All About Abe

The students have been fully engaged this past week learning all about our 16th president.  They listened so intently to the the stories that told about his upbringing, his habits, his interests, and his accomplishments.  Each day, after reading a book about Mr. Lincoln, we pulled facts out of a stovepipe hat.  We did this because Abe kept important letters and papers in his hat (as a solution to his forgetfulness). But each fact was cut in two.  The first part of the fact ended with a "connecting word" (aka conjunction) such as 'and,' 'so,' because,' and 'but.' So we reached back into the hat to find the second half of the sentence. I would read them to the students and they decided whether or not the two thoughts went together. 

We used the All About Abe chart to practice our decoding skills, fluency, and sight word recognition. 

The students did a writing activity just like this in the writing center. They reached into Abe's hat and pulled out half of a fact.  They had to find the paper of the same color to complete the sentence (since they are not all independent readers yet). They wrote as many facts as neatly as they could because they knew the writing piece was part of a bigger art project. 

Since we missed a day last week, we carried the "Fun Friday" art project over to today. We decided to call today "Funday Monday."  This was the most ambitious craft we've ever done: lots of cutting, small pieces, and lots of gluing. Plus, they had to follow LOTS of directions. But it was totally worth it. They took so much pride in their finished product! And it helped that it was about someone they had really taken an interest in. 

In other centers this week, the students built houses with Lincoln logs. 

They put a couple of different floor puzzles together.

They played "Cover it Up in the number work center.

And "Cookies on a Plate" in the math games center. 

But I think the most fun was had today during inside recess.  The kids and I have all grown tired of it and I was having trouble finding any one activity that kept them all happy. So- inside recess got a makeover today.  Thanks to Pinterest, I discovered Balloon Ball.  I made paddles out of paper plates and paint stirrers.  Throw in a balloon (and some ground rules) and let the fun ensue. Students also had the option of stacking cups like we did for the 100th day or going to the art table where they could color, cut, and glue to their hearts' delight. 

Trust me. EVERYBODY was happy!

Up to No Good & 100 Ways to Love Kindergarten

This week we read books about a character who is always getting into trouble - Curious George.  As a culminating activity, the students wrote about a time they got into trouble. One of our new learning targets is adding on to a sentence. So you will notice that our sentences are either getting longer, or we are writing more than one sentence. Tommy's entry (above) is one of my favorites of all time.  

This child was a little smug about it. 

"I punched my girlfriend at church." Knowing who wrote this, I'm gonna guess it was more of a "love tap."

Each day, after reading about one of George's adventures, we asked and answered the same three questions: WHERE did he go? WHAT trouble did he get into? HOW did he make it all better?

The students wrote a journal entry to go along with some of George's experiences. They wrote about their favorite kind of pizza and their favorite animal at the zoo. 

The students got to play with ice cream just like George did in one of the stories in the number work center. The skill they practiced is called "subitizing." I've taught kindergarten eight years and I just learned the word this week.  It means to "perceive the number of a group of items at a glance and without counting."

The students played with play-dough in the fine motor center (instead of pizza dough like George) to spell super e words (such as hide, bake, cube, mole, etc). I forgot to get a picture of it, though. Womp, womp.

In the word work center, they worked more with super e words. They matched up onset and rime puzzles to create the long vowel words. Onset is the beginning letter, rime is the rest of the word. For example, in the word 'wave,' the letter w is the onset, -ave- is the rime. 

 

To help the students remember all about super e, we've watched a couple of music videos. We talked about how super e has other names such as silent e and magic e. Here are the videos that explain all about it. 

In math, we've been working on subtraction. The kids got to learn it a really fun way on Fun Friday. They went bowling!

 

 Your child can play this game at home too. 

The kids also made an art project on Fun Friday. They made their own super es!

Once they assembled it, I spun two spinners on the Smartboard. One spinner had onsets, the other had rimes. We combined them to see if we'd made a real word. If we had, they wrote it on Super E's cape. If not, we wrote it in the "Nonsense Word" list and tried again.

 

Now for the previous week..........

We started the 100th week off with a bang.  On Monday, the students had the chance to dress up like their 100 year old self. Not many were up to the challenge. But those who were looked pretty cute!

And of course the teachers got in on the action.

Students came in under a special 100 day banner......

to find all sorts of special 100-themed learning activities. 

First, we read the "Ms. Bindergarten Gets Ready for the 100th Day of Kindergarten" and the students talked about the 100 things they brought to school - just like the students from the book. 

And they made colorful crowns, with a band of the tens numbers up to 100.

For inside recess, we hopped 100 times down the hallway. 

They also took turns putting 100 pennies into the money machine- which was our first introduction to our unit on coins. 

Finally they got to play/learn in centers.  In the number work center, they had to build a 100 grid. 

They raced to 100 in math games using fun game pieces (Elsa and Mike Wazowski).

For the writing center, they got to take a clipboard around and play "Write the Room." Their task was to write 100 words.  They got to finish it up on Fun Friday.

 

In place of puzzles, the students were given 100 Q-tips and were told to make whatever they wanted to out of them.  Each creation was as unique as the student who made it. 

But the favorite center of the week was the cup center.  Instead of Legos, trains, or soft blocks, the students built towers out of 100 Red Solo cups.  There was a regular-sized set and a mini set.

The students wrote in their journals everyday for 100 week.  The topics were

What did you bring for the hundredth day?

What would you want 100 of?

What would you NOT want 100 of?

What have you learned in 100 days of school?

They had some great responses. 

I want 100 Frozen toys.

I learned how to read.

I do not want 100 snakes.
I learned how to spell.