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.

Subtraction

We have been working on subtraction!  Today we learned a silly song about pirates and subtracting:

Below are a couple of links to subtraction games to play at home on the computer:

ABCYa! Balloon Pop

Fruit Shoot Subtraction

Minus Game