Pete the Cat Saves Christmas

Part of one of our last days of 2013 was spent with our beloved Pete the Cat! These stories are wonderful, funny, and carry a meaningful message.  The link below is to the Pete the Cat page where your child can listen to the songs from the books for free.  The one we did today was Pete the Cat Saves Christmas.

Happy Holidays!

Link to Pete the Cat songs and more! :) 

Place Value

We are continually working on place value in Kindergarten through counting the days of school each day.  We do this with straws. 

 Tomorrow in math, we will look at using cubes to decompose numbers.  Below a link full of great games that hit on this skill of place value!

Place Value Games

Numbers 11-20

Teen Numbers!

The above video is a song we are learning in math to help us learn the "tricky teen" numbers!  In Topic 5 (EnVision Math), we will learn how to write, count, and read numbers 11-20.  See some helpful sites below to help your child work on these numbers:

Link to activities and printables

Games by standard- scroll down to the "Numbers and counting up to 20" on the left hand side

Check Out Pilgrim Life!

Want to know what it was like for the Pilgrims sailing to the new world?  Learn what it was like to live and work on a 17th-century sailing vessel, and relive part of this epic journey!  Click here

Turkeys in Disguise

The kids did such a great job on their turkeys in disguise! I doubt these turkeys would get eaten! 

 Students shared their turkeys and their writing piece to go along with it ("My turkey is ____________.")  They turned out great! Be sure to check them out in our hallway during the month of November. :) 

LEAD21 Online/Reading Groups

We started leveled reading groups this week in LEAD21!  I absolutely love doing reading groups and the kids have been really excited about them already, too.  

How do reading groups work?

• Students meet with me in small leveled groups of 3-4 students (on their reading level) to read books that are centered around our current unit and focus questions.  Groups last 10 minutes each.  Once we can accurately read our book (usually after 2 lessons), students place the book in their book box (below their backpack that they can access and read from at any time!) 

How can I see what books my child reads at school?

• 2 ways!  The first is by logging on to www.wglead21.com.  Your child's page will show up (once you login) and he/she can read the books we've been doing, both whole group big concept books and small  group leveled texts.  
• The other way is by our take home book system! This will start up shortly.  Books will be sent home for your child to read to you and then you return them when you're ready for another!  This is completely at your pace and what works for your schedule/your family.

What are other students doing while my child is in his/her reading group?

• As mentioned in my newsletter, we have been learning our literacy stations.  Stations range from science to imagination station.  Students work with 1-2 other students independently at a station while I work with students in small groups.  

Is my child in the same group for the whole year?

• Through my assessments and informal observations, I will move students as I see fit based on their reading level/need of support.  I have already moved students around and we've only been doing groups for 4 days! :) It is very flexible grouping.

Please let me know if you have any other questions! I strongly encourage you to log on to LEAD from home!  If you don't have your child's password and login, I'm always happy to resend it. Thank you! 

Beginning Sounds Games

We have been working on identifying beginning sounds of words, as well as matching a word with another with the same beginning sound.  This was a skill assessed on our LEAD21 Unit 2 Test.

Our class goal is for all students to know upper and lowercase letters by the end of December.  Once your child has mastered this skill, move onto sounds!

Great thing to work on at home:

• "What does the word __________ begin with?"
• "What other word starts with the same sound as ___________?" 

Games to reinforce this skill:

Clifford First Sound Match

Beginning Sound Match

Reading: Which words begin with what sound?

This is a link to a TON of reading links pertaining to letter sounds

Unit 2: Around Me: Inquiry Project

Our unit 2 inquiry project consisted of the kids being broken up into 5 groups by the 5 senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching.  

Some students brought in pictures from home of them using one of their 5 senses.  These were added to the group collage, in addition to cut outs from magazines and/or drawings. 

Once collages were completed in small groups, students presented these to the class.  We worked on good presenting skills (facing the audience, loud and clear voice, etc.).  Then we added them all together to create a completed 5 senses collage.  They did great!!!

Now we are moving on unit 3, home and family. 

Life Cycle of a Pumpkin

In science, we have been learning about the life cycle of a pumpkin.  Above is the short clip we watched on how pumpkins for Libby's are grown. Below is sequencing activity we did with the pumpkin life cycle.  

Pumpkin Math With Our 5th Grade Buddies!

We love our 5th grade buddies!

They came in to help us out with our pumpkin observation math books.  We measured our pumpkins' height, weight, and circumference. We also did an experiment to see if our pumpkins would sink or float.  

Ordinal Numbers

In EnVision math yesterday and today, we worked on ordinal numbers.  I showed the kids a couple of online games to play at home to work on this skill.  Please see links below!

Video and Game

Vegetable Order Game

Mrs. Coffey's Kindergarten Walk

In library lesson on Friday, Mrs. Guinn worked with our class to read Rosie's Walk which has a focus on positional words (over, under, around, etc.).  Then our class got to make their own class book!  It is in the library for everyone to read and I am working on making it into a take home book for our class to share.  Be watching for it! Feel free to print at home to make your own personal copy or save to your computer.  Thanks for reading!

Mrs Coffey's Kindergarten Walk Book 2013 

Unit 1 Inquiry Project: All About Me!

With each unit in our LEAD21 reading curriculum, we complete a class inquiry project (question based- student driven).  Our question for this project was "What makes our class special?" Special was one of our vocabulary words.  Each child completed part of our class "quilt" to illustrate ways that make us special and different from other people.  Each child shared out loud one item he/she drew that makes them special and then added it to our quilt.  They did a great job! Check it out outside our room in the hallway! 

Hallway Displays

Pete the Cat: sentence structure, fine motor, color words

(it wouldn't let me upload this going the right direction- sorry!) The kids wrote "I have ___ of a certain item or thing."  They colored in a corresponding miniature graph to show the number. This went with Topic 1 of EnVision- Numbers 1-5

Another sideways one- this is a beautifully done Owl About Me poster from Eileen!

 Our awesome class! IVE's themed this year is "Watch Us Grow!"

Rhyming

We have been working on hard on two skills in regards to rhyming:

1. Identifying rhymes when we hear them:  in books, "Do these two words rhyme?"
2. Making rhymes ourselves:  "What rhymes with cat?"  "What's another word that rhymes with _____?"

We played a game on Scholastic today that the kids really enjoyed.  Click on the following link to play the rhyming game from home:  click here!

Apple Science: Labeling

September is apple month in Kindergarten! We have been busy in the afternoons learning about different types of apples (taste testing next week!) and labeling apple parts.  Enjoy a few pictures from one of our latest projects.  They are now hanging around our room making it beautiful!

We watched a short claymation clip of apple trees changing through the seasons. Click on the video below!

Number Writing

We have started writing numbers this week in math!  Important things to remember with handwriting:

• All numbers and letter start from the top (we don't make numbers/letters bottom up).  If your child already has a habit of doing this, encourage them to start from the top but it is a hard one to fix! :) 
• Practice, practice, practice!  

Below is a fun song we learned for making numbers.  Today we just learned 0-3.  We say these chants as we practice making them in the air/on our papers. 

Click here to download a great number writing printable to practice at home!   I will send one home with each child tonight for extra practice.  Students who complete it and return it will earn a sticker for their chart! :) Thank you for your support at home!

Great Home Resource for Handwriting (and more!)

The website Soft Schools has all sorts of great printables for home listed by subject.  I like to use this site particularly for handwriting.

If you click on this link, it will take you to part of the page where you can create your own handwriting worksheets ( I like to do these for writing first names and any particular letters/numbers kids are struggling with).

When writing numbers and letters, please encourage your child to start from the TOP.  I am always happy to send home extra handwriting practice so please let me know!

Pete the Cat

We have been loving our Pete the Cat books!  So far, we have read Pete the Cat: Rocking In My School Shoes and Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes.   These books are super fun to read, sing, and they send positive messages about having a good attitude in life.  Please see the YouTube videos below to watch the stories in action!  These books may also be available through our Scholastic book orders which will be coming home shortly! :) 

   

Acted out/sung by the author himself, Mr. Eric!

  

(This isn't the whole story- its more of a promotional video! But you get the idea. :) )

Starfall Reading

I want to share a wonderful reading website full of games and activities to promote early literacy.  We visited Starfall today to explore the letters A & B.  To access letters, click on the first tab (ABCs).  For now, I would stick with the first and second tabs and the fun activities on the right.  Once we're really reading, 3 and 4 would be more appropriate. Enjoy and have fun!

Click here to access Starfall

PS: Our letter sounds song we started to learn today is under ABCs- down at the bottom in the right hand corner click on ABC and the song will pop up with a friendly man! :) 

Meet the Teacher Night

It was so nice to see so many of your last night at Meet the Teacher Night!  If you were not able to make it, I would be more than happy to meet with you either in person or chat over the phone.  Below is my link to my presentation, as well as downloadable documents (Back to School Packet and volunteer sign up sheet).

My hope is that our blog will be useful to you and your family in many ways this school year!  Check out the various tabs at the top, especially the "Just for Kids" (full of age-appropriate websites) and the Home Resources (downloads for home!)

 If there is something on here you would like to see, please let me know.  Check back for pictures and updates. I am so excited for this school year! :)

Link to my Meet the Teacher Night slideshow (also under important documents tab)

Back to School Packet 

Volunteer Sheet

Summer Reading!

Can you believe summer is right around the corner?  Just because school is over doesn't mean reading and learning should be, too! :)

"Decades of research confirm that summer learning loss is real. According to a report released last month by the RAND Corporation, the average summer learning loss in math and reading for American students amounts to one month per year. " came from the NY Times article "This is Your Brain on Summer"

I will be sending some information of reading recommendations from our librarian, as well as information on some fun summer reading programs.  If you child participates in one of these, please have he/she visit me in August for a special treat! :)

Link to Johnson County Library Summer Reading Club Program

**Your child is bringing home a bookmark from this great program today!**

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons

As Kindergarten is coming to an end in 6 short days, we are doing some fun reading activities!! We read one of the newer Pete the Cat Books called Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons.  This book is all about having a positive attitutude and how things in life come and go- like buttons. :) Above is the video of the main part of the chorus.  For the whole song, visit this website:  http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/feature/petethecat/  and go to "free song downloads" on the right hand side for the entire song. 

"It's all good!" :)

Earth Day

We celebrated Earth Day today in Kindergarten!  We read Earth Day books, watched a short video on the history of Earth Day, learned the terms "reduce, reuse, and recyle" and sorted items into the three groups, did a Scholastic News, and a fun art/music project to end the day. 

We listened to the song "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong and the kids got to use their watercolors to paint what the song made them think of.  These have been mounted on black paper and are beautifully hanging in our classroom!

Click above to listen to the song!

Artists at work!

Plant Unit

We started our plant unit in science this week, which ties in perfectly with our reading-science integration Unit 6: Life All Around! 

We have been learning about the parts of plants, their functions, the needs of plants, and how they grow.  As an experiment, each student is growing his/her own lima bean plant!  This is one of my favorite things every year- the kids really get into it.  Enjoy our pictures and a couple of videos we've watched!

Taking data/making observations

All done and hanging! We will get these down from time to time to complete more observations.

The Needs of a Plant Song:

Watch a Lima Bean Grow in Fast Forward:

Click here for online plant games/activities

Gummy Bear Brain Break

After Writer's Workshop every day we do a "brain break" to get some wiggles out!  The kids love this one and insisted on having it added to our site. :) Nothing educational, just fun and works on coordination! Have fun!

100 Chart Number Recognition/Placement Game

                                           100 Chart Game

We had a few minutes to use before specials today and played this game as a group on the smartboard.  This is a great game to challenge the kids with number recognition and placement.  The kids really enjoyed it. Please click the link above to access the game!

Pebble Go!

Pebble Go is a super, super science and social studies site that is perfect for Kindergarteners.  We will be using it in library next month to do our animal research projects.  Your child is able to access this great site from home!

Click here to access Pebble Go

username:  indian
password: valley

Spring Break Activities!

Happy Spring Break!

Below is a link to the paper that went home yesterday with your child.  It has some great things for you to work on over the break! 

Other ideas:

• Read!!! I sent home an extra book in students' take home book bags who returned them Wednesday.
• Have your child check out the "Just for Kids" section of our site and play some games.
• Log-on to LEAD21 at home and have your child show you what he/she has been learning about these past few weeks.  Your child's login information was sent home along with the spring break paper.

See you soon!

Mrs. Coffey :)

Spring Break Activities

Free Books Online

Below are links to two great sites we use for storytime from time to time.  Both of these are accessible from home and are another great way to listen to stories outside of school!

The first is Storyline Online which is a program provided by the Screen Actor's Guild Foundation. 

The second is Tumble Books.  This one requires a username and password.  Click on the far left green area that says Tumblebook Library for Kids and then in the top righthand corner, use indianvalley as the username and books as the password. 

Happy reading!

Coins In My Hands!

In math today we started to learn about MONEY! :) This is a fun topic to teach, as it is super relevant and motivating to students.  Our next report card (will go home at the end of March) assesses students on identifying the penny, nickel, and dime.  We learn about the four major coins: penny, dime, nickel, and quarter.  Below is another one of our fun/silly songs to help us remember facts about the coins. 

Kick off to March!

We kicked off March today by reading There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover!  The kids love these books, as there is practically one for every major holiday. These books are wonderful for praticing retell, a very important Kindergarten skill.  These books are also great to work on sequencing, as you can see below:

The kids put the events in order and then we had a "teacher" help us read through them.  One student was the book checker to ensure that things were in the right order- anothe great skill we practice- referring back to the text to check for correctness.

The kids then practiced reading their own books and got to take them home. 

Students were able to practice reading by themselves or with a partner. 

We watched a short video from Discovery's United Streaming on the origins of St. Patrick's Day and what common symbols we will see this month. 

Can't believe that St. Patrick's Day will be here in a few short weeks!

Mrs. Coffey's Birthday

We celebrated my birthday today (was on the 23rd) and wow, did I get spoiled!!?? This class is so wonderful and I was so appreciative of the owl cupcakes Riley and her mom, Amy made for us.  Not only were they adorable but were delicious, too! :)

Below is a picture of my adorable gifts from the class- a huge upgrade for my scissors and tape and a very special and sentimental necklace that I will have forever.  It has my name on it, a note from the class with their year (Thank you for helping us grow- Kinder Class 2013), an apple, an owl, and pearls and pink beads. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Snow Day Fun :) Polar Bear Cam

Hello! Mrs. Coffey here writing from home.  I wanted to share a link to a live web cam of the polar bears at the KC Zoo.  Figured it was appropriate with our weather today! 

 

Nikita Polar Bear Cam 

 Looking for something to do today? Read, read, read or check out some of the games under "Just for Kids."  Stay warm!

Double Digit Numbers

Your child is bringing home a ziplock bag filled with numbers 0-9 today.  Our lesson today was all about those tricky double digit numbers.  We focused on two main activities that would be easy to do at home (especially the first one):

1.  I asked students to show me a double digit number- for example, "54"- they would arrange the 5 and the 4 by each other in the right order.  We talked about the ones place (4) and the tens place (5) and what they represent (see next activity).

2.  Activity two was a little trickier!  Beyond being able to READ double digit numbers, we are learning to make these numbers with straws.  As you can see above, the number 23 is shown with 2 groups of 10 and 3 ones.  We do straws daily with counting the days of school.  You could do this at home with straws, sticks, anything really that you can group into a bundle of 10. 

Live Penguin Webcams

Today during library storytime, Mrs. Guinn read us two stories about penguins.  One was fiction and the other was nonfiction.  The nonfiction story was called Pierre the Penguin (which the kids all thought was hilarious with our own Pierre in our classroom!). :)  It is a true story about a penguin at the California Academy of Sciences who needed a little accomodation when it came to swimming (a wetsuit!) Below is the cover of the book and the link to the webcam where you can see Pierre and his penguin friends live.  Be sure to click on the button to see underwater, too.

Click here to see Pierre and friends!

Below is another link to see penguins that live in a much colder climate.  We got to watch the penguins be fed today!  So neat!  Click here to see the "chillier" penguins!

Dental Health Month

February is Dental Health Month!

We had dental students (and the tooth fairy!) visit us from UMKC dental school.  We learned the importance of brushing twice a day, flossing, and visiting the dentist. 

In class this week, we have been reading tooth-related books, as well as doing some fun tooth activities! Below is an example of our "happy tooth/sad tooth" activity where students had to search for food items that are healthy for our teeth and things that are not.

Unit 5 "Let's Celebrate!" Inquiry Project

A component of our LEAD21 Reading program is the student-led inquiry projects.  This unit's project involves students coming up with a puppet show that answers the question "How do we celebrate?" 

Students worked in small groups (see papers above) and came up with the holiday or special celebration of their choice and brainstormed ideas for their puppet show.  Then the puppet making began!

Students will "rehearse" next week and then put on shows to teach about how different celebrations are celebrated! These projects are so fun and engaging for the kids.  They also learn about how to work effectively as a group and to be a contributing team mate.