Kindergarten Fun

The Kindergarten Kids completed many fun activities and became even more settled in the daily routines.  They continued to work in literacy centers and practiced the routines of setting up the literacy center, learning within the center, asking for help from someone in the group, and cleaning up the literacy center.  Literacy centers will soon be the time when Ms. Wilson provides direct phonics instruction and I meet with reading groups to help the K-kids work on fluency, comprehension, and reading strategies.  The Kindergarten Kids also learned a “secret code” for journal writing in Writer’s Workshop.  The secret code is the date written in number form (today is 9-10-10).  They thought it was very cool to learn the code!  In their journals, they are beginning to write stories that are near and dear to their hearts.  The focus right now is thinking of an idea or a story, drawing a picture, and labeling the picture or writing a phonetic sentence.  As the year progresses, the K-Kids will learn to use the word wall to find words and will have a larger knowledge base of words to write longer stories. 

We started the Hazelden No Bullying Program this week.  During morning meetings, the K-Kids sit in a circle and have a safe place to talk about problems or worries.  I introduced the word "bully," and the kids had a great conversation about what a bully does, how we can stop a bully, and how it feels to be bullied.  They all colored a No Bullying emblem, and these are hanging in the classroom to signify that each child has agreed to the No Bullying pledge and ideas.  They learned a new song about bullying and listened to a story about teamwork against a bully.

In front of our tree...it is so big!

Our science corner, The Wonder Wall, has been a very popular place lately!  Last Friday, the K-Kids chose one tree to be our class tree.  I explained that over the year this tree would change and so would the K-Kids.  We will watch the tree change and use the tree to learn more about science.  I thought it would be hard for the entire class to agree on one tree, but they ran out the door and ran directly to a very, very large tree in front of the school.  They were so excited and danced around their tree!  This excitement led to a lesson on seeds and how plants grow.  Ms. Wilson made a seed jar with many types of beans sprouting, and she also made a terrarium for the kids to observe.  On Friday, the K-Kids made their own seed houses so they can watch the seeds change there as well.  As the year progresses, many of our science and math lessons will connect back to the Kindergarten tree.  Ask your child to show you the class tree as you leave or come to Roycemore!

Our Kindergarten tree