilateral is; if they can tell you, give them a high-five from me! Its a huge word and concept for them to understand,so any reinforcement is great!

In Social Studies, we are enjoying being in Mrs. Ellis' class.  We started our unit on Labor Day. We are learning about community helpers, goods and services, and various professions.

Please remember that Curriculum Night is September 6th, at 6:00p.m. 

Welcome

Welcome to our class blog! We had a fantastic first week of school!   Please stop by to get updates on what is going on in our classroom and important information about what we are learning, homework, and upcoming events.