Tablet Teaching

We LOVE our new ELMO tablet!  We had a great time today passing it around and taking turns answering questions with it.  It gives the user the ability to drag and drop pictures, make notes, highlight and even color items that appear on the screen.  We can't wait to share it with our friends!

FIELD TRIP INFO

We will be going to Children's Theatre to see Cinderella Monday morning and will leave the school at 8:30.  Please be on time!



Homework

The children are bringing home an extra homework assignment tonight that is not due until Fri.  They may have an alphabet matching sheet, a sound matching sheet or a small book to read.  Please help your child with his or her homework.  Is is designed to help with specific skills such as letter naming, sound identification and sight words.  I plan on sending home this type of homework once a week.  If it takes more than a couple of days to complete it please let me know and send it in as soon as possible.  We are working so hard at school and this is a way to continue to reinforce the skills we are learning.  Let me know of you have any questions.  Thanks for your help!!

Apple Day Glog

Our Apple Day Glog is ready to share!  Please click the link on the left of the page for cute pictures of our busy day Friday. 

Our applesauce was delicious today.  We all enjoyed it during snack this afternoon.  We had a great/ busy day.  Can't wait for tomorrow!

Apple Day

Apple Day was a blast!  We had a great time.  I hope to have pictures up by Monday.  Have a great weekend and enjoy your little "Appleseed"!

Centers City

We are busy this week getting accustomed to our center routine.  The class has been divided into five groups of four and rotate through three centers each day.  There are not many "paper/ pencil" centers.  Most of the centers involve some kind of manipulative.  We are using pictures of the class in two of the centers giving the children a chance to match names with faces.  They are working with color words, magnetic letters, beginning sounds and visiting the listening center.  We will continue these centers through next Tuesday and will begin similar centers next Wednesday.  The beauty of centers is that the children are able to reinforce new skills while working with a small group and with me.  It is a very important part of our day and really helps them mature and become more independent. 


Friday we will have our special apple centers for our Apple Day celebration.  Be sure to follow the link to check out last year's Apple Day Glog for a sneak peek of our upcoming Friday fun.

Alphabet Party!!

We had fun at our alphabet party today.  We have had a very busy day with all our activities.  We began the day coloring our nametag necklaces and then read an alphabet book on our big screen.  Later during our alphabet centers we "played" with our names.  We made our names out of playdoh, matched letter stickers to the letters on our names, built our names with alphabet Lego's, picked up tiny letters made of pasta with tweezers to make our names and matched clothespins with letters on them to our name cards.  During math we made a special snack with Scrabble Cheez-Its, Alphabits Cereal and gummy letters.  We sorted the letters and tried to make our names with the letters we had.  It was a lot of fun!  We ended the day eating our snacks and watching The Letter Factory.  We had a GREAT day!! 

 Nametag Necklaces

 Clothespin Names

 Alphabet Legos

 Letter Stickers

 We all have an "Aa" in our names.

 Pasta Names

 Seth spelled his name with Cheeze-Its.

Names with "Yy"



Next week, we will begin our Harcourt Storytown reading series.  Tuesday your child's folder will come home with a monthly homework calendar, a reading log and this nine weeks star words.  We are going to be working hard to become great readers and writers.  Please help your child with this by reading with them every night and completing the nightly homework.

Have a great long weekend!!

Wild Wednesday!

Whew!  We were busy and chatty today, but still managed to get a lot accomplished.  We are quickly reviewing the alphabet with our letter a day unit.  We are already to Ll and Mm!  Today we sorted jelly beans by color and then graphed them.  We also kissed our Kk's and put jewels on our Jj's.  We are having a good time learning whose name begins with which letter too.  We will end the week with Nn and Oo and will finish our review next Thursday.  This is all leading up to our Alphabet Party on Friday the 2nd.  More info and a wish list for the party will be coming home soon.

Friday Info

The children are bringing home their yellow folders today with their weekly newsletter/ behavior report.  Please take the time to look over the newsletter and talk to your child about his/ her behavior good or bad.  This will help them know that you know what is going on in the classroom.  As some of you know Ooops notes began going home yesterday.  Several went home today as well.  One reason for this is to make them understand that there are consequences for their behavior.  It may take a little longer for some of them to settle in to our daily routine than others.  Please be patient with them and the Ooops notes!  We will be working hard here to adjust to the appropriate behavior.  I will let you know how it is progressing.  Be on the look out for some great behavior notes soon.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Busy Week

Monday we began our letter of the day study.  We have had a great time diving into the alphabet this week.  On Monday we made alligators and ants and ate animal crackers.  Yesterday we added band aids to Bb's that we colored blue, black or brown.  We also drew a picture of ourselves with a boo-boo and a band aid on it.  We painted bears, read Blueberries for Sal and ate blueberries.  We also sorted and graphed gummy bears.  They were a big hit!  Today we discussed Cc and listed a lot of Cc words.  We colored C's and glued comics to them, created caterpillars made from two different colored c's that we made patterns with.  We even had carrots for a special treat.  This morning we frosted our birthday cakes we worked on yesterday.  We used a special paint that looks like real icing.  They look delicious!

We will complete this week studying Dd and Ee.  There are many more surprises on the way!

Welcome to Kindergarten

We had a great first week of kindergarten!  Thanks for all you have done to make it a success.

Field Day Fun

Field Day was so much fun!  We had a great day.  The children went to 8 stations throughout the day: inflatables, sack races, tug of war, water balloons, 40 yard dash, jump rope/ hula hoop, dance party and playground/ Popsicle time.  Needless to day they are tired!

Next week we will continue our study of capacity and life cycles.  We will also be practicing for our Kindergarten Celebration program whcih is next Friday at 11:45.  We hope to see you there!

Wonderful Wednesday

The children are really excited about Field Day Friday.  It will be a great day complete with great weather according to James Spann.  Lucky us!  Tomorrow we will wind up our week in the classroom by completing measurement activities and writing about being a butterfly.  Today we created some really cool butterflies.  We painted one side of our paper and then folded the other side on top of it.  This created a really neat picture.  We will cut them out tomorrow and hang them up in our room with our butterfly writing.

Today was the last post on our Garden blog.  Be sure to visit it and see our awesome experiments!

Quiet Day

Although we were only missing a few friends today it has been a very quiet day.  We are all so grateful to be safe and sound after yesterday's devastating storms.  Because of the weather the Boosterthon Fun Run has been changed to Monday, May 2nd.  That means we have another day to get pledges. They are doing a terrific job!

Today we filled in an April calendar using a computer and our projector.  It was really fun!  The children filled in their individual calendars as we completed the online calendar together.  We also looked at the shapes of letters and are bringing home a sheet about it tonight.  Ask your child to make the shape of your name.  It is a little tricky, but they are doing a great job.

Be sure to visit our garden blog using the link on the left to stay updated on our various plant experiments.  The children have enjoyed adding to it daily and commenting on all of the pictures.

Happy Easter!

Our morning was filled with Easter math centers today.  We sorted and graphed jelly beans according to their color, chose eggs out of an Easter basket and added the number of jelly beans inside and created patterns on a giant Easter egg.  It was a lot of fun!  this afternoon we checked on our plant experiments and updated our "How Our Garden Grows" blog.  Be sure to click on the link on the left to visit the blog and read about our discoveries!

This weekend they have a quick homework assignment.  Please trace your child's foot and send it in on the paper that was sent home and cut it out to return to school Monday.  We will be using our feet to measure and measuring our feet next week.  I think they will really enjoy the activities that have been planned.

Also, please send in an easy family recipe to share with the class by next Friday the 29th.  We will be using these as we begin our study of capacity.  If you would be willing to make it for our class to share one day please let me know.

Happy Easter!!!

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh................

Children's Theatre was a lot of fun today.  The children seemed to really enjoy Hansel and Gretel.

We ate lunch as soon as we returned and then began talking about plants.  We investigated our tree and it's roots and talked about how the roots help feed the plant.  We looked at our celery experiment and can tell that some of the celery leaves are turning blue just like the water that is in the jar.  That experiment gives us a good idea of how roots work and how water travels through them to nourish the plant.  We also started one more experiment ~ the potato experiment.  We drew faces on real potatoes and put them to bed in a cool dark place.  We can't wait to see what happens to them.

Be sure to visit our Garden blog to keep up with all of our class experiments.  The link is on the left under favorite links.

Happy Monday!

Most of the children completed their Dibels testing today.  Results will be coming home next week.  Since testing took up most of our morning we did not have literacy centers.  This afternoon, however, we were able to get a lot of work done.  We made flowers and labeled their parts.  We also talked about why their parts are important.

During math today we compared sizes and practiced saying math sentences.  This is difficult, but the children are catching on quickly.  Hopefully we will have plants to measure before long!

The Fabulous 50's!

Fifties day was a blast!  The children looked precious and had a great time exploring the number 50 and learning about a time long ago.  We listened  to records on a real record player and talked about how it works and that back in the 50's that was how they listened  to music.We made a 45 record to write 150 days on and hang in our room.  We listened to fifties music and learned how to twist too.  We have some great twisters in our class!  After lunch we had a special treat for snack ~ root beer floats.  They were a BIG hit!  You may be getting a request for one soon!  Our bubble blowing contest was fun too.

Today we planted our eggshell people's hair (chives).  We are planning on a salad snack day when we can add some of our own chives to the salad.  Yum!  We also turned into scientific investigators.  We are conducting several plant experiments.  We hung Ziplocs in our window that contain a lima bean and a moist towel to determine if plants need dirt to grow.  We placed two plants in our closet to determine what will happen if they receive no light and some water or no light or water at all.  We placed one plant in front of our window that we will not water and one plant in the window that we will water.  We created prediction charts for each experiment as well and will be recording our results.  Look for an online seed and plant journal coming soon!

Yucky Math!

I played a belated April Fools on the class today during math.  After reading Inch By Inch by Leo Lionni ( a book about an inch worm who measures parts of birds to avoid being eaten) I passed out "worms" to the class.  I made a big deal about them wiggling and feeling yucky and then telling the children as I carefully placed one in their hands to be really careful with them.  Their response was hysterical!  Even after seeing that it was a gummy they continued playing along until the last person got their worm.  One child was even worried because hers wasn't moving!!  They had a great time measuring things around the classroom and were very creative with what they measured.  After measuring they exchanged their inch worm for a gummy worm treat to snack on while we shared what we had measured.  It was a lot of fun!

This week proves to be busy.  Here are a few things going on in our room:

Introduction to our plant unit
Making egg people and growing grass seed for their hair
Making real Mr. Potato Heads to examine their roots
Measuring using non standard measurement
Leo Lionni author study
DIBELS practice

Please review the practice sheets for DIBELS with your child nightly. We will be testing next Monday and Tuesday.

Me and my Shadow

We all had a new friend in our class today... our shadows!  We began the day watching a short clip on the Earth and Sun and their relationship. We learned that even though it looks like the sun is moving across the sky it is really the Earth spinning on its axis.  We talked about directions and learned that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West because the Earth spins in a westward direction.  We monitored the sun's trip across the sky by measuring our shadows throughout the day.  At 9:00 a.m. our shadows were very long and big.  At that time our partners drew our shadows with chalk.  We put our initials on them and checked them at 10:40 on the way to lunch. They had moved!  It was very exciting.  We checked them again at 1:30 after library and they had moved again and shrunk.  They looked like baby shadows!  This was a silly discovery!  We also looked at where the sun was at that time.  It was almost directly over head instead of on the other side of the sky where we saw it this morning.  As an extra homework assignment I asked the children to go outside after dinner and see where it is then.  We will talk about it tomorrow morning.

Bring in the Band!

This morningwe read the book Igor, The Bird Who Couldn't Sing.  We had a lot of fun playing a variety of musical instruments similar to the ones in the book.  Instead of singing every time Igor sang we played our instruments.  Since his singing was supposed to sound awful the louder and clangier our music got the better! 

This afternoon we compared maps and globes and learned a new word, sphere.  The children really like their new big kid word.  After reading about and comparing maps and globes we painted the Earth.  We talked about the seven continents and learned a song about them.  We made sure to show all seven in our paintings.  We also talked about the relationship the sun, moon and Earth have with each other.  Tomorrow we will do an experiment with shadows that is sure to be a hit.  Keep your fingers crossed for lots of sunshine!

The children are bringing home notes today about our 50's day next Wednesday the 13th.  Some of you may remember our plan to have one in the fall, but because of meetings and illness we did not get to implement our plans.  Therefore for the 150th day of school we are going to try it again.  We will celebrate 50 all day long with fun activities and snacks.  The children will be able to dress up like a 1950's kid in poodle skirts, rolled up jeans, t-shirts and bobby socks.  It should be a lot of fun!

Awesome Maps!

The children did a fabulous job on their bedroom maps.  They have really enjoyed sharing them with the class.  It looks like pools and trampolines are the most popular items in the fantasy bedroom collection.  I especially like the ones where the trampoline also serves as a diving board!

We have been really busy this week.  Our schedule has been off again due to testing, however today was the last day.  Yippee!  It makes for a really long day when we come in from lunch and recess around 11:40 and are in the room until 3:00 with no breaks.  They've been troopers, but are ready to get back  to normal.  Me too!!

In addition to our bedroom map project we have completed a "map of me" at school.  We read the book Parts, which they loved, and talked about our body parts.  We then made "mini me's" complete with a shirt that opens like a book where we included our map keys.  The children identified their eyes, nose, mouth, heart and belly button by using different symbols and then created a map key for people to read their maps.  They did a great job on this!  There are a couple of pictures of them below.

Today we compared what a map of the city and country would show.  We watched a short video of The Country Mouse and The City Mouse and then compared the city and country using a Venn Diagram.  Tomorrow we are going to read The Little House and add additional comparisons.

We are also discussing fact and fantasy in the books we read.  Yesterday we read a book that had facts about different means of transportation in the back.  We painted beautiful hot air balloons and added a fact about a favorite means of transportation and then added it to the balloon's basket.

Today we painted kites after reading The Kite Festival and wrote two things we remembered about the story on kite ribbons.  Tomorrow we will cut our kites out and add our tail and  ribbons.



Me on the Map

Yesterday we began our study of maps.  We created a KWL chart (what we know, want to know and have learned) about maps.  The children did a really good job listing things they already know about maps and what the want to lean about.  I will use their responses to guide our study of maps.  Today we color coded a map of LES and then created a map key or legend for our map.  These will be hung up so the children can refer to them during our study.

We are still discussing money and have lots of play money to work with.  We should be ready for our Truck Stop to open next week.

Finally, testing in the upper grades started today so we have a crazy schedule this week and the other testing days.  The kids think it is so funny to go places at the "wrong" time.  Be sure to ask them about it!

Happy Spring Break!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Spring Break.  See you on the 21st!!

Happy Tuesday!

We have been busy today talking about community helpers, goods and services.  Goods and services is a difficult concept for the children to initially comprehend because of the terms involved.  Once we discovered that goods has nothing to do with being good, but about things we buy it got much easier!  Please continue reinforcing these concepts at home.

We are continuing our discussion of money and are learning about quarters this week.

Today we welcomed a new student, Hunter, from North Carolina.  We are all excited about him joining our class.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

We had a fun day celebrating Dr. Seuss' 107th birthday today.  We had a surprise guest in the library this morning to celebrate with us.  It was The Cat in the Hat!  Everyone was so excited.  After listening to a story the Cat came to our room and took a picture with us.  We read Green Eggs and Ham, Are You My Mother? and Hurray For Diffendoor Day!  We even watched a short video of Green Eggs and Ham.  The children loved it. 

We began a new round of community helper centers today and worked on a fireman page for our community helper book.  We also watched two short videos of friends of mine who are a police officer and a firefighter.  They told us about their jobs and showed us some of the special tools they use.  Officer Wood even sounded the siren on his police car.  It was so cool!!

Our special guest!

Community Helpers

Today we began discussing community helpers and their jobs in our community.  Our first helper was a police officer.  We discussed how he protects us and keeps us safe.  We talked about how they "get bad guys" and help us cross the street at school.  We also talked about how if we are ever in trouble or need help we can ask a police officer to help us.  We completed a police officer page in our community helper books.  This book is always a favorite!

A Letter To The President

February 24, 2011

Dear President Obama,

We live in Leeds, Alabama.  We are in kindergarten at Leeds Elementary School.  We are studying the presidents.  We have learned about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and we know that you are our 44^th president.  We went to the White House website and looked at pictures of you and your family.  We even looked at pictures of your dog, Bo.  He is so cute!

We would like to know a few things about you.  How did you get to be president?  Where do you get to go as president?

Thank you for reading our letter.  Thank you for taking care of our country.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Trucks’ Kindergarten Class

We'll keep you updated on the response!!

And The Oscar Goes To...

Mrs. Trucks' Class!!  

I am so proud of the class.  They did a great job tonight. 

Enjoy watching and sharing with your family and friends.

Stars are falling on LES!

The Kindergarten classes are performing at this month’s PTO meeting on February 15^th   at 6:30.  They are practicing and working so hard for their debut!  Please have them wear jeans and a pink, red or white shirt for the performance.  Don’t forget your camera!!

DIBELS information and ideas to help your child are coming home today.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Today we continued our Cinderella study.  We read a version where Cinderella is a dog and compred it to Cinderella Penguin.  They all did a good job picking up on the similarities and differences in the two stories.

We are also working on the -et word family.  Some of the children will be coming home with books tonight that focus on this word family and our star words.  Please read with your child tonight and return the book tomorrow.

Fairy Tales

Today we began our study of fairy tales and nursery rhymes.  We read Cinderella Penguin this afternoon.  The children loved this version of Cinderella.  Following the story we discussed the characters, setting and the problem that needed to be solved.  The children were excited to learn big terms like character and setting.  We will be using this new vocabulary to discuss other versions of Cinderella that we will read throughout the week.

We are also practicing retelling stories of The Gingerbread Man and Cinderella at our flannel board center.  The children are also sequencing the events of Humpty Dumpty.  Please continue working with your child at home on their star words.  They are a big part of our center time now.  The more practice the better!

Happy Groundhog's Day!

We enjoyed watching both Birmingham Bill and Puxatony Phil on our projection screen this morning.  We read a book, Gregory's Shadow, about a groundhog who loses his shadow. After reading the book we watched the videos and then made our own picture of a groundhog coming out of his hole.  Based on our results today I hope Phil is right and Bill is wrong.  We are ready for Spring!!

We have new center groups and are trying a new rotation.  The groups are now made up of three students.  They are then pulled from their center groups to work with me in a small group throughout the week.  So far ir is going well!

New February homework calendars came home with your child yesterday.  Please continue working with your child on thier homework every night.  This gets them in the routine and gives them a chance to show off for you!  They are so proud of what they are learning.  The calendar also has a class list for you to help your child with their Valentines.  We will not have a party, but will exchange Valentines on Monday, February 14th.  I know they will be excited about that.

Happy 100th Day!!

We have been busy, busy, busy today with lots of 100th day activities.  We were challenged to complete 10 centers worth 10 points each throughout the day and we did it!!  We counted to 100 many different ways such as with our fingerprints, with colored tiles, treats that everyone sent in, writing our names and with stickers to name a few.  A lot of 100th day paraphernalia will be coming home later this week.  We concluded the day watching Emily's 100th Day of School and eating our 100th Day Heavenly Hash.  Yum!! 

This 100th day we had such fun.  We can't wait until 101!!!

Below are a few pictures of the big day.  More will be coming soon.
                                                          
                                       Cute, little, old lady Destiny making her 100th day poster

                                                    A tower built with 100 blocks ~ WOW!!

 

                                                                     Good job girls!

                                            Another senior citizen kindergartner!  Old man Seth.

Testing This Week

Our DIBELS testing began today so don't be surprised if you have a tired kindergartner.  I also began assessing your child's reading level today using some of our class sets of books.  This will help them build their confidence reading as they read books that are on their level.

Please make sure to read, review letters/ numbers and help your child with their nightly homework.  These activities will help them tremendously with their reading skills.

Hello and Good-bye

Today we started our discussion of opposites.  We took pictures with a friend of opposites in our classroom such as inside and outside, under the table and over the table.  The children had a lot of fun taking the pictures and getting to do a few things that are usually no-no's like standing on a table.  Anything for art and literature!  Tomorrow we will make a list of other opposites and the children will be asked to illustrate them.

In math we began working on number combinations to 5 and 6.  We read a story about five animals who all seek refuge under a mushroom during a rainstorm.  After reading the book we acted it out and arranged the "animals" differently to make 5 and 6.  They seem to understand the basics of addition so you will be seeing some early addition sheets coming home soon.  Your little babies are growing up!!

Welcome Back!

We had a good day today sharing about our winter weather adventures.  If you did not send your child's snowman in today please do so by Tuesday. The ones that came in today are precious!  We will be writing about the snowmen so it is important that your child turn one in.

Today a new letter practice sheet has been added to your child's red folder.  Please review the letters with your child every night to increase their recognition of letters.  Even though your child may know all of his or her letters it is important for them to practice using this format.

Snowman Fun!

The children are bringing home a paper plate snowman today that needs some help!  Please help your child add features to their snowman over the weekend and return to school by Tuesday.  Just like our Thanksgiving turkeys your child can use anything they would like to complete their snowman.  On Tuesday we will begin writing about our snowmen during centers.

They are also bringing home their weekly newsletter/ My Week sheet.  Please remind your child of the importance of  following directions and not playing all day at school.  Between both of us I am sure we can get the message across!  Thanks for your help!!

It's Snowing

We built a snowman today at school.  Using a lot of imagination we added features to a snowman who greets everyone at our door.  Yesterday I painted a snowman body on a large piece of paper and hung him on our door.  Today the children listed what he needed to really look like a snowman.  The children then chose which  part of the snowman they wanted to work on in a small group.  They really enjoyed this and had a chance to work with some friends they may not work with that often.  I'll post a picture of him tomorrow and share his name after we vote on it tomorrow.

Report cards will come home tomorrow.  Please look over it and send it back by Monday at the latest.  A new homework sheet will also come home tomorrow for the month of January.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We had a great first school day of the new year today.  The children were excited to see that our room had been rearranged over the break.  It looks really good and gives us more room to move around.  They were also thrilled by a surprise Santa Claus left for us... a new projector, screen and *Elmo document camera.  We were able to view each other's journals today on the big screen.  Later, we looked at pictures from the year from our class web page and blog on the screen.  I can't wait to implement our new treasures daily during both whole and small group time. 

I hope everyone had a great holiday!

*A big thanks goes to Santa's elves on the Leeds City Schools Foundation board for our new document camera.