End of year fun

Spring is here and school is coming to a close. The kids are LOVING recess time outside because they can finally play together! Many are finding out that now they know how to swing, how to pull themselves up on a pull up bar or how to play an organized sport.

To count down the end of the school year we had a countdown chain. First we read the book Skippy Jon Jones in Mummy Trouble. Then we talked about what colors of fur Skippy had and then each student got to paint their own Skippy!

On another day our chain was to wear mustaches! I found packs of them at the dollar store, you got 7 mustaches for only $1. The kids LOVED these, though I have to admit that they were not so easy to get off! However, the kids didn't seem to mind and seeing those smiles was just perfect! 

Then towards the middle of May we had baby chicks come to Wilbur! Mrs. Williams in room G-1 arranged it so that the University of Delaware agriculture department would bring an incubator. With the incubator the kids could see the life cycle of a baby chick! We had 11 baby chicks hatch! Each one was different and hatched at different times. The kids LOVED seeing each egg hatch.

As always check back soon to see what we have been up to! 

On My Own

Lately the kids have been enjoying our white boards when they finish their work early. These two munchkins decided to write their own sentences all by themselves! 

Also one of the boys in the class got the idea to use the blocks for something other than building. Instead he used them as dominoes! What is even cooler is that he got the whole class involved in it. One morning they all worked together and created a large 'block domino' course. These kids amaze me everyday!

On May 6th we went on a mini field trip to the school cafeteria. When we were there we saw where they washed the dishes, how they make our sandwiches and where they store all the extra food and big cans!

We also got to see how they package our grapes, the big refrigerator, the oven, the mixer, and the scale that helps the bakers measure the chocolate chips that go in the cookies. Then Ms. Connie brought us out to the main cafeteria. Once there each student got to make two sugar cookies. Then later at lunch each student got to eat one of their cookies.

Caterpillars!

We got our caterpillars on May 6th! We watched them grow and by Monday May 12th they had made cocoons! Our other five caterpillars are going a little slow but it helps us to see the process of them growing!

 

One week later our first cup of caterpillars turned into cocoons. We were very excited to see them come out. Our second cup of caterpillars were still growing but on May 19th they too made cocoons!!

Finally we had butterflies! We watched them fly, fed them oranges, and watched them in their basket. 

Spring Fun and Trees!

The day before students went on spring break Ms. Connie, the cafeteria manager, setup a fun egg dying activity for students to do. They got to see the reaction the dye pellets had with the vinegar water. Then they placed a hard boiled egg into the dye and watched it change colors. At lunch students were able to eat their egg. It was a quick activity that the kids really enjoyed.

Later on in the day students colored in an egg that we turned into a bunny rabbit! We also wrote about what our silly bunnies could do.

When we got back from spring break we jumped right in to our DCAS pep rally! For the pep rally we sang 'Roar' by Katy Perry. All kindergarten and first grade classes had to prepare a cheer or song to inspire the older kids in the school that were taking the state test. 

Our class did an AMAZING job! They looked very cute up on stage in their animal masks singing along to the song.

During our first week back we also wrote about what we would do if we were butterflies. Each student had to write at least 3 sentences. 

Lastly, we got our trees!! For participating in the state Arbor Day poster contest each student got a pine tree sapling to take home! No one in our class won the contest, however, the kindergarten winner in the state was from Mrs. Williams class! Even though we didn't win all the kids were excited that someone they knew did win.

Check back soon for more updates!

Plurals, Verbs, and Nouns

Before spring break we were learning about nouns. Students learned that a noun is a person, place, thing, or animal. After that they were able to make a noun plural. They learned that green light words are those which they can easily add an 's' to. Yellow light words are ones which they need to slow down and think about such as words ending in zz, ss, x, ch, or sh. Students worked on this concept through word sorts and writing activities on the SMART board, whole group activities in which they had to make a word plural and independent writing activities. 

Once students were able to grasp the concept of nouns and how to make them plural we were able to move on to the subject of verbs. To help cement this new concept we sang the following song:

Students seemed to enjoy this song and it helped them to remember that a verb is an action word. We completed whole group picture sorts on nouns vs. verbs, students independently completed picture sorts and we worked on a variety of word/picture sorts of this concept on the SMART board. 

Blooming into Spring

This month has gone by quick and I have noticed a lot of growth in each and every child. I am very proud of all their hard work! I know at the beginning of the year many parents and teachers who were concerned with the Common Core Standards and the increase in rigor. However these students have risen to the challenge are are accomplishing work that leaves me speechless! Just amazing!

Just a little about what we have been doing. In April Mr. Wells, the art teacher, had students create their own picture using the style of acclaimed children's author Eric Carle. Students were broken into groups in which they had to work together to create their project. Check out some of their work!

In writing we have been working on refining our writing and expanding it by adding more nouns and verbs. To do this students were taught what a noun is and what a verb is. From here we talked about how we could use them in a sentence. As a class we created a four sentence story about a monkey named Oscar. Students contributed to the story of Oscar, telling what he did, where he went, who he was with, and they expanded on each other's ideas! After we did this as a whole group students were paired up with a peer. Together they had to create their own four sentence story and once finished they had to draw an illustration that matched the story. WOW! These kids rocked this activity! I was excited that every story turned out completely different. 

 

The kids also wrote about what they wanted to do during spring break. Most kids wrote two to four sentences. As they were writing I had them double check their work and focus on starting a sentence with a capital letter, using proper punctuation, and putting spaces between words. 

Check back soon to see what's new!

Silly McGilly and the 100th day

The 100th day of school started off with Zero the Hero's gift to the kids.....Their own capes with the initial of their first names on the back of each cape! To enter the room was a GIANT 100 and some super heroes. Students had to walk through the yellow zero to get into the room.

On the 100th day we made our own trail mix. We used chocolate chips, gummy bears, Cheerios, Fruit Loops, raisins, marshmallows, mini M&Ms, Chex cereal, Goldfish, and Skittles. We used a hundred chart to keep track of our counting and to make sure we used the right amount of each trail mix item. 

We also made a 100 topping pizza, and students used a dot marker to create a 100 dot gum ball machine. I surprised the kids by using the app Aging Booth to make the kids into 'old people' then after showing the kids they answered questions about what they would wear when they were 100, what they would eat, what they would do, and what they think it will be like when they turn 100. My favorite response was when one kid said that he would spend his time playing video games with his grandchildren. So cute!!

Kicking off March

To begin the month of March we had a special visitor in our class named Silly McGilly. Silly McGilly was a special leprechaun stuffed toy that we put in the window of our classroom. According to the story when you put the toy in the window a leprechaun would come visit the classroom. We thought the leprechaun would do fun things in the classroom but we never thought he would cause problems! Silly McGilly made a tower with blocks and then left them all out, he took out our white boards and wrote us messages, he changed our names around on our lockers and he left green foot prints in the class! 

One day Silly McGilly left us a stack of cups. In a note from our leprechaun friend it said that if we decorated the cups and left them out over night he would shrink the cups and turn them into a hat! We left them out on a Wednesday night and the next day all our hats were shrunk!

After Silly McGilly left we wrote about how we would catch a leprechaun. Students wrote one or two sentences explaining their process. I found this activity especially exciting because the kids could write mostly on their own. Hardly any kids needed my help and if they did they asked for my help! I am just so proud of the progress all the kids have made in their writing this year!!

Reading Challenge

To kick off the school's reading challenge this month Rocky Bluewinkle came to the school and played a little game with the kids. Most students loved this surprise to their day, a couple were scared at first but then got into the fun of the event. One student was picked from the class to act out a baseball game with Rocky. 

Dental Awareness Month

The month of February is Dental Awareness Month. In order to teach students about dental health we had the students in the dental assisting program at Hodgson Vo-Tech come to our school. There were five activities at all kindergarten students participated in. At one station student practiced brushing off 'plaque' on pretend teeth. This was a cool activity because the Hodgson students used the bottom half of two liter bottles as teeth and then used vanilla icing as the 'plaque'. 

At another station students sorted pictures of healthy foods and unhealthy foods. They also played a memory game with picture cards. 

At the Tooth Fairy station students received a Healthy Smile Certificate and got to meet three tooth fairies. Another station students learned about how important a healthy lifestyle is and got to dance inside a giant tooth!

When the students of G-3 got back to the classroom they made their own tooth fairy and wrote about what they would do if they were a tooth fairy. Each student was very creative in their writing and it was exciting for me to see how much each student has advanced in their writing skills!

What's New?

Before the Super Bowl we used a great activity called 'Football Buddy' from A Cupcake For A Teacher. This was a great activity to do because it linked together math and writing. We made predictions as to who we thought would win and we wrote them down. After each student had written down their prediction we graphed the results so that we could better organize the data. The kids got very excited to see the graph growing. Looking over the results we realized that overall the class thought the Seattle Seahawks would win the Super Bowl. This was such a great activity and the kids seemed to really enjoy doing it. 

Since groundhogs day was on a weekend students made predictions on whether or not they thought the groundhog would see his shadow on Groundhogs day before the month of February began. For morning work students made a groundhog and then they put the groundhog on a side of the chart. I got the graphs for this activity free from A Cupcake For The Teacher. I created the templates for the groundhogs and I got the chart idea from Pinterest! 

After we graphed the results we discovered that most people in the class thought the the groundhog would not see his shadow.

To start the month of February off I spent sometime after school one day and decorated the classroom door to surprise the kids! I made each kid into a sweethearts candy box! I got the idea from Pinterest but then changed it a bit and made it my own. I cannot wait to see the kids reactions!

All About December

December was such a crazy month! So much went on that it was near impossible for me to remember to blog! We had Gingerbread Night, an elf on the shelf came to visit, we sing in a winter concert, we were turned into elves,we had some snow days, Santa came to school, and we celebrated Polar Express day.

Winter Hits Hard

December was the beginning of winter and the start of some fun days in the snow. On December 8-10th we had our first 'real' snow fall and a snow day. Kids were very excited to be able to play at home in the snow. The snow also caused our Gingerbread Night to be postponed until the 12th. 

Elves

We began the month with a visitor from the North Pole..... We received a freezing cold delivery an Elf on the Shelf!!! Together we named her Frozen and throughout the month Frozen got up to all sorts of mischief.

Gingerbread Night

When we finally had Gingerbread Night on the 12th students enjoyed decorating a gingerbread man with icing, making houses with milk cartons, making chef hats, hanging out with their friends, and drinking hot chocolate. We also listened to the story of the Gingerbread Man, and Skippy Jon Jones made an appearance!

Santa and Polar Express Day

We ended the year with Polar Express Day. In the morning before the day started we received a visit in the halls from a singing Santa! Some kids were scared while other were sooooo excited. 

Once Polar Express day began we did some holiday themed activities, watched the movie Polar Express, and drank hot chocolate. Frozen left us some cupcakes so that we could have a treat.

December was a great month full of fun for all the kids. I am glad that it is over though! Make sure you check back soon of an upcoming post about February! Since we had so many snow days in January I am just going to jump straight into February happenings! 

Catching up

It has been a long time since I posted, my apologies. I hope to catch up on all my blogging this week so keep your eyes own. During the first week of November I came in to school on a Tuesday like always. I began walking to the school when I saw a couple fifth grade teachers near a little ball of orange fur in the grass. I was concerned and had to go check it out. When I reached the other teachers I realized that the orange fur I saw belonged to a small little kitten with his head stuck inside a little soup can! Poor little due. After a short struggle with the frightened little kitten and a lot of patience we were able to get the can off of the kitten's head. That night the little kitten, later named Oscar, was taken to the vet and given a clean bill of health as well as several shots. I love the new addition to my family. Since when I found him Oscar has grown, become confident, and very curious! The kids loved learning about how Oscar was found!

Letters, Lessons, and Activities

These past weeks we have learned several new letters: letter N, letter E, letter O, letter V, letter T, letter R, letter W, letter V, letter Y, letter X, and letter M. Here is a picture of our phonics connection letters.

November's 50th Day of School

On the 50th day of school we drank root beer floats, danced, did some picture sorts, made our on 50's by or girl, we got our pictures taken and we wrote about the 50's. We had a great day of fun and learning!