Amazing Apples!

We have spent the week learning all about everyone's favorite fall food: apples! We started our apple unit with a taste test, sampling a variety of apple foods.

The results of our taste test. Our class favorite was Apple Jacks cereal!

Throughout the week, we read many books about apples and completed a variety of science, math, literacy, and art activities.  Below are some of the apple stories and informational texts that we read, as well as some pictures of the students engaged in their learning activities.

 

 

Sawyer investigates how many unifix cubes his apple weighs.

Our stunning coffee filter apples!

Our unit culminated on Friday, when we made applesauce. With the help of several parent volunteers and the donations of apples from many families, we were able to make this delicious treat. Most of the kids LOVED it, and came back for seconds (or thirds!)

 

 What a fun and yummy week we had! Thank you to everyone who supported this unit by donating your time or resources to help out!

Curriculum Night Handout

If you were unable to attend the K-2 Curriculum Night on Thursday, September 11th, I have uploaded the handout that the kindergarten teachers shared here. Please feel free to contact me at any time with questions or if you would like to schedule a time for me to share with you the information presented that night.

Welcome to Kindergarten!

We had a wonderful first three days of kindergarten! This group of children is already completely amazing me with their enthusiasm, kindness, and their ability to adapt to the school routine. I can tell it is going to be a magical year of learning and fun!

We spent most of our time over the last couple of days learning about the routines and expectations of our classroom and our school, as well as the correct way to handle materials in our classroom. We read various versions of The Gingerbread Man story, and compared and contrasted the characters, settings, and endings, and we read lots of stories about starting kindergarten and discussed the different emotions that we might be feeling. Please enjoy the pictures below!

We learned about how to use scissors and glue carefully while cutting and pasting our name puzzles.

Sawyer carefully cuts his name out.

We created a class graph of how many letters are in our names.

The Gingerbread Pirate was the favorite story in our classroom!

We compared and contrasted the various gingerbread stories that we read throughout the week.

On Friday, we practiced following directions and gluing to create our Gingerbread Glyphs. If you have a chance, please feel free to stop by and see them on display outside of our classroom!

 

 

 As a culminating activity and a way to learn our way around the school, we joined Mrs. Branch and Mrs. Barber's classes to go on a gingerbread hunt! The yummy cookie we were planning to have for an afternoon snack led us on a chase around the building, leaving clues in the cafeteria, the gym, the art and music rooms, the library, and the nurse's office. We finally caught up with him in the Main Office and we made sure he didn't get away again!

 

 It was an exciting and yummy afternoon! Next week, we will continue to learn more about the routines in our classroom and practice our school's core values and rules. If you have any questions, ideas, or concerns at ANY time, please do not hesitate to contact me via email (mjohnson@cssu.org) or phone (482-6208). I look forward to a wonderful year with you and your child! 

Pajama Day Fun

We had so much fun wearing our pajamas to school today! We got lots of questioning looks and people asking us if we forgot to get dressed this morning! We were so excited that we earned this special day to celebrate our hard work and our "Be A STAR" behavior. We spent the day doing lots of bedtime-related activities, including some fun read alouds, art projects, and writing. We even got to enjoy a short movie and have a snack!

We read the book I'm NOT Going to Get up Today by Dr. Seuss. Then, since we have been learning how to write about our opinions during our persuasive writing unit, we wrote letters to our parents trying to persuade them to let us stay up late. Here are a few examples:

Dear Mom,  Why can't I stay up late? P.S. I will sleep in. Addie

Dear Mom, Why can't I stay up late? Because we can watch movies. From, Kate

Dear Mom, Please let me stay up late because I will do all my homework. From, Haysen

Dear Mom and Dad, Please can I stay up late because I want to. P.S. I want to listen to stories. Love, Stephanie

Dear Mom, I think you should let me stay up late because I like outside. From, Leo

Dear Mom, I want to stay up late because my brother gets to. From, Ella S.

Pretty convincing arguments, I would say! We also made an adorable craft where students decorated a bed and I took pictures of them pretending to be asleep. Check out the final product:

Goodnight, Addie!

Goodnight, Dylan!

Goodnight, Lexi!

Goodnight, Ella!

Perhaps our favorite part of the day was when we had our final Mystery Reader of the year:

Miss Livingston!

Miss Livingston read us a hilarious book called Cowboy and Octopus. The kids were rolling with laughter. I highly recommend checking this book out if you haven't already!

Hopefully everyone sleeps well tonight after our busy day! At least you won't have to get your p.j.s on! Have a great weekend!

The Grouchy Kindergartners

 

As a part of our ladybug unit, we read Eric Carle's book The Grouchy Ladybug. We then discussed things that make us grouchy and practiced our best grouchy faces (I'm sure you've never seen these faces before :))

Wow! I don't want to make these kiddos made anytime soon!!! But you have to admit, even when they're grouchy, they're awfully cute!