Queen of the Day and games

I saw that many of you sent in the homework from last night.  During morning work some of the children wanted to show off what they did at home.  Many of them did their alphabet this morning on the write on wipe off board.  They were so proud of themselves.

Showing off what we did for homework last night



Our Queen was wearing purple pants and has blue eyes

Today we had a Queen wear of the Day.  Her name started with an R and had five letters.  She got to wear the crown and be the line leader.  It was a special day for her.  The children did a great job making her book.  They are really starting to look for details.  This is a critical skill for when they start writing their stories.  Details in writing and in illustrating their stories will elevate their writing so much.  Several children are starting to really study their subject (the King or Queen) and add those details to their drawings.  Ask for and look for details with your children when reading stories or looking at the pictures.  This will prepare them for writing workshop.  What can you tell about our Queen by looking at these pictures.  Look at them with your kids.  I bet they can tell you who our Queen was today!



The Queen today had blonde hair and was wearing a green shirt

The children did such a great job listening today (it was by far our best day this year! LOL!) I was able to bring out one of the special games I brought to school for them and teach them how to play it.  In the future they will be able to take the game out and play it with their friends by themselves.  This is a rhyming game and includes full body movement.  Research shows that young children learn best when they can use their whole bodies.  In this game you can jump on a picture, identify it's name, beginning letter, role the die, and change the word to a new rhyming word that starts with the letter on the die.  They had a great time and about 70% of the class could identify the beginning letter and about half could rhyme the word.  This is a great start.  It is important to start identifying beginning sounds with your child and rhyming words.  This will really help them with their reading and writing skills this year.


Jumping onto a word.



Rolling the die and identifying the letter and it's sound

They are still really enjoying our chapter book about Junie B. and the No, David! books.  We are still working on learning how to be Peace Makers in our classrooms.  I can tell that many of you are talking with your child about these concepts at home and I really, really appreciate your efforts.  Enjoy you evening!  Don't forget to read with your child tonight!

Monday, August 20, 2012

Today we started our names unit.  We crowned a new King in the class and he was able to be our line leader, read our story and hand out lunch boxes.  We found out how many syllables were in his name and in ours.  We also compared to see if we had the same number of letters in our name as the King had in his.  He got a crown, a badge and a magic King wand.  It was a big deal.  I wonder who will be our King or Queen tomorrow?  Each child drew a picture of our King and wrote his name.  Three children built him a castle in the block center.  It was a great celebration.  One special student crowned, 20 to go!

We also officially launched our Reading Workshop today.  Each table got a book box to pass around and share.  We practiced selecting a book, passing the book box and talked about the responsible and respectful way to treat our books.  We then spent time reading our books.  The blue team read the longest (a minute and 30 seconds without making a sound).  This is our baseline for building their reading stamina.  By the end of the school year they should be able to make it about 15 minutes reading before "wearing out".  This was actually a great start.  They make it much longer (about four minutes) when they are partner reading. 

The last thing I want to tell you about is our reading aloud.  I have started reading the Junie B. Jones books to the children.  We usually do this right after Rest-Write-Read time.  I use this time to discuss character, setting and check their recall of events and details from the chapter I read the day before.  We are currently reading Junie B. Jones and the Stupid, Smelly School Bus.  I have to tell you I am really impressed with their recall.  Ask your child who some of the characters are (if you haven't read any of these books the characters so far are Mrs., Junie B. and Jim).  You can also tell them to tell you about the story.  This is great practice for them.

Our Author of the week is David Shannon.  He does the No, David books.  We read this one today.

The children love this book and we used it to talk about being Peace Makers and Peace Breakers.  We made this anchor chart to support their thoughts.  The children came up with every idea on how to be a Peace Maker and a Peace Breaker.  Some of the Peace Makers ideas included using a level zero voice in the hallway (I love how they already know what a level zero is and where it should be used even if they all can't do it yet!), listening to the teacher and not hitting or throwing things.  Peace Breaker ideas were throwing things, hitting people, running in the classroom or hallways, yelling inside and saying mean things to people, oh, and not listening to the teacher.  Here is the anchor chart.





I used post-it notes so we could add to our boards as new ideas come to us.  Feel free to brain storm with your child and read the No, David stories at home.  Send in new ideas and I will put them on the anchor chart.

The kids didn't ask about lunch until about 10:15 this morning (last week it started at 9 am) and we worked for about an hour and a half before they needed a break.  By 1:30 pm they are pretty tired and we didn't get to calendar or 100 days today, but we will catch up on that tomorrow. 

Have a great night and don't forget to read to your child tonight!  Also, don't forget to send in the Entertainment Book money or the book itself this week.  Great job on sending in the red folders everyday and remembering to send this weeks snack.  You guys rock!

3rd day of Kindergarten

On the third day we started learning about breaking into centers for small group work.  This will be very important as the year progresses for small group work during Reading and Writing Workshops.  The children will eventually spend about 90 minutes in Reading Workshop and 60 minutes in Writing Workshop.  During Reading Workshop they will be spending time listening to reading (books on CD or tape), reading to themselves (silent sustained reading or SSR), reading to a partner (to practice fluency), word work (to work on phonetics and site words) and listening to the teacher give mini-lessons which focus on a specific skill.  Learning to break into groups will take a little time for them to master.  I put up signs only allowing a specific number of children in each center.  I was able to observe them problem solving on how they would decide who would be in each center.  Many times too many children wanted to be in the same center and they really had to work on problem solving, negotiation and compromising skills.  Most of the time they were able to solve this problem without my help, but some of the children needed me to guide them to solutions.  We will work a lot on problem solving this year.  Here is what center time looked like today.

Two children work together in the writing center using letter and image stamps to "write" notes to each other.  One child made a special picture for another child in class who was sad when her sister had to drop her off in class and leave to go to her own classroom.  There are only two children allowed in the center at a time and they all had to work on taking turns and sharing.  One child who really wanted to be in this center asked me if she could take some of the stamps and ink to her seat and use them there.  I thought that was an excellent way to solve her problem.

 

The block area can only have three children in it at a time.  It is a very popular center.  We read the book this week If You Take A Mouse To School and in the story the mouse builds a mouse house.  The children then built a mouse house just like the story.  I have many signs in the block area to expose the children to written words (like yield, stop, merge).  They asked me what some of the signs said and what those words meant.  Again, they thought they were playing but they were really recreating the setting from a book they listened to and they were exposed to new words and built their vocabulary.

I posted a picture yesterday with the children using the letter bean bags to match with the letters on the circle time carpet.  These boys enjoyed it so much they wanted to play that game again during center time.  It was interesting to watch them work together and listen to their vocabulary during this word work activity.  Having the opportunity to practice a skill multiple times is very important so the children can become comfortable and confident in their skills. 

Another very popular center in class is the dramatic play area.  If you notice these hearts have words on them.  The children are exposed to the written word multiple ways in this center.  The V-8 bottle is environmental print, or print they see often in their environment.  Every kids I have ever met can "read" McDonald's signs, Toys'R'Us and Pop Tarts (just to name a few).  I use this center to give them success in reading environmental print.  I will be adding grocery lists, menus, ads, cook books and other items to enhance reading.  We will also recreate the settings from some of their favorite stories in this center.  This center is also used to give the children a lot of math practice as well.  Measuring, counting, adding and other crucial math skills will be supported in this center.  I will post additional pictures when we get to using dramatic play for math exposure.

These children were in the math and manipulative area.  They were working on free form puzzles.  I hear so much language and vocabulary from these two students while they were working.  The were talking about sports, parts of clothing, what sports they liked to play and how they could share and exchange pieces of the puzzles with each other while they created their "boy".  Children having the opportunity to work together helps them create a close and compassionate classroom community.  They were also learning how to develop characters for their story (I asked them to tell me about the boy they created, why they were wearing the clothing they chose and what the "boys" were going to do now that they were dressed).  These are crucial skills for them learning to develop characters for writing later this year.  Getting them to explore details will help them become much more proficient writers.

We took time to find new partners to share our All About Me books again today.  They practiced sitting EEKK again and I hear a lot more vocabulary today when the children were sharing.  Thank you parents for making those with your children.  This is one of their favorite reading activities.  The children are learning a lot about each other and this is critical to build a strong, compassionate and caring classroom community.  This also builds the children's self esteem because they are successful in "reading" their book to a friend and the friend getting the message.  It is not enough to just read the words, the words must have meaning in order to build comprehension.  These books are a marvelous tool to help the children practice reading with meaning.

This child wanted to work in his writing journal during center time.  He and two other children took out their pencil boxes and crayons and started drawing a story.  We read the book Flotsam which is a book with no words.  We talked yesterday about how you can tell a detailed story through the illustrations.  This child really took that mini lesson to heart.  Look at this very detailed drawing about a fire fighter fighting a big fire.  He took a long time and put a lot of effort into creating his story.  He told me a lot of detail and was very proud of his story.

I also did some math assessments today.  I wanted to see which children could draw their basic shapes and write their numbers, independently, from one to ten.  Here are a few examples of their work.  I will be doing assessments for math, reading and writing every month and will share them with you at conferences.

This is that place I will be doing "conferences" with the children and will do skill specific small group work.  These children were practicing working with a small group at the table.  I want them to get comfortable meeting here for future small group work.

 I hope you enjoyed this post.  Enjoy your weekend.  Make sure the kids get plenty of sleep this weekend.  Next week is their first full week of Kindergarten.  Last week was my nieces first full week of Kindergarten and she went to sleep at 5:30 pm last night and didn't wake up until 6:30 am!  Thanks for sending in their snacks, resting mats, paper work, folders and All About Me homework.  You guys are fantastic!

2nd Day of School

Here is an update on the second day of school.  Today we started sharing our All About Me books that you put together at home for their first homework.  The children were so excited.  The purpose of this lesson was to introduce them to EEKK.  What is EEKK you ask?  It stand for Elbow, Elbow, Knee, Knee.  When students are reading with a partner, or talk to another student to discuss information (this strategy is called Turn and Talk) they sit EEKK.  This way they can share a book and both see it and they can talk to each other without having to raise their voices to be heard.  We will use this technique all year.  They did a great job!  They were so excited to share their books.  They know they were the authors and the illustrators in some instances.  The children were so engaged in this activity.  We will be using these books in lots of different ways.  I am looking forward to seeing the rest of them.  Don't worry, they are not due until Monday, but they couldn't wait to share.  Here are some pictures to show you how they sat EEKK.

Next we explored our pencil boxes which are in their chair pockets.  The children were asked to draw a picture of their first day of Kindergarten or about the story Flotsam that we read today.  This book is all about a boy that finds a camera that washes ashore on the beach.  It has no words, it is all illustrations.  The children loved the book and drew some wonderful pictures.  Here are just a few examples of their work.

Here they are all working on their "teams".  We have blue team, pink team and green team and we practiced a lot today on working as a team, to line up, to come to carpet and to clean up.  I think they like being part of the team.  I do have to tell you the pink team was first in cleaning up their work space after Writing Workshop.  I promised them that I would put that on the blog. 

We did some Word Work today.  At this point in the school year word work consist of identifying upper and lower case letters.  I have letter bean bags and the boys loved them.  They worked as a team to match the lower case letter bean bags to the letters on our circle time carpet.  They worked together to help each other and they got them all in the right place.  They were so proud.  We also used the bean bags to play a game finding who had the bean bag that had the first letter of their friends name.  They worked for a long time with the bean bag letters.

After lunch it was time for Read-Write-Rest.  Yesterday we practiced resting our brains/bodies and reading.  Today we practiced resting our brains and bodies and writing.  This group of kids love their journals!  They love to write.  It will be so much fun for you to see their journals at conferences.  They record what they loved about a story I read, what they did at school and some just love to use their imaginations and create stories.  I am trying to record their words in their journals for them until they learn to write more words. 



The last skill we worked on was lining up and walking in the hallways being safe, responsible and respectful.  Here is a picture of them lining up.  The procedure is to have a level zero voice in the hallway, stay in a straight line (this is going to take a while to master, there are so many cool bulletin boards to look at!) and to keep their eyes on the teacher (again, I am no match for the bulletin boards and kids in the other classrooms).  They have the level one voice down most of the time.  They are making great progress.

Here is our anchor chart we made to remind us how to be safe, respectful and responsible at carpet time.  While we are sitting for large group instruction the children said we should sit with our legs crossed (or criss-cross apple sauce), have our hands in our laps (spoon in the bowl) and have a level zero voice when the teacher is talking.  At the end of the day they wanted to add raise your hands to talk.  Everyone has so much they want to share that they can not hear what the other student is saying.  When one person talks at a time then everyone can hear what they have to say.  We are going to add that one to our chart tomorrow.

I hope this gives you some talking points with your child tonight.  As always, if you have any questions just email me.  Have a great night.  I will try to update again this weekend.  Good night.

First Day Of Kindergarten

Wow, what a fantastic day.  The kiddos learned so much today.  I am posting pictures to help you facilitate conversations with you Kindergartner about what they learned today.  I hope this helps you have a clearer picture of what their day is like.  No wonder they are so tired by the time they get home!  I have pictures of the children for their portfolios too, but their faces will never appear on the blog.  Enjoy your glimpse into their day.

 When the children first come to school they drop off their lunch boxes into the blue bucket, put their back packs away, place their red folder into the folder basket and go to their seat to work on morning work until class starts at 8:20ish.  Today they could write/draw on the write on/wipe off boards and use play dough to make letters.  Here is what it looks like:



No matter how hard I tried I could not get the picture to rotate.  Sorry!  This was their thoughts on how to be safe in the hallway after we practiced walking around the school once.

The children decided to help decorate our anchor chart on Being Safe in the Hallways.  They did a great job, don't you think?

Today after lunch and recess we had Read-Write-Rest time.  No one slept (so hopefully they will sleep great tonight) but they all rested their brains.  We listened to soft music, turned out the lights and every child picked a book (and some borrowed one of my "reading buddies" (stuffed animals) and took 20 minutes to let their brains and bodies rest.  They worked hard this morning and the kids said they were tired and enjoyed the break.

Today during what will be Writing Workshop time the children completed their first assessment.  You will see it in their portfolios during Parent/Teacher conferences this fall.  Each month they will draw a picture of themselves and give a writing sample.  This month the writing sample is printing their first name.  It will progress to writing simple sentences describing themselves by the end of the school year.  Don't tell them it is a test though, they just think they are having fun.  The fact that is learning is our little secret for now!

I hope this gives you a little insight to what their day looked like.  I will try to keep the blog updated at least once a week, and more often if I can.

Ms. Arrendale

All About Me Book - Ms. Arrendale's Book

Here is my All About Me Book.  I thought I would share it with you so you and your child can look at it.  This might make your child a little more comfortable before his/her first day of kindergarten.  I hope you enjoy!

Thank you to Mrs. H at Teachers Pay Teachers for providing the template.  It made it really easy to upload!