December 14

Hi Families:

I apologize for being away from updates for so long. I have many fun pictures to share with you since my last post. We have been so busy in our room. We are learning so much about our five senses. These past few days we have been learning about our sense of sight. We had fun looking at I SPY books and observing the many details an illustrator includes on a page.



In math we have been working hard on probability. We played a game with three sticks. One side of each stick is red, the other side is blue. We predicted the probability of the sticks landing on the same color when we dropped them. We had so much fun playing this game. Ask your student how often we dropped sticks and they landed all on the same color.

We are also working really hard on one to one correspondence between objects and numbers. We loved playing domino matching. The kids had to count the number of dots on a domino and match it to a number card. Here we are having so much fun. We also learn a lot from each other when we work in small groups:

We made five senses collages using different craft objects: felt, sequins, googly eyes, sandpaper, yarn, scratch and sniff stickers, bells and pipe cleaners. They are on display outside of our classroom.


Show and Tell this week: Bring in an object that we can touch. Help your student come up with one word that describes their object i.e. crinkly, soft, hard, smooth, rough etc.

Don't forget that tomorrow is early dismissal at 1:30. Remind your students how they will be getting home after school.

Library books are due on Friday. Students must return their book before checking out a new one.

Let me know if you are interested in volunteering in our classroom for small reading or math groups.

Continue to practice sight words, numbers and letters each night. Our students are turning into readers, writers and mathematicians before our eyes!

December 6

This afternoon we kicked started our unit on five senses with a shared learning experience. Several kindergarten classrooms joined together to watch, feel, hear, smell and taste popcorn being popped. It was really fun to witness the kids experience popcorn being popped in a new way--it was like they were looking at the world through new eyes. Ask your kindergartener how they can describe popcorn being popped with each of their five senses. Quiz them to remember what each of the five senses are.



We even learned a new song about our five senses from Ms. Roeske. Here we all are doing the motions to our song. Can you tell which of the five senses we are singing about?

December 5

Good Evening Families:

I am up and at 'em again. Thank you for being so patient, supportive and understanding last week while I was out sick. I caught the bug that has been circulating throughout our classroom--fever, chills, sore throat. I hope that tomorrow I will be at full strength. I am excited to see the kids, and hear about the many fun and exciting things that happened at school.

When I chatted with some of my teammates, I heard how fun the community hallway was. The dentist office that our class put together was a huge success. The passports that students brought home on Friday are from the community hallway experience--they traveled to seven different community "buildings" put on by each class. In order to get a sticker, they had to identify the building, and explain how its workers contribute to our community.

We will be starting our new PYP unit called Sensational Senses tomorrow. There will be a purple sheet in the students' folders that details the unit. We are excited to learn about the scientific process, experiments, and the five senses.

Please look for Peek at the Week calendars to come home tomorrow. I apologize that my sub did not get them into folders on Friday.

I have my camera all charged up and ready to take pictures of our class hard at work this week.

Looking ahead to Friday: This week's show and tell is to bring in a mystery sound object. Students can find something creative at home that makes a sound. They will keep their object hidden while they make its sound and the rest of the class will use their sense of hearing to guess what the object is. Try putting coins in a sock, rice in a bag, or beans in a can. Be as creative and tricky as you can. Show and Tell bags will come home on Wednesday. Please remember to return bags on Friday so they can be reused again.

I hope you enjoyed a wonderful weekend in the snow! Winter is upon us.

November 28

Hello Families:

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful, relaxing long holiday weekend. I am excited to hear the many stories that the kids will tell me tomorrow. I wanted to take a moment and post several pictures from our classroom last week. Remember, all pictures may be made larger by clicking on them individually.

On Monday we had a visit from "Dr. Pepper, " a local pharmacist. She talked to us about her job at the pharmacy and how she helps give us medicine when we are sick.

She also talked with us about medicine safety--and before we play with, or eat anything that we are unsure about to STOP and ASK an adult.
On Tuesday, two students from the high school came to visit our room and do a fun activity with us. As part of their child development class, these students asked if they could do a fun activity that focused on letters, drawing and writing. Our class was a very willing set of "guinea pigs" and gladly agreed to practice writing their letters, names and numbers in shaving cream. I think this was definitely the highlight of the week for them--minus the intense cleaning part:-)

On Wednesday, we played bingo with our fourth grade buddies in Mrs. Held's class. Our buddies were so helpful to us. We worked really hard on number and letter recognition with them. It is always fun to visit the big kids in their classroom.

We also had fun sharing what we are thankful for while cutting and coloring November turkeys. It was fun to see friends work together to help each other finish.
On Wednesday afternoon, the entire kindergarten came together for a Thanksgiving feast. We enjoyed plates of fruit and popcorn with our families and good friends. We laughed, shared and realized just how much we have to be thankful for.

Look for show and tell bags to come home EARLY this week (Monday) with a different show and tell assignment. Those students who are working on extension packets should turn them in by December 6. Any students who turn in completed, neat packets will eat lunch with me in the classroom. November reading charts are due tomorrow! Stay tuned for another exciting week in kindergarten.

November 18

Where do I start? We have had such a busy last few days.

We had so much fun listening to our guest speaker: a dental hygenist from Woodbury Dental Care. She read us a story, talked to us about how to take care of our teeth and even showed us how to brush and floss.


We have been really busy learning new sight words: we have been focusing on a, my and the. We love to practice writing our sight words on dry erase boards. Can you tell what word we are writing in the picture?
This morning we listened to another community helper. She was a veterinarian from Inver Grove Heights. Our favorite part was looking at real live x rays from the animals she has helped.

Here we are practicing a safety procedure. The vet told us that if we ever come across a scary dog without an owner, we should stand as still as a tree, or lay like a rock. Can you tell which position we are practicing?
This afternoon we continued our PYP unit of inquiry on communities. We talked about three different types of communities: city, small town (suburbs) and farm (rural). We made a chart that told us the characteristics of each community. We were so lucky to have some of our buddies from Mrs. Held's class come and help us make collaborative murals of each community. It was fun to see the team work and cooperation that took place between the students. Come see our murals. They are hanging right outside of our classroom. Ask your student to tell you the differences and similarities between each of the three community types.

• Remember to work together on yellow math links that were sent home on Monday of this week. They are wonderful enrichment activities that support our math curriculum at school.
• Letter R show and tell is tomorrow.
• All students should be coming to school with the Winter Five everyday. If you need clothing assistance please let me know by sending a note in your student's folder.
• Read aloud with your student. Let them read a book to you, and you read a book to them. Students should be reading a minimum of 15 minutes a night.
  

Enjoy a wonderful evening at home together. Tomorrow is Packer Pride Day!