First Week of a New Year!

I am so excited to start a new school year! I feel so blessed to have another year to teach darling five to six year olds. This year I have six students, four girls and two boys. For the first week we learned all about the rules of school, our classmates, teachers, and started the adventure of learning.

The first day was focused on getting the students settled into their new room. They unpacked their bags, set up their lockers, and explored the classroom. In the afternoon we had a surprise visitor! Pete the Cat (from the children's books) left us a note that he was somewhere in the school! We searched classroom to classroom all the around the school for the ornery cat. Sadly, Pete left the school the school before we could find him, but he left lots of goodies for us in our classroom!

On Tuesday we started out kindergarten routine. It was amazing to see how fast the students started to show the rules and be comfortable in the classroom. We also started talking about colors and shapes. We explored mixing colors with a science experiment! The student learned all about how some colors come together to make a new color!

Thursday we discussed how God made every student and their families special to them. In the morning the student drew pictures of their special families. It was neat to see how each student viewed different members in their family.

During phonics time we started to practice hearing and coming up with rhyming words. The students had some disgusting fun by finding rhyming words in the rhyme slime! Their hands got covered in slime, but they learned a lot about rhyming words.

In the afternoon they started a project of making their own self portrait. If you looked at the picture, you would think that they always wore colorful feathers and shiny shapes!

I've had so much fun getting to know these kinders this week! I can't wait for another week full of discovery and learning! Have a fun weekend!

Growing Minds

This week in KA Kindergarten we began to learn about gardens and how plants grow. This is such a fun theme, that we're going to spend two weeks on it! On Monday we discussed different plants and flowers that are grown, and how God made them each unique! We then wrote about our own uniqueness in this cute flower assignment.

On Tuesday we learned about what plants need to grow, and did an experiment by watching colored water travel up a celery. By the end of the day, the tip of the celery was blue like the water! Below is the idea of the experiment, I forgot to take pictures though!

On Thursday we journeyed outside to draw some plants that we could observe. However, it was so rainy, that we're moving the activity to next week. 

In reading we are continuing to work with sight words and letter blends. This week we worked with "er", "ur", and "ir". A way to help us remember the sound of these letters is by this picture.

The story is that "er", "ir", and "ur" love to drive, but they are absolutely terrible at it! So, they have to constantly be hitting their brakes and making an errrrrr sound! 

In math the students are becoming quick at addition and subtraction facts! They also began to combine different types of coins to make different amounts. We might have some future bankers in the making!

This week we learned about another famous artist, Monet. We made our own water lily pictures. On Monday we painted the water, and used plastic wrap to make waves in the paint. 

Then on Tuesday we made the lily pads and lily flowers using tissue paper. The result was gorgeous Monet like pictures!

We also started the IOWA test this week. We will be working on the test a little bit everyday for the next few weeks. The first day the students thought it was pretty fun to fill in the bubbles! But the enthusiasm wore off by the next test. With just doing one test a day though, the test shouldn't be to bad! Plus, they get to read their favourite book, Tap the Magic Tree after every test as a little reward!

Back in Bible Times

This has been a fun week learning about what it would be like to live in the Bible times! On Monday we practiced our writing skills by writing about what we would do if we lived in Bible times. Some answers were "walk to church", "ride a camel", and "help the poor". On Tuesday we made our very own Bible town. Along with making the houses we talked about what the environment is like over in Israel.

On Thursday we dressed up as our favorite Bible characters. I was so impressed to see the kids creativity! We had two Esters, two Marys, a Samual, Paul, Lydia, Moses, and Jesus. For snack time we had food that were eaten in the Bible.

In reading we have been learning more exceptions to reading rules. Let's just say it's becoming clear to the class how strange English is! This week we worked on the sounds "or" and "ar". We've also been working on exploring books and comprehending them by drawing pictures of favorite parts of books.

In math we have been continuing to work on subtraction and skip counting. We did a fun game on Tuesday where we threw "donuts" into a donut box and subtracted one that didn't make it in the box.

In art class this week we learned about Michelangelo and about his paintings on the Sistine Chapel's ceiling. We pretended that we were Michelangelo and tried to draw pictures under the tables. They made some beautiful artwork!

Springing Into Another Week!

This week we finished off our seasons unit by learning about spring. The weather was so beautiful that we couldn't help but head outside for some activities!

 On Monday we discussed rain, and wrote about our favorite things to do in the rain. A lot of answers included jumping in puddles, but a few creative answers were collecting worms and cuddling by a fire (what I would like to do in the rain!).

On Tuesday we talked about different types of clouds and how we can tell them apart. I have to admit, I learned a lot with this! We also learned about rainbows and the different colors in them. We then did a little science experiment. We started with a bowl and milk, and then added food coloring around the edges. Then we put a drop of soap in it, which made the colors swirl together to make a rainbow!

On Thursday we talked about animals in the spring, and how birds all fly back from their warm winter homes and make nests. The students paired up to make their own nest! We went outside to collect things for our nest, then glued them together!

In phonics we have been learning to read more and more words! This week we worked on words that end with _unny, _uddy, and _usty. Our new sight word was "there". We are continuing to practice long vowel sounds and rules like silent "e" and two vowels in a row. In our reading centers we read a book about seasons, matched word families, and decoded sight words!

We started two new concepts in math this week! The first concept was subtraction. So far we are just taking one away from a group, but we will continue to do more subtraction throughout the year! We also started to practice skip counting, or counting by two's. To help us understand pairs we started a Pair Display. The students can add a pair of anything to the display for the next few weeks. So far we have a pair of bears, some socks, boots, and a pair of papers!

For our craft this week we made stain lass looking crosses for Easter. The student came up with some beautiful designs. They will be sent home this week. You might want to hang them by a window to watch the sun shine through!

All Creatures Great and Small

Though I had a wonderful time on vacation last week, I was so happy to be back this week. I definitely missed my students! We spent this week talking about all different type of animals, especially birds and reptiles.

As you may have heard, KA Kindergarten got a class pet...for about four hours. Dude was a tiny little lizard who loved to have his neck petted. The students enjoyed watching him and petting him in the morning, but sadly it was Dude's time to go at 12:00 p.m. on Monday. I like to think he had a good last few hours. I'm hoping our next pet will be able to survive a little bit longer!

On Monday, a bird rescue center from Fort Wayne came in to teach the students about raptors. To show the different parts of a raptor, they brought in a costume. Mr. Drayer did a wonderful job modeling the costume for the students!

The students also got to see a lot of different kind of birds up close! There were different kinds of owls and hawks. They were pretty incredible to see!

On Tuesday we continued to learn about birds by learning more about their life cycle. On Thursday we had an egg hunt for different animals that have eggs. We then worked on our charting skills by charting what animals we found. 

In phonics we have been learning more word endings. This week we learned about _ay (like in hay and bay) and _o (like go and so). We have been reading more and more in our reader books, and have been working on reading silently to ourselves before reading out loud. 

This week in math we have been focusing on measuring in inches and feet. We explored measuring with inches by measuring things around the classroom, including our feet!

On Thursday we talked about measuring with feet. To use this skill we first made paper airplanes. We then flew them and measured how far the flew. The record was five feet! Of course we had to take the opportunity to head on up to the mezzanine and fly them into the gym. So much fun!

This upcoming week is spring break! I hope everyone has a wonderful, fun, relaxing time!

Blast Off!

As we blasted off into another week, we learned all about space. On Monday we discussed the difference between day and night, and how God made some animals special just for the nighttime. On Tuesday we looked up and studied the stars and the constellations that they make. We then made our own constellations by poking holes into a plastic cup, and then using a flashlight to shine them onto the ceiling. Thursday we talked about the moon and imagined where it goes during the day. Some creative answers were to the zoo, in the trash can, and to school! We then showed the moon phases in a delicious ways, with Oreos!

On Tuesday we also had firefighters come in to talk about fire safety. Sadly it was to cold out for them to bring their truck, but it was still fun to learn about what firemen do. 

 In math we are still working on adding, time, and money quantities. We are beginning to tell time to the half hour, and it is going great to far! Next week we are going to begin learning about the quarter, and that will be all our coins!

For our art craft this week we learned about Vincent Van Gogh and his painting Starry Night. We then made our own version of Starry Night using paint and crayons. We first swirled paint together. The next day we sprinkled different colors of crayons together and melted it in the oven. The result was a swirly starry painting!

Upcoming famous painters!

Next Week...

Next week is summer time! We will be learning all about temperature and summer activities. Thursday will be beach day, so bring a swimming towel! I'm sorry I haven't quite got the progress reports out yet. They're coming!

Land that I Love!

On Monday and Tuesday last week we learned about different places in America. Monday we learned about the Statue of Liberty and other monuments in our country. The students then made themselves look like the statue. 

Much cuter than the Statue of Liberty!

On Tuesday we learned about different land masses in America, like mountains, lakes, oceans, and caves. We discussed what all was in cave like stalactites, stalagmites, and bats (eek!). We worked on our sculpting skills then by making caves out of Playdough.  

Thursday was the day we celebrated Valentines day. We worked all week on cards to give to residents at our local nursing home. This led to a lot of discussion about loving those who need love the most. The trip to the nursing home was a such a blessing. The students were so caring when giving their cards to the residents, and we ended the visit with singing some Sunday School songs. 

We ended our Valentine's day by having a party! We played a few Valentine's themed games. My Valentine to the students was a big ice cream bar! It was delicious! 

You know it's good stuff when they're too busy eating to look at the camera!

Last week was also Random Acts of Kindness week. It was so much fun to sneak presents into other students lockers. It was also fun to receive presents too! On Thursday we shared who we were giving presents to all week. It is always fun to do things together as a whole school!

Coming up...

This week we started to learn more about science like day and night, seasons, and hot and cold. We have some fun experiments planned! Also, I plan on sending progress reports this week through email, so keep an eye out!