Read Across America comes to an end

Today was the end of our month long Read Across America celebration.  We have had so much fun reading and doing special activities with our kindergarten, first grade, and second grade buddies this month! Our final Dr. Seuss activity was during math today.  Children first listened to Dr. Seuss' One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and then got their own 10 colorful goldfish.  The objective for this activity was to sort the goldfish by color, count how many of each color, and then create a graph to show the total for each color.  Students analyzed the graphs using the math terms most, least, fewest, greatest, and equal.  They enjoyed comparing their results with each other.   

The children were excited to be able to eat the goldfish at the end!
Miss Teixeira and I created a special video as a tribute to Dr. Seuss and a famous quote of his.  We showed the kids today and they enjoyed it! They were shocked to see us looking old!


Thank you, parents, for all your support at home with the special activities this month!  The children looked adorable in their Cat in the Hat gear today!  I'm sorry I didn't get pictures.  We have some creative and talented parents!

CSS.Math.Content.K.MD.B.3

Classify objects into given categories; count the numbers of objects in each category and sort the categories by count.

St. Patrick's Day

Believe it or not, the Leprechaun came to Room 117 last week!  He was the one who wrote the morning message.  He was the trickster who mixed up the numbers on the hundred chart. And he was the one who inspired us to be Trap Engineers!

Students had to work with a partner to come up with a plan, sketch a design, and use teamwork, creativity, and engineering skills to catch the little Irish man.  They loved this STEM activity!

We talked about what our traps would need:

*some type of entrance

*a clever way to lure him in

*a way to trap him

The children hoped he would visit while they were away at art.  They crept down the hall back to the room in hopes of not scaring the leprechaun away.  But, alas, he was too quick.  As children inspected their traps, they saw closed boxes, knocked over legos, and hand sanitizer squirted  from the bottle when he tried to to jump on the pump to get up to the table.  Their eyes widened with surprise that the little leprechaun had left golden nuggets, green footprints, mini green sparkly hats, and glitter everywhere!

There was some skepticism of who the leprechaun really was, but I neither confirmed nor denied the accusations that I was behind the mischief.  I think we can all agree though that fun was had by all, including me.  I enjoyed seeing the students' creativity and teamwork!

George Washington and Abraham Lincoln

Children enjoyed listening to biographies of when Washington and Lincoln were young and about their jobs and adventures before they each were president.  They were surprised that they could make text-to-self connections with these famous leaders such as loving to read and having moved as a child.  I was impressed that as Miss Teixeira read the books about Lincoln, the children were independently making wonderful text-to-text connections with what they learned about Washington.

We practiced finding the main idea and details of a nonfiction text as evidenced below in our Washington thinking map.

Chatterpix made our Washington directed drawings come to life so we could share our new knowledge with you!

After we learned about each president, we compared them in a Venn Diagram.  Each student had a chance to pick a fact and determine where in the Venn Diagram it should be placed.

Lastly, we used information from this Venn Diagram, along with the many other intriguing facts we learned, to write opinion pieces about which leader was our favorite president.

Did your child teach you anything interesting about one of these presidents?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.1

With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.2

With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.3

With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.9

With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).

Today was wonderful because...

You may be surprised what your child finds wonderful or meaningful.  One improvement to my teaching this year has been thanks to the Life is Good book we read as a Tri-Town community

(borrow the book from the Flint Library here).  In the book, Bert and John explain that their mom would ask each night at dinnertime to tell something good that happened that day.  Such a simple, yet powerful question.  It gets a person to reflect and think about and be grateful for the all the good we have in our lives.   Having taught a few different grades, one common element I found was the transition from recess back to learning can be a bit tough.  As soon as students see their teacher, they share their dislike for how a game went, come in arguing which team won, or share their frustration that they only got a few minutes on the swing.  I was spending the first 10 minutes putting out fires and getting stressed rather than entering the classroom ready to learn together.  Now, after reading Life is Good, each day after lunch I ask the children "What was something GOOD that happened at recess or lunch?"  It has been such a powerful, positive time in our day.  We congratulate each other on our successes like finally making it all the way across the monkey bars, scoring a goal in a soccer game, and simply having the chance to play with an old Preschool friend.  I also get to learn more about what each child enjoys and is important to them - something as simple as just being able to run around.  The children know they can still share what is bothering them or if they feel like they were not treated fairly, but it's different now.  They may say something like "We didn't win the game and I really wanted to win, but at least I got to play with my two friends from the other class." Or "I wasn't included in the game, but then my other friend invited me to play a different game and I felt better".   In the fall, to introduce the video response app Recap, I had the students reflect on the whole day and share what was wonderful.  Recap allows me to share a few responses at once.  Click on the Recap logo below to check out responses back from October.  It's amazing how much younger the kids look compared to now, but still just as cute!  :)

So parents, I am giving you a homework assignment each night for the rest of the year.  Rather than focusing on what color your child ends the day on our behavior management board or getting frustrated because your child can't tell you what he or she did at school, ask your child:

(Or, if you are looking for what they did in school today, you could be a little more specific and ask what was wonderful about math.)  Their answers may surprise you and give you another little glimpse into why your child is unique and amazing!


*I would like to note that I got the idea about having students reflect on why a moment or day was wonderful a few years ago from this blog post http://www.thehappyteacher.co/2013/01/spring-break-countdown.html

Hip, Hip Hooray for Dr. Seuss' birthday!

With the beginning of March, comes the warmer weather, melting snow, and more daylight.  The start of March also welcomes Fuller Meadow's month long Read Across America celebration in honor of Dr. Seuss.  Each week we have special activities planned to coincide with some well-known Dr. Seuss books to encourage children to read everyday at home and in school.  To kick off our schoolwide reading event, we had some help from Thing 1 and Thing 2 and Cat in the Hat.

Cameron was inspired by Mrs. Begin's costume!

The children barely recognized Mrs. Winchell and Mrs. Haines as Thing 1 and 2 and Mrs. Begin as Cat in the Hat!
For Dr. Seuss' birthday last Thursday, we got together with our first and second grade buddies.  In the morning, Mrs. Halligan's class and my class went to Mrs. Begin's second grade room to make birthday cards for Dr. Seuss, buddy read some of his books, and to complete some fun Connect the Dots and maze activities.  The Kindergarteners were impressed with the tent Mrs. Begin has in her room to go along with her camping theme!

Mrs. Begin hung Dr. Seuss' birthday cards outside the cafeteria doors.

Just before lunch, Ms. Klipfel's first graders and Mrs. Halligan's Kindergarteners visited my room so we could watch a BrainPOP Jr. video about Dr. Seuss.  We learned about his life and how he was inspired to write his interesting and funny collection of rhyming books.  After the short video, we split the classes into two groups.  Some children stayed in my room and worked on rhyming activities and others went with Miss Klipfel to the gym for fun movement activities that strengthened their rhyming skills.  After, the groups switched.  
The children love getting together with other classes!  It's so nice to see them making new friends and learning from the older students.

Photos courtesy of Ms. Klipfel

We also had a green screen photo shoot at the end of the day to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday.  It was the first time this year using the Green Screen by Do Ink app.  The students were shocked to see how "cool", "awesome", and silly their pictures could be!

Happy Reading!