Happy 100th Day!

Check out some photos from the 100th day of school, full of counting, sorting, 100 games, and even snowshoeing (okay that has nothing to do with 100, but we had to check out the snow drifts)!

How big is a foot?

We did a little measuring today- actually, a lot! We traced our feet, cut them out and practiced measuring lots of lengths and heights. We made predictions and checked them too. Carter is 4 Mrs. Fournier's feet tall, and our classroom is about 86 Eli and Harlan feet long, just so you know :)

We talked about the differences among our feet, and their varying sizes. We also talked about rulers and how that kind of foot is always the same length. Interesting stuff.

Yesterday

Some of our learning from yesterday...

...and here are our learners taking a break and striking some unique poses:

 

We are having yet another great week of learning and playing together :)

Kindergarten, lately

Cecelia's dad was a very funny reader!

Mr. Shea reads to us at Business of Reading

working on our five senses

Lucy, Emilynn's mom, was a great reader!

excited about something! recess, probably...

you're it!

some R&R at recess

math games, working on our teen numbers

working on 11-19

Tricky Teens

Numbers 10-14

Numbers 15-19

Over the past two days we have been exploring the tricky teens.  We've talked a lot about how numbers in the teens are made up of "a ten and some ones."  We made chains with links; each student made a ten out of black links.  Then, each student made a different number from their ten by adding orange links.  12, for example, was 1 black ten and 2 orange ones.  Next we are going to label our tricky teens and hang them up in the room.  That means we get to enjoy our numbers, see a growing number line AND decorate our classroom for Halloween!

Letters, patterns, and apples... oh my!

What a fun week we've had!

exploring shapes and their relationships

practicing our pencil grips using clothespins and pattern blocks

In Literacy, we worked on the sounds /r/ and /s/- we have come up with some great words that start with those sounds.  Next week, we will do a sound sort with words that begin with B, M, R, and S.  We've also added words to our classroom Word Wall, which is where we keep words that we learn how to spell so we can use them in our writing.  So far our word wall has everyone's first names.  We have added: "a," "the," and "red."  We even have songs for spelling those words.  Here are the lyrics to "Red":

"Red" (to the tune of Frere Jacques))
R-E-D red,
R-E-D red,
I can spell RED.
I can spell RED.
Firetrucks are red,
Stop signs are red too,
R-E-D
R-E-D.

our sight words so far: a, red, the... and we're learning our friends' names!

In Math, we have becoming pattern-making, sorting experts!  While we practice counting to twenty each day, we also are really working on developing skills we will use throughout the year... and beyond.  Next week we will be exploring coins as well.

In Science, we have talked a lot about our five senses... and we were so lucky today to explore the senses of smell and taste!  Mrs. S, a teacher who helps in our room, brought in some delicious homemade morning glory muffins.  She made them to help us celebrate the beginning of autumn.  YUM!  I brought in apples that I picked last weekend (in Levant, a great orchard to visit).  We have been reading lots of apple books and sharing our love of apples, so what better way to learn about tasting and smelling than with apples?  Our five sense unit will culminate in October with some homemade applesauce that the kids make (or at least help a lot with).

Happy Fall!

P.S.  Please remember Monday's field trip to see the Queen Mary-- your child needs good walking shoes, layers, a packed lunch and a drink (no glass bottles).  Thank you- we are so excited to check out the world's largest ocean liner :)

Spring is here!

This past week we spent a lot of time working on paintings that are symmetrical.  We made paintings of "spring things" and hung them in our classroom windows on the first day of spring!  Can you spot the line of symmetry in each painting?  I bet your child can!

   

On Friday, we enjoyed our school's Jazz Band performance in the gym.  The "big kid" performers were amazingly talented and put on an excellent show for us to enjoy.  We were all mesmerized during the performance, and we were very happy to be invited!  Thanks, Jazz Band!

eagerly waiting for the show to begin!

In math, we have using games to talk about addition and subtraction.  You'll get a chance to learn more about these games, but rest assured we are having lots of fun learning through them!

We are in the middle of our six week weaving program with Karen Ressel (and wonderful parent volunteers)!  The children are really picking up on it and are moving right along, enjoying this creative process.  It is great fine motor practice, as well as practice for following directions and having patience.  We all make mistakes, and that is OKAY- this is important for all of us to remember!

Finally, just a few sweet moments during the week:

livening up snack time with a read aloud- all by themselves!

Boys: "Will Mrs. Fournier give us 4 recesses today?"

For the record, the magic 8 ball said, "Ask again later."

All You Need Is Love, and 100 things

What a great Valentine's Day/ 100th Day of School we had!  In addition to our regular routines, we enjoyed painting a GIANT 100, counting, sorting and playing with our 100 things, writing and exchanging Valentine's, listening to stories about the number 100, and of course, hugging.  Thank you to Spencer for delicious lips (apple and peanut butter slices that looked like lips!) for everyone.  Also thanks to Eli for some amazing mini cupcakes... it isn't Valentine's Day without some sweet treats!

What a fun day!  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

Painting away...

We ALL enjoyed these!

All dressed up to write some Valentines!

Don't worry parents, we didn't eat them!

In groups of 10, these 100 elastic bands were easy to count.

Opening our "mailboxes" at the end of the day... finally!!

100 star beads, 100 googly eyes, 100 pennies= art!

This says it all!

Working with 100 marbles below our 100 painting!