Happy (belated) Halloween!

Friday was bustling with activity. I LOVED seeing all of my students with their fun Halloween costumes. I can't get over the superhero ones with all of the muscle padding on their tiny kindergarten bodies--too funny/cute! 

The Kindergarten Team was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles--COWABUNGA!

The class drew their own jack-o-lanterns, observed what a pumpkin looks like using a magnifying glass (in science), painted mini pumpkins during the Harvest Party, and got to show off their costumes to the third, fourth, and fifth graders. Boy, did Friday sure FLY by!

We drew our observations in our science journals.

Painting our mini pumpkins

Lining up for the Halloween costume parade

Outside of school, I was able to dress up. After all, Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday! 

Ryan and I were the characters from the Disney movie Up.

Earlier in the week, the students wrote and drew what they were going to be for Halloween. Over the last two months, the class has learned and practiced the 26 alphabetic letters and sounds. Now that they have a solid understanding of the alphabet, we are really getting into our writing. One BIG trait to know about kindergarten is that I (along with the other K teachers) are NOT looking for perfect spelling. I know, I know! It feels super unnatural and wrong to see misspelled words and not want to correct them. But please, let me them go through this learning process. If we want children to be confident in themselves when it comes to writing, correcting them every time they make an error will only make them self conscious and rely on adults to tell them how to write a word. However, if we are encouraging them with their small (and big) successes ("Oh, you wrote the letter C to help you spell the word cat! You remembered to sound out the first letter sound.), we are helping our budding writers to grow. Correct spelling will come later down the road. 

Currently, what I am looking for is if your child is able to stretch out a word and write down all of the sounds they hear. Did they hear the beginning, middle, and ending sounds and write down the corresponding sounds that go with that word? It may not be the correct spelling, but if it makes senses phonetically, then that is a huge achievement. Please encourage your child to write and draw at home and ask them to read what they wrote. An additional skill I look for in kindergarten writing is if they are able to understand what they wrote and read it back to me. As the year goes along, we will focus on capitalizing the first word in a sentence, using punctuation marks and finger spaces in between words, etc. Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day. These huge writing concepts take time! So let's enjoy the ride in the meantime. :)

I am Spiderman.

I am a Minion.

I am a dragon.

I am Darth Vader. 

I am Iron Man.

I am a rocket ship.

I am Bat Girl. 

I am a fairy. 

I am a ninja. 

We have been learning 2 sight words per week. I like to call them "popcorn words" because your child should be able to read them as fast as popcorn pops. There should be no hesitation or sounding out. It should be instant automaticity. One way to help zone in on our kindergarten popcorn words is by writing them. 

Reading Stations
The class started small group reading stations. Each day, your child goes to one colored reading tub and does whatever is assigned. Their job is to focus on the task at hand and complete it in a timely manner. If their work doesn't get done on time, they finish it during playtime (or at another free part of the day). While students work at stations, I work with individuals and small groups on their reading skills. I am currently figuring out what their "just right" book levels are. 

Writing the popcorn word "see"

Using spinners to land on a letter

Writing color words

Writing the beginning sound in a picture

Going on a scavenger hunt around the room for school words

Math
When I assessed students on their recognition of shapes, there were a handful that still didn't know squares, rectangles, triangles, and/or circles. We reviewed the four basic shapes and their characteristics. We also sorted them by color, size, and shape then made our own patterns. 

Shape sorting

SMART Room
We have been able to go to the SMART room over the last two weeks or so. This is where the kids work on fine motor and gross motor skills. 

Pencil Roll: Keep your arms and legs "glued" together as you roll across the mat

Alligator Crawl: Use opposite arms and legs to help you cross the mat. Keep chin down low.

Tunnel: Crawl through on hands and knees while keeping the tunnel still.

Fine motor station: Buckling, buttoning, and tying shoe laces

Spinners: Spin around and count to 10. Stop for 10 seconds. Then spin the opposite way counting to 10.

Rebounders: Jump as you say whatever is on the poster. (ABC letters, numbers, color words) 

Balance beam: Walk heel to toe.

Overhead ladder

We have something at Jeffers Pond called Golden Item awards. This is where specialist teachers pick different classes that show responsibility, respect, and safety. The Golden Items include a recorder (music), tennis shoes (P.E.), paint brush (art), jump rope (recess), lunch tray (cafeteria), and book (media) and get passed around every couple of weeks. The first Golden Items were announced two weeks ago and our class was awarded the golden PAINT BRUSH. Yay for our class for doing our best in Art! I tell the class that these golden items are just an extra bonus and that we should feel good in our hearts for doing our best no matter what. 

I'm late in posting this, but here is some Read-A-Thon action from awhile back.

In my room, we read a book about popcorn and cut out popcorn letters and words.

At the school assembly, Lauren and Elle's names were drawn for prizes. Lauren got to eat lunch with me last week and Elle gets to pick an outside game to play with me and the class.

Our school raised over $25,000 for our Read-a-Thon fundraiser. As a prize for our efforts, Dr. Warner and Sara from Kids Co got pied in the face by some students!