Happy Friday to all!
This week in Kindergarten, the children have really been focusing on alliteration (repetition of an initial consonant sound, such as Donald Duck.)We made up silly stories using alliteration, one story being about a spider named Sunny and another about Pete the Cat. Did you know that Pete's favorite foods are pepperoni, pie, parsley, and pizza? I had no clue! They also did an activity called "advertisement alliteration." They searched through ads from magazines and chose their favorite thing. They then thought of a word that started with the same letter as what they picked out. For example, Nathan's ad said "Doggy Desk," Jordan's ad said "Man Markers," Alexis' ad said "Cathy Computer's," and Bella Dutton's said "magnificent M&Ms." They had fun sharing what they came up with to the class. Thank you to Jenny Neel for helping out with the activity!
On Monday, the children learned about the French impressionist painter Claude Monet and his work he did with landscapes. Their job was to recreate one of his paintings. When the weather permits, I plan to take the Kindergartners out to the garden to do their own Monet landscape painting. Monet enjoyed doing the same landscape over and over again when it was a different season. I would like to take the children outside at the end of the year to do the same garden view, but they can compare their paintings from March to June.

The children were introduced to the nickel this week. They enjoy learning about money because they have had experience watching you pay with coins. We have learned about the penny and nickel so far, so next time you are paying with coins, try involving your child in the process (unless it is a long line!) We have also been talking about 3-dimensional shapes, specifically the cube, cylinder, and sphere. We have started a 3-D shape museum in our classroom, so if there is something at home your child finds that would be an asset to our collection, don't hesitate to send it in. The kindergartners went on a 3-D shape scavenger hunt today throughout the school. Stocked with their camera's and clip boards, the children took pictures of the different shapes they found and checked off each one they saw. We saw everything from sphere ornaments to a cylinder salt container! It was a great opportunity for the children to leave the classroom and walk around within the walls of their school.

Weather is still a huge focus in our classroom. As I said in my last post, the children have all picked a topic about weather that they are interested in. Weather is being taught using the Project Approach, which builds on natural curiosity, enabling children to interact, question, connect, problem-solve, communicate, reflect, and more. This kind of authentic learning extends beyond the classroom to each student's home, community,and the world. It essentially makes learning the stuff of real life and children active participants in and shapers of their worlds. Many of the children are interested in thunderstorms, but are learning as they research that with thunderstorms, usually comes wind. Thus, they are learning that wind is moving air and comes from the sun. A goal I have for the children is for them to understand that weather changes on a daily basis. This past week has been a perfect example of this, for one day it was 60 degrees, and the next it was 20 degrees! How about the thunderstorm on Wednesday? The children grabbed their clipboards and we investigated the different areas surrounding our school that showed different levels of water. The children were so interested on why there was a "lake" in the parking lot, but not on the grass? This led to an investigative question: Can cement absorb water? Why is there sometimes puddles in the grass? They also were interested with the water that was dripping from the roof to the ground. It is such a fascinating world the children live in, and it is my job to bring their world into the classroom!
Above (left): The children observing the leftover rain on the parking lot.
Above (right): Sophia adding the noise thunder makes to her project about thunderstorms.

Where is winter? The children are starting to think that winter is over and that spring is here. Little do they know that snow is in the forecast for this weekend! This week in Kindergarten, the students have been exploring patterns found in words. The goal of this is for the children to become competent solvers that take words they know and use them to read or spell words they don't know. The two patterns we have been focusing on are -at and -an. Some were challenged with the pattern -ack. Because the children love when they make a discovery, they LOVED working with letters and patterns and building words. When they build a word, they had to determine if the word they created was a nonsense word or not. To hold them accountable, I had them circle the words that they thought were real words. Some even were challenged to use the real words in a sentence. We then turned to find word patterns within a text. Who better to turn to then Dr. Seuss? They couldn't believe all the word patterns they found in the book The Cat and the Hat Comes Back. It was good that they could connect what they were learning to "real life." The children have also been really dedicated when it comes to making their own books. Using recycled paper, the children come up a story of their own. At the end of the day, an author is chosen to read their book to the class. The next step in their writing process is for them to understand that stories always have a beginning, middle, and an end. Alexis wrote a story that is now being displayed in the library for the other children to take home. She is very proud!
In math, the children have still been exploring the ongoing concept of measurement. This week, however, was special because the children became familiar with the standard ruler. They each got their own ruler and were able to measure objects to the nearest foot. We have also started talking about the worth of money. We start from the bottom and work our way up, so the children have been becoming familiar with the penny. They are doing a very good job understanding the worth of a penny. They were so interested in the picture on the back of the coin. Their first thought was that it was a picture of the White House... which in my opinion, was a very fair guess! They were amazed at the pictures we found online of Abraham Lincoln and the Lincoln Memorial. The children really love learning about history.


Aaliyah working on her penny investigation sheet and penny rubbings.





In science, we are in the process of talking about weather and the fact that it changes day by day (this winter has been a GREAT example of this!) The students will be starting a research project on Monday based on authentic learning activities that engage student interest and motivation. These activities are designed to answer a question or solve a problem and generally reflect the types of learning and work people do in the everyday world outside the classroom. The two most popular topics that were picked were thunderstorms and rainbows (rain,) but I have some students interested in researching about wind and the sun. We talked about the water cycle today, and did a really interesting experiment that visually showed the children what happens when the water is too heavy for the clouds to hold. This would be a fun (and easy) experiment to do at home: Fill a clear, plastic cup up with water. Spray shaving cream on top of the water. Point out that the shaving cream doesn't sink or mix in with the water. Pour about 10 drops of blue food coloring on top of the shaving cream. The shaving cream represents the cloud, and the food coloring represents the rain. You can see the food coloring drizzle down from the cloud. Very neat! Let the research and discovery begin!





Picture taken by: J'Lyn James

Dear Friends,
I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend with their children. I spent a lot of time with my family over the weekend, for it was my dad's 60th birthday! I hope your family time was as cherished as mine was. On Friday, I attended an informational session on early literacy development, and am looking forward to applying many of the activities I learned for enrichment purposes with the children. During the session, there was a quote I read that has really stuck with me, and I thought I would share with you. The quote is "One of the first goals in early literacy development is nurturing a positive attitude toward reading... those attitudes usually result in voluntary readers." As a teacher, I strive to teach my children to love and respect books, and to "dig deeper" within the pages so they can get that magical feeling every child should experience when reading books. The National Reading Initiative states that reading aloud to a child is one of the most important experiences that brings a child into the world of literacy. I hope the reading folders your child brings home from school is developing into a positive experience with both you and child, and with your child and reading.

Love and friendship was truly in the air this past week. On Tuesday, the children celebrated their heart's birthday with a pancake breakfast. Mike Herchik, the grandfather of Isabella Dutton, was kind enough to volunteer to make pancakes and sausage for the entire school! Yes, that is right, all 93 students and 10 staff members were able to enjoy heart and mickey mouse shaped pancakes and sausage, all while sitting at decorated tables with their food placemats they made, having conversations with friends. The children enjoyed watching a puppet show and singing songs while they waited for their turn to get their breakfast. I couldn't decide which picture to post, so I decided to make a slide show of the event instead. Enjoy!

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They were so happy and "stuffed" after their breakfast. They wrote the nicest cards to Mr. Herchik to thank him for such a special morning. Here are Andrew's and J'Lyn's:

On Thursday, as I am sure your child made you well aware, GSCELC and SCOPE participated in their 2nd Skype session with #1 best selling author, Mr. Eric Litwin. This session, Mr. Eric focused on the steps he takes during his writing process as well as what inspires his writing. The children loved hearing if he had a "special spot" where he likes to write and if he is apart of a writer's club. When he responded yes to being part of a writer's club, the children all exclaimed, "We are too! Our classrooms!"

Dear Friends,
What a great week it has been in Kindergarten. I cannot believe it is already February! Where is the time going? This week, the mathematicians have been focusing on measuring objects with a nonstandard "foot." They have learned that you can measure distances and lengths of objects by using their feet and the "heel to toe" method. They enjoy challenging themselves by making a prediction on how many "feet" it will be from their table to the door. They also learned how to measure objects vertically with their paper-cut out foot. Going to the gym was fun for them because they got to measure objects like the traffic light, play house, or stage steps. They were also introduced to counting by 5s, so any opportunity you have at home to reinforce that counting would be great! What is next? Using tally marks to graph data.

Out of all the fun objects in the gym, Andrew and Patrick decide to measure the length of eachother.






Jordan is exploring with the pan balance in the morning while he waits for the arrival of his classmates.




In literacy, the children have been working on making personal connections with a book to help them understand the text more. This is an ongoing concept, for last week they learned about "pulling things out of their brain" that they already know to connect with a text. This is called using schema. I used the analogy of pulling files from a filing cabinet. After getting blank stares and realizing they had no idea what a filing cabinet was or what it looked like, I actually brought one in to the room to show them. The light bulb all of a sudden clicked! The children have been doing great writing in their journals. They are working hard on building their stamina so they are able to sit down and write independently for periods at a time. Here are a few examples of their work:


Isabella M.'s journal say:
"My favorite animal is deers."







Melania's journal says:
"School is the best. You learn in school. I love school. School is cool. School makes you smart."

This week, Pete the Cat brought us fantastic, silly fun. They are working on an ongoing writing project that involves a paper Pete, a computer, pencils, and paint. I know you are at the edge of your seats in anticipation, but you will have to wait to see the final product! What I can say is that the children were mixing colors to create their own color to cover Pete's white shoes with. They even created their own color name. Look out, Crayola! They have connected their color with what Pete stepped in. They loved it and are proud of their work! I can't wait for you to see the results. Thank you to Mrs. Lamb for donating used Gerber containers to the classroom. They came in handy today with the paint!

Hello Mr. Eric!

Hello! Hope everyone has had a great week. This week in math, the students have really been focusing on what an attribute is, specifically connecting the definition with attribute blocks. One of the activities for them to do was go on a scavenger hunt all around the school to find specific blocks based on clues. For example, I left clues such as "I am a thin, blue, large, rectangle. You can find me where you create art." I would have about 3 different blocks scattered throughout the room, and it was their job to find the block that was described, and justify why the other blocks weren't the "mystery block." They did this in small groups so it was exciting for them to get their time out of the classroom and be able to explore their school with Mrs. Gentry.

In literacy, we have been focusing on making predictions about books based on what we know (it is called using our schema.)One of the activities we did was called "Preview, Predict, and Confirm." The children loved to preview the book first by only looking at the pictures, and then thinking of words that could be in the book based on what they saw. As we read the book aloud, we would check off the words they predicted correct. They were thrilled when a word was read that matched a word on the list. If you want to keep the fun going, try doing this at home with the books from their reading folders. Since the beginning of the year, we have been touching upon short vowel sounds, but these past couple weeks we have really been focusing on them. Any chance you have to reinforce these sounds would be greatly appreciated! The "e" (as in exercise) and "a" (as in a- a- choo!) seem to be the most difficult for them.

By using a web camera, both GSCELC and SCOPE had the honor of talking to a fantastic author and musician, Eric Litwin. He has such a wonderful, silly personality that the children absolutely adored. This was on Tuesday, and they were still talking him today. It was a great opportunity to take part in live music, an answer-question session, and a reading of his new book that will be coming out in May. We have been thinking about what we would step in if we were Pete. I have been getting answers like hot fudge, ice cream, and mashed potatoes. It is fun to hear their responses. Here is a video from the web cast for you to enjoy:

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Greetings! I hope everyone is staying warm in this frigid weather. This past week, the Kindergarten students have been rocking out learning about the author Eric Litwin and his popular children's book Pete the Cat: I Love my White Shoes. They had fun creating Pete's town out of blocks, and placing the strawberries, blueberries, water, and mud on the sidewalks that Pete stepped in. They each had a role in the process. Everything from making the speed limit signs to making the sun that hung over the town, everyone was thoroughly engaged making a suitable town for Pete. The students (and the entire school) are looking forward to the 24th of January when we will be taking part in a Skype session with Mr. Eric himself! What an experience it will be! Perhaps Pete the Cat: I Love my White Shoes would be a great book to read on Monday evening with you child. If you haven't read it, it is a family-oriented book that sends a great message to people of all ages: No matter what you step in, keep walking along and singing your song... because it's all good.

In literacy this week, a major focus for the children has been learning their short vowel sounds. They had fun trying to "stump" their teacher by giving me a word that doesn't have a vowel in it. They were amazed! I even got the challenge of "Mississippi."The children loved pointing out vowels in environmental print, such as in their lunch food labels or in books. Try reinforcing this at home so they can take vowel sounds from their school classroom to their everyday life at home. They have also been excited about finding hidden words within other words, such as cat, cold, or one. They think it is so neat!

"I had 4 grapes but then I ate 2. How many grapes do I have left?" This is an example of subtraction stories the children have been introduced too. Last week, we talked about addition and what it means. This week was learning to subtract with manipulative's such as small blocks or crayons. We also talked about shapes such as hexagons, trapezoids and triangles. We studied the different characteristics of what makes a triangle... well, a triangle. They enjoyed making triangles with different shapes and angles today on their geoboards.

The veterinarian office is going to officially start on Monday. I would like to thank everyone who has donated items to the center. I couldn't have pulled it together without you! It will never be to late to donate, so don't hesitate to send something in if you have something just "lying around." I would also like to thank Bo James (J'Lyn's father) for coming early to shovel and put salt on the school's sidewalk. Such a kind gesture that is very much appreciated. Thanks again!

Here is J'Lyn exploring the bamboo tablet, something they were very excited to learn about!

Snow Fun!!

Hi Friends! I hope everyone had a fantastic Holiday filled with warm conversations and happy laughter. What a beautiful past two days it has been. I was outside for recess yesterday, and it was even hard for me to go back inside! The children were having so much fun with their friends making snowmen. There was about three of them pushing the bottom snowball on the ground to gather more snow, creating one large snowball. It was wonderful to see them working together to build something so magical to them. I wanted to capture the moment for you:

The students were very excited to be back at school (at least I think and hope!) In math, we have been getting ourselves familiar with a shape template that allows the students to trace the outline of shapes such as hexagons and trapezoids. They had fun making creatures and designs with the template. Jordan created an alien that was standing on Earth and Nathan created a boat floating in the ocean... very creative! They focused on making patterns with their shapes, extending patterns, and filling in the missing shape.

I also introduced them to a number game called "Top It" which they loved.

TOP IT Directions: Each player gets a set of cards number 1-20. Shuffle the sets. At the same time, each player turns over the top card of the deck. Who got the highest number? They get to keep all the cards. Count the cards at the end and whoever has the most wins the game! Many of the students moved on to a game called "Addition Top It" where you flip two cards over, add the two cards together, and whoever has the highest sum wins. There are your Friday night plans!

We have jumped right into the construction of a sentence. We have talked about capital letters at the beginning of sentences, periods, and how we sstttttrreeeetttccchhh out words to hear the sounds. If you want to encourage this at home, let your child use stretchy material such as an exercise band, silly putty, or a rubber band to sound out the word.

In the next two weeks, Miss Leslie's Kindergarten class will be turned into a veterinarian office! Based on the students interests, I am turning the grocery store into a vet office, where the students will have an opportunity to work in the office or take care of sick animals. Many learning opportunities will be Incorporated into the center, such as measurement, numbers, sentence writing, bar graphs, animal knowledge, poems, songs, and money just to name a few. I want them to understand what a veterinarian does and their responsibilities. If anyone has any supplies they would be willing to donate- extra leashes, water dishes, stuffed animals, boxes of pet medicine- the children would really appreciate it. Better yet, if anyone has a relative or friend that is a veterinarian, please let me know!

Again, I hope everyone had a great Holiday. I also hope you enjoyed your special present from your child. They worked so hard on that project and were SO excited to give it to you. I made sure to take a few pictures of the thoughtful process:

Pictures from our magical Polar Express day:

We got a mysterious present delivered to the school from the North Pole!

It was even cold to the touch. Here is the class anxiously awaiting to see what was inside!

Isabella's reaction to what was inside! They were the bells from the book!

Have a wonderful weekend with your Kindergartner.
Enjoy their age... I know I do!