Literacy Centers

Our Literacy Centers are going well! We always have a Reading center where children read books that relate to the unit we are working on, or read poems and charts around the room that we have worked on during instructional time.

We also have a Writing Center that we go to every day. Words to go along with the season are posted on the wall for the children to use. 

The other two centers in the room are centered around skills we are working on like beginning sounds, rhyming, color words, syllables, or even making words.

The last center is working with me on reading skills at their instructional level. Some children are reading so we have a reading lesson while others are working on letters and sounds to begin reading. The children spend about 15 minutess at each center and then they rotate to the next center.

50th Day of School

We had such fun on the 50th day of school! After we finished our 50th day journal pages we made a snack of 50 items. We made sets of 10 using 5 different snacks.

The children enjoyed eating the snack when they were finished sorting into sets of 10. We practiced counting by 10 and made a necklace with 50 beads on it.

We can't wait until 100 day!

Field Trip to Stillwater Prairie

We started the day with our Halloween Parade! Here are Mrs. Busse's Characters!

Then we got ready for our field trip to Stillwater Prairie. We learned a lot about trees.

Photo slideshow generated with Smilebox

When we returned to school we had a Halloween Party! Wow what a busy day!
Check back tomorrow to see what we dressed as for Halloween and what neat book we made about our Halloween costume.

A Big Surprise!!

I went to the site DonorsChoose     http://www.donorschoose.org/teachers                                                                                                  and wrote up a project to be funed. I was super surprised when I looked last week and noticed that some wonderful people funded my project! The children are super excited to see what is in the boxes that were delivered today.

Hopefully it will be assembled tomorrow and I will have more pictures. I can't wait to write another project!

Working at the Smartboard & More

Well it has been a while and I am sorry. My goal is to post something at least 3 times a week. We get so busy I forget to take pictures and then do not post anything.
The first thing I want to post about today is the wonderful job the children are doing on the Smartboard during calendar time I use the calendar developed by http://www.jmeacham.com/calendar/calendar.smart.board.htm  
below are some pictures of the children manipulating the things on the Smartboard to complete the calendar.

The children have been busy at centers counting creepy crawly things! They have had fun using Halloween items to count, compare numbers, and add on as well as subtract.

During literacy centers in the morning the children are practicing beginning sounds by matching fall item.

And Halloween puzzles are always fun!

And our center rotations would not be complete with out some Halloween writing!

October Must Read!

This is my MUST READ IN OCTOBER BOOK! I have read this every year for the last 15 years and I never get tired of it. The kids love it too. We act it out, sing it, listen to it over and over, and talk about it. I think that the children love the idea that the smallest creature had the biggest idea and it worked. It also teaches that working together is the best practice.
Join the fun and share your October must read or go to www.learningwithmrsparker.blogspot.com
to find a lot of other great October books.

We are working on our apple unit! This is a song we sing each morning to the tune of BINGO. It goes:
There is a fruit I love to eat and apple is it's name oh
A  P  P  L  E
A  P  P  L E
A  P  P  L  E
and apple is it's name oh.

Then the first person turns the card around so that is says crunch so the next refrain is
crunch P P L E

and so on until it is
crunch  crunch  crunch  crunch  crunch

The kids love to sing this song.

We read the poem below using the voices that characterize the emotions in the poem and then we read it using silly voice like a monster or cheerleader. We will read it like we are underwater (by patting our hand over our mouth while we read it) or like we are on top of a mountain echoing. We will read it really fast and then really slow.

                                 Poem borrowed from http://www.jmeacham.com/index.htm

I was so surprised when we tasted our apples and most of the children liked the green apples! So today we had green apples with caramel dip. Yummy!

Patterning Fun

I have fallen in love with bulletin board boarders!
When I find fun patterned boarders I buy them of course and then I cut them apart.

 The children then make patterns using the pictures.

I love finding boarders to go along with seasons or units I am teaching.

Or just plain old fun patterns.

Meet Room 3

At the beginning of the school year I have the children make graphs so that we can learn about each other. The first day we make a boy/girl graph. We then make graphs for hair color, age, what hand we write with, eye color, if we have brothers and sisters and so on. I have several objectives here, first name writing. Every morning the children write their name on a card to put on the graph. Second, to understand how to answer a question. And third, to learn how a graph works and how to gather information. I then display our graphs in the hallway.

After we have gathered information we make a glyph and display them with our graphs. If they are a boy they have a rectangle body and girls have a triangle body. If they write right handed they have square hands and left handers have circle hands. Blonde haired children used yellow paper and children with brown hair used brown hair.Five year olds have green feet and six year olds have orange feet. The children enjoyed comparing the glyphs.

Working at Sorting Stations

At the beginning of Kindergarten we work hard on learning to sort. We have learned about sorting by color, shape and size. We will continue to sort in many different ways in the upcoming weeks. We will sort buttons by number of holes they have. We will sort bears by how they are holding their arms. We will sort golf tees  by what they are made of (plastic or wood). The children are enjoying these sorting activities. These activities will progress into making patterns. I have included some fun pictures of some of the sorting stations.

 These children are sorting pegs by color.

 These students are sorting bears by color.

 These students are sorting mice by color.

 These students are sorting animals by color.

 These students are sorting pattern blocks by shape.

 These students are sorting foam cubes by shape and color.

These students are sorting rings by color.

Kindergarten Paradise! Meet our Friends

We had a great beginning to the school year! Below is a slide show so that you can meet everyone in the class.

Another digital slideshow by Smilebox

Enjoy the show.
Check back next week to find out what we are doing in the classroom!

Three For Thursday!

I have favorite fonts but do not know how to use them :(
I joined lettering delights but do not know how to download and use the fonts. I am planning on getting my daughter to help me!

Bolgs that are a must look at every day are...
http://www.mrswillskindergarten.com/
http://kindergartencrayons.blogspot.com/
http://larremoreteachertips.blogspot.com/

Great sites that I love to visit and get great ideas from are...
http://www.makinglearningfun.com/
http://www.fcrr.org/index.shtml

Where it all goes down Wednesday!

We have Welcome Night on Monday Night! Tuesday is a workday and the little darlings start on Wednesday.  We have a third of the children come on each day that first week of school so we only have about 6 children each day. The parents come with them for the first hour so that we can introduce all the "school stuff"  and answer any questions. The parents then leave and we show the small group around the room and school and run them through the daily routines. So I am excited to get started on Wednesday and I think my room is ready, take a look!

Book Buddy bags are hanging and ready to be filled. Each day the children take a book home to read and bring back the bag and book the next day to get a new one.

The reading center is ready for children to grab baskets and look at books. The bathtub is to read in or they can sit on the carpets to share a story. Off to the side is a taperecorder so they can listen to books on tape.

The sand table is filled with sand and seashells to start the year. And the art center in next to the sand table . Children paint at the easel everyday.

This is where many of my math manipulatives are housed. At the beginning of the year we sort and work on patterns. All the tubs are filled with fun little items to practice these skills.

And this is the group area. We sing songs, read stories, work with the calendar and have lots of learning fun in this area.

So I believe I am ready! I can't wait to meet the children at Welcome Night on Monday!