Bird Nests

 Our 4 Winds theme today was focused all around nests. Sigrid and Shannon began the morning with a thrilling puppet show.  Ask your child what Potato Chip taught them! We then investigated the similarities and differences between a variety of nests. We had fun discovering what nests are made of by looking closely at six different real nests and documenting our observations in our science journals. The students also had the opportunity to create their own nests using a variety of materials from nature. During writer's workshop later in the day we read a nonfiction book and learned specifically about what kinds of nests particular birds created.  Throughout the morning we shared our experiences with birds and nests and wrote about a time we saw birds in their nests.

Zumba

Sarah's mom Denise visited us today to teach us a few zumba dances. It was a great break in our afternoon and we loved learning a few different moves. Ask your child to show you how to do the penguin, the sleeping foot, or the chihuahua!  Thanks Denise!

Happy Birthday Bo!

Bo came in yesterday to celebrate his birthday by giving us colorful creatures!  The kids were a little confused about the backwards present idea, but of course happy to receive the gift in celebration of Bo. Thanks and Happy Birthday Bo!

In need of snack donations!!

Our class friends thoroughly enjoy having a small snack during choice time at the end of the day. We have so many kids traveling on buses and attending after school programs who really benefit from having a little extra fuel to help them get through the day. We would love snack donations to help all our friends have a successful afternoon!  Thanks for your support and donations!

Puppet Show Residency

We had the opportunity to be an audience for the 3rd graders while each class put on a spectacular puppet show today. Our third grade buddies each made their own puppet and we had fun trying to pinpoint who was who based on their voices! We were excited when they came out with their puppets afterwards and we got to see who created each puppet.  We watched four different shows. Mrs. Slesar's class show was based on the book The Woman Who Outshone the Sun.  

Professional Learning and Guest Teachers

There have been many days this year that our class has had a guest teacher (substitute).  We are lucky enough to be a professional learning community here at Union.  This requires teachers to at times meet with one another during the school day.  As teachers, we are also learning along with the children.  There are many professional development opportunities in the state of Vermont that we attend.  Some of these happen to fall on student school days and therefore we have to be out for the day.  We are thankful to have such a strong group of substitute teachers to teach and care for our children when we are at meetings or trainings.  Thank you for helping your child learn that the same rules apply while I am out and to show respect and kindness to all of our guest teachers.  Your child has done an amazing job learning to be flexible on these days. 

On Wednesday afternoon, the Kindergarten and Grade 1 team met as a PLC professional learning community to continue our work on a variety of literacy initiatives. Other professional work scheduled for me coming up, includes:

-PLC team work on Montpelier School District writing initiative: Writing to Inform for a half day on Thursday, April 7th 

-Science Curriculum team work on Montpelier School District science initiative: Developing Inquiry-based Science Instruction K-5 for half day date TBD


Spring is a busy time! Other professional development commitments may arise, and I will be sure to advise you as I find out.

NAP Fundraiser

Mark your calendars for our 2nd Annual Nature Adventure Program Garage Sale:

This will take place on Sat. April 30th in the big gym at UES from 8:30 am to 2:30 pm. This gives you time over the spring break to clean out those closets (and to make room for some new-to-you items)! Donations of are greatly appreciated.  Please bring any donated items to the main hallway (outside of the big gym) between 3:00-6:00 pm on Friday, April 29th.  

Parent volunteers are needed for both Friday (3:00-7:00pm) and on Sat.(7:30am-3:00pm).  Even an hour or two will help a great deal. Please email Theresa Giffin at theresa@mpsvt.org.

We are also looking for donations of good quality outerwear (all seasons)---jackets, fleeces, hats, mittens, etc., for children aged 5-7 1/2 years old that may be used to help supplement our additional clothing supply.  

Hope to see you there!

Scholastic Book Fair

The Book Fair will be once again held in the small gym.  If you'd like your child to purchase a book from the sale, please send in money. We will not be "browsing" this time around and only children who have money will be sent down to the fair.  If you would like to pick out something specific with your child, feel free to stop by after school or Friday evening.  If you are unable to do this but want your child to purchase specific books (or just not pencils, posters, gadgets) please send in a note stating your preferences.

Marble Jar Filled Again

Last Friday, our friends filled the marble jar again. Marbles have been jingling in the jar so frequently in the classroom. Our days have been filled with kind words, helpful friends, and diligently working children. I am so proud of the effort individual students are showing to go above and beyond!  GREAT JOB FRIENDS!

So....a vote was taken and stuffy day has won again. If your child would like, they are welcome to bring in a friend (that could fit in a plastic bag) to share the day with (Wednesday 3/23).

Parent Teacher Conferences - THANKS!

Thanks for taking time out of your schedules to meet with me today.  I enjoy hearing your thoughts and concerns for your children and LOVE celebrating the successes of each child!  Thanks for all you do at home providing support for each one of them!

We are THANKFUL for the SUN!

What a fantastic day outside! The sun shined down on us and our friends spotted many different signs of spring on our travels up to Hubbard Park.  Using our five senses, we found sit spots in the forest.  A sit spot is a place in the woods where we can designate as our own, going back to week after week.  Friends were encouraged to find a place that was comfortable to them, against a tree, rock, or near something that they found intriguing or beautiful.  We practiced fox walking and using our owl eyes as we moved toward the sit spots. We took notice of the sounds we heard while sitting in our spots and took notice of what we saw.  All of the boys and girls used creativity upon finding their sit spots and built walls or decorated their spots with an assortment of materials from nature.  We look forward to drawing maps and diagrams of our sit spots, describing them to our classmates, and sharing stories with everyone in class next week!

How many green things can you name?

Photo slideshow created with Smilebox Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham and Bartholomew's Oobleck, green playdough, beads, green carnations, headbands, 48 green things, green styrofoam, laughs, smiles, and sunshine made March 17th a fantastic messy day in Room 12 Kindergarten!

NAP tomorrow!

 Please dress accordingly and send a water bottle with your child! 

Does your child have their orange UES shirt?

For our KinderArt Show/Concert (4/14) we'd like all kindergartners to wear their UES shirt with dark pants. To help us get organized and to see how many more shirts we might need, we are asking all students to start sending in their shirts to hold at school. Please put your child's name on the shirt label so we don't mix them up.

Also, I am looking for a parent/grandparent/friend to help out with the laminating/cutting of student artwork. If you'd like to help out, please email me. (jillc@mpsvt.org)

Reading/Writing

This week we are concentrating on the -an word family. We have been reading and writing many different words that are part of this family (man, can, fan, ran, etc).  During reading, we have been focusing on finding chunks in words that are unfamiliar to us. We look for the -an chunk when reading these short words but also can look for this chunk when reading bigger words such as hand, stand.  Looking for chunks in words when reading larger words has helped increase each student's ability to decode words during reading of new books. 

Reading and writing go hand in hand, so the students are working on remember these chunks when writing stories during writer's workshop.  They are also working on remembering to go back and re-read what they write and re-read when they stumble on words in their just right readers.  Going back to re-read helps children become more fluent readers. 

We continue to work on mastering our skills at blending and segmenting C-V-C words.  Most students have perfected the beginning and ending sounds, while we all continue to practice those tricky vowel sounds.  We are paying attention to what our mouths do while saying vowel sounds and have been working on holding each vowel sound in C-V-C words for a bit longer time.  The students have been engrossed in a variety of interactive games to help practice these skills. Our sight words are mixed in with many of these games so we continue to get more practice reading and writing these tricky words.

I have been impressed with each child's ability to spell their last name each morning.  Many students are on their way to independently spelling their last names by heart and have been having fun learning their peers as well!
 

Math Update

Our focus last week and this week has been identifying coins and how much they are worth.  Kindergarteners are expected to know the names of each coin and know how much it is worth.  We learned a song to help us remember each coin and have played a variety of games and activities during math work places.  We've also looked closely at each coin, noticing what graphics were displayed on each and did coin rubbings to recreate the coins.  Ask your child to sing the coin song to you.  It starts, "Penny, 1 cent, Penny, 1 cent...."

We have also been diligently practicing how to count in groups of five. Using our math hands we have practiced counting while reading books, playing magic number, and beat you to 50! 

We continue to practice numeral writing through white boards and spin a number and also practice writing number sentences to 12.

Math work places offer each student multiple opportunities to practice each skill in fun, interactive, game based centers.

Thursday- GREEN DAY!

Please help your child select a green item of clothing to wear to school on March 17th.We will be celebrating "Green Day". We plan to do many color blending activities, to taste"Green Eggs and Ham," and to enjoy the color green.Please do not go out and buy any new green items, just search for some green socks, shirts, headbands, pants, necklaces, or other green items. If you cannot find anything, do not worry. Kindergarten kids have a great ability to create, given green paper!!

Faith Ringgold

Last week we started learning about another famous artist.  This month we will focus on learning about the life and artistic techniques of artist and author Faith Ringgold.  She is best known for her painted story quilts -- art that combines painting, quilted fabric and storytelling. We are learning how to look closely and replicate intricate artistic details through a study of her work, Tar Beach. Stay tuned for a sneak peak of the our art resembling Tar Beach.

Ask your child about this important work of art and writing. Some questions may include:
What is a tar beach? 
Why is the George Washington Bridge important to Cassie? 
Why does Cassie fly in the story? 
Who comes with her on her flight over the George Washington Bridge? 
What do her parents do for a living?
What time of day and what time of year does the picture/story take place?
What is the purpose of the quilt patterns and the quilt border around the art?

Conferences

On Friday a note and sign up sheet for conferences went home.  If your child did not bring one home, please email me. I found one on the floor after everyone left so someone must have dropped it while packing up! 

Science Friday Exploration

We spent the majority of the day learning about magnets.  The children had a lot of fun exploring with different types of magnets, creating figurines from metal cans, and going fishing with magnets.  They also spent some time running tests with different magnets trying to figure out which magnets repel or attract particular objects around our classroom.  Even though magnets are attracted to iron and steel, they were surprised that they were not attracted to all types of metal.  Many students explored with the concepts of using the north and south poles against one another. We learned that "opposites attract" and "like repels." We will continue this exploration more throughout the next week. 

Field of Faeries

The No Strings Maionette Company put on a fabulous puppet show for us this afternoon.  This company from Randolph Vermont is here to do a 3 week residency with the third grade classes.  In these weeks, they will learn techniques on how to create puppets and put on a show.  Hopefully we will be lucky enough to enjoy this show too upon their completion.  Here is a synopsis of the show we saw today.  

 

"Isabelle Popinki is a girl with a mission! She aims to be a first class scientist and archaeologist in the Field of Faeries. In a vacant lot near her home in a Detroit suburb, Isabelle grows a garden of plants historically used to attract the Faerie Folk. On Halloween Eve, while other neighborhood kids costume themselves for Trick or Treating, Isabelle prepares to fulfill her lifelong dream � to actually meet a Faerie. Sanjeev Patil is a technological whiz kid. His aim this Halloween is to teach his friend Isabelle a lesson with a remote control fairy. The two are transported through a mushroom to the Land of Faerie, where they must help save this underground domain from a man-made menace."

Magnets

We will be spending most of tomorrow morning exploring with magnets. I understand that this is last minute, but if you have any extra magnets at home, we'd love to borrow them for a week or so! 

Does your child know their last name?

Each child is beginning to learn how to both recognize their last name and have been practicing the correct spelling and letter formation of it.  Each day students are expected to sign in for the day by writing their last name on a card. The goal is to learn how to spell their first and last names by heart by June.  They are doing a fantastic job remembering to put only upper case letters at the beginning of their names and when writing only when the word is at the beginning of the sentence.  Please encourage your child to get in the habit of using lower case letters as they write at home. 

Dr. Seuss Books Galore!

We had so many duplicate Dr. Seuss books on our shelves by this morning, we decided to use these books to do partner reading.  Each pair chose two copies of their chosen book and read the pictures, retold the story in their own words.  Many groups went back for another choice and we were able increase our Dr. Seuss book tally immensely. Laughter and good reading filled the room for much of our morning.  It is amazing how many of our friends can take a shot at reading these stories. They are using great decoding and comprehension strategies while doing so and having a blast!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

"When readers create mental images, they engage in text in ways that make it personal and memorable to them alone. Anchored in prior knowledge, images come from emotions and all five senses, enhancing understanding and immersing the reader in rich detail."

Decked out in red and white striped cat in the hat hats, Dr. Seuss pencils, new bookmarks, and stickers galore, each student worked hard and had a lot of fun wishing Dr. Seuss a happy birthday today.  We've been counting the amount of Dr. Seuss books we've read (5 so far) and doing lots of different reading response activities. 

While listening to each book, the kids are practicing a new reading comprehension strategy - visualizing.  While listening to the text with only their sense of hearing, each student is being asked to "make a movie" in their head.  This helps beginning readers make sense of what is being read and bring more personal meaning to the text.  

After reading The Cat in the Hat, we imagined what we would do if the Cat in the Hat appeared in different areas of the school.  While some would get scared and put a call into Mr. Bradley, others thought they would invite him in to play or read his story. 

We also read, Oh, The Places You'll Go, and drew ourselves in a hot air balloon and imagined where we would fly to if we could go anywhere.  Check out their work in the hallway to see where your child would want to go. 

After reading Hop on Pop, we reviewed some rhyming strategies and also filled Cat in the Hat's Hat with all the sight words we know. 

For math, we read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and we practiced making number sentences using different amounts of fish. We drew a picture of our number sentence and used water colors to dazzle it up.


I've now lost my camera battery charger, so I apologize for the lack of real pictures!