Thank You

Our class wanted to say thank you to all of our dedicated volunteers who helped throughout the year.  Parents prepped materials, made copies, read with children, chaperoned on field trips and special days and so much more!!

Field Day Inside...How did Mrs. Martin think of All those Games?

Hockey

The Tractor Pull

The Hamster Wheel

Turtle Egg Rescue

"Spare Time" Bowling with Marbles and Chalk

Ladybugs

Today we read a few books about ladybugs, both fiction and nonfiction.  We had a whole class discussion around what the author's message to the reader was.  Students did a fabulous job growing their ideas by using text evidence and building on what other classmates said.  


Later in the day we made a ladybug glyph.  See pictures below.

The Plus or Minus Game

Students are using a game to reinforce the meaning of addition and subtraction symbols.  

Key Concepts and Skills:

• add and subtract items from a gameboard
• explore the difference between addition and subtraction
• recognize and use the + and - symbols

A Violin Concert in Kindergarten

Mr. C and one of our own students played "Twinkle, Twinkle" to our class!  It was wonderful!!

What We are Doing in Kindergarten

"Seasons" Book Club, discussing what the authors are trying to teach us.

"Vehicles"  Book Club

"Ocean Animals" Book Club, using post-its to mark important parts to discuss.

Using dice to make double-digit numbers and finding the numbers on a 100 chart.

Exploring equivalent names for numbers.

Raising a Life-Long Reader

Click on the link below for a great article from PBS.org

http://www.pbs.org/parents/experts/archive/2012/05/raise-a-lifelong-reader-by-rea.html?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=pbs

The Portland Symphony Orchestra Visits WCS!

Some members of  Portland Symphony Orchestra's strings section visited us yesterday.  They performed The Legend of Abbie Burgess.  For more information, click the link:
http://www.portlandsymphony.org/content/?performance=kinderkonzerts-the-story-of-abbie-burgess

We also read the book: "Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie" by Peter and Connie Roop.

Look for the flags we made for the performance in Family Folders.  Students made flags to represent different wind speeds.  A Small Craft Advisory Flag for winds up to 38 mph, a Gale Flag for winds 39-54 mph, a Storm Flag for winds 55-73 mph, and a Hurricane Flag for winds 74 mph and higher.

This Week in Kindergarten (April 23-27)

Playing "Roll, Read, and Write"

Using the Word Wall and dot cubes to
practice Sight Words.

Using non-standard units for Measurement
"I'm 36 pegs tall!"

Counting by 10's and 1's with Craft Sticks

Kindergarten Poetry

Horses
The clomping sound
of a galloping horse
with the dust and the  wind.  neigh!

Police Car

Police cars are fast
wewoo wewoo
A police car is
coming
your way.

Fire Works

Fire works,
so sooooo fast!!!
a ffaasstt,
blooming flower!!!

My Tooth

My tooth is a necklace
My tooth is a heart
My heart.

What You See

You see Stuff
outside trees
are out. There's
flowers in the garden. Go
and see the world.

Shells

Mazes.  It is white
like snow
I love
shells, shells are protecting

Red and Blue

I love red
I love blue
I love red and blue
you

This Week in Kindergarten (April 9-13)

Have a wonderful vacation!!!



This Week in Math: (Some things we worked on)

• Estimating the number of objects in a collection
• Counting the number of objects in a collection
• Reading 2-digit numbers and representing them with manipulatives
• Recognizing 2-digit numbers as a combination of 10's and 1's
• Comparing 2-digit numbers
• Counting forward and backward from various numbers
• Drawing and solving number stories

This Week in Literacy: (some things we worked on)

• Using post-its to mark places in our books where we notice a character feeling
• Discussing our character's feelings with our reading partners
• Making inferences from our character's feelings and actions
• Looking at objects with a "poet's eyes"
• Reading and discussing many poems
• Writing poetry

Here is one of the poems we read to show what is meant to see with a "poet's eyes"

Pencil Sharpener

by Zoe Ryder White

I think there are a hundred bees

inside the pencil sharpener

and they buzz

and buzz

and buzz

until my point 

is sharp!

Working in a Reading Club...preparing to
discuss characters and character feelings.

Jotting character feelings on a post-it
in preparation for partner time.

Partner Reading

Partner Reading: "Biscuit"

Partner Talk, beginning with "I notice..."

Writing words we encounter in Reading
and words we use often in our Writing.

Writing Poetry

Partner Reading

Don't Forget

Don’t forget – today (Wednesday, April 11) from 4-8 pm there will be a photo booth at the library!  By the end of the night we hope to have a very large photo collection of library lovers!  

Mariah Sewall

Children's Librarian

Topsham Public Library

25 Foreside Rd.

Topsham, ME 04086

Some Upcoming Dates

Scholastic and Firefly Book Orders are due this Thursday, April 12.

Spring Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, April 24th.  Our class will be getting our pictures done first thing, at 9:10.

This Week in Kindergarten (April 2-6)

This Week in Math: (some things we worked on)

• Dividing whole objects into halves and representing half of a whole with concrete objects.
• Deepening understanding of mathematical symbols and language through number stories.
• Learning the value of a quarter
• Exploring characteristics of the quarter 

Please read the students observations of the quarter below:

1. It is the biggest coin.
2. The sides are rough.
3. It is made of metal.
4. The heads side only has George Washington's head and neck.
5. It has our first president.
6. The heads side is "upside down" from the tails side.

This Week in Literacy: (Some things we worked on)

Writing Workshop

• We've been reading many poems and familiar songs for poetry inspiration.
• We've been talking about seeing objects "through a poets eyes" and discussing what this means.
• We've also been talking about different ways to set poems up using varying line breaks.

Reading Workshop

• This week we read and discussed many of our favorite characters, including Olivia and Lily.
• Students were introduced to ways to talk to their reading partners about the characters in their books.  We can start with, "I noticed that my character ______________  and that makes me think ____________."  The partner is encouraged to extend the talk by stating, "I agree, because _________" or "I disagree, because_____________."

Next Week is National Library Week

Next Week at the Topsham Public Library

April 8 – 14 is National Library Week, and this year’s theme is “You Belong at Your Library!”  We are offering special programs all week long, but we are also encouraging everyone to come to the library to have their picture taken.

On Wednesday, April 11^th from 4 – 8 pm we will have a photo booth set up in the library where patrons can have their picture taken (perhaps posing with their favorite book?!) to show their love and support of the library.  The booth will print a strip of six pictures – we get one and patrons can keep the rest.

This Week in Kindergarten (March 27-30)

This Week in Math (some things we worked on):

• Using manipulatives to represent numbers
• Modeling and solving comparison stories with counters
• Counting and comparing numbers in groups 
• Dividing a group of objects in half
• Using the basic language of probability to describe predictions (flipping a coin and recording results)

This Week in Literacy (some things we worked on):

• Noticing when there is a tricky part, searching the page and the book and thinking about what strategy to use to help figure it out.
• Making sure we check our words in reading and fix them when they don't make sense, sound right or look right
• Adding more details and more information to our "All About" books, such as labels and lists.

Next month in writing we will be working on writing poetry and songs.  We will read and listen to lots of poems.  We will begin by looking closely at objects and use our senses as we write poems and songs. 

Dividing groups of objects in half

Exploring probability with coins

Getting excited about our coin flip results!

Our April reading unit focuses on getting to know the characters in our books and talking about them with others.  We will work on the skills of inference and synthesis through personal connections.

Thank You Kindergarten Parents

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to all of you who came to school for conferences over the last two weeks.  It is such a joy to share the growth and progress the students are making in school!  If questions/concerns come up between now and the end of the year, please don't hesitate to contact me.

I also wanted to take a minute to thank all of our classroom volunteers.  You are wonderful!!! Our volunteers help by prepping materials for lessons, reading one-on-one with students, and helping with Writer's Workshop.

Kindergarten Writing Update

This month we have been working on writing “All-About” books.  This unit began with reading many nonfiction texts on a variety of topics.  We read about animals, vehicles, the human body (bones, muscles, the five senses), and so much more. We had many whole class conversations about what the authors were trying to teach us. We also discussed how these nonfiction texts were set up. 

We then made lists of things we know a lot about: people we know all about (people in our lives and famous people), places we go (to eat, to play, to shop), things that we do (at home, at school and outdoors). Students worked with partners to plan out their books, saying everything they know about a topic and then began to write, write, write.  Students will take their books home at the end of the month. 

Our next unit, beginning in April will be “Authors as Mentors” where students will be invited to try out some of the cool things some of our favorite authors do in their books.  We will write like real, published authors!  

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!

On March 2, 2012 we celebrated Dr. Suess's birthday at Williams-Cone.  Many community members came in to read to us.  Thank you to Jon Hiltz for reading: "SkippyJon  Jones" and "A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee" to our class!!!  We made 'Cat in the Hat' hats and had a special snack of 'Green Eggs and Ham'.  We read many Dr. Suess books during the week.  Many students are realizing they can read these books!!!