Revising

We have been learning what revising means this week during our writing workshop time.  The students have been working on their small moment stories.  We learned that when we read our writing out loud, we can find mistakes or things that we want to change.

We also learned that when we act our stories out, we often do motions or movements that we forgot to write about.  This has helped many students add more to their stories and be more specific on each page.  I can't wait to share their finished stories with you.  Their writing is getting better each day! Way to go owl friends. You're awesome!

Spirit Week!

Who's got spirit? The kindergarteners at NG do! Okay, I admit it. I never was a cheerleader but our class did an AWESOME job showing off their school spirit last week. From crazy hair day to color day - they looked great! Thank you to all of the parents who helped and reminded their little one of what to wear on each day.

I was able to take a picture of some of the kids on Friday. I find that this picture captures their personalities well. :)

Small Moment Stories

We started a new writing unit this month called 'Small Moments'.  The idea is to take a story idea and zoom in on it using details.  For example, we thought of our school day together and zoomed in on one thing: lunch.   Next, we thought about how lunch went and talked about it. Then, we drew our sketches of what happened and added sentences to match.

The kids have been working on using the words, 'first', 'next' and 'last' to help them sequence the beginning, middle and end of their small moment stories across three pages.  We continue to work on adding details to our illustrations and to our writing by using our 5 senses. As you can see in the video, the students are becoming amazing writers!

Reading with a Buddy

We take time each week to learn a new reading strategy and read to ourselves quietly around the room.  This week we learned about 'Tryin' Lion' who reminds up to try reading the page/word again if it sounds funny or doesn't make sense.

We also learned how to read with a buddy: knee to knee, elbow to elbow.

The kids did a great job reading with their buddies and using the strategies we have been learning together.

Look at that 1:1 pointing. I'm so proud of them!

We're 100 Days Smarter

Friday was our 100th day of school together!  The kids and I have been counting the days that we have been in school since the beginning of the year.  Every celebration needs hats so we made these "We are 100 days smarter" hats.

Don't they look smart? And adorable? :)

We practiced counting and writing numbers to 100 on 100th day. We even played a game call 'Roll to 100'. The students took turns rolling a dice and adding the numbers together.  They had to color the answer, or the total, each time. The first one to 100 won!

I saw these '100' cupcakes on Pinterest.com and decided to make them for the class.  The kids seemed to like them!

We also talked about 100 things we would want and 100 things we would not want.  Some of the ideas the students came up with made me laugh. Brenden shared that he would not want 100 piles of dirt. I think I would have to agree with him on that one! :)

Valentine's Day!

Thank you to everyone who helped with our Valentine's Day party! The kids seemed to have a great time.

We made these owl crafts to decorate our room for the party. The kids love anything with googley eyes.

We made Valentines for our families. We 'love them to pieces'. 

Before we ate our candy hearts, we sorted them by color and graphed them.

This was at the Valentine's Day party. Thanks again for all the help!

I hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day.

Happy Snow Day!

Well, there's nothing like a snow day (or should I say 'ice day'?) on a Monday! I've been relaxing in my comfy clothes all day. I'm glad the weather is shaping up though because we have an exciting week ahead of us in the owl room. We will be celebrating Valentine's day on Thursday and our 100th day of school on Friday. We have been counting our days in school, almost every day since the beginning of the year, so Friday will be an exciting day for the kids.

 Last Friday we celebrated hibernation and learned about the difference between hibernate and migrate.  The kids wore their pajamas to school and I was so disappointed in myself because they looked adorable and I forgot to take a picture - sorry! Just imagine a bunch of 5-6 year olds wearing soft, princess and super hero printed flannel pajamas that clung to their bodies.  It made learning about hibernation more meaningful. Some of the students thought it would be fun to sleep all winter but when I told them they would have to miss Christmas, they changed their minds. :)  

The students practiced building equations that create teen numbers last week, as well.  We watched this video clip  to remind us how we can recognize teen numbers:

Numbers in the Teens

The kids were able to discover that teen numbers have the number '1' in the front of them because all teen numbers have one group of ten in them.  They also learned that teen numbers contain groups of five, as well.  It was fun to see them make this connection.

We worked on finding partners for numbers, too.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but the students were given a baggy full of colored disks, a note card, a pencil and a dice.  With their PB&J partner, the students rolled the dice, looked at the number facing up and tried to create as many partners as they could for that number.  They even wrote the equation down on the note card using the + and = sign. During this time, we discovered reversals, or partners that are the same numbers in a different order. For example, 3+1=4 and 1+3=4 are reversal partners.  

I love working with my owl friends and seeing their growth each day. I hope you are enjoying your Monday. See you tomorrow!

When 2 vowels go walking...

Hello everyone!What a crazy few weeks it has been with all of this snow and our snow days. I hope you have been enjoying the beauty of it all.  We have been working on our vowels lately. We know that every word has a vowel in it and we have been learning that when more than one vowel is in a word it can change the sound that it makes. Last week we spent some time talking about 'magic e' and this week we have been looking at what happens when two vowels are next to each other. 

I showed the kids this video to help them understand this concept a little bit better:
When 2 Vowels Go Walking

The kids practiced acting this out with different words.

We have been working hard on our Clay-22/Popcorn words as well.  The students who have mastered recognizing these words earned a bag of popcorn! If your child hasn't mastered the word list yet, keep practicing at home. They are so close!

We played syllable bingo this week.  The kids worked with their Peanut Butter and Jelly partner to clap out how many syllables there are in words.  The first partner to fill their board won!

A couple of the boys playing syllable bingo.

This week we practiced recognizing the partners for numbers 1-7.  In other words, what numbers can we put together (add) to get 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.  The students practiced making up their own story problems and drawing the equation to match on the SmartBoard.

Last week we learned about maps and where we live and this week we have been learning about the American Flag.  The students and I spent some time talking about what it is, stands for and the characteristics about it.  The students created their own American Flags and we even learned the Pledge of Allegiance.  

I am so proud and thankful for all of my owl friends.  The kids continue to learn and grow and it is so much fun to celebrate this with you!