Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Kinder Crew! My day was full of family, laughter, delicious food, gator rides around the farm, football and naps :). Very glad to have my dad in town from MN for the week through the weekend. Feeling very thankful and blessed today! Hope you all enjoyed your day. 

Spin and Graph a Turkey Dinner!

Finished math for the week with a fun activity on graphing Thanksgiving food using a spinner. They then had to use their data to answer questions. They were loving this! 

Character Traits!

Today we read Thanksgiving for Emily Ann and compared/contrasted Emily in the beginning/middle/end of the story and talked about character traits (adjectives that describe the character). 

Following Directions Activity!

Our latest following directions activity: sleeping bears in dens. No scissors, only tearing! 

Wish List!

Expo wipes and/or spray. We use these often on our easel and in dry/erase centers. Thanks!

Happy Heart!

Tis' the season! It's my most favorite time of the year. The decor is finally up (I am guilty of putting up holiday decor early Nov.!) and I can sit back and enjoy the Christmas tree lights as I work from the couch this evening. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and a week/weekend full of family, friends and yummy food. I am so very thankful for the 21 smiling faces that enter my room each day and the supportive families that surround them! It's time to take a step back and look at what we have and are grateful for instead of what we don't have and what we want. As you're enjoying time with your loved ones this week you should have your kinder share their November songs! Happy Thanksgiving Kinder Crew! 

VIP Felix!

I can sure tell Truman had a FANTASTIC time with Felix over the weekend! Gymnastics, dress up, playing with Pilot the puppy and playing the piano? Good thing it's almost Thankgsiving break, he'll need a nap after all the fun he's had so far!

Pen Pals!

We received a letter today from a kindergarten class at Queen of All Saints. A dear friend's sister, who I've known since I was in kindergarten, came up with the idea to have our classes be pen pals while we are both teaching letter writing. The kids loved it and we instantly wrote back! Ask your kinder to sing you the five parts of a letter: heading, greeting, body, closing and signature (tune of head and shoulders). 

Buddy Time

We had a chill, cozy buddy hangout today! The kinders and their 5th grade buddy got to hangout and do math/coding apps on the iPads. They all had an awesome time! So fun for Mr. Keller and I to see them get along so well and genuinely enjoy spending time learning together. 

Zzz...

Doggy day camp got the best of Carson this week! 

Time to Spice Up Writing!

It is typical at this age to do a lot of the "I like/ I love" writing. They are at a point where they can write more than one or two sentences, but they tend to topic hop. We've talked about focusing on one topic and adding details to "spice" up our writing and make it interesting for our audience. I pulled in a former student near and dear to my heart, Milo, a second grader in Mrs. Wright's class. He mastered the spicy writing in kindergarten so I knew he was just the one for the job! I gave him the simple story "I like Thanksgiving. I love hanging out with my family and eating. I like turkey." Boy oh boy did he wow the kinder crew!!! He had history, jokes and details galore. The kiddos loved listening to him and I think (and hope) the spicy writing will be contagious around here in the near future! 

Hibernation and Migration!

The crew has really enjoyed learning about hibernation and migration this week! Yesterday we sorted animals that hibernate and migrate. We also tied in the book Hibernation Station and discussed events in the book that were real/imaginary. We'll continue integrating this in science, reading, writing and even math in the next few weeks. Students may bring any stuffed animal (that is a "hibernator") to hibernate in our den! 

Sight Words 11/23-11/24

We will still test next week due to only having two words and if they know any they can build many! 

VIP!

Kamani took Truman to the park for a fun adventure! Looks like Truman loved skateboarding :)

Feel Better Soon Mira!

We're glad you're home, Mira! We thought you could use some smiles and some silly faces to brighten your day! 

Morning Message!

I had a staff meeting Tuesday so I was not able to write the morning message. Dominic and Cate did a fabulous job! We'll be learning parts of a letter soon and then the crew will take over morning messages three days every week. They will all get a chance to be our morning message author. Love to see how they mimic some of the things I say in my messages and then put their own twist. Love watching them become such stellar little writers! 

Nothing Sweeter!

Spent my evening building Legos and listening to my sweet Godson read bedtime stories. The little moments that I love most.

Hibernation, Migration and Adaptations...OH MY!

Today we kicked off our unit on hibernation with a pretest. Tomorrow we'll jump in and start learning more about hibernation, migration and adaptations for animals in fall and winter. Obviously a cave was necessary for our unit! Each day someone new will get to read and hangout in there during rest and relax time. I also said they may bring a bear to school, if they wish, to hibernate in our cave! 

Chicago Adventures!

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! I had a great trip to Chicago to watch my college roommate say "I do!" It was wonderful to be reunited with my dear Mizzou friends/roommies. We made the most of our trip and enjoyed every second. Looking forward to seeing my crew tomorrow! 

Writer's Workshop

Wonderful Wednesday!

I hope everyone enjoyed their day off yesterday! Ms. Eagan and I spent a good portion of our day at Ikea and I finally launched my side business. Exciting day! As you can see, Carson was thrilled about being my assistant late last night. 

A big thanks again to all our friends and family that have and are still protecting our freedom. 

Sight words 11/16-11/20

Only two sight words next week! Please remember, students should be able to READ and WRITE these. 

Thank you, Veterans!

Today we talked about Veteran's and the meaning behind our day off tomorrow. Scarlett showed us her mom's dog tags. So cool! They loved it and it was so neat to see how proud she was. THANK YOU to all those who have/are protecting our freedom. 

Two WOW's...

Two things that have wow'd me this week:

1. All 21 of my kiddos looks me in the eye every morning at the door and responds good morning to me! It's a beautiful thing to see their social skills blossom not to mention it starts my day with such a smile! 

2. We have started making counting by 2's, 5's and 10's a part of our daily routine. They are really picking up on this! This is a standard they should be able to do by the end so we work on it frequently. Ask them to count with you at home!

I truly is amazing watching them learn and grow each day! 

Cause and Effect

I've introduced cause and effect. Please incorporate cause and effect situations at home too! The more connections they make, the easier it is for them to understand and apply.

Fact Families

Yesterday I introduced the crew to fact families. We will continue working with them today. 

Truman Talk Tuesday!

Truman had his second adventure this weekend with Ellia! Can't wait to read and hear about her eventful weekend.

All About the Turkey!

Last week we had some fun with the book There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie. We discussed and charted our favorite Thanksgiving foods and turned our bulletin board into "If I were the old lady, I'd swallow__________ because ___________." 

Happy, Happy, Happy!

Saturday fun day with Addison and Ethan, including bowling fun with Mrs. Neupert+her crew, a sleepover and then I hosted a baby shower for my soon-to-be niece, Geneveive. Thankful for all the time I spent with family and friends this weekend. Didn't hurt to end with a Vikings victory! Looking forward to seeing my crew tomorrow. 

The Votes are In!

This week we did a mini-unit on elections and voting. Vocabulary we learned: ballot, ballot box, candidates, registration card. We learned about different requirements that candidates have to meet to be eligible for presidency and had a mock election between: Grace, Duck and Ms. Gegg. We read about Duck and Grace and discussed characteristics of all 3 candidates and charted them. We discussed how voting is private and who you vote for is your own privacy. The ballot box was set up in our writing center with a privacy divider and they had thier registration cards dated and signed, voted and then recovered their "I voted" badge. We tallied our votes and analyzed our data in math to graph our results. We had a fun week in social studies and I was relieved that I won and they think I'm cool enough to be president :). 

Plants

This week we planted grass closing out our unit on plants. We talked about plants needs to survive, compared/contrasted with human needs and discussed the different parts of plants (roots, stem, leaf, flower..) and the roles they play. Next up in science: hibernation and migration! Can't wait!

Can Drive!

Can drive begins on Monday! Bring it on Kinder Crew! Let's be bucket fillers by helping put food on the table for those in need all while having a friendly competition with the other grades! 

Sight Words 11/9-11/13

Test on Friday: her, say, they, down

Turkey Craftivity!

Every month we do a following directions craftivity in which I grade. I give/repeat directions three times and then they complete it. This month we did thankful turkeys. An idea for home: give your kinder a few directions, have them repeat them back and see if they can follow through. This is great to help them build independence. 

A Learner Is...

We had a great discussion about what a learner is/is not. We've hung up our thoughts so we can frequently revisit. We talked about how when we aren't learners in the afternoons, we miss out on things and waste learning time. Our chart helped us have a STELLAR day today! 

Math Partner Work!

Having some fun doing number line subtraction on facts (1-20) with their PBJ partners.

Truman Talk Tuesday!

Addison was our first V.I.P! Looks like Truman got to go on lots of fun adventures with Addison and her family. You'll be able to read about it when the V.I.P bag comes home to you. Addison will get to show off her pictures and share with her classmates tomorrow for Truman Talk Tuesday! I'm excited to kick this off. It's a great way for students to work on their public speaking skills and adding details to their stories. Tomorrow Addison will pick who's next up for this coming weekend! Thanks Butler family :)

Happy Monday!

Red cup season is back at Starbucks, a sign of my favorite time of year! Mondays aren't always a favorite day of the week for everyone, but I'm sure lucky to be able to come to a job that I absolutely love each day and spend my days seeing life through the eyes of 21 amazing five and six year olds. Simply the best! Have a great start to your week.