Born to Run

I suppose the biggest news this week was the awesome time we had on Thursday running laps for the Boosterthon Fun Run. Our classes ran through the tunnel as our class name was announced, "Kacsko's Kiddos" then we ran/walked for about 45 minutes, listening to music, laughing, dancing, stopping every lap to get our shirts marked.  As you can imagine, the students had a great time. I'm sure I'll be hearing soon, "Mrs, Lukacsko, when are we going to do the fun run again?" 

The music's blaring, the crowd is cheering as we dash through the tunnel. But sweet little Amelia still keeps a finger over her lips because we were still "in a line!" 

But there was some fast-paced learning going on in the classroom, too. In the math games center, the students explored shapes.  I didn't know if any of them would be able to do the wooden square puzzle- it is a challenge even for adults.  But the point was just to get them to see how you can combine shapes to make other shapes (two triangles can make a diamond, a square, another triangle, etc). But my little guy, Caleb, figured it out! 

In the letter work center, they matched uppercase to lowercase.  

In the fine motor center, they strung letter beads onto a string to make sight words.  This was good practice for the art project they would do later in the week.

They played a candy counting/sorting game in the ipad center.

And they played "Cover it Up" in the number work center.  They rolled four dice out of a cup (one dice had numbers 1-6, the next had 7-12, another had 13-18, and the last had numbers 19 and 20 with some frowny faces on a few sides. They covered up the numbers they rolled with unifix cubes.  This is a great way for them to learn numerical order and number identification up to 20.  

We learned the letters Mm and Nn in whole group literacy. In our mailbox this week we found a mug and a nest. "How are they alike? They hold things. How are they different? A mug holds coffee and a nest holds birds." This is an example of the quick conversations we have everyday at the mailbox. Its how we learn to compare and contrast and think critically.  They talk with a "teaching partner" and sometimes come up with ideas that I didn't think of before.  When we compared a map with a newspaper this week, these were some of the responses I got: they're both made from paper, you read them both, you hold them both, they both give you information. I am so pleased with how their little minds are working!

This week we also learned about living and nonliving things. We discussed how living things 1) breathe, 2)eat/drink. 3) grow/change. We came up with a list of both living and nonliving things and on Friday, they wrote about living things in their journals.  

Later that day, we did our very first "Write the Room" activity. I brought in some of my kinders from last year to demonstrate how the activity is done, then they got a chance to do it themselves. (The first graders feel so BIG and grown-up and the kindergarteners have such an admiration for them - so I've learned this is the best method for teaching new activities like this). 

I realize no one is smiling here but I promise they very much enjoyed this activity!

We finished up with our Fun Friday craftivity. This week we made a necklace for the letter Nn.  But we have also been learning about patterns.  So this was a good reinforcement for both learning targets. Most of them didn't come home with their necklaces though. They ate them almost immediately!  (By the way, pattern has only two syllables. Whoever is teaching their child to say "pat-ter-en"- Quit it! It drives me crazy)! 

These girls were good sports to wear the unfeminine color of brown this Monday - so next week, they get the treat of wearing the color that most likely dominates their dressers and closets - PINK! I'm hoping I have some boys that will rock the color, too. Have a great weekend!

Feel the Fall

Fall is (almost) upon us! So we spent this week learning about what we wear, see, play, and celebrate in this season.  

We started off the week wearing a classic fall color: orange! (The majority of the morning class actually wore orange - but I didn't get a picture in time. Womp, womp). 

At the end of the week, the students made a tree with all the beautiful fall colors using paint and qtips. 

Throughout the week, we wrote in our journals about the things we wear and the things we see in the fall.  We are working on adding detail, using more than one color in our pictures, and some are even beginning to write letters and words!

  

A few of our centers reflected what we were learning about the upcoming season as well.  The students worked a floor puzzle of the four seasons. 

And in the math games center, the students rolled two dice, added the dots, and picked that many apples from the apple trees, using tweezers. 

Once a student had a bushel of ten apples, they had enough to make an apple pie. So they traded in their apples and collected a pie card. This activity is very similar to an activity we play on the SmartBoard during calendar time everyday. 

Our other centers this week included stamping the alphabet and a few sight words...

and "cracking the codes" in the number work center.

In math, we touched on several learning targets. We have been working with making more and making less by using the plus and minus sign. We use this Curious George game on the SmartBoard in class to get the hang of it.  Another target we've been working on is recognizing teen numbers as being a group of tens with some "ones" left over. We watch this music video to reinforce the concept. 

In literacy, we learned how to sound out words.  Up to this week, we've worked hard on segmenting words (breaking a spoken word up into its individual sounds) and writing the letters we hear.  Now that we have learned a good amount of letter sounds, we are ready to sound out CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words.  There is a great game on starfall.com that teaches this skill nicely.  Our classroom has a membership that allows us to play all five games (with the five vowels). At home, you have access to one of those games (words with short a only). 

There was other big news that I'm sure you've already heard about. This week was the kick-off to our Boosterthon Fun Run!

Students who have signed up online have earned their first prize: the coveted red sweat band.

Our class is close to our first goal of raising $5 pledge per lap.  Once we have, we will have hat day in our classroom.  If we make it to $7 pledge per lap, we will have a popsicle party! The students have until Thursday to get pledges. The money is due on Friday (but remember, your pledgers can also pay online). 

One more big story this week - we had two wonderful students receive the first character award of the year for respectfulness.  Way to go Jacob and Braellin!    

Now for a photo-and-caption-only recap of last week. (I was pretty under the weather last week, so the blog was put on hold).

It was purple week.

The theme was "Where We Live" and we explored it using Google Earth. We found Garth!

We talked about the places we go in our community.

They went to a restaurant in the word work center.  Completed the sight words and set the table. 

They went to the grocery store in the math games center: bought and bagged their own groceries.

They also played with bears in ten frames. 

And they laced/stacked things in the fine motor center.

Learned a new sight word review game (Quiz Quiz Trade) under the tutelage of some former kinder students.

Then we found our own place on the map by making a cool art project on Fun Friday.

Have a wonderful weekend and wear BROWN on Monday!