On Monday we celebrated our first class birthday. We read The Secret Birthday Message
by Eric Carle and learned where the Eric Carle books are kept in our classroom!
Our day in kindergarten starts with a Morning Meeting. As part of Morning Meeting there is most often a message that we read together. Concepts of print are taught at this time. If you find the message in your child's Home School Folder it would be great if you could read it with your child. See what words they are reading.
After Morning Meeting we often have Writing. At the Writer's Workshop on Monday, we talked with the birthday boy and generated ideas for a birthday page which is made into a book to take home. The birthday child works on a cover for the next birthday child's book.
What would you like your school shoes to look like?
Handwriting
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Day 3 is also gym class with Mr. Shields!
Completing his page for his classmate.
Listening for the sounds in words!
Labeling her pictures: cake, heart
The birthday friend was wishing for a remote control car. This peer drew him a remote-controlled car.
Recess on the Omni Spinner!
The boys were happy to find a ball to play with at recess.
The children met Pete the Cat in this fun story!
Designing his own school shoe.
The children learned where to locate a collection of more Pete the Cat books
should they have an interest in quiet time or reading.
The children are exploring a Pete the Cat book while their peers finish designing their shoes.
All our school shoes are hung in the reading corner.
Meet Miss York!
Lauren York is a Special Education Ed. Tech. who will be helping in our classroom.
She is reading a Pete the Cat book to a small group of interested children. 😍
Quiet Time
We have approximately 15 minutes of quiet time daily in our classroom.
The lights are turned down.
Quiet instrumental music is often played.
There are three choices each day.
On Monday the choices were:
Quietly rest on the carpet (or your yoga mat).
Quietly read a book.
Quietly color a picture.
It is during this time that the children rest their bodies and voices.
I have a checklist and ask each child to try the bathroom.
I also use this time to check in with the children about their day.
Choosing a Pete The Cat Coloring sheet.
Math
Colored bears were introduced.
We discussed patterns and what makes a pattern.
A few popular patterns were:
AB
ABB
ABC
AABB
Sharing an AB pattern he produced with pattern blocks.
Our pattern blocks are popular because they can stand up.
ABC
blue, yellow, green, but, yellow, green
AABBC
blue, blue, red, red, green, blue, blue, red, red, green
Building a fancy pattern!
Do you see it?
AABBAABB
yellow, yellow, blue, blue
All smiles to build an AA, BB, CC, AA, BB, CC pattern!
"Look at all mine Mrs. Cornell!"
Has your child talked about Choice Time?
We end our day with Choice Time.
I am slowly introducing center choices.
When a center is introduced the children are taught how to properly play with the materials.
They are taught how to clean up responsibly and cooperatively.
Coming this week ...
Numbers that will dictate how many can play at each space & name tags who is playing at each center.
Pretend: House
Pretend: Feeding the baby in the kitchen.
Pretend: Playing with the animals.
They built a birthday cake for the birthday boy!
With each and every school day I see a few more children chatting and playing with one another.
It is very nice to see.
It does take time, so please be patient.
I see the relationships forming!
The office also treats the children to some birthday surprises.
Miss Karnes came down to get him.
He selected a book for his home library.
🧁Happy 5th Birthday! 🎈
We hope it was a good one!
Tuesday's Scholastic News: Let's Find Out
You typically will see one of these come home about once a week.
We read and discussed the issue together.
This one was about a variety of feelings about starting school.
There is typically a game to be played together.
It is interactive and usually each child can have a turn to complete one.
This game is about deciphering feelings.
We typically fit in a movement break.
This one was dancing with the crayons!
Each child has a paper issue of their own to work on and take home to share.
Please be watching for these.
The paper issue is a good way to connect with your child about their day.
If time allows reviewing it together would be beneficial.
Sometimes when your child is finished and the others need a little more time they will be
encouraged to locate a book to enjoy for a few minutes.
She is enjoying a book from the Pete the Cat bin with our stuffed classroom Pete the Cat!
Tuesday's read-aloud.
Ask your child about Larry.
"How To"
We have "How Tos" in kindergarten.
This "How To" is about dry-erase whiteboards, markers, and erasers.
Your child may talk about a "How To."
It means a new material or concept is introduced and the children learn how to use it
as well as what is expected when the material is out.
They also learn where the materials are kept.
They learn how to safely and responsibly take care of their own materials.
Outdoor time in Little Adventure Land.
Exploring the gardens.
Mrs. Bam is a Special Education Teacher at Pond Cove.
You may hear your child mention her.
Special thanks to Lindsay Barrett (a Pond Cove Parent and Volunteer)
for working with us in the garden.
The children love to help. They helped her pick and wash kale, Swiss chard, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, beans, herbs, and flowers for Judy's Pantry.
The harvest joined donations from local farms and the community garden for 22 families to come get groceries Tuesday afternoon! :)
One of Tuesday's Quiet Time Choices: Dot-to-Dot lowercase a-s.
The handwriting program we use at Pond Cove is Handwriting Without Tears.
Wooden sticks are used.
Four wooden sticks were introduced.
Big Curve and Little Curve were introduced.
Using big curves and little curves in a song called Mat Man.
Big line and little line were introduced.
Mat Man is beginning to take shape.
We sang Mat Man's Song
We sang this song.
Ask your child to sing it for you!
We are learning about the alphabet, capital, and lowercase letters.
We are learning to form letters (and numbers) from the top to bottom.
Miss Bindergarten has twenty-six children in her class, each starting with a letter from the alphabet.
We have been reading the names in our classroom.
Each child worked on forming the first letter in their name from top to bottom with this tear art project.
We are working on writing our names.
I am encouraging the children to form their letters from top to bottom
and write their names from left to right.
This wonderful work is displayed in our kindergarten hallway for all to enjoy!
We read and discussed this book on Thursday.
Another story on Wednesday.
Our names are important to us.
Many children read their own names and are now learning to recognize their classmate's names.
We looked at the letters in each of our names.
We counted how many letters and compared them.
We fancied up our names and created this bulletin board.
Quiet Time Choice: Cosmic Yoga
Math
Everyday Math
Partner Match
Measuring
Meet Mrs. MacVane!
Jodi MacVane is a Special Education Ed. Tech. who works at Pond Cove.
She will be working in our classroom.
You may hear your child talk about Mrs. MacVane. 🥰
We enjoyed this big book on Thursday morning!
We are discussing what makes each of us unique.
We are sharing what we are good at and enjoy doing.
The children worked on writing their names and drawing themselves.
The children dictated something about themselves.
Tracing her name and writing it below.
At the end of the Writer's Workshop, we share writing pieces.
"From taking turns on the swing to including everyone in the game -
this storybook shows that no act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted!"
Scholastic News: Let's Find Out
Kindness
"I like to ride my bike. I am good at it."
"I like riding the bus. I am good at soccer."
"I love kindergarten! I am good at gym. We played Bally Ball."
Our hallway display!
Math
A kindergarten goal is to be able to name 2D shapes.
So far circle, square, triangle, and rectangle have been explicitly taught.
We are learning about their features: sides, and corners (vertices).
Tie Dye Day received the most votes from our team!
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Read aloud on Friday.
Watercolors were introduced.
Making unique elephants.
Sharing watercolor sets and water cups.
Quiet Time Friday: Sketchbooks are a choice.
Each child has their own sketch book for the year.
Outdoor time
On Day 3 at Pond Cove, we have an extra World Language lesson.
Senior Bravo playing Simon Says in Spanish!
Meeting Mr. Shields and hearing about his space and rules.
Second recess Friday afternoon.
Resting and watching for older siblings on the other playground.
We made it through a full week.
The children were tired.
I hope they enjoy their two stay-home days with their families!
Next week: We celebrate another birthday! 😍
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