Zzz...

Great article on children's sleep. 

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7485616

Addition Strategies!

We have discussed and practiced these. In the computer lab today, they chose any game in the "number" category on www.abcya.com. This site does a wonderful job practicing skills we will cover but also allows review. I encourage the use of this site!

Reading Strategies

Eight tricks for our reading magic bag!!! Please use these strategies at home...

Sneaky "e" and Wacky "y"

We often talk about "tricks" to put in our magic bags to become expert readers and writers. We have been talking about sneaky e and wacky y and have added these tricks to our bag!

Applelicious!

We ended our apple mini-unit by making applesauce in the classroom today! It was in the crockpot all day and we enjoyed it late afternoon. Throughout the day we observed the changes it went through and discussed the yummy smell and look of it. I'm not an applesauce fan, but it got rave reviews from the crew, Mr. Thomas and Ms. Eagan, so we'll call that a success! 

Sight Words 9/28-10/2

We will now have weekly sight words. These are words that need to be memorized and through this they will become better readers and writers. These will randomly be assessed. We will work with these words all throughout the week and then they will be added to our class word wall. I encourage these words to also be practiced at home. 

so, go, under, why, my, by, fly, no

Writing with Details

Details was another part of our writer's workshop today. They enjoyed going through my writing samples and decided the last one was definitely more exciting to read as the audience. We discussed how details can really spice up our writing and make it exciting for the readers!

Kindergarten Writing Rubric

Today we discussed what a rubric is and how to use this to check their own writing using this. I will use this to grade random writing samples. It is posted in the room as well as on their BEE folders.

Get Well Soon Cole!

We missed you today buddy. Positive vibes and well wishes your way! 

The crew was introduced to my oh so popular, tummy talk Thursday's :) Nothing sweeter than seeing these littles enjoying snack and having conversations of five and six year olds! So important to just be little sometimes. 

Zumba!

I had to give district wide phonics assessments Wednesday/Thursday and the crew did a great job working on an assigned writing/color craftivity and centers so we ditched afternoon yoga for some Zumba. OH.MY.WORD cutest thing ever! They were really moving and grooving, we'll be revisiting this for sure!

The bottom is Cate's wiki stix creation making her name! These are great for fine motor skills and working on letter formation (photo also taken by Cate)! 

Making 10's and Commutative Property

Yesterday and today we put down the books and are diving in to some strategies for the remainder of this week and next. Very strategy we practice, I'll post so you can refer back to it. We discussed ways to make 10 and the commutative property (they like this fancy word)! Ask them to teach it to you using hand motions (using this part of whole brain teaching gets every part of their brain involved to help remember).

TENATIVE Field Trips for 2015-2016

Here's our tentative schedule for field trips. As soon as dates are set I'll let you know so you can plan accordingly if you'd like to chaperone. Most will be on Wednesdays. Thanks!

Missouri Botanical Gardens-10/7

Pumpkin Patch-Millstadt 10/28

City Museum- 1/13

Powell Hall- 2/9

Community Field Trip-3/30

Walking field trip-5/11

Building Stamina!

We are rocking and rolling in literacy centers now! After I got my small group working on something I looked up to find everyone doing "their job!" Happy moment for this dear teacher. Before we go to centers we state our expectations together with our hand motions:

We stay in one spot.

We work the whole time.

We get started right away.

When we hear the clean up bell, we stop right away and come back to the carpet like a learner.

Apples

This week we'll have some fun with apples while we talk about their life cycle and Johnny Appleseed (and exaggerations)!

Came back to this little darling toothless on top :). 

Feeling the Love!

What a fabulous surprise to see walking into work this morning! We are blessed to have such supportive parents and students. Thank you!

Back in Action!

Hi Crew! I'm back and ready to see my kinders tomorrow. Be on the lookout for an order form coming home Monday for "field trip shirts." If you were here last year you are familiar with these. This year our class will have sapphire blue shirts. These have the Mallinckrodt logo on the front and on the back each kid wrote their name and drew their face. These worked out great last year as when we do field trips we go with Pre-K-1, so it makes it very easy to identify each class and also gives a comfortable outfit for our outings. The shirts are $7. I will send home order forms tomorrow! If possible, please return them by the end of the week so we can get the order placed. If you have any questions, please let me know! Thanks in advance.

Dolphins and Coffee

Good Morning Kinder Crew,

I hope you're having a great week! I can't wait to see you on Monday morning. This morning I got to enjoy some Dolphins while sipping on my Starbucks. Such a beautiful morning! Have a great weekend. See you Monday. 

Love,

Ms. Gegg

Some nouns I passed on my morning run: sand, pool, ocean, seagulls, dolphins, seashells, sunglasses 

Hello from Florida!

Hi Kinder Crew! 

I sure miss you all already. I hope you had a great day yesterday. I know you are going to be superstars for the substitute and earn lots of smilies! My dad and I are enjoying our trip with his work. I'll post more as the week goes on. Show what you know and be your best this week!

Love,

Ms. Gegg

Happy Saturday!

Loving this weather! Watched Addison's soccer game (victory!) while sipping on a pumpkin spice latte and then Carson and I enjoyed some time in our favorite spot, our screened in porch. Life is good. Happy Saturday Kinder Crew, hope you're out and about enjoying this gorgeous day! 

Brownie Point Celebration!

We earned our first brownie point celebration so they choose watch an episode of Wild Kratts during rest and recharge time! Happy campers! 

Math Museum!

Yesterday we put the books away and had some hands on math fun. We used counters and tens frames to find different ways to make ten. Then, each table sorted their manipulatives.  When time was up, we walked around the "math museum" to each table for them to explain how they sorted, what they had a greater/less amount... So much fun! They really enjoyed this. We discussed how we have to be stay on task and work as a group to be able to continue this weekly :) 

Namaste!

Our daily yoga after our rest and recharge time. This helps us calm ourselves and get our thinking caps ready to be mathmaticians. Even better on a gloomy afternoon. Remember, as a parent you can also create a gonoodle account. We love brain breaks!

Wish List!

Our classroom is in need of scissors. Pointed tip, child size. Thank you!

Phone, Address, Birthday

Parents, majority of the class could not tell me their address/phone number/birthday. Five out of twenty-three knew all, the rest knew one or two, but not all three. Please work on these at home. Your child should know a cell phone number not a home number for emergency purposes.

Vowels, Consonants and Grammar...Oh My!

This week we have been really working on vowels and consonants after last weeks introduction to them. As part of Whole Brain, we recite them and teach them to a classmate using hand motions (sign language in this case) to help us. We've discussed long/short vowel sounds and talked about long vowels "say their name."

We were also introduced to nouns (person, place, thing) and verbs (something you can do/an action). We will continue focusing on these concepts thoughout the day across curriculum!  

I encourage you to have your kinder "teach" you these and have them find them when you're out and about, in the paper, etc.!

Proud to be the Kinder Crew!

This week we have added the Pledge of Allegiance to our morning meeting.  We will say the pledge everyday and on Fridays and at Dragon Rally's, we'll recite the Mallinckrodt pledge.  We read this fabulous book today and could make a lot of connections to being "citizens" in our school/classroom community. The teacher explained the "indivisible" as 50 states, but one country. We connected this to our classroom: 21 students, 1 teacher, which makes one big team working together. We had a great discussion! 

Monday we talked about Labor Day and what we want to be when we grow up. Our reading story for the week is a nonfiction story about neighborhoods, so this tied in communities and different jobs.  Friday, 9/11, we will read September 12th and talk about "heros" and what they do/are. We will celebrate a day of kindness to find a way to be bucket fillers any way we can all throughout the day.  We will not touch on the negatives of this horrific tragedy, but focus on the positive! 

Mallinckrodt Pledge:

At Mallinckrodt Academy I will respect myself and others.

Here all people have rights.

For every right, there is a responsibility.

I will strive to be responsible and have regular attendance. 

Hope you're all enjoying your Labor Day weekend! Carson is enjoying some rays today. See you all on Tuesday! 

STEM Fun with 5th Grade Buddies!

Mr. Keller had an awesome afternoon planned out. He read the beginning of the book Muncha, Muncha, Muncha. He then discussed the problem of the rabbits eating the garden. The kinder crew and their buddies had to create something to keep the rabbits from eating from the garden. They were so creative, had so much fun and enjoyed presenting/viewing everyone's ideas. 

A fabulous 4S line, library fun with Mrs. Mayrose and Mr. Keller finishing up a read aloud to go along with a fun STEM project with our 5th grade buddies.

The Little Things...

Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back and a BIG thanks to the Efthims for our wish list item. This dear teacher had a happy, happy, happy start to the day!

The Rules!

Ask your kinder to recite our morning rule chant, they're getting good at it, hand motions and all :). 

Wish List Item!

MizzouRAH!

Carson is thrilled that football season is upon us...(as is Ms. Gegg)! MizzouRAH! 

Parents: FYI, the red packet of math information that came home today are the math standards we'll cover this year.  These are for you to keep so you know what we'll be covering in addition to the language we'll use in math.  

When I Was Little...

For a shared writing lesson today we had some fun incorporating our book from reading this week.  We made connections to the girl in the story with her memories from when she was "little".  We had a great time giggling through everyone's "When I was little I...but now I..."  Enjoy :)

Roll and Color

In math we worked with our PBJ partner on rolling the dice and finding a matching: number, tally, or tens frame to work on/refresh our brains on number identification/one-to-one correspondence. 

Personal Connections in the Garden

Today we decided to take our reading lesson outside to enjoy the weather! In our lesson, we focused on making personal connections to the story we read as well as connections with our classmates memories from when they were young. 

For a whole brain teaching technique we learned "turn and talk" to discuss the topic with someone near us, making sure we stay on task/topic :) 

Vocabulary for the week: scrumptious, disgusting, memory, and independent 

Class Picture!

It was finally time for a class pic, we've been so busy to have someone come in for us to pose, so...we decided to use the selfie stick while waiting for dismissal! We've been working hard at having self control at dismissal so we can earn a fun gonoodle dance! 

First tooth of the school year for the Kinder Crew goes to...Scarlett!