We Are Readers and Writers!

We have been so busy in Room 8 over the last several weeks! Many exciting things have been happening, but perhaps the most exciting thing of all is that we are become READERS and WRITERS! We have been working up until now, building the foundation of skills needed to read and write, and all of the pieces are beginning to come together! It is an amazing process to watch and be a part of!

During Reader's Workshop, we have talked all year long about "what good readers do." Good readers take care of books, tell stories from the pictures and words in books, use stories they are familiar with to retell stories, and talk with others about things they are reading. We have practiced and practiced and practiced these different reading habits. These habits, along with our hard work with phonics (letters and sounds), will all help us as we embark on the exciting journey of learning to read emergent and "just right" books. Most of the work of learning to read will take place in first grade, but kindergarten is where children learn the basic skills of decoding words, using pictures to help them read, matching voice to print as they read, and using sight words in their reading. Just this past week, we all were given our special "Book Baggies" to be used during Reader's Workshop. These bags contain sight word books we have read and we "went shopping" for just right books to add to them. These just right books are very early readers with predictable, patterned text. Children will practice reading these books over and over again, both with a teacher and independently. Each week we will choose different books to add to these book baggies. Sometimes, books will come home for additional practice. The children are so excited to be "reading" and some of them even take their book baggies out to read during free choice time! Enjoy these pictures of our first few days with our book baggies!

Kaleb practices finger-pointing as he reads.Olivia points as she reads a sight word book.Evan reads Goodnight, Gorilla from his book baggie.

We have been just as busy during Writer's Workshop. Over the past couple of weeks, we each chose a piece of writing from our writing folder that we wanted to "publish" (which we learned meant to edit and make fancy for others to read, just like what real authors do with their books!) Children spent time rereading their writing and making sure their words made sense and their pictures had enough detail. On Thursday, we had an Author's Celebration! We each read our piece we chose to publish and we enjoyed M&M cookies to celebrate all of our hard work!
Taylor proudly shows off his writing at our Author's Celebration.
Emily shares her story at our Author's Celebration.
Olivia and Veronica enjoy some cookies after all of our hard work!

Happy Thanksgiving!

At this time of year, we take a moment to reflect on all the things we have to be thankful for in our lives. We have spent time this past week learning about the history of the Thanksgiving holiday and thinking about what we are thankful for. Please enjoy this video of your children's responses to the question "what are you thankful for?" I hope you enjoy their beautiful turkeys on your Thanksgiving tables this year!



I hope you all have a restful holiday with your loved ones. I, for one, am so thankful to have a class full of cheerful, curious, wonderful children to teach each day! Thank you for sharing them with me!

Butterfly Quilt

We spent time this week creating a beautiful Butterfly Quilt during math time. This project continued our exploration of patterns and shapes. We were so excited with our final product! Enjoy the picture of our quilt and the comments and observations below.

Noah: “It’s a rectangle.”

Helen: “There’s a pattern going down, too. It’s the same pattern as across.”

Danny: “There are four corners.”

Veronica: “There’s a pattern around the edge, too. Sponge-paint, butterfly…There are 17 butterflies.”

Emily: “The small sponge-paint squares are going diagonal.”

Brady: “The butterflies are diagonal.”

Taylor: “On the other quilt, we didn’t have butterflies. This one we do.”

Evan: “There’s a lot of yellow on the sponge-painting ones.”

Grace: “There are 18 sponge-painting squares.”

Nisha: “The butterfly squares and the sponge-paint squares are not equal.”

Kate: “There are 35 quilt squares.”

Halloween Fun!

We had a wonderful time at our Halloween celebration, which started on Friday afternoon with "Fun-O-Ween" that was sponsored by the sixth grade class. We made spider cracker snacks, played Monster Mash Musical Chairs, Pin the Wart on the Witch, and a number of other fun games. On Monday, we had so much fun showing off our costumes during the costume parade and then enjoyed lots of yummy goodies at our class party! Thank you to everyone who sent in treats and helped out during these fun activities!

Pumpkin Carving

On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to have some early Halloween fun! Our class, along with several other classes in the school, were invited to participate in a pumpkin carving activity as a way to help Burton Snowboards with a contest they were having at their offices. We had SO much fun scooping pumpkin pulp and seeds, designing our jack-o-lanterns, and having some sixth grade buddies help us carve our designs! Please enjoy the pictures of our efforts here:



Thank you to Mrs. Lasher for organizing this event, and Brady's "Bompie" (Howard) and Taylor's Mom, Dawn, for all of their help!

Spotlight On: Math Work Places

As a part of the Bridges math program that we use, children regularly go to work places to practice skills related to the concepts we are focusing on. Work places range from games to play independently or with partners to tasks to complete with a variety of manipulatives. I occasionally add in a work place that focuses on an area I notice students need additional support with, as well. Today, I took pictures of students at each work place and then asked them to describe what the expectations are for each work place. Hopefully, this gives you a better idea of what your child is talking about when he or she tells you about our math work places!

Bucket of Frogs: We use plastic frogs to sort by attributes, make patterns, and to practice counting and grouping.







Beat You to Ten: This is a partner game that we play to see who will collect ten unifix cubes first. You spin the spinner and add the number of unifix cubes that you spun. You switch colors for each spin. We can think about who has more and who has less, as well as how many more unifix cubes are needed to get to ten.




Pattern Blocks: We use pattern blocks to make designs and patterns. The shapes we use are: triangles, squares, rhombuses, trapezoids, and hexagons.






Which Bug Will Win? This is a game you play independently. You spin the spinner and mark the bug you get (either the ladybug or the spider). It is a race to see which bug's column you fill in first! The concepts focused on here are more than and less than, counting, and probability.








Unifix Cube Patterns: You use the pattern cards provided at this work place to build a pattern using unifix cubes. You can then record the pattern you created by coloring in the blank unifix cube record sheet.









Geoboard Shapes: You use rubber bands and geoboards to make the shapes that are on the example cards provided. After building the shape on a geoboard, you draw the shape(s) you made on a recording sheet using a straightedge (ruler) and a pencil.








Work places change every few weeks as we begin to explore new concepts. Ask your child what his or her favorite work place is this week!

Halloween Celebration

On Monday, October 31^st, we will be having a Halloween party and costume parade (we will parade around with the other kindergarten classrooms).

I am inviting students to BRING their costumes to school, as we will be changing into the costumes for our Halloween party. Please do not send accessories such as swords, guns, or any “loose” items with your child’s costume…I would hate for them to get lost!

If you are able, please sign up to send in an item for our Halloween party (i.e., baked goods, fruits, veggies, drinks, cheese and crackers, etc.) I will provide paper goods (plates, cups, napkins and utensils). Here is a link to the electronic sign-up for this celebration: http://signupgenius.com/go/halloween2390 Thank you in advance for your support!

Rainbow Jell-O!

As a part of our Colors unit, we spent time last week making "Rainbow Jell-O." Each day we made jell-o to match our color of the day and added it to our clear plastic cup. By Friday, we had a rainbow of red, orange, yellow, green, and blue jell-o! We topped our rainbow with purple whipped cream and enjoyed our yummy-and colorful!-snack. Enjoy the pictures here!

Can you see the rainbow?

Brady enjoys his Rainbow Jell-O!

Veronica and MacKenna eating their treats.

Yum, yum, yum!

Noah and Evan gobbling up their jell-o!

Important Dates and Upcoming Activities

Please join us for an Apple Picking Party! Next week on Monday (10/10), we are going to be at Shelburne Orchards after school picking apples for the Harvest Dinner and Open House Night and we need all the help we can get! If you are able to come and help out, we would love it! Baby Mia will be there to help :) Please see the poster and let me know if you can join us.
Apple Picking Party

Here are some additional dates that you may want to mark on your calendar:

• Wednesday, October 12: Walking School Bus (Safe Routes to School is running the Walking School Bus on Wednesdays. Meet at the Post Office at 7:30. Group will depart at 7:40 to highlight alternatives to driving to school.)

• Thursday, October 13: Harvest Dinner & Open House 5:00-7:00 p.m.

• Monday, October 17: Picture Day & Flynn Theater Field Trip

• Friday, October 21: No School

Shoo Fly Quilt

As a way to conclude our initial unit of study around shapes and patterns, we created a class quilt. Students each made a quilt square using green and orange triangles. We then put them together in an A, B pattern and discussed what we noticed about our quilt. Here is a picture and student observations about our work:


Students noticed many things about this quilt, including:

Helen: “There’s a pattern in the middle. Green, orange, green, orange.”

Grace: “Some quilt squares have green on the outside and some have orange on the outside.”

Noah: “The quilt is in a big rectangle.”

Veronica: “Some of the quilt squares have orange in the middle, some have green, and if you turn your head, some have both orange and green!”

Danny: “There’s sort of some big triangles inside our quilt.”

Brady: “I noticed that it’s not really both colors in the middle because that’s from another quilt square.”

Emily: “On each one, the names make a pattern, green, orange, green, orange. It looks cool!”

Evan: “If you turn your head, there’s another line of squares. It goes diagonal!”

Linni: “Some are patterns. Green, orange, green, orange.”

Kaleb: “In the second row, orange is in front of the green.”

Nate: “It reminds me of our pattern on the calendar. When you go down on each row, it’s a pattern, too [top to bottom].”

MacKenna: “The pattern goes up.”

Taylor: “I see a rhombus on our quilt squares.”

Helen: “I see triangles. If you look at two quilt squares together, it kind of looks like a butterfly!”

Aren't these kids amazing?! If you have a chance, feel free to stop by and look at our quilt in person! It's hanging in the hallway outside our classroom.

Welcome to Kindergarten!

Now that it is our eleventh day of kindergarten, we are settling into a great routine and are already hard at work doing lots of learning! I am sure you have heard some of the highlights of our first few weeks of school, including:

• our hunt for the missing gingerbread cookies!
• hatching and releasing two monarch butterflies
• watching a puppet show from Mrs. Lasher about the Gingerbread Man
• filling each others' buckets
• learning how to play the "Counting Game"
  
• earning stars
• learning routines and procedures for MANY different things
  

and much, much more. We are spending time practicing, practicing, and practicing some more the routines of our day and discussing and learning about school rules and expectations. I am proud to say that this is a group of children who clearly care about each other, their school, and their teacher and they are working and playing very nicely together! I have been handing out many stars each day when I "catch" a student being respectful, responsible, and/or safe. Ask your child what he or she did to earn a star this week!

I plan to use this blog as a way to communicate some of the activities that we complete in the classroom. I will also post my newsletter here for those of you who prefer electronic copies of information. Feel free to share the link with family members and friends who may be interested in seeing what your child is up to in kindergarten! Please let me know if you have any questions or ideas about this blog.

I will end this post with a picture of one of our favorite things that happened this week in Room Eight: Mr. O'Hara, our assistant principal, visited to read us some of his favorite children's books. He read Where the Wild Things Are (his daughter's favorite) and The Monster At the End of This Book (his favorite when he was a child). The children enjoyed having a guest reader and Mr. O. was thrilled to have a chance to visit our classroom. We look forward to having him visit again!

Goodbye Kindergarten, Hello First Grade!

It has been a wonderful year in kindergarten! We have learned together, laughed together, and grown together. Thank you all for sharing your amazing children with me this year!

June 17, 2011 Newsletter

June 3, 2011 Newsletter

June 3, 2011 Newsletter

Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home

We spent most of the month of May immersed in "Ladybug Land," learning all there is to know about ladybugs (as all of the students will tell you: "Mrs. Johnson's favorites!") We studied the life cycle of these little creatures by "growing" our very own ladybugs. I sent away for live ladybug larvae from a company called Insect Lore, and our new pets arrived in early May. Over the next few weeks, we carefully observed the larvae as they grew and changed from larva to pupa to adult ladybug. We also spent a lot of time reading some great literature about ladybugs and playing ladybug games and singing ladybug songs. Finally, it was time to release the ladybugs into our school gardens, where we hope that the ladybugs will help protect our new plants from pesky aphids, which happen to be ladybugs' favorite foods. To celebrate the end of our unit, we enjoyed some food of our own: yummy ladybug cupcakes!

Here are a few photos from our ladybug unit:We examine the ladybugs in their house before releasing them.

The ladybugs landed on our hands and fingers before finding their new homes!

Yum! Ladybug cupcakes, complete with red wings and black spots!

As a part of our ladybug unit and our problem solving unit in math, students wrote and illustrated "Ladybug Picture Problems." Please click on the link to enjoy this photo story of their work!

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BwTa0ql-ggedMDlhMzJlOWYtY2ZhZS00ODhjLWE1MTMtMTJkMWE5NWQ3MGQx&hl=en_US&authkey=CNvt76wH

Sea Creature Picture Problems

We have spent a great deal of time over the last several weeks writing, illustrating, and solving picture problems during our math block. Please visit the link here to enjoy our class book of Ocean Problems:

http://www.storyjumper.com/book/index/1834202/Ocean-Math#

Ask your child to help you solve his or her classmates' picture problems!

Parent-Teacher Conference Sign-Ups

Dear Families,

You should have received an email from me inviting you to sign up online for Spring Parent-Teacher Conferences (held the week of April 4). Please visit the link below to choose your time slot:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/spring896

If you do not have access to email or the Internet OR you do not see a time slot that is convenient for you, please contact me (by email: mjohnson@cssu.org or phone: 482-6208) and we can schedule a time to meet. Thank you in advance for taking the time to meet with me for this important conference. I look forward to sharing your child's progress with you!

Mo Willems Author Study

We spent several weeks doing an in-depth study of the author and illustrator, Mo Willems. Mo is the author of many wonderful children's books, including Knuffle Bunny, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Elephant and Piggie books, and more. Our unit kicked off with a field trip to the Flynn Theater to see an amazing performance of Knuffle Bunny. We spent time during our author study exploring Mo's writing style and getting to know his lovable characters. We tried to emulate his style by writing using speech/talking bubbles and learning how to draw the pigeon! We even had a visit from Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct. She left dinosaur tracks in the snow and left us a special chocolate chip cookie treat! Here is a picture of us wearing our Knuffle Bunny hats that we made with our Big Buddies:
We completed a writing response to the question: "What would happen if the pigeon drove the bus?" Please enjoy the video that I made of the children's responses!

Untitled from Miranda Johnson on Vimeo.

We had so much fun getting to know this great author! Make sure to ask your child what his or her favorite Mo book is! If you would like to learn more about Mo Willems, please visit his interactive website at: http://www.mowillems.com/

March 18th, 2011 Newsletter

I have decided to return to a paper format for my classroom newsletter, however I will also post the newsletter on my blog here for you to read. Please click on the image of the newsletter to enlarge it.

March 18, 2011 Newsletter

Happy 100th Day of School!

Wednesday, February 9th marked our 100th Day of School! The children were very excited to share their projects with the other primary classes on our annual 100th Day Parade! Please enjoy this slide show of each child's creative project.