December Learning - Dollhouses, Math Games & Measurement

    We have a new addition to our classroom- a dollhouse! We have been spending time this week learning vocabulary to go with our dollhouse - such as the names of each room, the furniture, and family member names.  This is a fun way for students to practice "home" vocabulary by playing games.

   In math, we have been playing many different games that support concepts of numeracy. Pictured here is a domino match game. We have also learned how to play "Go Fish", "Hi Ho Cherry- Oh", and "Counting Cookies".

 This week we have begun to explore measurement concepts.  We are learning about non standard units of measure - using cubes and other objects to measure and compare length and width. Measuring shoes is a fun way to explore!

In Science, we are continuing our study of trees with Ms. O. This week we did a tree art project. We used brown paper bags to twist and turn - creating our own trees!

Feeling Thankful in Kindergarten

The week before Thanksgiving, our class spent some time sharing about the things that we are so thankful for. We thought about being thankful for our families, our school and teachers, our friends, and our healthy food. We learned about the story of Thanksgiving from long ago and made Pilgrim and Native American costumes.  We learned about some of the foods they may have eaten on that first Thanksgiving and tried some sweet potato, corn and cranberries at our own Thanksgiving feast!

A Fantastic Day at the Farm!

 Fun was had by all at the Queens County Farm Museum!
The first thing we did was take a hay ride around the farm. The hay ride was pulled by a tractor with big wheels.It was a fun and bumpy ride!

Then, we learned about goats and how they can make milk. We got to feed the goats and they tickled our hands when they ate the food! We also observed chickens and got to see the eggs they laid just today.

 Next, we learned about how pumpkins grow and we went to the pumpkin patch to pick our own pumpkins. 

We walked through a garden and learned about vegetables that grow on this farm. We noticed signs that help farmers know what kinds of plants are growing. We are getting good at noticing and reading signs!






































Class K-205 had a great trip to the Farm. You can visit the farm again with your family. Check out the website link here to learn more about the fun activities there! 
http://www.queensfarm.org/

Making Tree Maps

In our class, we have been working on a new kind of thinking map called a tree map. Tree maps can help us to organize our thinking about an idea into groups or categories. This week we have synthesized tree maps into our learning in fun and interactive ways.

 In writing, students have been exploring the different kinds of writing we see in the world. The children brought in different examples from home to share. As a group, we then organized the writing we found into groups in a tree map. We found signs, cards/ postcards, maps, advertisements and menus. What other kinds of writing do you see at home? What other kinds of writing do you see outside?

 We are also preparing for our first class trip to the farm. We explored and read some farm books together. Students then illustrated something they may see at the farm on an index card and shared it with the group. The students then came up to a pocket chart and placed their card on the tree map. We learned a lot about the kinds of things we will see at the farm!





We also used our team work skills to work together at our table to make a tree map about colors. Each table got a different colored marker, and had to brainstorm and take turns illustrating things that could be that color. Each table shared their section of the tree map with the group and we put it together into a large map of colors. We are really learning to work cooperatively and listen to each others ideas!

                                                                 October is Here!
October is finally here, and the fall is just beginning. In our classroom, we have been working on learning how to work independently in literacy centers. Literacy centers are a fun way to engage students in a variety of skills practice.

 In the story retell center, students work on retelling the story "Chika, Chika, Boom Boom" with magnetic letters. This is a fun alphabet story, which helps us to recognize our letters.

 At the listening center, students are engaged in listening to "The Little Mouse, The Red, Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear"
Listening to familiar stories many times helps up to learn about story structure and increases our comprehension.








At the sensory center, students hunt for letters in a bin filled with rice. We are hunting for upper case and lower case letters. Exploring materials with our hands in the sensory center is a fun way to help increase our memory for letters.

                                                                                             

In math, our class is working on recognizing, describing, and creating shapes. In these pictures, students are using geoboards to make shapes with a partner. We took turns making trapezoids, rectangles and hexagons. We also used a shape template to trace, cut and create our own shape collages. We read the book : "The Shape of Things"   to help us use our imaginations to see shapes in every day life.

A Super Week in September!

 It was another full week of school and our class was working on exploring and learning to use all the materials in our classroom.

 In our first exploration of the week, we learned about  all the different things we could do with play dough. We learned how to roll, squish, and make letters with our play dough. 

 We also explored painting with water colors. We made beautiful water color name paintings.

We learned how to use our dry erase markers and boards. It was fun writing our new sight words on the boards.In music, students learned how to keep a beat on the big drum with Ms. Kim. Now that's a big drum!!



We also had a visitor this week. The Lysol Healthy Habits bus visited our school. We got to learn about germs and how they get on our hands. We learned how to wash our hands properly. You can practice this at home! We don't want germs to get us sick!

Our First Full Week of Kindergarten

 Class K-205 had a wonderful first full week of school! We read many books about school, sharing, and team work. The bookshelf on our class blog will feature the books we have been reading. Here are some of the fun activities we have done:




Our class has been learning new bean bag games. We practice many vocabulary words in our bean bag games - we can shake our bean bags above, below, and under!

During our Word Study time we are working on learning all of the letters in our names. We made construction paper confetti name posters, and practiced using our new glue, too!

During math centers we are working on exploring all of our math materials. We noticed how some students sorted by color or shape, while others made patterns. We shared all of our ideas for what we could do with our materials.