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!!