Friday, January 27, 2012

eeek!

I just realized I forgot to post all of our Holiday Happenings in K-6! Wow, that seems like ages ago!  It's coming soon! There were a lot of great pictures and events!

mumbo jumbo Friday

For starters today was CrAzY hair day...

The kids looked CrAzY in different dos (I even improvised and created crazy hair for those who forgot - this teacher has far too many stray bobby pins in her purse)


We have been working on making books.  This week we wrote 5 page stories about an event that happened in our lives.  Here are 2 kiddos sharing theirs.  We will finish these up next week but let me tell you, so far, SO GOOD!

Our process goes something like this:
                 Beginning (introduce the characters and the setting)
                 Middle: 1st event
                             2nd event
                             3rd event
                 Ending  (wrap it up)

So a very basic story could sound something like this:  One day I went to Ashley's house.  When we got to her house we ate a snack.  We played dress up.  Then we had a tea party.  I had fun.

More advance writers are adding more detail and using their senses to really stretch out and explain what is happening in the story. Example: One chilly, fall afternoon I walked home with my friend Ashley.  I was excited about playing with her all week long. When we got to her house we sat on the couch.  Her mom made us a special snack. We ate milk and cookies! After our snack we played dress up.  I love playing dress up.  I wore a pink dress and Ashley wore a princess crown! We looked silly.  etc. etc. etc.

In social studies this nine weeks we are learning about different historical figures. Today 4th graders from Mrs. Simpson's class came to teach us about Stephen F. Austin.  They had books and pamphlets they made in class to share with us! Learning from older kids in school is really fun! The most important thing we learned was that Stephen F. Austin is known as the "Father of Texas".  We wrote things we learned and drew a picture in our journal. 


Thanks 4th Grade!

Happy Friday! Y'all all have a great weekend!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

23

23!  That's how many smiling faces I get greeted by everyday! And boy, that's a lot! A few parent's have requested an updated list of students.  Here it is!


Ms. Landin’s Class

Grace *
Shriya *
Grant
David
Addie *
Joe
Marcel
Andrew
Jake
Talan
Joy *
Justin
Shealyn *
Alexander
Sharan
Neto
Jasmine *
Abel
Amanda *
Gideon
Claire *
Hannah * 
Kooper
                                             * = girls

FOOTBALL

IT'S SCIENCE!

Really!

See...




We've been learning about motion in science. Today we made paper footballs and learned to play the game by pushing the paper across the floor.  The noise level in our class told me they were having FUN! You can direct any emails from annoyed future teachers to me for teaching them this old school game. (It's true, everything you need to learn you learn in Kindergarten - like how to play paper football!)

And while I don't have any pics of the other happenings in class I can assure you we have been busy.  Really, really busy reading, reading, reading, and reading!!

PLEASE read every night.  Practice sight words, letter sounds, vowels, chunks as much as possible! I will send home the vowel and chunk chart we use soon! It's very important that everyone keeps this up so they are ready for first grade!

*     *     *

100th Day of School

Next week is the 100th day of school! I sent home a note and bag about an activity we will be doing in class. I found one on the floor so I know someone did not receive this.  Please let me know if your child didn't make it home with the bag and note.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Half Way to FIRST Grade!

This one of my favorite times in Kinder. After a long break everyone comes back...older, and smarter, and mature, and more excited about learning!

We've been busy, busy with new things!

We started a unit on Motion in science.  The last couple weeks we've been exploring with magnets! Magnets are fun aren't they? Almost like magic!



We've been working REALLY hard on writing these last few weeks.  We are making sure we streeeeeeetch out our works so we can hear all the sounds - that makes spelling words correctly much easier! Another BIG goal is making sure we ONLY use capitals at the beginning of words (or when it's a name), making sure we always use periods, not forgetting our spaces, and USING GOOD HANDWRITING! (we need some extra work on this!!) This week we changed it up a bit and have been writing on dry erase boards instead of our Writer's Workshop Journals. 


We have also been reading books about snowmen and we made a GIANT one!

First, I asked them how to make a snowman and wrote what they told me in blue.
We re-read it and I drew a picture of 3 balls, a carrot, a hat, buttons, and a mouth on the board.  It DID NOT look like a snowman!! We discussed why and re-wrote our description to be a little clearer.  (some of that is written in orange) We are really trying to think about everything we write before and WHILE writing! After we got a better idea of how to make a snowman we...made one!
A BIG BIG ONE! Isn't he cute?? I really think this is the first snowman I've ever made!
Now we are working on writing exact details on how we made our snowman...
When we finish with that we will write snowman stories.  These will look great in the hallway around our massive snowman!
In math we've been reviewing skip counting. We're also working on ordering and filling in missing numbers by counting backwards and forwards. 


Oh, and we started something new! Sticker charts and they have been going over very well!  We earn stickers by listening, following directions, moving quickly and quietly from one activity to the next, working hard, helping others, even for doing really nice neat work! As soon as someone fills up their chart with stickers they will earn a treasure from my box.  When the whole class fills up a chart we will get an extra recess or PAT!

We have been reading like maniacs to get ready for the DRA2 which is coming up soon! Please READ, READ, READ at home!! Every little bit helps!!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Catching Up!

This is what we've been up to (the last oh, month that I haven't posted) I'll show you in pictures!

We acted out a song. "Five Black and Shiny Crows"







I got in on the fun too!



We made flip books to retell the story...



We write scarecrow stories...



We used the same scarecrow costume to retell a story, "A Shy Scarecrow"








We learned about numbers and how to decide if they're "greater than" or "less than". The alligator always eats the greatest number!











We had fun making a coffee filter turkey.



We made patterned chains to decorate for our Turkey Store day.



We had so much fun at our first store! Buying things to make a turkey.








Oh, I also go engaged!!! Yay!
Their responses to what being engaged meant were so precious and priceless!
"It means you have to live with Travis. "It means you got married." "It means you have to kiss a boy!" (eeeeewwwww!!!) hahaha



We've been so busy in class, I can't even believe it's already December (and that our semester is just days from being over!)

My little kinder babies are half way to first grade!

And if you kids have told you I got married, I haven't! I think they're a little confused and it doesn't help that I have had a wedding to attend the last 3 weekends! They think all of them are mine!

We are planning a wedding for October 2012. Many of you have asked if we have registered and the answer is no, we have been sooo busy with all these other weddings and wedding will continue through April. When we find time we will likely register at Pottery Barn and Target.

I am loving every second of the holiday season with my Kinders!!

Hopefully I will manage to get some current posts up soon but if not, I wish you all the very happiest holiday season!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Thanksgiving in Kinder!!

Our first ever kindergarten family feast was a huge success!! I was so excited to see so many families here to celebrate! We are soo thankful for you!!

Here's some pics I snapped of the families that came for our fun event!









































































I know I've done a pretty terrible job updating these last couple of weeks. November creeped up on me out of the blue. We've been busy, busy working on many things in class! Hopefully I can find some time to blog about it soon!!

Thank you for making our Thanksgiving lunch feast so amazing!! You children are so lucky to have you!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone