Apple Day Fun

So What Are We Learning In...

READING
We are over halfway through with our ABC notebooks! The kids love paging through their notebooks and singing the alphabet song.

We are working on writing our names properly (Capital letter for first letter, rest of the letters lowercase).

We made Chicka Chicka Boom Boom trees to show how many letter sounds we know so far in kindergarten. Students will add more letters to their tree once they master specific letter sounds. I can't believe how much progress they've made with their letters and sounds from when I first met them back in August. It's amazing what one month of school can do! Just wait til the year goes on.. :D

We know and can read 4 sight words! WE, CAN, SEE, GO. In your child's book bin, they have decodable books that have text where kids can read the whole book. It has simple sentences that repeat. For example: I see crayons. I see pencils. I see desks. I see children. (Notice how only 1 word in each sentence changes.)

I hope to get these books copied off so that they can have a copy of it at school AND a copy of it at home so you (and other family members) can work with your child on reading.

We've been learning different reading strategies when we read books.
1. Point to each word.
2. Use the pictures to help.
3. Pop the first letter sound (in words that you're not sure of). 

These three strategies are so so important (!!!!!) and will be something that we will continue to work on as readers. 


MATH
First pages of homework came out this week. Thank you parents for helping your child learn to be responsible for getting their homework done and returning it to school the next day. As a reminder, math homework does NOT go home every night; this is why it is crucial to sign and check your child's folder so you can stay in the know! 


We learned how to properly write numbers 1, 2, and 3. I have little chants to say to help the class remember how to write numbers. 

1: Start up high and down you run. That's the way you make a one.
2: Make a candy cane and give it a shoe. That's the way you make a two. 
3: Around and around just like a B. That's the way you make a three.

We do Math Calendar every day. I have a math helper who leads the class in saying the months of the year, days of the week, the date, and how many days we've been in school. We also do something called "Fast Fingers" where the math helper says a number, and the rest of the class has to show that number with their fingers quickly. We also reverse the game where the math helper shows a number with their fingers and we have to shout out what number they're showing. We are currently mastering 0-5 with our fingers. 

APPLE DAY
Boy oh boy, was Apple Day a blast on Thursday! Our whole school day was dedicated to everything APPLES. 

First we created a graph using the apples that we brought.

Then we wrote how many apples were in each category. 

Our completed apple graph! We are working on analyzing graphs by saying which has the MOST, LEAST, any TIES, or NONE (zero)

A big highlight from Apple Day was getting to PAINT with apples!

We used halved apples to "stamp" with.

Here we go!!!

It was a very MESSY activity! We came up with an idea to stick forks in the apples so they wouldn't be so slippery. (I will definitely note that for next year's class...)

A huge shout out to my parent volunteer Rose for helping me out during our painting! I couldn't have done the set up or cleaning all by myself. 

We read apples books, sang apple songs, and made an apple treat! 

Getting ready to eat our applesauce! Another THANK YOU to my volunteers Jennifer and Lindsay for helping dish up our special snack.

Most of the class enjoyed our homemade applesauce and had seconds or even thirds!

We made a craftivity (craft + activity) with apples that also helped students learn the different parts of an apple.

Overall, it was a very busy, buzzing, FUN Apple Day! I hope the kids enjoyed it as much as I did.

OTHER HAPPENINGS IN SCHOOL

Fire Safety Week
We focused a lot of our week on what to do if there's a fire both at home and at school (we had a surprise fire drill earlier in the week!) and how to prevent fires from happening. 

Our Scholastic issue of Let's Find Out was dedicated to fire safety.

Students were given a fire safety manual to fill out and color at home. (Not homework)

We had Prior Lake firefighters come and speak with us! During their time at Jeffers Pond, they received an impromptu call that there was a grass fire so they had to stop their presentation and leave. While it was sad they couldn't stay, it was cool to see them in action and it also showed that no matter what you're doing, safety comes first!

TOADALLY TERRIFICS
We have something new at school called "Toadally Terrific" tickets. Whenever I catch a student being safe, responsible, respectful, or all of the above (and if I have time to write it up), I will give them a ticket. Boys and girls put their tickets in our class jar and every Wednesday, our class tickets go into a big kindergarten jar (with the other three kindergarten classes) and ONE name gets drawn across the grade level. If their name gets picked, they get their photo taken to go up on display to show they know our school expectations! The class is super excited about this new ticket system, but I also want to teach them that it's not about prizes or tickets. I ultimately want to teach them to be intrinsically motivated to make good choices and to follow expectations. 

RECYCLING BIN REVIEW
I've been reviewing with the class how to sort their garbage and WHY we have so many recycling bins at school. With having breakfast, lunch, AND a snack at school, we go through a lot of garbage. I told my students that we want to see if any of our trash can go in the yellow, green, or blue bins first because those items can be recycled and made into other things. However, the trash that goes in the red bin goes to the dump where it just sits. This is why we recycle; it keeps the earth clean and pollution free!

Here's our milk bin (yellow) and our organics bin, which I call the food bin  (green)

Paper towels and tissues can go in the food bin.

Trash bin (red)

Notice how the red bin is low! This shows that a lot of our garbage can be recycled--yay!

Paper bin (blue)

We have one more recycling bin: it's another blue bin but it's for food wrappers that have the aluminum/metal look on the inside. Granola bars and chip wrappers have it so that's where they go.

Well, that is it for this week. Next week is a short week with NO SCHOOL on Thursday or Friday. Remember to wear your PAJAMAS on Wednesday the 15th!!!!!!!