October Number Corner

Tomorrow marks the end of our "one dot, many dot cards" on our calendar. This month has kept us busy practicing the following skills and concepts:

Compare sets of objects and determine whether they have the same fewer, or more objects
Use and understand the words one/many, none/some/all, more/less, most/least, equal to/more than/less than
Describe numerals using 5 as a benchmark
Describe and extend simple growing and repeating patterns
Count and read numeral to 31

Our calendar held the dot cards but "our month in school" chart held weather cards. We had 22 school days in the month of October!
On our rainbow number line, where we record a number for each school day, we discovered that we have already had 41 days of kindergarten this year. Time is flying by!!!!

PBIS Reward

We celebrated our kind, safe, responsible behavior with a movie matinee. Collectively, our class has earned over 500 stars!!! Each time we reach this milestone we vote on a class reward, and movie matinee was the winner this time. We watched "Curious George, A Boofest," munched on popcorn, and had hot chocolate. I don' think it can get much better than that :)

Technology in Kindergarten

We went to the community room and worked with Mrs. Hayes on a math technology connection today. The technology connections in bridges (our math program) are optional computer activities that reinforce and extend some of the lessons and activities we have done in class. These computer activities enable us to handle pattern blocks and simple quilt blocks in ways that aren't possible with physical manipulatives. It was amazing! I showed students a few things about the program and then gave them some "I wonder . .. " statements.

"I wonder if you can erase the shapes."
"I wonder what wound happen if you clicked this"
"I wonder if you can move the shapes out of your design"

Then I backed away and let the students lead. They explored, experimented, discovered, and taught each other. The student to student interactions were incredible.

What's Missing?

In this literacy activity students work together or independently to fill in the missing middle sound. We are working on common core standard K.RFS.2d:demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes) by isolating and pronouncing the initial, medial vowel and final sounds in 3 phoneme words

Bugs, Tallies & Numbers

We practiced counting, instant recognition of quantities to 5, and recognizing numerals with bug, tally, ten frame, and numeral cards. Students were handed cards as we discussed, matched and ordered them on the pocket chart. Our next activity involves playing bingo using the cards.

Common Core Standards:
K.CC.4 understand the relationship between quantities of numbers
K.CC.6 identify whether the number of objects in 1 group is greater than, less than or equal to the objects in another group by using matching and counting strategies

Echo/Find Letters

In this Fundations activity students reinforce the skill of matching a letter with a given sound. This helps us to solidify sound-symbol correspondence, and sets the foundation for spelling.

Rhyming Puzzles

During Reading Workshop we opened a new early literacy game called "rhyming puzzles." In this game students work independently or cooperatively to match rhyming pictures and then complete a quick sheet to show what they know. This activity helps us in accomplishing common core standard K.RFS.2, Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables and sounds (phonemes) by recognizing and producing rhyming words

Pomykala Farm Field Trip

We went on a field trip to Pomykala's Farm in Grand Isle today and were treated to an amazing afternoon of learning about vegetables, fruits, and plants. I cannot thank Jane Pomykala enough for this trip. We have been working hard in our class to use our five senses to learn all we can about plants, what parts of plants we eat, what they need to survive, and how they are grown and harvested. Today, she brought it to life for us! It was place based education at its best. We told her we were coming and she planned the rest. Read the next few posts to discover all that we did and learned today, and if you stop by the farm, thank her :)

Pomykala Farm - Station 1

Our first station at the farm was an investigation station. We were able to explore (including cutting into) a variety of vegetables. We touched, tasted, smelled and enjoyed! We also talked about which part of the plant we were eating each time (flower, fruit, stem, root, or leaf). Some of us discovered that we liked some things that we didn't think we did before!

Pomykala Farm - Station 2

A "feely box" was station number three. We were able to reach inside, and using only our sense of touch, guess what was inside the box. Ask your child to tell you what he/she discovered!

Pomykala Farm - Station 3

At this station we were able to explore sunflower seeds. We picked them from the plant and then planted them, very cool!

Pomykala Farm - Station 4

We were able to help at the farm today by thinning the turnips. We used measuring sticks to determine when plants were too close together. When they were, we pulled them! Farmer Jane let us take all we pulled back to school for Chef Bob to use when cooking us lunch.

Science

Do you know which is a flower, seed, fruit, root, stem, and leaf? WE DO! Today we proved it by sorting, classifying, predicting, questioning, hypothesizing, researching and recording information.

Math & Morning Message

We often incorporate skills into our morning message beyond the regular "Concepts About Print" such as reading from left to right and top to bottom. Today, we read numerals and matched them to corresponding 10 frames. We also talked about how many more it would take to fill each 10 frame. Through this activity students were working on the following common core standards:
K.CC.4 Understands the relationship between numbers and quantities
K.OA.4 Tells how many more are needed to make 10

Trip to the Fire Department

Thank you to. Kim Julow of the SHVFD for planning and implementing our fire safety program on Wednesday. We learned about what to do in a fire emergency, what the fire department does for our community, what a firefighter looks like in their fire gear, and even had the opportunity to check out the fire truck!

Walk Or Roll To School Day

New Game

We opened a new game today called "stacking chairs"