Reading Cafe and Music Concert

The kindergarten and first grade classes did an absolutely wonderful job at their music concert last Friday. A huge kudos to our music teacher Mrs. Furney for getting the students prepared! The concert was called "Tweet" and the songs related to baby chicks leaving their nest and flying for the first time on their own. I couldn't help, but relate it to my kindergartners in the beginning of the year. For many of you, this is your oldest child attending kindergarten and in a way you were like the mother bird letting your baby bird go. Now that it's already May, I feel sort of like the mother bird, preparing for her babies to leave the nest and go off to first grade. (Wahhh!) It is a bittersweet journey and while I am sad that the end of the year is near, I know that my students (and your children) are fully prepared for their next step in education. 

Ready to sing!

Reading Cafe

Before the music concert, we held a Reading Cafe in the kindergarten classrooms. Guests were seated in our "cafe" and given a menu of book choices. After making their selection, waiters (the students) served guests their books on a tray (along with a Hershey's Kiss) and read to them. After the meal was over, waiters gave them a receipt of what they "paid" for and said goodbye. This was a fun little opportunity for students to read and show off how much they have accomplished in their reading skills this year. The class spent a lot of time preparing for this special event; I hope you enjoyed it as much as they did!

Menus and trays all ready to go!

What are we learning?

Last Wednesday was Mrs. Burton's last day with our class. She reviewed what living and nonliving things are and had the students write and illustrate pages to make a class book. 

It grows

It doesn't move

In math, we've been learning about time.

We made a poster of what we do during different times of the day.

We are eating.

I am waking up.

In the afternoon: Play time

Playing chess

In the evening: Brush our teeth

At night, we sleep.

We talked about our home and school schedule and what kinds of activities happen during each hour. I assigned each student a specific time to illustrate. We put all of the pages together to make a class book.

Wake up

Waiting on the bus

Writing words

Specials

Reading

Recess

SMART time

Playtime

I'm at home

Eating dinner

Play with my friends

We've been learning about different fairy tales and what kind of elements fairy tales have. Some of the characteristics include: starting with the line "Once upon a time...", magic and enchantment, royalty, an evil character, a kind character that is often mistreated, a reward for a good deed, and the ending "and they lived happily ever after." Our math and reading stations are fairy tale-themed.

Number sequence

Addition

Subtraction

Social Skills
The class and I have been talking a lot lately about how to get along and handle conflict resolution with one another. We've been doing a few teamwork activities to help us practice compromising, taking turns, and having a positive attitude whether we get our way or not.  One way we practiced using our social skills is by playing Chutes and Ladders in small groups.