Holidays Around the World!

Happy Holidays! In December we enjoyed fun events, including Holidays Around the World and Holiday Pajama Day! During Holidays Around the World, we traveled to different countries, which were set up in kindergarten classrooms. We traveled to Mexico, Germany, and Sweden! During reading, we have been using the questioning strategy to strengthen our comprehension. During Writers Workshop, we wrote about small moments by using our five senses to recreate an experience. In math we practiced adding and ordinal numbers.

Adding with blocks

A student modeling her small moment during the Writers Workshop mini-lesson

We recreated a small moment in our minds and wrote our "magic message"

Following the pointer with our eyes as we read

Using magnets to create meaningful sentences during word study

Creating rhymes!

Using words from our magic messages to create meaningful sentences during word study

Group two during word study is matching and writing sight words

Group 3 during word study is reading sentences and circling the sight word

Writing a story in the Writing Center

Watching The Polar Express and eating treats on Pajama Day

Learning about Santa Lucia Day in Sweden during Holidays Around the World

We read about Toot and Puddle and they taught us the best gifts are ones we make with love!

We learned all about Santa Lucia Day!

In math we learned about ordinal numbers and created reindeers during a guided math center.

Rudolph is 1st, Dasher is 2nd!

Happy Track-In!

Before we tracked out, November was full of new learning! In our math centers we practiced number recognition, adding numbers, creating more complex patterns, and graphing. Our writing is becoming more detailed, as we are adding verbs in our writing. On Fridays we are even planning our own Reader's Theater play in guided writing groups! We look forward to learning about Holidays Around the World in December!

We are adding using counters!

We are using the "Give Me Five" graphic organizer to plan our Reader's Theater Play, focusing on building characters, setting, problem, solution, and theme

Our writing responses during Guided Reading

Practicing patterns in Math Centers

Practicing adding in math centers

Practicing number recognition in math centers

Practicing graphing in math centers

We learned a beautiful poem for Thanksgiving and visualized all the things we are thankful for. Then we turned our visualizations into paintings!

We are fantastic writers!

We have been celebrating families by reading stories about families and writing about them too! We are learning to write new words by getting our pencil ready for the first sound, stretching out the sound, and writing the sounds we hear. We love to share our ideas before writing by sitting knee-to-knee. In science we have been learning all about the weather and acting as meterologists and doing experiments. In math we have been learning to add numbers and create ABC patterns.

Measuring the temperature of hot and cold water with thermometers

Writing about the weather in the writing center

In Guided Reading we are learning how to use quotation marks

We are using rain guages in science to measure rainfall

Creating a magic message during writing by adding quotation marks.

Creating a magic message during writing with the pocket chart

Sharing knee-to-knee during writing

Working hard in Guided Writing groups

Learning about the Sh sound in Guided Reading

Conducting a science experiment by testing different fabrics for raincoats

We found sh words in Guided Reading!

We use this reading strategy to read new words!

Weather!

We are learning all about the weather in science. Our favorite story this week was "The Wind Blew" by Pat Hutchins. Students learned to read thermometers and wrote about the weather in their science journals using the Science Word Wall. In reading we are celebrating families and are retelling stories by distinguishing the characters and setting. We are now using verbs in our writing and have begun to plan writing our Reader's Theater Play! In math we are doing a great job learning to add and subtract!

Writing in our science journals!

In this math center we are matching and sorting shapes and creating patterns

In this center we are creating horizontal graphs. This graph answers the question

"what do you want to be when you grow up?"

In this center we are completing addition and subtraction problems

In the Writing Center we used the science word wall to write about the weather!

We are building great reading skills in guided reading!

Creating the "T is for Tie Dye" page of our alphabet books

Writing our own "T" poem. One student extended what they learned in Guided Reading and included quotation marks!

In Social Studies we learned all about school, home, and community rules.

We created our own book of class rules.

We were T detectives this week and searched for words with the beginning T sound!