A Wonderful, One Hundredful Week

The number 100 is kind of a big deal in kindergarten, so we decided to celebrate the 100th day of school for a whole week rather than just one day. (Kind of like how I celebrate my whole birth month). Story time, journal writings, and math workshops centered on this magnificent number, and, of course, we had that fun "100 project" that the students presented in front of all their peers. I'll get to all of that, but first, here are some of the other things we did this week. 

We wrapped up the short vowel sounds last week, so the students were introduced to one of the ways the vowels make their long sounds this week: SUPER E (aka Magic E, aka Silent E). We learned all of its names and all of its tricks. We watched these music videos every morning to really grasp the concept. 

 

We also played some silent e games on Starfall each morning. Then we gathered together at the white board and read CVC words (some real, some nonsense), then I brought in the SUPER E wand (I forgot to take a pic of it - but it had a cape and everything) and we sounded it out again using the vowel's long sound, thus making a new word. The pic is blurry because I forgot to take a picture of just the chart - so I zoomed and cropped another pic that had it in the background. You can't really tell, but after writing the e, I drew a red cape on it and used a yellow marker to "send his magic powers" over to the vowel.  

This visual really helps them see what he does and how he does it.  To quote the song (which your child should be able to do and will probably do in a really soulful voice)

 He can jump over one letter 

and if he finds a vowel

He can make it say its name

Just like this

In other news, we learned about opposites this week. We listened to some songs, read books, made books of our own, put together puzzles, and did a "Write the Room" activity using opposite pairs. 

Owen is presenting his journal writing about opposites "What do you have that is big?
What do you have that is little?"

 We wrapped up the unit with a simple cut and paste activity. 

Here's what some of our reading/writing centers, sight word stations, and math workshops looked like this week (the first two are actually from last week but I forgot to put them in the blog).

Students built a snowman by rolling two dice, finding the sum, and collecting the coordinating piece for their snowman. In this activity, they work together, in teams of two. 

This game is inspired by our whole group game we play during calendar math time. We finally completed our snowman, just in time before our calendar math activities switched for February.

 They raced to 20 cubes in this two person game. In this one, they play against their partner. 

They played a different kind of race game this week that involved subtracting (multicolored) snowballs.  Playing in pairs against one another, they took turns rolling the dice and taking that many snowballs off of their double ten frame mats.  This also goes along with a game we play as a whole group during calendar math time (forgot to take a pic). 

Below is the other non-100 themed math workshops from this week. The students added two numbers and colored the sum on their wintery coloring sheet. As you can see in the picture below, the students could challenge themselves by using the dice with numbers only, or, if they needed more help, they could use the regular dice and count up the dots to add.

 And here are some ways we worked on our sight words this week. 

Speaking of play dough, I just have to show off the fantastic creations from indoor recess this week.  It all started with Ava's SpongeBob on Monday. 

Then she inspired her friends to make the whole crew the next day. 

Let's continue this theme of creativity as I dive into all that wonderful, one-hundredful stuff. 

On Monday and Tuesday I read books that I hoped would help to inspire the students who hadn't yet decided what they wanted to bring for their 100th day project.  First I read Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten.

I tell you, this border collie teacher has truly inspired me over the years.  I took a page out of her book, so to speak, by having the students bring something, anything to represent 100.  (Past years I have been more restrictive - having students bring one hundred of the some item and it all had to fit in a Zip-loc baggie). But I decided to let loose this year and let them be as creative as their little hearts desired and I'm so glad I did! 

On the 100th day, we took three shifts, allowing for 7-8 students at a time to stand by their projects and explain it and answer questions that the touring students had for them. Those students who were not presenting made sure to visit each classmate's station. My goodness, they had so much fun with this! And you could see how proud they were of their ideas and projects. I was really impressed with some of the questions that thought to ask. 

Chloee explaining her 100 sticker poster

Jacob brought 50 marbles and 50 Orbees

Landen brought 100 gummy worms in Oreo dirt

Carly's cupcake with 100 sprinkles

Patrick and Ava having a happy discussion over his 100 dominoes

Johannah's 100 signatures

Emma's 100 gumballs and 100 suckers in buckets! She shared them with her classmates.

Ava wrote/illustrated  a 100 page book!

Savannah showed off her 100 paper clip chain

Michael shows Owen his 100 sticker poster

Dalton glued 100 buttons to a poster board

Owen's project also became our class pet! Mr. Garth, the beta fish, is swimming in a fishbowl filled with 100 rocks!
Fingers crossed I don't accidentally kill him.

After the presentations, the students wrote in their journals about what they brought, making sure to include some of the details they shared with their classmates. Our other 100-themed journal prompts this week were "What would you want 100 of?" and "Where would you want to spend 100 days?" Here are some of their responses. (Have I mentioned that this class is full of AMAZING writers)?

I would want to spend 100 days at my grandpa's and I can drive my remote control monster truck. 

I would like to spend the 100 days in Louisville where my dad works at Louisville.

I would spend it at my house so I can watch tv.

I would want to spend 100 days at the earring store. (Johannah)

I would spend 100 days in the hotel because it has a hot tub and a pool. 

 I happen to be a bit bias toward this one......

I would want to spend 100 days at school because I love Mrs. Lukacsko and Mrs. Taylor.

I just have to share a few more writings. These came from the writing center.  The students had the choice to either write the room (hunt down all the posted words and write them on their paper next to the matching pictures) or write a story to go along with a special 100th day illustration. Johannah chose the later and went the more autobiographical route..... 

...while Lucy chose to tell a story.  I can't get over the phonetical spelling here! Kindergarteners haven't memorized conventional spelling (save for the most popular of sight words). While Lucy could read a book with these words (written correctly), at this age, students aren't really ready to spell these words conventionally from memory. This is an example of PHENOMENAL "invented" spelling. It would still be pretty phenomenal at the first grade level, really.  This, to a lesser degree, is what I look for in students' writings: are they writing the correct letters for the sounds they hear when they say (and segment) the word to themselves. If they can at least get the first sound and maybe one  or two more after it - I am happy!  

The kids did not see their teacher when they got to school. All they saw was a cake. It looked very good. They took a little bite. Uh-oh. The boy accidentally blew the candles out. 

Now, let's wrap this up with a quick photo summary of our 100-themed math workshops and party stations. And, oh yea, our 100th day rap that we did on the intercom for morning announcements!