Kindergarten Happenings!

Wow, we are into the middle of April already!  The year is really starting to fly by!  

Here are some of the things we worked on this week.  I hope you enjoy the pictures!  

 Last week we spent a little time making a card and writing a special message to our 4th grade buddy. We wanted to bring them a little cheer before they began MCAS on Tuesday.  The cards were adorable and the children did an amazing job writing 2 & 3 sentences to send words of encouragement to their buddy.  Phrases like "I believe in you." "You will rock this test." "Try your best, I know you can do it!" These were just a few of the phrases used.  They also drew a picture of themselves with their buddy!  On Monday afternoon we stopped by their class to present them with their card and a glow stick that said "You glow, when you show what you know!" We loved watching their smiles and excitement as they read their cards!  

So sweet!  Look at these faces!!  

 Building teen numbers using chips, ten frames and writing the number with dry erase markers. 

 Strengthening those fingers and focusing on a pinch when grasping crayons or pencils. We have noticed some of the children are wrapping their thumb when writing so we took out tiny crayons and this fish mosaic to work on pinching and maving in small circles.  A great work out for their fingers! 

 CSC meeting - checking in on transitions

We struggle a little in the morning when we enter the classroom because the children tend to use big booming voices when they enter the classroom.  We talked about trying to walk in the classroom quietly, do our jobs and talk quietly with a friend next to us.  

 Math write the room focusing on tens and ones.

 How many groups of tens? How many ones? How many in all? 

 Practicing making numbers in different ways

 Partner Minnon game - rolling dice, adding and covering the number. 

We also worked on being a good sport, taking turns, and using kind words! 

 Math center activities

We had a variety of math activities working on and reinforcing skills we have learned this year.

 Take a trip to the beach with tens and ones by matching the number to the correct quantity.

 Jellybean math where the child had to solve addition problems

 and place it in the jar with the correct sum. 

 Pallet learning 

The students could work alone of with a partner to solve the problems on the pallet.  The cool thing about these is after they have finished they can flip the card and self check their work.  The kids loved these and we hope to use them after vacation as well.  

 Earth day preview matching tens and ones with the correct number.  

playing with slime

Egg STEM Challenge with our 4th grade buddies!

Each group was given 9 eggs, 2 tiny eggs and playdo.  They were challenged to build the tallest tower they could with the eggs.  They were excited about the challenge, worked really well together and persevered even when the towers kept falling.  I was very impressed with their creativity!  

We had a great week!  I hope everyone has an amazing vacation!  It's hard to believe we are almost in the home stretch.  When we return we will continue to work on our reading, writing and math skills.  We will also begin to publish a book we will send home information about this so you will have an opportunity to purchase the book if you would like!  Have a wonderful vacation!