Jan Brett and Mitten Math

Yesterday, we introduced our favorite author--Jan Brett. We will spend the next three weeks reading, discussing, and studying her wonderful books.

Then the girls had time to explore her different stories.

Both kindergarten classes channeled Jan Brett's attention to detail and each girl made her own mitten.  We love how their personalities came out in their paintings!

Mrs. Martin's class practiced counting by 2's and solved story problems using mittens (in honor of our author, Jan Brett) as manipulatives.

Spanish: Fruits

The girls have been learning how to name fruits in Spanish.  Here they are playing a partner game where they have to find the fruit their partner names.

Short Vowel a and I Believe Bracelets

Mrs. McMahon's language arts time was dedicated to the short a vowel sound.  The girls sang our short a song (be sure to ask them to sing it to you) then we read a book together as a class which focused on this sound.  The girls highlighted all of the words in the book that contained the short a sound--ask them to read it to you tonight!

During Mrs. McMahon's Writer's Workshop time, in preparation for Grandparents' Day, we read Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie.  We shared our class pen and brainstormed a list of words that reminded us of our grandparents. As each girl came up to write her word on our list, her fellow students sounded out and wrote that word on their individual white boards. We completed the activity by returning to our seats to make our own list of words that reminded us of our grandparents.

During social studies, Mrs. Martin's class focused on the reasons why the pilgrims left England.  The girls made "I Believe" bracelets.  Be sure to ask your daughter the meaning behind her beautiful bracelet!

Mrs. Martin's math time was spent making numbers using sets of ten out of unifix cubes.  The girls all enjoyed this activity and are gaining a better understanding of the number 10 and counting by 10's.

Math

Mrs. Martin's girls worked with their ten frames on different ways to make 20.

Mrs. McMahon's girls learned subtraction vocabulary such as "take away" and used it to solve subtraction problems.

Leaf Walks and Centers

On Friday, we started decorating our room for Thanksgiving.  The girls had a wonderful time while they made themselves into turkeys which are hanging in our classroom.

Today, Mrs. McMahon's girls worked in centers that focused on their fine motor skills.  Several girls chose to build with legos while others used playdough and toothpicks to create structures.

Mrs. Martin's girls went on a fall color hunt and graphed the colors they saw as they wandered around our campus.

From the Library

Kindergarteners started the year  with some old favorites: David McKee's Elmer, Mo Willems' Hooray for Amanda and her Alligator!, Tim Wadham's Queen of France. Our first chapter book was Josh Schneider's Tales for Very Picky Eaters. (Ask your daughter about the growing oatmeal.) After each story we have a chance to find and read books about the same topic, or by authors whose names start with the same letter as our last names, or our first names.

We've practiced sending a greeting around the circle, making connections between stories, explaining what's going on in a story just by getting clues from the illustrations, and even inventing words for wordless stories.  Kindergarten girls have shown great creativity and teamwork in composing two word stories at the end of class.

We are almost finished with James Marshall's George and Martha series. Ask your daughter about these collections of five short stories about two great friends.

Kindergarten girls will begin checking books out and taking them home after winter break. Each girl may check out one book at a time and keep it for up to four weeks. When she brings the old book back she'll be able to take a new one home. Stay tuned for details.

Thanksgiving and Graphing

Mrs. McMahon's class learned how to appropriately form the lowercase letter a.  We also began talking about Thanksgiving and read Thanksgiving Day by Gail Gibbons. We discussed how many people make lists to remember things and decided to make a list ourselves of words that remind us of Thanksgiving.  During this interactive writing activity, the girls sounded out different words on their own, then returned to their seats to make their own Thanksgiving lists.

Mrs. Martin's class began graphing during their math period.  The girls learned how to take data and use that information to form a graph. Each child had an opportunity to graph 3 leaves on the class graph--be sure to ask your daughter which colors she had.

Mrs. McMahon's class took a nature walk through the woods, taking time to observe the different colors we see in November.  While on our walk, the girls collected 6 leaves. Then we came back to our classroom and created our own fall art from our leaves.

Finally, we had a parent reader.  What a busy Wednesday!