Earth Day

Today is Earth Day!

We have been busy, busy in Kindergarten learning about the history of Earth Day, reducing, reusing, and recycling, and how we can help take care of our planet every day.  

We did a sorting activity with reducing, reusing, and recyling this morning, read a Little Critter book,  learned a fun song (see above), and had our 5th grade buddies from Ms. Clark's class come and help us with a writing project. 

Our prompt was "Dear Mother Earth...." 

We used coffee filters to create an earth and sprayed it with water to blend the colors.  They turned out great! 

Looking for some online Earth Day activities?  Click below:

Memory, Paint, Word Games, Puzzles

Craft ideas and printables

Somewhat related, we have been checking in on the Pittsburgh eagles  from time to time and some of the kids wanted the link for home:  click here

We have watched them go from eggs, to little babies, to growing eagles! Check them out before they fly the coop.:) 

More about the Pittsburgh eagles: "After an absence of more than 200 years, the Bald Eagle is back and nesting in the City of Pittsburgh. This historic pair of once endangered raptors are nesting for a second year on a steep bluff above the Monongahela River in Hays near Pittsburgh's Southside. This web cam, made possible by PixController and the Pennsylvania Game Commission, is the first and only web cam documenting an eagle nest in Pennsylvania."

March Bulletin Boards!

Right when you walk in the front door of IVE, you'll see the Kindergarten-created front display!  The prompt was "What makes you mad?" for "March Madness."  These are always quite entertaining and the kids did a great job. :) 

March was Dr. Seuss month! We worked on labeling parts of the Cat and the Hat.  Labeling is a writing skill we focus on quite a bit in Kindergarten

This was a fun art/writing project that the kids did to tell how they are lucky!  Most of them are in the classroom while some are out in the hall.  

Be sure to check these out in person sometime! 

Dr. Seuss Week Coming Up! :)

Dr. Seuss's birthday is Sunday, March 2nd.  We will be celebrating him all next week!

Here are some Dr. Seuss links for fun!:

listen to books online

Seussville Online

Printable fun and games

List of games with descriptions

PBS Kids Cat in the Hat

Greg Tang Math

Mrs. Tracy Kerth, our school math coach, taught the kids how to play some games on the Greg Tang math website: Greg Tang Math There's currently a math Olympic challenge going on! :) 

Click here to access games: Games  (this also came home on an orange-ish slip of paper)

The games the kids learned were Kakooma, Break Apart, and Missing Number.  All games were started on the "easy" level.  

This is a GREAT game website for a good math challenge.  There are also printables.  

Have fun! 

100 Chart

In EnVision math, we are on  topic 6: numbers to 100.  We learned about the 100 Chart today: patterns we see, columns and rows, and how to use numbers around a missing number to solve the problem.  Below are some great games to play to work on 100 chart skills!  

ABCYa! 100 Chart game

Paint on a 100 chart

Using a 100 Chart to solve problems

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!