Graphing

We spend a lot of time making and analyzing graphs. We have a weekly graph we do each week and we make graphs during our math time. This week we collected data about skittles. Each student got a small bag of skittles and they had to sort their skittles by color and then create a graph. After we made our graphs we had a lot of questions to help us analyze our graphs. Of course, the fun part was being able to eat our skittles. 

Matter, Matters

We spent a lot of time learning about the different states of matter. We discussed properties of each state and sorted objects by their state of matter. 

We learned about added cold to a liquid will make it freeze. And we learned how adding a heat to a solid will make it become a liquid. We made ice cubes and then took the ice cubes outside and melted them. 

The most fun we had was working with out third grade book buddies to make ice cream floats. I made a Haiku Deck presentation that we walked through to review the concepts of a solid, liquid and a gas. Then we had fun and got to make root beer floats. The students discussed with their buddy which part was the solid, liquid and gas. Then they got to enjoy their float!

Apples

We recently finished a big unit on states of matter and their properties. We looked at apples and made a list of properties that described the apples. Then we got to taste the different color apples and we added more words to our list after tasting. We knew by looking at the apple it was round and smooth on the outside. When we got to taste it we learned that apples can we juicy too.  We also got to taste apples in its different states. We tasted a liquid and solid apple.  We discussed what a gas is but did not taste anything for that. 

What Apple unit would not be complete without reading the book Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss?  The kids loved the book and enjoyed making their own pictures of them with apples on top of their head. 

Patterns

We spent just a short week learning about and creating patterns. We used our cubes to make patterns. Then we documented the different patterns in our math journals. After we had a good understanding of how to build and create patterns we got to make caterpillar patterns and pizza patterns. 

Letter U Activities

Letter U week was filled with fun and exciting things. We were learning about the United States of Ameria and some important symbols we use. We had umbrella day, big underwear day, upside down down...oh my!  

Though out the whole week we learned a new symbol each day.  We discussed the flag, bald eagle, Statue of Liberty, liberty bell, and the White House. 

For umbrella day,  we made umbrella patterns, read the book The Umbrella Queen, painted our own umbrellas and write descriptive sentences about them, and got to use them to eat under with our book buddies. 

For upside down day we read e book George Upside Down. Then we got to practice drawing and writing upside down. After our fun time writing we made pineapple upside down cupcakes for us to snack on later. 

Don't you just love the letter U?!

Kindergarten Happenings

We spend a lot of time in our classroom so it is important for us to get our wiggles out. We do things many different way. We might sing and dance, interact with a yoga kids video or follow along with a kids dancing clip. Whatever we do, we LOVE moving and grovin'. 

This year we are spending a lot of time focusing on college and career. I discussed with the students how there are lots of options for them once they graduate from high school. We talked about how they could become lawyers, doctors, fire fighters, police officers, construction workers, accountants, etc. we also discussed how they would need special schooling for things like that. So we started planning. We made College Savings Boxes where the students can start saving for college or a trade school. Then we made Class of 2026 shirts to celebrate when they will graduate from high school and move on to the next stage in their education. We also made a banner for the kids to sign as the Class of 2026.  At the end of the week we had a career day parade where students could dress up as what they wanted to be when they got older. 

Something else that is exciting we are doing this year at Moseley is houses. Each student drew a color house (blue, red, green, yellow, orange, purple, black). Each week the students will earn points based on attendance, academics, and more.  At the end of each week, we count our points, turn them in and wait for Monday morning when they announce the new house winner for the week.  Each week a team is announces and that color is hanging on each door for the week.  At the end of the month the team that has the most points get a small prize. Then at the end of the nine weeks the team with the most points get their color flag hanging outside for nine weeks.  I have volunteered to be the Purple team captain.  Here are the other purple team leaders and the students on the purple team.  The purple team has the most amazing students who have brought us two week wins and a month win.  Keep up the good work purple house!

Book Buddies

Each year my class partners up with another class to have book buddies. This year we are partnered up with Mrs.  Mulligan's third grade class. Through out the year we will meet and do all kinds of things together. The first time we got together we got to know each other. We partnered each kindergartener to a third grader. Then we gave the. Some time to talk and get to know each other. 

After our first week of getting to know each other our third grade book buddies came to visit us again. This time it was Letter U week in kindergarten. So we had our umbrellas with us.  Our book buddies read to us as we sat under our umbrellas. The students loved umbrella reading with our book buddies. 

Me!

This first couple of weeks we spent a lot of time discussing and learning all about me. We talked about our families, how we look, how we are suppose to treat each other. One day we made miniature us. We made our faces look as close to us as possible by making sure we colored our hair and eyes the color they are. Then we made our dress or shirt our favorite color. Here are some students working on their person. 

One day we read a book about being friends. We discussed how we could be a good friend and a bad friend. We made a t-chart to show our thinking. Then we drew a picture of us being a good friend. 

Centers

This year I am still using daily five and centers. We do daily five in the middle of the day. These rotations are all literacy based. The students are engaged in reading to self, reading to others, listening to reading, working on writing or word work. The students do a great job in these rotations. However their favorite are the afternoon centers. These enters are at the end of the day and they are mostly the play centers: blocks, home, puzzles, computer, etc.  here are some pictures I snagged awhile ago if my class working hard in their centers. 

Math Time

This year we have been doing a lot of fun things in math. But to start the year off we needed to learn and practice how we use our math materials. The first week of school we worked on how we use our math manipulatives by exploring with our pattern blocks, snap cubes, link chains, etc. I gave the students a piece of Manila construction paper so they could practice staying in their space and not taking up all of the table. 

Next we learned how to sort by colors. So I brought a snack size bag of M&M's for everyone to sort. The students worked hard to divide their M&M's by color. We discussed how we figure out which one had the most and least. Then the students got to eat their M&M's in color order of most to least. 

The next week worked on numbers 1-5. The students were practicing how to use their one to one counting. So we used play doh to help. We would make five play doh balls and then use the play doh to make the numeral. The students love working with play doh. 

This week we are learning about patterns. We have been using cubes to create pattern chains. Then we use our math journals to document the different patterns. So far we have learned all about AB patterns, ABC patterns and AABB patterns. We are working on ABB and AAB patterns. 

New Year New Beginnings

This is the start of my seventh year teaching kindergarten and I am excited about this new year. This past week was full of getting to know each other and learning about our room and school.  The students have been a joy to have and I cannot wait to see them grow as the year goes on. This week we started off learning how to use our math manipulatives. The students were given a piece of construction paper and some manipulatives and were told to explore with them but stay on their paper. They definitely enjoyed this free time.  

As the week went on I started introducing our centers. We started with some of our daily five centers like our word work, work on writing, listen to reading.  Later we learned about our afternoon centers that consist of our home center, computer, puzzles, blocks.  The students definitely enjoyed center time. 

Friday was probably everyone's favorite day. We Learned to sort M&M's by colors then we got to eat them. Yum!

But I think the most fun came with our gingerbread hunt. We read the book The Gingerbread Man Loose in School. Then we made our gingerbread man, put him in the oven and when we went to get him out he had taken off in our school.  We made our missing posters to show people what he looked like. Then we went back to where we last saw him and noticed he left us a note.  So we read the note and then went to where it sent us.  We went ALL over the school, to the cafeteria, music room, art room, PE, the library, office, nurses office, and back to our room where he was sitting on my table. Silly gingerbread man!  We snagged a picture with him then we ate him up. 

This is one of my favorite activities to do with students. They get so excited when they find the notes. 

Dinosaurs

This week we are learning about dinosaurs. This is the first time we have taught dinosaurs at school. We have need had time to fit in a fun unit like this before but I am glad we found time. The kids LOVE dinosaurs!!  Today we read the book Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs by Bryon Barton. Then we discussed the different types of dinosaurs and what makes each one special. I had the students draw and write about which dinosaur they would want to be and why. I love reading their explanations. My students this year are so creative.

The Moon

After taking some time away from our space unit to work on Mother's Day stuff we are back to space!  The class read a book about the moon by Gail Gibbons. Then they wrote two sentences about the moon. And just like the sun we painted our moon. Here are some of their work. 

 

(The moon is made of rock and dust. The moon is big.)

The Sun

To continue our study of day sky we read a nonfiction book about the sun. We shared with each other things we learned about the sun. Most students were excited to learn that the sun is a star. They were also surprised to learn how big the sun really is. After sharing, we wrote two sentences about the sun. Then we had fun with the paint and painted the sun. 

Space boy...and girl

The next day we read the book Space Boy. We discussed what we think it would be like if we were on the moon. Next, we discussed what fun things we would do on the moon. Here are some of their work. 

Space Week

This week we started our space unit. To start it off we by talking about things we see in the day sky. We made a list of those things. Then we discussed things we could do during the day that we might not be able to do at night. I had the students draw and write about things they like to do in the day sky. 

Next we read the book I Want to be an Astronaut. We made a list of all the reasons why we would want to be an astronaut. Then I had the students draw and write about it. 

Mother's Day

We made two quick things for our mothers last week. The first is a book A Story About My Mom!  In this book we wrote about our mom. Here are the pages from one student's book. 

Next we read the book Guess How Much I Love You. The students drew a picture of them with their arms stretched out and then wrote about how much they love their mom. Here are some of their work.