Visual Phonics- Every letter makes a sound AND has a hand signal!

A few years back, my K colleagues and I were trained in Visual Phonics.  It's a VISUAL system for isolating and learning letter SOUNDS.  I have found that it's a helpful tool for children on their journey to becoming readers and writers.  Below you can take a look at me saying and SHOWING the alphabet.  Kids can try it along with me!

Feeling Fall

 It's officially fall and  much of our learning this week was tied to the changing of the seasons.  On Monday and Thursday the packs went on a scavenger hunt looking for signs of fall.  Both groups were lucky enough to see and hear geese flying south! 

 On Tuesday and Friday the packs had their first Farm to School lesson during which they pressed and tasted apple cider!  

We thought about saying "goodbye" to some favorite summer time activities and "hello" to new fall ones. To help us remember the beautiful sunflowers that are drying, we did some careful observations and made some collaged sunflowers of our own. 

In addition to all this, we continued learning about the attributes of shapes AND Mr. T came to read on Thursday afternoon. 

Have a look...

Welcome to Room 28

 Hello Families!

Maybe this is the first time you've visited my blog or maybe you've checked it out in previous years, but this is the first post for School Year 20-21.  And what a year it is- two different halves of the same class on one blog!  The blog is like a window into the classroom and I try to rely on pictures to tell the story. 

Each day the children are working independently at table spots and teaming up to explore new materials on the rug.

Books are a major feature of our days. There's always at least one read-aloud and time for looking at books individually.

We've getting to know one another through art and design...

and making connections from the classroom to the world!

Room 28 Rocks!

I know that many teachers will remember their class of 2019-2020 because it was the year that was interrupted by the pandemic, it's unavoidable.  But I will also remember this crew as one of the most dedicated and driven to learn classes I have ever had.  Whether we were in school together or learning remotely, this group of children always enjoyed a challenge!  There were so many writing sessions in particular when I would say, "if another grown up walked in right now they might think you were second graders because you are so focused and independent".  
Even in our last Zoom they were asking each other "how they got that cool background" and teaching each other how to do it!  The learning never stops.

Take a look at some fantastic solutions to yesterday's math challenge-

Turns out Mr.T had five apple and 5 oranges whether you solved with circles or popsicle sticks! 

Usually Thursday is a Zoom day for us but we moved it to tomorrow so here's a bonus video...

Final Math Challenge!

Good morning!  We are one day away from the teacher parade and I am getting SO excited to see people for real as opposed to over Zoom.  It will be socially distant and from a bus of course but it still sounds great. Need something to do between now and then?  
Try this Math Challenge:

Mr. T was making fruit salad with oranges, apples, strawberries and bananas.  He had 24 pieces of fruit in all.  Four of them were bananas and 10 of them were strawberries.  He had an equal number of apples and oranges.  How many apples and oranges did he have?

Send me your answer over email and remember I love to see all the work you did that shows me how you figured it out.  If you haven't been by Orchard School in a while the irises that Mrs. Knox and I planted two years ago didn't bloom last year but they are beautiful now.  Here's a look-

Time is Going TOO Fast

It's a rainy, cloudy day today- how will you use it?  There are some fun activities on the learning grid, even one labeled "rainy day craft".  The story The HoneyBee and the Robber by Eric Carle which is on the grid today has a really cool follow up project at the end. In these final days of blogging for the year, I still love seeing what everyone's is up to and sharing it right back out with you.  So with that, here is the answer to yesterday's mystery word:

It's great to see how far everyone has come with their handwriting!

I wonder how many kiddos will keep up with journaling over the summer?  I think our Monday routine has become such a habit, it could be hard to break! And that's a good thing.

Just think of all the progress... Here's a throw back picture to remind you of the early days in September.

Memories and Monday

Welcome to the last week of school.  I've never had one like this before!  I SO wish we could be together to share memories and have our "lasts"- ex. last music class, last PE class, last Big Buddy time, etc.  The good news is, we will all be back in the fall! So while our Kindergarten "lasts" may have past, everyone will be back at it as first graders!  Here's a look at some recent pictures you've sent me. We are: working hard, making the most of being home and enjoying the outdoors.