Retell a Familiar Story!

This week we took the time to review one of our most important CAFE strategies now that we are becoming independent readers. We worked on the strategy of retelling a familiar story using the beginning, middle and end of the book. Today, each student chose a book from his/her book box that they can read on their own. They got together with their partner and did not read the story to them, but retold the story using the focus strategy. Afterward, we came together and the groups shared how their partner did retelling the story. The groups shared the characters, problems, solutions and other key details from stories their partners retold.

Rainbow Fair

Clifford!!

After the morning announcements today we had a class visitor. Clifford, the BIG red dog stopped by the kindergarten classrooms to wish us well with our reading! We were very excited to see him!

Making a List

During our whole group writing time today, we created a class list. The title of our list was "Places We Can Fly a Kite". We talked about how when you write a list the words do not have to be in a complete sentence. You only have to write one or two words in order for you to understand what it is you were writing. Examples of lists were grocery lists, to-do lists and the lists we wrote on our Daily 5 I-Charts. The class took turns coming up to the chart, writing their "dot" and the place they thought of to fly a kite. We focused on being specific when describing where we could fly the kite instead of just saying "outside" we wanted to use details in our explanation.

Strategies to Solve.....

After teaching several mini-lessons to the class on different ways you can solve an addition problem on how to make the number 10, I noticed several students challenging themselves at their Daily 5 Math choice by solving using all three ways we have worked on. We have worked with using manipulatives, a number line and draw a picture. I was so excited when I "caught" these students using these ways on their own. Way to go class!



This student wrote her own number line at the top of her dry erase board to solve addition sentences!




This student chose to draw a picture to help solve her addition sentences.




These two students were using manipulatives to solve addition sentences to 10!

Revisiting "Good Fit Books"

At the beginning of the school year we talked about ways they as beginning readers can pick a book for themselves that is a good fit to enjoy reading. Today, we revisited the idea of what makes a good fit book for us as kindergarten readers. We talked about how it wouldn't be easy to wear our mother or father's shoes all day long, just like it wouldn't be easy to read a book that is meant for someone else. We talked about what makes the students choose a particular book over other books. Below is the list we compiled that we think makes a good fit book!

• Funny
• Topic
• Books in the same series
• Read to know what happens
• Does not have a lot of pages
• Does not have a lot of words
• Pictures
• To learn something
• Colors on the pages
• Read a familiar book (one that you've heard before)
• Author

 

Writing with TEXT Features!

This week we learned about how authors use text features to emphasize different words or to draw the reader's attention towards something special on the page. After reading the Dr. Seuss story I Can Read With My Eyes Shut we created our own sentences about something we can do with our eyes shut. When we wrote the sentences, we focused on writing our words with using one or more of the text features we learned this week. They did a wonderful job adding various features to make their text standout!

Authors/Illustrators Hard at Work!

For the past week, we have been working on writing and publishing our very own class book. For the past several years all of the classes here at MME participate in this writing project.

To start off, we brainstormed ideas as to what we would want to write about. We discussed the writing had to be something we all were interested in, since we were writing the book together. To help with ideas, I read books that were written by previous kindergarten classes, as well as two second grade classes. After coming up with several ideas, we decided on writing about what we want to be when we grow up.

To begin the writing process, we orally stated what we wanted to be when we grow up and I wrote those sentences down so I could help them remember the reason why they chose what they chose. The sentence they recited was "I want to be _____ when I grow up, because ________."

The following day, we wrote our first draft. We discussed how when an author writes a book they may not write it perfectly the first time. They usually have to go through several drafts before they decide on a final version. I explained the job of an editor and that I would act as their editor. We discussed parts of their sentence that were great, parts we needed to fix and a few parts we needed to add to make the writing the way we wanted it.

After writing the first draft, we then composed a second draft using the corrections that were made with the first draft. Most of the students were finished after the second draft and were ready to move to the final draft. A few decided they needed to revise a part or two before being ready for the final draft.

Once we decided on the final draft, we discussed the importance of taking our time on the final draft to make sure it was exactly how we wanted it to be so we made the best piece of writing for the reader.

Finally, we completed the illustration in a similar way to the sentence. We drew a practice draft for our first illustration and a second draft. After both drafts, we were ready to complete the final draft for the illustrations.

Below is a short video clip of the students hard at work on their writing and/or illustrations. Busy little bees!

Come Skating

This week's poem was called Come Skating and was written by Shel Silverstein. The class did a phenomenal job this week with their expression. Yesterday, we took turns reading the poem individually and we enjoyed hearing the different types of expressions we heard when each student read the poem. I was very proud of how the final performance went today!

Use Text Features cont...

This week not only have we been focusing on the strategy "Use Text Features" but we have been learning about the famous author Dr. Seuss. It just so happens that Dr. Seuss was a huge fan of using text features in his books. One of our favorites from the week as been Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? We enjoyed finding all of the text features in this book, as well as reading and making the noises throughout the book with the character.

• Words BIG!
• Made words bright and colorful.
• Words went down!
• Words went up!
• Words were smaller.
• Words were curved.
• Put lines around words to make them stand out.

Use Text Features

Our focus CAFE strategy this week is on "Use Text Features". We started the week off by reading a book called Night of the Veggie Monster. We discussed all the different ways the author used his text aka his words to emphasize important words he wanted us as the readers to focus on. Below are examples of what we found the author doing with his text!

• Words were bigger (some smaller)
• Words were darker
• Speech bubbles
• Capitalized letters
• Curved the text
• Dots to continue sentences
• Letters went up and down or just down

 

  

Below are examples of the pages from the book showing the different text features we found.

Daily 5 Math Mini-Lesson--Missing Addends!

Last week we practiced making different ways to make the number 10. This week I placed the same manipulatives on the board for the students to use, but instead of having them move the items and create/write the addition sentence, I started with one addend of the addition sentence, a missing addend and the answer. The student(s) could use the mainpulatives to find the answer and/or if they knew they answer they were to place the correct number in the missing blank.

Daily 5 Math Mini-Lesson & 2 Choices!

As our 3rd nine weeks draws to a close, we have started to focus on our 4th nine weeks Common Core State Standards. The main skill we have been working with in the past week is ways to make the number 10. We first started out doing this as a whole group activity. I drew two circles on the board (the second day I drew two squares) and placed 10 shapes inside the first circle. I had the class help me fill in the missing parts of this addition sentence using the items from the circles ___ + ____ = 10. We continued to do this until we found all 11 different combinations inside the circles to make the number 10!

After completing this activity whole group for several mini-lessons, I put the same lesson as an option for students to choose from during "Math by Myself". The students take the Ways to make 10 paper, bag of 10 dots, dry erase marker, eraser and dry erase board. They take the dots and divide them between the circles on the page putting different amounts in each circle. After placing the dots, the student counts the dots and then writes the addition sentence on the dry erase board.

Another choice during Daily 5 Math's "Math with Someone" is when the students take a bag of shapes, clipboard and a Shape Drawing paper to a spot in the room. Their first job is to sort the objects by size, which is our third skill in sorting with the Common Core Standards. The first two were to sort by color and shape. After sorting the shapes by size, they can then create a picture using the shapes. Once the picture is created, they draw the picture using shapes on their Shape Drawing paper. The video shows two groups working on their sorting and the pictures below the video are the groups creating a picture to draw.



My Little Sister

This week's poem was about a little sister who was helping wash dishes. Even though she was doing a very nice thing to help wash the dishes, she ended up breaking 5 of them! Goodness! We practiced reading in a boring voice, as well as with good expression!

Leap Day Fun

Today, February 29th, marked a special day that only happens every 4 years, Leap Day! To help explain the reason why there is a leap day, we watched this video. I paused it several times to explain in simpler terms what was being taught. After the video, the class was a buzz with all types of questions. I was extremely excited to hear the questions my kindergarten students were asking. Below, I posted only a few of those questions. We ended up talking about Leap Day and much more relating to it for quite some time. They were very interested and I was beyond happy at how their minds were grasping the concept.

• How does the Earth move in a circle?
• If the Earth stopped moving in a circle, what would happen?
• Does the sun move around planets?
• How does the Earth know to move around the sun?
• What does the moon do?
• How does the Earth stay in one spot and not get out of the orbit?

Daily 5 Math Mini-Lesson

During our second mini-lesson today, we reviewed a Common Core standard for kindergarten. The standard we focused on was "Find the number that is one more or one less than any given number between 0-20". We used our floor number line to help us with this review. I pulled out a number from my bag of numbers and called on a student to find that number. Once the student found the number, I would either tell them to show the class what number is one more or one less than the given number. The student would then take one step forward or backward and tell the class the answer! The kids loved using the floor number line. We are excited to use it again to possibly practice addition and subtraction problems.

CAFE Mini-Lessons

We took two stories we read during our Dental Health week and compared/contrasted them. We found there were several things the same, as well as several things that were different!

Tooth Trouble:

-Wilbur went to the dentist to fix his tooth.

-The setting was outside in the snow.

-Wilbur's teeth were called tusks.

-A tusk broke.

-Wilbur felt better.

-He didn't want to go to the dentist.

Hippo's Tooth Surprise:

-The animals didn't know hippo's tooth hurt.

-They rolled him down the hill.

-When he was bouncing down the hill, his tooth came out!

-The setting was in a jungle.

-Hippo got a headache.

-There wasn't a dentist in the story.

Both:

-They had tooth problems.

-Animals were the characters.
-Animals talked, so they were fiction books.

During an Accuracy mini-lesson, we brainstormed a list of words in each of the three word families we were going to study that week. We studied words in the -it, -ip and -et word families. I was beyond impressed with how many words the class came up with on our first day with these families!

In reviewing a previously taught Comprehension strategy called "Beginning, Middle and End of a Story", we first read a book called Olive, My Love. After reading the story, we filled in the boxes on the board labeled "B" for beginning, "M" for middle and "E" for end. We found three ideas to be true for each section and in filling the different boxes out, we realized not only were we practicing this strategy, but retelling a familiar story and including key details!

Abraham Lincoln Log Cabins

We learned about our presidents past and present this week. One of the past presidents we learned about was Abraham Lincoln. We learned a lot of interesting facts about him. We learned that he grew up in a log cabin, loved to read books, wore a top hat, freed the slaves and his face is on the penny! On Friday, we created our very own pretzel log cabins in honor of President Abraham Lincoln.

The Elephant

This week we worked on our voice when reading our poem. We discussed the different words in the poem that were important and would need to be emphasized by the reader, so the listener knows they are important. Below are the words to the poem with the important words we decided to emphasize when reading.

The elephant goes like this, like that.

He's terribly big,

And he's terribly fat.

He has no fingers,

He has no toes,

But godness gracious,

What a nose!



ABC's of Ag Day at MHS!

This morning, we went over to McCutcheon High School for a field trip. We went to see farm animals. Some of the animals we saw were puppies, horses, llamas, rabbits, sheep, a pig, a donkey, a cow, a turkey and baby chicks. Not only did we get to see farm animals but we also made a craft barn with stickers and we took corn and tomato seeds and planted them in our own flower pots of dirt. Before we left we ate cookies and drank milk! It was really fun!

This blog entry was written by Mrs. Brown's kindergarten class.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Shared Writing

A few weeks ago we talked about ways to write a story. We used the words first, next, then, now and finally to put a story together telling the reader how to build a snowman. We created the story together as one example of how a writer writes.



Another way we talked about how a writer writes is by making a list. A writer does not always have to compose complete sentences to get his/her idea across. We decided to look around our room for objects that resemble a shape we have learned about in math. We labeled our list into four categories, circles/spheres, squares/cubes, rectangles and triangles/cones. The class walked about the room searching for things that reminded them of one of these shapes. Upon their return, we put the items in an organized list on our chart.

Writing Journals

We have been filling up many, many pages in our individual writing journals this year. We took time one morning last week to go back and look through all of our writings since the beginning of the year. We spread throughout the room and found a piece where we thought we did our absolute best writing and illustration. Each student took turns and sat in the author’s chair and shared the piece of writing. Things we were looking for was capital letter at the beginning of the sentence, meatball spaces in between words, sight words and words we did not know spelled correctly and/or stretched out to hear the sounds, writing on the lines and punctuation at the end.

Valentine's Day Fun!

 

Our Valentine's fun started off with a writing project where we finished the sentence "Something I will love forever is....." After discussing what it was we would love forever, the class wrote the end of the sentence on the paper and shared what they wrote. We finished the activity by gluing our sentence onto a bear and heart we cut out. Too cute!

Next, we took out the Valentine's we brought for our friends and began to deliver them to each mail bag. This was one of the class's favorite parts of the day. They enjoyed being the "mailmen" for the day!



























To finish the day we took plain sugar cookies and decorated them with icing, sprinkles and M&M's! This activity was a close second as their favorite Valentine activity.


























 HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!