We are moving right along in Mrs. Farrell's room! The kiddos are working so hard in all areas! Daily 5 is completely up and running! The children know exactly where to go and what to do. There is very little off task behavior and they have all built their stamina to 12-15 minutes!! We have also added Math Daily 3, which is new for me this year. Since they were doing so well during Daily 5, they got right into Math Daily 3 without a problem!!
The kids love using our new iPad! They are using abcmouse.com on a daily basis. I am able to get 6 children on every day!! We are using Caitlin Clabby's Word Work again this year!!! I love her centers :)
When they Read to Self, the children are enjoying big books we have read together in class. It is so fun to listen to them make up stories through the pictures!
The Salisbury Fire Department visited the Kindergartners during Fire Safety week. The children love watching the fireman put on all his gear and then finding out about all the equipment on the truck. We finished off with a walk through the fire truck :) The children were so cute the next day...anyone that was in the Work on Writing area during Daily 5 wrote a thank you note to the firemen!
These children have come so far during calendar time. We use Sara Edgar's Calendar Bundle, which isn't available anymore :( But the children need to write their numbers every day. Now in November, they do not have numbers 1-20 to trace and need to know how to write those numbers on their own. Some children could benefit from some practice at home :) They are slowly getting it, and will be writing to 100 before we know it!
These are some of the things we are doing during Math Daily 3. The children are either working on their own using supplemental materials, or they are with me learning a new game from Investigations, or they are with Mrs. Dunn working in their Math Interactive notebooks. We rotate 3 days a week, so everyone gets to all 3 areas each week.
We have learned all the vowels in Fundations and did a sort of vowels and consonants. The children get a and e mixed up and e and i mixed up. We really stress those vowels when stretching out words.
We did a lot of work with pumpkins in October. We did a bunch of experiments using Nicole Ricca's Pumpkin Mini Unit, which I can't find to link to. The children got to see if our pumpkin would sink or float. We counted all the seeds then got to toast them and eat them!! There were over 500 seeds in our very small pumpkin!!
I found this great activity from Sharing Kindergarten called "Dem Bones"!! I was able to find the Cheetos that looked like bones and we sorted them, then graphed them. Then we made a skeleton with them and labeled the skeleton, then we got to enjoy eating all the bones :) The kids loved this activity!!
We read "Where's My Mummy?" by Carolyn Crimi. It's about a little mummy who wants to play hide and seek with his Mummy and ends up running into all these other characters along the way. The children had to retell the story using the characters in the book. We got the activities from April Larremore. This was a great fine motor activity where the children had to tear, not cut, the paper in order to make their mummy face. Then we colored in all the characters...
...And then put them in order to retell the story using the characters!
The children did their first Top Down Web!! I was so proud of them! They have come a long way with writing since the beginning of the year!
We read "Aaaarrgghh! Spider" By Lydia Monks and took a poll of whether a spider would be a good pet or not. After reading this book, the spider was very convincing to most of the kids and they thought a spider would make a good pet! Watch out, Parents!! :)
We made another Top Down Web about spiders and the children made their own to take home as well.
Last week, we talked about which animals hibernate and which ones migrate. We read a number of books and made a Two Column Notes poster about our findings in the books!
For the remainder of the month, we will be discussing Veterans' Day. If you happen to be in the building, you can come take a look at the wall in the Kindergarten wing honoring all the heroes we know! We will also be doing a bunch of Thanksgiving activities including making some Sharing Soup! More info to come on that!
**PARENTS**
Reminders: We have a half day on Wednesday, November 26th and no school on Thursday and Friday, November 27-28th for Thanksgiving.
Please be sure to label your child's outdoor clothing and accessories. This is the time of year where mittens, hats and gloves start to get lost. It is much easier to find the owner if their name is in it!
Please make sure your child's yellow folder is emptied every night and returned the next day. Things that are in the "Return to School" side usually need to be filled out and returned. If it is something that doesn't pertain to your family, then you can still remove it and just throw it away. :)
Don't forget that your child can do their abcmouse.com lessons at home too! They are begging to go on at school! The more they play, the more they earn tickets to take care of their hamster and fish!
Thank you for your continued support at home! Things you can be working on are:
- writing numbers 1-20
- letter formation-the new letters go home every Monday (or Tuesday!)
- coloring neatly and coloring that makes sense (ex. a yellow sun, brown hair, not blue)
- writing stories with words and picture to match
- table manners :)
Aimee Farrell
