Mrs. LaBlanc's Kinderblog: Another fantastic Week in 306! (April 9th-13th)

It’s been such a fantastic week in 306! We started off our week with a special visitor from Science Alive. With this opportunity the students learned a lot of information about mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. The animals we were able to meet were a python, chinchilla, turtle, horned frog, and an armadillo. The students really enjoyed this! Since they learned so much at this opportunity we connected the information they learned with writer’s workshop. Click on the link below to see all of the exciting pictures with the animals!

Science Alive Photos

Big Book:

Much laughter and discussion came from one of our big books this week, Dishy Washy. This is a story written by an author the students are familiar with, Joy Cowley. Students were so excited to make connections that Mr. Dishy Washy was Mrs. Wishy Washy’s husband. We were able to read this book every day this week and connect it to our word study. As we read the big book throughout the week we made predictions about the book, used hand motions, and talked about the problem and solution.

Word Study:

We practiced hearing the middle sound in words. For example, cat had the /a/ sound, and pot has the /o/ sound in the middle. Students completed a two way sort hearing the difference between two different vowel sounds in the middle of words. Students did really well with this activity!
We continued practicing writing our letters and numbers
We continued practicing finding and thinking of words that begin with the letter “Dd” making the /d/ sound. We used our big book to find some words, and thought of some on our own. Students are getting so well at printing their letters at this point in the year, and as we were doing this activity they noticed I wrote my “d” the wrong way! This was such a great noticing from them, but I will now be conscious of how I’m writing my letters!
We practiced writing color words in text in the format of a poem. Students were to pick their favorite color, something that relates to that color, and draw a picture to match the poem.

For example: I like green

green green green

I like green apples

Reader’s Workshop:

We began the week by reviewing how non-fiction books include table of contents, glossary, and index, but understanding how fiction and non-fiction can cross over. For example, non-fiction books can look like they’re going to be fiction with not including a table of contents, glossary, or real photographs but the book can still give you information.
We are now beginning to look at poetry and started by looking at rhyme and rhythm of poems, and how they stay on one topic.
We read a book My Five Senses by Judy Nayer, and a poem out of the book Shout by Brod Bagert to introduce how they each stay on one topic, what a poem looks and sounds like.
As the week came to an end we read a poem to the students’ asking them to draw a picture of the mental image they had in their mind. This was very interesting to see how students visualize one poem so differently. The students’ illustrations will be up in the hall next week. As they come home take a look to see the visualization your son/daughter made, and how they comprehended the poem.

"Who Lives in the Zoo?" looks like it would be fiction, but it still gives information.

Writer’s Workshop:

We began the week by writing our last non-fiction piece on an animal of the student’s choice that they learned about on Monday from Science Alive.
We used our visualizer to look at our classmates’ pieces to help edit and revise. Our authors looked at their own pieces to see what they could add or take out to make them better.
Wednesday we began looking at poetry discovering what a poet is, and how they are different from an author. Our poets put on their poet goggles to be able to look at things differently by using our five senses. We practiced writing a poem together about our shoes.
Then, our poets were given the option of three different things to write about independently. Their three choices to write a poem about was an eraser, scissors, or a marker.
Students began to understand that poems can rhyme but they don’t have to. They also have the choice as a poet to make their poem short or long.
We continued through the week by giving the students’ an opportunity to construct a poem about anything they wanted, and however they wanted.

Math:

Students were given a number story and expected to draw a picture, and write a number sentence to go along with the picture. Number stories are still difficult for most kindergartners to understand and apply. We worked on number stories all week. I wanted to make sure I could explain it in as many different ways as I could to see the students succeed. This is something you can keep practicing at home with your son/daughter.

Work Stations:

Work stations this week consisted of being able to write complete sentences using a capital at the beginning of the sentence, correct spacing between words, and using ending punctuation. We wrote about our favorite season, used our senses connecting with a season, practiced writing the letter “k”, and forming words with –ick. We played a game “roll and read” continuing to work with the middle sounds, and finding words with the short e. We also continued counting money, playing a memory game, and creating what a tree look like in each season at the art center.

We ended our week with a project of a rain man which is posted in the hallway with the student’s mental image from reader’s workshop.

We celebrated Ian’s 6^th birthday this week!

Hand crank paper towel rolls are difficult for kindergartners to use. Rhonda Kerwin bought this paper towel dispenser and paper towels to donate to our classroom. We are down to only one more package of paper towel left. If you have a Costco or Sam’s membership and would be willing to donate some paper towel that would be greatly appreciated!