Happy Halloween!

It's my hope in writing for this blog that it can both stand alone and provide a visual for some of the things I write about in the weekly newsletter.  This posting offers a glimpse into a daily routine of ours: the greeting during morning meeting.  Some days we stay seated and send a greeting around the circle and other days we use cards (names, photos, math equations, uppercase/lower case) to determine who greets who with a handshake, eye contact and the words "good morning _____".  

This week we talked about how writers can show what they know by including lots of details.  Labeled pictures, which children are used to seeing in books, are a super way for beginning writers to communicate with an audience.  Before asking the children to create a labeled picture on a topic of their choice, we warmed up by creating labeled pictures about Halloween using a word list.

I'm happy that many of you were able to join us for Friday's festivities.  The children had a great time making hanging bats, spooky spiders and knuckle printed pumpkins.  They enjoyed delicious, healthy foods and loved Halloween Bingo with Miss Jess!  A very heartfelt thank you to everyone who contributed.

Full On Fall !

While Frederick's friends gathered wheat, corn and acorns for the  harsh days of winter, Frederick's contribution was words.  He gathered words to create poetry about the good days in summer.  Frederick was able to recite this poetry for his friends when winter was almost too tough to bear.  We created a mural in Leo Lionni's style and saved some special words of our own. 

I hope you can get a sense of the focus children are bringing to their work these days.  Below you can see two friends copying the birthday wall- this was their decision when "white boards" was available as a literacy choice.  You can also see students concentrating on recording all the combinations of 10 that they could discover while manipulating two-colored pegs on a ten frame.

The last Leo Lionni story we read was Alexander and the Wind up Mouse.  Alexander Mouse used his one magic wish to turn his toy-mouse friend into a real mouse. Take a look at the attention these table mates are giving to collaging a picture of what they would wish for if they had a magic purple pebble.

It's important to know that we play as hard as we work in Room 28 so I will close this post with a look and friendship indoors and out!

What A Week!

In addition to the excitement of the circus, we found some time this past week to sink into some writing. Below you can have a look at the children putting together an "8 page book".  It's a literacy activity that has become familiar to the group. These books are made to support themes we are studying, feature "popcorn" words and emphasize using picture clues to read.  After the children complete the book with writing, drawing, cutting, putting the pages in order and stapling, they read it to a teacher and place it in their book box to re-read in the future.  As I taught the class in Reader's Workshop this week:  "when you're done, you've just begun".  Readers become even stronger and learn more when they go back and re-read!

Another important writing activity this week was the start of "write around the room" as a literacy choice.  Below you can see a student independently "copy writing" words that are important to her from around the room.  In this way children deepen their learning by connecting the way a word looks to the way it sounds and what it means.

 ...And to end the week we headed to the Pumpkin Patch!

Stretching Our Whole Selves

Thinking back over the week I am struck by how many ways the children are challenging themselves and expanding their learning. When I'm planning lessons or setting up experiences I always have different learning styles in mind, but looking back over the week it makes me happy to see the many ways children are connecting to one another and the curriculum.  Here is a look back at our continuing author study of Leo Lionni (making mice in his collage style), building with geoblocks at Explore time, working with partners on a math game, and navigating our way through circus practice!

 

Wrapping up September

What a fantastic first month of Kindergarten!  Many of our routines are underway and getting together with our fifth grade buddies is fast becoming a favorite.  I hope the pictures below can give you an idea of how special it is when some of our oldest and youngest students at Orchard get together.  You may have read in the newsletter that we have begun an author study of Leo Lionni. One of the most incredible things about LL's timeless stories is that he has written AND illustrated them himself, insuring that the words and pictures go hand in hand to tell the story together.  This makes them perfect for beginning readers.  Below you can catch a glimpse of us creating artwork in his style.  And finally, have a look at one of the math games we played this week.  While working in pairs the children traced shapes (solidifying their understanding of shape names), kept track of ordinal numbers ("first", "second", "third", etc.) and began thinking about "how many more to make five?".