Vacation Fun

Happy New Year's Eve!  I hope all of you are having a wonderful vacation with your families.  The week is going by sooo fast!  I can't wait to hear about all of the exciting things you did this week.  Add to the padlet below a picture or two or even just a sentence about something you would like to share about your vacation.  On Tuesday, each of us will be choosing one special vacation moment to write about.  This padlet can help with our brainstorming when we're all a little tired as we settle back into our routine. :)

Teddy Bear Day

We had a successful Teddy Bear Day in Kindergarten after reading many versions of The 3 Bears during our folktale unit.  Children have enjoyed listening to the various versions and have worked hard comparing and contrasting the characters, setting, and events of the different books.  We are also working on retelling the story using picture cards. Last Friday, each child was able to bring in their favorite teddy bear or other stuffed animal and let their furry friends get a glimpse of Kindergarten.  They joined in for morning work, Read to Self, a read aloud, and even art class!

Our senior citizen volunteer, Ms. Irene,
helped us hide bears in their caves and figure out how many more to make 5.

We love working with Ms. Irene!

Students learned how to use shapes to draw bears in art!

Children also worked on labeling the parts of a bear and wrote about their cuddly friends.

In math, we explored describing size, weight, and height with our stuffed animals.  Students worked with partners to measure how tall their stuffed animals are. 
















They also practiced making comparisons: "My bear is taller/shorter than your bear" and "Your bear is heavier/lighter than my bear".  

Children were excited to learn about an app called Chatterpix and thought it was hysterical how we can make our stuffed animals talk!  Have a listen in the iMovie below as we imagined what our stuffed friends would say if they could tell what they enjoy doing!

This week we have continued to talk about characters and setting as we compare and contrast different versions of The Gingerbread Man.
Your child should be able to confidently identify the characters and setting of a story.  Do they have a favorite character?  Is the setting similar to another story they've heard?

Common Core State Standards:

Describe and compare measurable attributes.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.MD.A.1
Describe measurable attributes of objects, such as length or weight. Describe several measurable attributes of a single object.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.MD.A.2
Directly compare two objects with a measurable attribute in common, to see which object has "more of"/"less of" the attribute, and describe the difference. For example, directly compare the heights of two children and describe one child as taller/shorter.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.2
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.2.A
Capitalize the first word in a sentence and the pronoun I

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.2.B
Recognize and name end punctuation.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.2.C
Write a letter or letters for most consonant and short-vowel sounds (phonemes).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.2.D
Spell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships.

Comfy, Cozy Day

We had a wonderful Comfy, Cozy Day! Children and teachers enjoyed being comfortable in their pajamas. 

This morning, children were excited to learn they each got their own Polar Express ticket that would be hole punched by a Conductor.

We enjoyed watching a read aloud of the Polar Express with the other Kindergarten students in the library.

After, we had a short holiday sing-a-long! "Jingle Bells", "Frosty", and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" were the favorites.

The special treat was that the our musical guest was Carolyn's grandfather and the conductor was actually my grandpa!  Both of these men were happy to be part of such a special event.

To conclude our Polar Express morning, each Kindergartener received their very own silver bell!

After lunch, we each shared what our favorite part of the day was and I recorded the responses in the Padlet below!

We had a memorable time today!