Kindergarten Stars!

We have had a wonderful first couple of weeks of kindergarten! Your children are beginning to settle into our classroom routine and are working hard to understand and follow the classroom and school expectations. A major part of our curriculum early in the year is devoted to learning about appropriate behavior in our classroom and our school. Several years ago, H.C.S. started using the Positive Behavior Intervention System (PBIS). Through this system, we developed the "Be a STAR" program. This is a program that encourages students (and adults) to model the following core values:

Belonging

Sharing

Trust

Accepting Responsibility

and

Respect

 

 

Your child may have mentioned that he or she "earned a star." Children are given paper "stars" by adults around the school to recognize them when they are exhibiting behavior which supports our core values. We keep track of the number of stars earned and children will receive rewards at the 25, 50, 75, and 100 star level. I am amazed at the number of stars I've already had the pleasure of handing out this school year!

 

As a part of developing our classroom rules, we talked about what we hope to learn about this year in kindergarten. Each student drew a picture of his or her goal on a shooting star, which are now proudly displayed in our classroom. We have some very ambitious children here in Room 8!

 

Ella S. hopes to learn how to draw.

Dylan hopes to learn how to read a book.

Leo hopes to learn how to tie his shoes.

Stephanie hopes to learn how to read.

Brendan hopes to learn how to read a book.

Addie B. hopes to learn how to read.

Grant hopes to learn how to draw.

Blake hopes to learn how to draw.

Haysen hopes to learn how to read.

Clement hopes to learn how to read books.

Anderson hopes to learn how to read books.

Trey hopes to learn how to go on the high monkey bars.

Ella O. hopes to learn how to read.

Kate hopes to learn how to read.

Addy O. hopes to learn how to trace letters.

Jared hopes to learn how to read.

Lexi hopes to learn how to write books.

Wyatt hopes to learn how to read.

If we all "reach for the stars," all of our hopes and dreams will come true!

 

 We used our goals to develop our Classroom Rules, emphasizing that, if we all work hard to follow the rules, everyone will be successful in reaching their goals!

 

Room 8 Classroom Rules!

 

Miss Livingston and I are so excited to help guide your children as they work to achieve their hopes and dreams this year in kindergarten! Trust me when I say you will be absolutely amazed by the learning and growth that takes place during this wonderful school year!

Welcome to Kindergarten!

We had a wonderful first couple of days in kindergarten! It is amazing to me how comfortable everyone already seems. New friendships are being formed and old friendships are helping to ease the transition into the exciting world of kindergarten! We are already beginning to establish classroom norms and expectations and we will really focus on developing a classroom routine over the next couple of weeks.

One way that we learned about our classroom and school environment was by reading several books about a popular character: Pete the Cat!

 We read Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, a catchy book about a cat who "rolls with the punches" and doesn't let the little stuff get to him. We also read Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes, a book in which Pete is a little nervous about starting at a new school. He quickly learns that there is nothing to be afraid of and visits all of the cool places in his school. Pete then visited our school and left notes in various places around the school. We went on a scavenger hunt to learn about places like the art room, the music room, the cafeteria, the gym, the library and more. Although we didn't find Pete the Cat, he did leave us a fun activity to complete in our classroom!

Mrs. Lasher reads to us.

Pete left the very first note in the back of this book!

Keeping our eyes peeled for Pete! He was quick!

Addy colors the special picture Pete left for us.

I hope your child enjoyed the first three days of school as much as I did! I am truly looking forward to getting to know each and every one of these awesome kiddos better this year! Hopefully, as we learn, play, and grow together, we can embrace Pete's positive attitude and know that, no matter what comes our way, "it's all good!"

The Grouchy Kindergartners

As a part of our ladybug unit, we read the classic Eric Carle book The Grouchy Ladybug. We then practiced our grouchiest faces and posed for the camera (I'm sure you've never, ever seen a grouchy face from these happy little children!) We also wrote about "what bugs us" or what makes us grouchy. Enjoy the pictures!

Kindergarten Stars!

We've had several friends reach the 100 Star mark recently in our classroom. This is quite an accomplishment and something these children should truly be proud of! In honor of all of their hard work, they received a special t-shirt. All of them wore them with pride! Congratulations and thank you to Charlie, Alex, and Kate! Many other friends are not far behind...I have a feeling I will be giving out many more t-shirts in the coming weeks!

Rocking Out in Kindergarten!

Today we began a science unit investigating rocks and their various properties. We started by reading a wonderful book called Everybody Needs a Rock.

 

 

We then went out to do some rock hunting of our own! In our very own H.C.S. backyard, we found some amazing rocks and everyone had a great time searching for "their" perfect rock.

 

Pat finds a striped rock.

Ben's collection.

Charlie's perfect rocks.

Rock Hunters At Work!

 

Big, small, smooth, bumpy...we found all kinds of rock!

We sorted the rocks by size. 

We brought our many rocks into our classroom to observe and explore with throughout the week. We love being scientists!



Sea Creature Picture Problems

We have been working very hard to practice solving simple addition and subtraction picture problems. Once we got really good at that, we decided it was time to write some of our own! Because we had learned all about the ocean, we wrote problems involving sea creatures. I've created an online picture book of our hard work. Please visit the link here to read our problems. Solve them if you can!