Kindergarten Room 5

Pennies for Peace

2012-01-29T11:23:00.000-08:00

This week we spent a lot of time on money. Usually I introduce money to the class in a very predictable, organized and methodical fashion. It has always worked and the children left being able to recognize and identify all of the coins. Well this year I had Mr. Alfie Kohn whispering in my ear to let go of my control and see what happened. I was nervous and worried about teaching "without a plan" but my curiosity got the best of me. In the next few paragraphs I will do my best to share with all of you what happened as I tried to "teach" the class about coins, without a plan.
One of my students from last year, Elle, was inspired after we read Greg Mortenson's Into The Wind in class and raised some money for his Pennies for Peace organization. Over the break she ran her own lemonade stand and proudly brought in all of her change with a note asking me to count her money and send it to Greg and the children in Pakistan.

On Wednesday I talked with the class about what Elle had done and presented the bucket of change to the class with the question of "How can we count her change?" I was met with blank stares, and had to think quickly! This was not what I was expecting to happen! I then dumped out all of the change onto the rug and asked the class if any of them knew anything about any of the coins. S.Y was the first to speak up when she said "I know that four of these (pointing to a quarter) make a dollar." No one disagreed with her, so then I asked the class how we could figure out which were the big ones, and which weren't. After giving them each a quarter to look at and discuss with their buddy they decided that their coin (still not named a quarter yet) could be used as the compare coin and that they would put all of the big coins into the bucket, while leaving the non-big coins on the rug. As the children were sorting the coins S.P. was showing her friends how she would hold her coin up against the other coins and if it was a match she would put it in the bucket. M.B. was showing her friends how she would stack all of the coins between her fingers to see if they were the right size. One child accidentally tossed his compare coin into the bucket and began adding nickles to the pot. A few children looked at me to do something and told him that the coins he was adding were NOT the right ones, but I let it continue until all of the quarters (and a few nickles) were in the bucket. When the sorting was completed I held up the bucket of coins and asked the class if they thought it was filled with only quarters "Nooooo!" they quickly responded. So we dumped out the bucket and the children shared their sorting techniques and we sorted once again.
After the quarters were sorted the children discussed how they would count the coins. A.K. suggested that we make stacks of 4 and then count up all of the stacks, the class agreed so that is exactly what we did. At the end P.R., M.B. and K.F all had 3 quarters and weren't sure what to do. Another discussion began and M.B decided to give P.R and K.F each a quarter and she was left with one. Then all we had to do was count the stacks (21) and the extra coin. At this point P.R. said "There is one quarter left, so it we have $21.25." My response was something like "Did anyone hear P.R?" Finally we were able to name the coin (a quarter) and give it an amount (25 cents).

We then repeated a similar procedure when someone (my mind is failing me at the moment, but I am sure your children will know) said that they knew there are 100 pennies in one dollar. We then sorted and had to figure out a way to count them. We tried counting them one-by-one but that quickly failed, A.K. suggested making stacks of pennies, but the class couldn't agree on how many coins would be in each stack. Finally E.L suggested that we use "The chart with 100 boxes on it." So out came the 100s chart. R.L. suggested that if we put one penny in each square (starting with the 1s box) then we wouldn't even need to count! So that is exactly what we did. 98 pennies later we had the chart almost filled. The class really wanted to reach 100 so I scrounged around in my desk and found 2 copper pennies and we had $1.00.

The third counting session was very similar, to the first and second session and the children were getting the hang of working together to share ideas. When we got to the nickles, no one knew how much they were worth. V.V. suggested that if I read the words on the coin, maybe it would tell us. Thankfully it did and we learned that a nickle was worth 5 cents. P.R. quickly did the math in his head and shared with the class that 20 nickles made $1.00! The class really wanted to use the 100s chart again so we filled up the chart to 20, put those coins in a pile and repeated the process until all of the coins were used ($1.90).
Our final counting session was with dimes. The class wanted it to be "fair" so that everyone started with the same amount of coins to count. After much discussion they asked that I pass out the coins one by one until they were gone, then take away the coins that made their friends have more (their words, not mine). Each child ended up with 5 coins (perfect!) and I had 7. More discussions were had regarding how to make stacks of 10 until finally they all agreed to share their coins with their buddy to make a 10 (someone said 5 and 5 make 10). Needless to say, we had $7.20 in dimes.
The entire coin counting session took up four Math Job times and was very slow moving. At the end I was able to ask the class about any of the coins and they were all able to tell me at least 1-2 things about each coin. I was, and still am, very impressed by how the children respectfully taught one another, and were comfortable in asking questions sharing their thoughts and working together. It was a huge learning experience for me and the class.
Here are a few photo's of some of the other ways we learned about our coins.

Counting how many drops of water will fit on each coin

Rolling the coins through play dough to discover the texture of the edges

Recording their discoveries

Rubbing their coins to make an imprint

Oh The Things We Learn...

2012-01-20T20:05:00.000-08:00

As I sit here to blog on a Friday night, my mind is drawing a blank as to what it was we learned about this week. I suppose that it why I usually blog on Thursdays! Let's see how this goes...
Math:
In math this week we began exploring the 100s chart (as we gear up for learning about Charles Schulz' age when he passed away). The children spent one meeting time pointing out all of the patterns they recognized within the chart and discussing why all of the numerals (yup, you can ask them to tell you the difference between a numeral and number) were written in the order they were. One of our main focuses this week and last (and likely next) has been on both place value and number reversals.
The children also worked both collaboratively and independently to solve word problems about Charles Schultz. I was not the best photographer this week so here is and example of one of the word problems they worked on.

CharlesSchulz had _____ black pens. He needs toput them in boxes. _____ black pens fitin each box. How many boxes can he fillwith the black pens?

(10, 5) (10, 2) (20, 10) (20,5) (20,4) (30,10) (30,15) (30,5) (30,3)

They also merged their artistic abilities with their math skills with a brand new game called Grab and Draw. The game was inspired by an illustration Charles Schulz created when he was a student. The children loved this game and the results were pretty impressive!

This week the children also chose the character they would like to draw on their canvas. They spent a lot of time practicing in their sketch book and we should be ready to start working on our canvases next week! We also began making our own Peanuts coloring book with our illustrations! Here is a peek at one of them.

"Sally"

Writer's Workshop:

We have been writing A LOT about Charles Schultz this week. From creating our own comic strips to writing our Did'ya Know?! statements, the children have been busy! To help frame each until of study, I will often use a KWL (Know, Want to Know, Learn) chart to see what the class is most interested in. It provides me with a lot of insight and helps guide the lessons. This year for the "Learn" portion of the study, we are filling out Did'ya Know speech bubbles to share what we have learned. My favorite was this one.. "Did You Know... That Peppermint Patty sometimes calls Charlie Brown 'You Sly Dog'." Who knew?!

Reader's Workshop:

We have begun a new read aloud... Pippi Longstocking. We have enjoyed discussing some of the big words that are used in the story, and how we could figure out what they may mean. We also have been discussing her character and the choices she makes and how she handles the situations she is in.

During independent reading time the children have been reading their book baggy books both independently and with me. They are now able to read quietly for almost 20 minutes, allowing me lots of one-on-one time.

Global Buddies:
We are gearing up for my trip to Tanzania in February and trying to involve the whole school. On Thursday the children decorated flyers that will be distributed (by them) to the whole school next Thursday. After corresponding with the principal of the school in Tanzania I was told that they would like sharpened colored pencils and pencils, block erasers and hand held pencil sharpeners. When I shared this news with our Global Buddies they were quite disappointed that they couldn't send water, clothes and food. This opened up a great discussion about the amount of stuff I was able to bring, the weight of various items and which items can be shared among many people.

Another great week has come and gone :( See you next week!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-12T17:05:00.000-08:00

It has been a busy start to our new year in Room 5. I hopeyou all had restful and relaxing winter breaks and are as happy to be back atTCS as I am! Over the past few weeks we have had a mixture of days dedicated totransitioning back, assessments and Great Artists. The children have done anamazing job with all of the transitions and I am looking forward to focusing onGreat Artists for the next few weeks!

The children and I just finished the last book of our Toys Go Out series. We have enjoyed spendingour afternoons joining Lumphy, StingRay, Plastic, Sheep and many othercharacters as they learned about friendship and conquering their fears. Thankyou again R.L and family for providing us with the series.

During word study the children learned about the th and sh digraphs. To help remember these sounds the children learned that when the letter h (who is very happy, helpful and has a lot to say) comes up to the letter t (who is always teasing and is not the nicest of letters) the letter t puts his tounge on his tooth and makes the th sound. Later, the letter h approaches the letter s (who is very studious and silent) and it startles her so she puts her finger to her lips and says shhhh.

In Reader's Workshop the children have been working on reading independently for 10-15 minutes each day. During our assessment days I was able to formally assess everyone and determine their current reading level and which reading strategies they are using, and those they can continue to strengthen. They all have new books in their book baggies and I am looking forward to supporting their development.

Great Artists:

We began our Great Artist study by filling out the beginnings of our KWL chart. The children were asked to tell me what they knew about Charles Schulz as well as what they wondered about him. Their responses are now on display on the white board in our classroom. Knowing what the children wonder about our artist will help to guide our study, while making it more meaningful and engaging for your children.

In the fall, the class came up with a free choice art activity called Copy Draw where one child will draw something and give directions to another friend who is copying their picture. I found this activity to be very TCS and have stolen the idea for our independent artist time. Above are examples of the children playing Copy Draw with Charles Schulz.

On Tuesday, the children used the monitor to follow a How To Draw Snoopy tutorial. After following the step by step instructions the children discussed whether or not this method of instruction was helpful to them. Most of the class preferred their Copy Draw technique while others enjoyed the step by step instructions. Above are two examples from the How To Draw Snoopy Dancing tutorial.

During Writer's Workshop the children are familiarizing themselves with the idea of comics and comic strips. To introduce the Peanuts comic strip to the class I have been removing the text and allowing the children to create their own story lines. The children have enjoyed creating stories that follow the sequence of the drawings, while having to make sense as well. I have enjoyed reading what they come up with!

Every week the children write both a Weekend Prediction and a Weekend Report. During this time, the children are encouraged to write independently while applying the skills they have been working on during word study time. Last week they were introduced to the Magic 5 of Writing. After each Weekend Report and Weekend Prediction, the children will check their writing to see if the have done each of the items on their Magic 5 checklist. At this point in the year, the children are only required to check and see, but as the year continues they will be held more and more accountable for each of the 5 responsibilities.
The children have been busy creating and exploring the world and works of Charles Schulz. I am really looking forward to this study and cannot wait to see how everything develops and turns out. Below is a sneak a peek at your little artists in action.

V.V working on his Woodstock rub

An example of one of your children's Woodstock rubs

An Artist in Action, drawing Mr. Schulz

S.Y. working on her Woodstock rub

13 Little Experts

2011-12-08T19:28:00.001-08:00

Every morning we begin our day with our morning greeting and news. This is my most favorite part of the day because the personalities of your children come shining through. One of the highlights of my week is our morning meetings the day after a Charger's game. I hope you enjoy the news of our little Charger's fan as much as I do!

Another week has come and gone as the children continue to learn about The Three Little Pigs. This week the children continued to work on their Three Little ______ stories. On Monday and Tuesday, the children used a graphic organizer to convey what happened to each character and their home when the Big Bad _____ came. Today, we began writing our stories and the children were able to choose whether or not they wanted to begin by writing their stories through pictures, words or both. Through out the next week we will continue to work on the stories together in hopes of sharing them with you next Friday.

During morning reader's workshop we read The TRUE story of the Three Little Pigs and the children worked as a class to compare the two versions of the tale. I recorded their feedback and have it hanging on our classroom door if you would like to see what they noticed. They then filled out their own venn diagrams and wrote about whose perspective they believe the most. During our discussion we talked about how some things happen on the playground that seem to be intentional at first ("Someone threw sand at me!") but once we hear what happened from the other perspective ("I was digging a hole and didn't know you were behind me.") we realize that the story may be a little different than we had originally thought.

In Math this week we played two new math games. The first game was called +3. The children rolled a die and found the corresponding number on their chart. Upon finding the corresponding number, the children then added 3 to the number and wrote down the answer in the space provided. The game ended once the child had a row of 5 or a column of 6.

The second and third games we played were called Roll A Scene and Roll A Story. In both games the children rolled a pair of dice and added number represented. They then had to find that number on their recording sheet and figure out which portion of the story/scene they got to draw. The game got really fun when the children were trying to figure out what combinations they needed to get the final number. I don't think they realized how many math equations they were solving in their quest to complete their story/scene.

In Science this week we had a lot of fun surrounding huffing and puffing. In one of our Huff and Puff experiments the children had to huff and puff a marble, lego, tissue and an object of their choice across the table. Prior to performing the experiment the children predicted which would be the easiest and why.

3 Little Whats??

2011-12-01T19:33:00.001-08:00

Well well well! Our Three Little Pig study is in full swing and going in a completely different direction then I thought it would!! My plan was to be making houses of bricks and sticks, while creating cute little pig and wolf puppets. That did not happen this week.
We began our study by reading one of the original versions of The Three Little Pigs written by Paul Galdone (Where the pigs actually get eaten!!! And then the Wolf does too!!). We followed up that reading with the reading of a very similar original-ish version written by James Marshall. Upon reading the second version of the classic tale, the children began pointing out differences right away. Comments like "No! The apple tree is in the Merry Meadow, not the Merry Garden!" or "The Pig jumped into a milk churn! Not a butter churn!" were constantly stopping the reading and allowing us to have rich discussions about the similarities and differences between the two tales. On Wednesday we spent so much time reading (and talking) that we only had 10 minutes of job time left! By the third reading of the original version I was (finally) prepared, and we began charting the similarities and differences between each of the three stories. Together as a class we revisited each story and recorded what happened in each story and learned that no story is exactly the same! To see what we discovered, please visit our room and look at the HUGE pink chart hanging (temporarily) on our white board. Today we read the Disney version of the story (and I was able to find the online video version to share!) which saved the pigs and the wolf!
Aside from all of our discoveries we have been....

Writer's Workshop:
The children are working to create their own version's of The Three Little Pigs. The children will work to create their own versions of the story, while sticking to the same plot and sequence of events. M.B brought in a version called The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot, which was a perfect way to begin our project. So far, here are the topics your children have decided on.
The Big Bad Gummy & the Three Little Gummies ~S.P
The Big Bad T-Rex & the Three Little Triceratops ~J.B
The Big Bad Doughnut and the Three Little Aliens ~S.Y
The Big Bad Red Domo and the Three Little Domos ~M.C
The Big Bad Fish and the Three Little Pigs ~N.H
The Big Bad Hat and the Three Little Faces ~V.V
The Big Bad Doughnut and the Three Little Kitties ~M.B
The Big Bad Gummy and the Three Little Saturn's ~J.C
The Big Bad Crab and the Three Little Pigs ~K.F
The Big Bad Doughnut and the Three Little Aliens ~R.L
The Big Bad Moon and the Three Little Plutos ~P.R
The Big Bad Doughnut and the Three Little Hearts ~A.K
The Big Bad Pumpkin and the Three Little Bears ~E.L

Reader's Workshop:
This week the children began reading independently as a whole class, and loved it! On Tuesday we met as a class and came up with all of the things, and ways, we could read and put them together in a big colorful list that is now hanging in our rest and read area. The children then spread out throughout the room to read books from their book baggies, looked at picture books, tried to read chapter books and shared books from our classroom library and read aloud shelf. During this time, I rotate through out the class and read "Just Right" books one-on-one with 3-4 children each day. My favorite quote came from A.K on Wednesday morning when she asked "When is Readers Workshop? I can't wait to sound out the words in my book!" So far so good!

Math:
During Math job time, we worked on measuring with a ruler through a variety of activities. The children worked to make sturdy homes that had to be exactly 12 inches high and were made up of at least 10 objects. Prior to starting, the children went around the room looking in baskets and on shelves to decide on the object they would use, then recorded which object they chose and why they chose it. We then met as a group and the children had the option to either work independently on their building, or work with the other children that had chosen the same object. After 10 minutes of building time, their structures were complete and it was time for the Big Bad Wolf (me) to try and blow them down. The class were great builders, but I was able to blow over two structures :)

We also used our measuring skills to measure pig tails (and idea I got from Ellen Monfredi). The children first estimated how long the pig tail would be then stretched it out and measured it with a ruler.
It has been a great week and I have no idea what the class has in store for me next week (but I do have ideas of my own).
~Lisa D.

The Best Week Ever?

2011-11-17T19:57:00.001-08:00

I am not sure if this has been our best week ever, or if we have finally made it through the getting-to-know-you phase of the year. Regardless, we had a wonderful week together. It's about 8:00pm and I have a lot to say, so here we go!

Here is a fun little moment I captured (or may have had them reenact) while the class was waiting for me to pick them up from Spanish.

We continued our study of Jack and the Beanstalk and the children succeeded in convincing me to assist them in transforming the loft into a castle in the clouds, complete with a dragon's cave. Here are a few photo's of the process.

I have a wonderful photo series of the class making their best dragon faces, but blogspot is picky about my photo placement so above are two of the best. Below are a few of the children explaining what was going on in the dragons cave.

Science:

We have been focusing on predicting, observing and learning about plants during our science lessons this week. All with a mini-magical twist. Last week the children made and planted their magic beans and predicted what (and when) they would grow into. Although a few of the beans are beginning to poke through the surface, none have yet shown their roots or stalk/stem. We were treated to a real live beanstalk on Tuesday when K.F's family found that a beanstalk magically appeared in their garden! The children worked to make and decorate a support structure for it and we are excited to see it grow.

Yesterday the children planted Jellybeans in sugar and fed them with a sprinkle of glitter. I've posted their predictions on what they think the beans may grow into. If my predictions are correct they should turn into something by Friday morning!

Math

The class continued to work together to solve compare problems (The giant's hand is __ blocks long. My hand is __ blocks long. How much longer is the giant's hand than mine?) Separate, Result Unknown problems (Jack's Beanstalk was __ feet tall. He chopped down __ feet. How many feet tall is Jack's Beanstalk now?) and Join, Change Unknown problems (Jack's Beanstalk was __ feet tall. Jack climbed up __ feet and had to rest. How many more feet does he need to climb to get to the top?). Below are a few video's of the children working together to solve some of these problems.

The children also used a giants hand to measure the room while estimating (and counting) how many cubes the could fit in it.

Reader's Workshop

During Reader's Workshop the children read Jenny and the Cornstalk and used a Venn diagram to compare the two stories (Jack vs. Jenny). The children also used words and pictures to describe Jenny's characteristics. We also checked to see whether or not Jenny and the Cornstalk had the elements necessary to be a fairy tale, and they did!

Writer's Workshop

During Writer's Workshop the children learned about the Oh-Ah-Oliver sound and created a very very very long word list of words that have the Oh-Ah-Oliver sound. My favorite was a picture of Oliver the Olive. The children are continuing to practice writing their lowercase letters and bumping the lines. As more and more lowercase letters are introduced they will be held accountable for using these letters in their writer's workshop writing jobs.

Recap

Overall it has been a very busy, and really fun week. They children are so excited about the transformation of our loft area and this has been one of our main focuses this week. One morning the class got so involved in the process that the boys were taping black beards onto their chins while some of the girls were making crowns, rings, necklaces and earrings to wear. We have quite a creative and imaginative group! Here are some fun photos.

V.V. protected with his sheild

Beard? Check! Earrings? Check!


What a glamorous crew!

Thanks again for another amazing week with your children!

Fairy Tales in Full Swing

2011-11-13T16:03:00.001-08:00

Literacy

During our short week together the children and I turned our fairy tale focus towards Jack and the Beanstalk. The children and I read two versions of the classic fairy tale and discussed the choices Jack made throughout the tale. We began to record Jack's good and bad choices on a chart, but quickly had to add a "Not Sure" column because depending on each child's perspective, Jack's choices could have been both good and bad! We also began trying to identify the elements of a fairy tale. During our study we will be comparing one fairy tale to another and recording the various elements of each tale on the white board in our room. On Tuesday we read a version of Jack and the Beanstalk that no one had ever even heard of before! In The Beanstalk Incident, the story of Jack and his Beanstalk is told through the perspective of the Giant. After reading the story the children used a Venn Diagram to compare the similarities and differences between the character traits of both Jack and the Giant. This, of course, raised some very rich discussions on whether or not Jack was nice or mean; bad or good; loyal or dishonest etc.

Math

The children's math stories this week were focused on compare and subtraction problems. They estimated how many beans could fit in their hand vs. the giants; stacked cubes to make a beanstalk and recorded how high they could stack and played Race To The Top, a game I should have called Race to the Bottom because none of the characters ever race to the top! In Race To The Top the children worked individually or with a partner to race their characters to the top. Using a die, the children rolled, recorded and graphed the amount of spaces each character could move up the vine.

What's Emerging

The children made their own magic beans, planted them and predicted what would grow. Next week we will have fun predicting what will grow if we plant a jelly bean and other random objects. After Spanish the children worked together as a whole group to create their very own magic beanstalk. Once the green glitter creation was complete there was a special request for a castle in the clouds!

Africa

I have a mini-update from Humble Hearts in Africa! Irene (the kindergarten teacher) emailed me and said the children have written letters for our class and she will be sending them soon! They loved the cards and photos of our class and Irene said that the children "treasure the smiles of the pupils". Ida McManus (the woman in Texas who brought our supplies) has photos of the children receiving the supplies and will be sending them soon. I will be sure to post everything as soon as it arrives.

From Fall to Fairy Tales

2011-11-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

With Big Pumpkin, a late blog post & conferences I have to say there is not much to report from Kindergarten Room 5 this week! Here is what we have done for the past 2 days and a sneak peek on what is coming up :)

This week we began our...... Fairy Tale unit of study!! We read The Fairy Tale News and the children wrote down all of the fairy tales they knew (or had the energy to draw). The following day we read The Frog Prince Continued and the children wrote down all of the fairy tale characters they knew, as well as what they thought a fairy tale was. Below are the responses from the class when I asked them the question "What is a fairy tale?"
P.R.: "A fairy tale ends with Happily Ever After and starts with Once Upon a Time."
J.C.: A fairy tale is "a not real story that is made up."
S.Y.: A fairy tale is "Cinderella because Cinderella is beautiful."
J.B.: "Gingerbread Man is a fairy tale because he is made out of gingerbread and he is talking and running; and cookies cannot do that in real life."
N.H.: "The 3 Little Pigs is a fairy tale because pigs can't talk in real life. They just say 'oink, oink, oink.'"
M.B.: "The 3 Little Pigs is a fairy tale because my mom told me. They (fairy tales) always start with Once Upon A Time."
A.K.: "A fairy tale is a story that is really good, with something bad that happens, then people help each other."
E.L.: "A fairy tale is a story that is pretend."
K.F.: "A fairy tale is a story about animals that play together."
R.L.: "A fairy tale is something that starts with Once Upon A Time and ends with Happily Ever After."
S.P.: "Humpty Dumpty is a fairy tale because it is kind of like a Disney character and Disney characters are like fairy tales."
M.C.: "A fairy tale is something that a lot of the time has princesses and princes."

Based upon their responses, it looks like one of the questions we will be trying to answer through out our study is "What is a fairy tale?" We will likely create our own definition and then determine whether or not some of the stories we read are actually fairy tales!
Next week we are going to focus on Jack and The Beanstalk while reading different versions of the classic tale as well as the story through the eyes of the giant.
Here are some of the monsters I captured through out the past few days. My apologies for losing the post-it note that had the names of which child made which monster. Maybe your child can identify their own?

A Little Bit of This... And A Little Bit of That

2011-10-25T20:57:00.000-07:00

Amidst finishing assessments, writing reports and escaping for the weekend our poor little blog was almost forgotten! Alas, I was able to sneak in a few shots of the happenings in our class. Here is a very brief update on what we have been doing!

Earthquake Practice:
Here are a few videos of your children preparing for an earthquake. They wanted to make sure they were ready for an earthquake in all situations (hence the 3 locations) as you can tell, we had a lot of fun and are very ready!

Math:
The children are continuing to work on their number writing/recognition and counting skills with games such as Triple Roll & Record (rolling a die 3 times, writing the numeral associated with the dot pattern they rolled and adding up the dots/numerals) and Domino Addition (choosing a domino from the basket, recording the dots, or numerical value, and adding up both sides). We have also been working on finding a variety of groupings that equal 10 through the game Tiny Tumbling Town (breaking 10 into 2 groups, depending on which side of the mountain the tiny tumbler tumbles down) and Building Towers of Ten (rolling a die and finding out how many more are needed to build a tower of 10).
Through the use of Cognitively Guided Instruction (C.G.I) the children have been working on simple addition word problems (join where the result is unknown; part-part-whole where the whole is unknown) and simple subtraction problems (separating two groups where the result is unknown). This past week I introduced more complex word problems to the class that challenges their mathematical understanding of what is being asked. An example of such a problem is below:
Room 5 has a collection of __ pumpkins, ___ of them are orange and the rest are white. How many pumkins are white?
This problem cannot be directly modeled because it is set up as a part-part-whole problem where the part is unknown. It was a great problem for everyone and challenged everyone's abilities.

Literacy:
The children spent this week focusing on the u /u/ up sound and reading Zug the Bug and Billy the Bug and his Big Glass Jug although the stories are often based on word families, our jobs have been focused on the individual sounds. The children have been sorting pictures based on short vowel sounds, labeling pictures with simple and complex words as well as adding to our short vowel word list.

Integrated Learning:
Next week we will focus briefly on the lightly requested leaf study and wrap up our study of fall, pumpkins and apples. After conferences we will be beginning our fairy tale unit! I cannot wait to find out which stories the children want to learn about!
Photos and Such:
Here are a few snap shots of your cute children.

"Can you take a picture of us with our pens on the paper?" M.C and S.P in Spanish

We are all so happy to have Brian back! I think he is happy too! We got to play with all of his stuff!

They were quite excited to show me their Iguanas!

The First 6 Weeks of School.... Are Done!

2011-10-13T20:26:00.000-07:00

Yet another amazing week (with record breaking temperatures!) has come and gone. Many of our jobs this week focused around Halloween and pumpkin themed stories and of course Big Pumpkin. We made a great text-text connection between One Witch and Big Pumpkin when we discovered that they were both illustrated by S.D. Schindler! Here is a quick recap of our week together.

A behind the scenes look at picture day!

Math:
During math I continued working one-on-one with your children while I assessed them on their mathematical knowledge and number sense. The estimation jar this week was filled with plastic rats (next week will be spiders!) and the children tried so hard to make a reasonable estimation without opening the jar. We will open it tomorrow and the children will use cubes, pictures, counting on, counting up or other strategies to determine how close or far they were from the actual amount.
We integrated math with literacy while reading One Witch a counting story about a witch who is making a stew. The children illustrated their own One Witch books (they are very similar to the Ano's Counting Books that the children worked on in September) and calculated how many characters were invited to the party (55!).

Reader's Workshop:
We read The Legend of Spookly the Square Pumpkin a cute little story about being different and being accepted. After reading the story, children drew their individual Spookly pumpkins and wrote about its shape, color and how it was feeling. They also made their own Spookly pumpkins which are on display in our classroom.
We had a shared reading of the big book version of Yuk Soup. Prior to the reading I covered up all of the main words and the children and I discussed different methods of "reading" a word beyond sounding it out. The class used the pictures, the pattern of the text and sometimes the first letter of the word to determine what it was. I think they were all a little surprised to be able to read a book without even seeing all of the words! As a follow up to the reading the children are making their own Yuk Soup book that you can see after our performance of Big Pumpkin.

Global Buddies:
We joined our Global Buddies in their classroom this week and researched Heifer International. The stories we have read (Give A Goat and Beatrice's Goat) were both based upon a gift from Heifer International. During our time together the children began trying to find out where the animals were sent, how much they cost and what animals were available. Next week the groups will share their findings and we will use our world map to categorize our findings.

Birthday Celebrations:
This week we had our first Kindergarten birthday celebration for V.V's birthday. To celebrate birthdays in our class, each child is invited to sit in the middle of the rug while their friends gather around them on the perimeter of the rug. Each child is asked to share something they love or find special about their birthday friend. After each child has shared, the birthday friend shares what is special about him/herself. After the appreciation feast we then enjoy a special birthday snack. This week we were treated to mini banana muffins and grapes, a perfect birthday treat!

Apples and Sailors!

2011-10-08T13:47:00.000-07:00

Reader's Workshop:
During Reader's Workshop we read The Little Red House With A Star Inside. It was the first time we had read a story without pictures and a few of the children were not excited about that idea! The story is about a little boy who goes on an adventure to find a little red house with no doors, and no windows with a star inside then report back to his mother about his adventure. Midway through the story I had the children draw their predictions of what they thought this house might look like. All of the houses were drawn little, red and containing a little star inside. After all of the predictions were completed, I finished reading the story. The little boys journey took him to an apple orchard where he found a big red apple. As he looked at it he thought "Well this could be a little red house, with no doors and no windows, and the stem is a perfect chimney, but where is the star inside?" When he brought it to his mother she cut it open and revealed...

I wish you all could have seen the look on your children's faces as they thought I had magically put a star inside this apple! Maybe they will think you are as magical as I was!

Music With Lauren:
I was able to pick the class up early from Music this week and join them for The Carnival of Animals Lauren has been introducing them to the different musical instruments and helping them hear the story through the music. Lauren will also be helping us get ready for Big Pumpkin!

Science:

During science we used our sense of taste to decide whether or not we like green apples or red apples more. The children each tasted a slice of apple and wrote descriptive words to describe what each apple tasted like then decided which they liked the best. We will be graphing the results next week.

Global Buddies:

The children that didn't have a chance to share their observations last week began our meeting time with their share. After sharing and discussing the similarities and differences between like in America and life in Kenya, we read the story Give A Goat. A story about a 5th Grade class who read the story Beatrice's Goat and raised enough money to buy a flock or chickens, a Goat and some honey bees! Next week our Global Buddies will be on a field trip so we will meet with them the following week.

Sailors!!!

On Friday we had our very special visitors arrive (which is why the blog is a bit delayed)!! After their wonderful introduction at community meeting Sailor Dave joined our class for the morning and answered questions about living on a submarine and traveling around the world. After a long Q&A session (almost 30 minutes!) he read The Giving Tree to the class before they headed off to P.E. It was quite a treat to have Dave with us all morning. He is a father of a kindergartener and he could not stop telling me how polite and smart our class was, of course I was not surprised!

Kindergarteners for Kenya!

2011-10-02T10:10:00.000-07:00

Thank you all so much for your contributions to our suitcase of school supplies! On Saturday I packed all of the items up and shipped 38 pounds of school supplies and the letters! The man at the UPS store was so touched by what your children were doing that he gave us the box for free and gave me a 10% discount! The box should arrive in Texas this Thursday and Ida will be leaving to Africa with it on the 11th! I'll keep you all posted on an update from Kenya. In the meantime I hope you enjoy the photos below.

2011-09-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

It was another busy week in Kindergarten!

M.B. searching for -an words in her word family book

Word Study!
This week we began our short vowel study with the letter a. The story that goes along with the short vowel a sound involves opening your mouth wide to take a bite and saying the a sound. The children have loved saying "a apple A!" After introducing the sound we read the -at and -an word family books and began charting any words we knew that had the a sound. Initially we had about 2-3 words per day and today the children added so many that we needed a new chart! Follow up activities included Tic-Tac-Tan and Tic-Tac-Tat where they flipped an alphabet card and had to see if it made a word. The children also received their own copies of the word family books to keep in their book baggies.

Friends writing secret messages with crayon and watercolors

Science!
The results of our apple vs. pumpkin study are in! We are studying....... BOTH! The majority wanted to study both and the few that only wanted to study one were happy to know that their topic would not be forgotten. There have also been a few requests for a leaf study so we may throw that into the mix as well!

Math!
The children began exploring the + symbol and what it means (a hospital, a sideways x, and, plus etc). We also began using the cognitively guided approach (CGI) towards solving word problems. Children in Room 5 are using their fingers, cubes, pictures, counting on and mental math to solve their problems so the discussions have been quite productive! One of our integrated math jobs was Apple Spill. The children start with 10-20 "seeds" in a jar that they spill onto the apple. They then add up the seeds on each side and create a math equation. The children also began using addition in their grab and count jobs. Next week I will begin the math assessments of your children so many of the jobs that were introduced and practiced this week will be their independent jobs next week.

Social
Our focus this week was on choices we are making on the playground. We have been having a lot of discussions regarding safe play and responsible choices. It can be scary for a kindergarten friend to approach a stranger on recess duty and ask them for help so we discussed options of what to do and I made sure that the children met the teachers on duty before the start of each recess. The week has gone very smoothly, but if your child is still having a tough time please let me know.

Global Buddies & Our Kenya Connection
In Global Buddies we were able to finish up our comparisons of life in Africa with life in America. The children's work is on display near the windows if you would like to stop by and have your child talk with you about what they noticed. One child noticed that a similarity is that children in both countries have chores, even though ours are a lot easier.
I shared the photos and stories of my trip to Africa with the children. Throughout the slideshow we would stop and ask/answer questions about what the children were noticing and think about how it compares to what we are used to. After looking at the photos we discussed the difference between a want and a need. It was a tricky concept for the children to master, but by the time they met with their 4th grade buddies today they had it down. Thank you all so much for your kind donations! I will be mailing the suitcase and letters tomorrow and cannot wait to see photos of their delivery!

Our Very First Blog Post!

2011-09-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging Room 5 families! I have absolutely enjoyed the last 12 days with your children, and have realized that I need to get MUCH better at capturing all of our little stolen moments together! Though I would love for the blog to capture all of the moments we have together, it will end up serving as more of a Best of Blog. Here is a brief run down of what we have done together and where we are headed.
Social Curriculum:

Our Rights and Responsibilities

During our second week together the children used a method of Sharing the Pen to create our Rights and Responsibilities. As we progress through the next few weeks of school we may add or change certain aspects of them and when we are happy with the final product. Once our Rights & Responsibilities are complete, will all sign them and refer to them as necessary. Sharing the Pen is a way of writing with each other and seeing how to write with "Book Spelling." Children will contribute to the message with either a letter sound they know, or with a complete word. My role is to add in the sneaky e, or the vowel buddy that is often not heard.

Integrated Curriculum:

J.B. showing us that he knows apples can be red, while pumpkins can be yellow or orange.

The children have enjoyed listening to stories about apples and pumpkins, while spending their job time observing, measuring, drawing, painting (and cleaning) apples and pumpkins. This has given me an opportunity to see what they know about each fruit, as well as how they work independently. On Thursday the children were able to tell me if they wanted to learn more about apples, pumpkins or both. Depending on the outcome (which will be graphed next week) we will know what our fall study will focus on. Below are a few photos the fun we had with our pumpkin.

V.V. measuring our pumpkin

Our painted apples and pumpkin!

Time to get them clean!

Global Buddies:

The real Beatrice, reading her story to children (oh how I wish it was us!)

Last week we had our first meeting with our fourth grade Global Buddies. We will be meeting with them once a week on Thursday's to learn more about children around the world. During our first meeting we read the book Beatrice's Goat a story about a child growing up in Uganda who desperately wanted to go to school, but could not afford to do so. After being gifted a goat, Beatrice was eventually able to go to school. Based on a follow up conversation we had after reading the book, we were able to watch video's of Beatrice as a child, and where she is now. After learning a little more about Beatrice's story, the classes watched a slideshow of my photo's from the Humble Hearts orphanage in Africa and began comparing like in America, with life in Africa. Next week each group will share with each other what they noticed. My favorite quote from our meeting was when a fourth grader said to himself "Wow, suddenly I don't feel so poor anymore."

Math:
During our math lessons I introduced a few math games such as Grab Count & Record, Roll & Record, and Hissss. We read Anno's Counting Book and made versions of our own, and we put together our September calendar and began learning about today, tomorrow and yesterday. My favorite noticing during our calendar lesson was when M.C said "Why does Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Today and Yesterday all end in d-a-y, but tomorrow doesn't?" Yup, I was stumped by a kindergarten cutie.

Assessments & Such:
This week your children were introduced to The Magic Scarf because they are SO good at working independently. This has allowed me to work one on one with each of your children to assess their literacy levels. While I was working independently with your child the class was busy playing Roll & Record, Grab & Count, sharing with me what they know and what to know about pumpkins and apples, as well as getting messy and having fun! Next week I will begin their Math assessments and we will get the learning ball rolling!

Photo Fun:
Some of the children have loved building and organizing their basket choices during peaceful time and drop-off or pick-up. Here are some of the photos they requested that I capture for them. Enjoy (and let them know you saw them).

9 Days :(

2011-05-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

This week we discovered that our Lima Bean plants really DO grow!! Each child has been recording the day their seed sprouted roots or grew a stem. Now some children's plants even have leaves! I wish I had a photo to share, but stop by our windows and check them out.

We also spent some time learning about the different parts of seeds, location of seeds and sorting seeds. On Wednesday we made predictions regarding the color and location of pomegranate, strawberry, banana, kiwi, blueberry, kumquat and tomato seeds. After the predictions were made, we opened the fruit under the document camera and zoomed in on the seeds so the children could see them on the monitor.
In Math with Kara, the children began exploring repeated addition and multiplication. They LOVED multiplying numbers by zero!This Friday was our Fun Run! Thank you Ans and Kate for providing us with yummy oranges! Can you spot your child in the video below?

Ready.... Set..... Fun Run! from Lisa J on Vimeo.

Enjoy the long weekend and I hope to see you at the Author's celebration on Tuesday.

What A Week!

2011-05-20T13:41:00.000-07:00

During Writer’s Workshop the children are in the final stages of illustrating their How-To Books. We hope to see you at our Author’s Celebration. The children also began writing letters to orphans in Africa. Jen F. (Kai’s mom) has a student (Matt) who is connected to the orphanage in South Africa. Matt enlisted our lovely kindergarten cuties to help bring a smile to the orphans faces through their letters, drawings and crafts. There are 47 orphans and it is our goal to write a letter to each orphan. 19 down, 28 to go!

In Science we have begun our plan study. Early in the week we “planted” seeds without soil and made predictions on whether or not they would grow. Each child was responsible for making their prediction and explaining why. My favorites were “It will stay alive because the flowers we have (in a vase) are still alive.” and “The will die because soil is important.” Three children predicted that they would grow, while 16 predicted they would die.
After learning about stems, the children placed a single flower in colored water and made predictions about what would happen. If you have the chance, stop by Room 5 and see what happened to our white flowers! During our root study we had a root taste test with taro chips, radishes, beets, carrots and cassava root (to name a few). If you would like to participate, please feel free to bring roots, stems or leaves for community snack.
In Math the children have mastered reading the clock and measuring with centimeters and inches while continuing to work on their addition and subtraction facts. Next week we will begin our formal assessments in preparation for our end of the year reports. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child and how to keep them reading/writing over the summer please let me know.

Constellations and Comets!

2011-05-13T12:18:00.000-07:00

Has it really only been 3 weeks since the break? Time is flying by, and as of Friday the 13th there are only 18 school days left! Yikes! Your children have been absolutely amazing and absorbing everything like little sponges. For the two weeks following our break, the children were learning about planets and constellations with Kara. Towards the end of their study, they created their own constellations and stories. If you have a chance to visit Room 5, they are on display in our library area. Here is a sneak peek at two of them.

The children wrote their stories, drew an illustration and finished up by placing tracing paper over their drawing and making a constellation complete with an alpha star.
The children also had a chance to create their own planets. K.S created a planet called “Wizard 101. A planet made of magic, where wizards live and you can learn new spells.”
Here are a few examples. These are also on display in Room 5.

Last week the children finished their second drafts of their How-To books and we are waiting for the arrival of their Bare Books to publish and share them. We are hoping to have an Author’s Celebration in the next few weeks and will keep you posted. Our final unit of writing will be their All About Kindergarten books, which the children have already begun working on.
This week the children began learning about plants and we will likely be integrating this theme throughout the next few weeks as we work on assessments and winding down the year.

How-To What?!

2011-04-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

This week the children began working on their How-To books. Below is a list of topics that the children will be teaching you and their peers in the form of a How-To book. Can you guess which one is your child?

How To….
Draw a Caterpillar
Draw a Butterfly
Make an Eric Carle Butterfly
Drive a Drag Car
Wash Cups
Plant a Flower
Swim
Make a Stuffed Animal
Do Gymnastics
Work an iPhone
Build Legos
Take Care of a Turtle
Ski
Feed Merey
Crush a Bottle Without Touching It
Horseback Ride (2 friends chose this topic)

And last but not least… Here is an example of How-To Build a Lego Set:
1. Get $10 to get a Lego set.
2. Ask a grownup that has a drivers license and a car (to drive you there).
3. If that person has enough seats to get you there (go with them).
4. Find your Lego set and bring the Lego set with you to the cash register.
5. Pay the register.
6. Go to your car.
7. Drive home.
8. Walk in your house.
9. Open the Lego set.
10. Get your Lego guys pants.
11. Get your Lego guys head.
12. Get your Lego guys hair.
13. Get your Lego guys shirt.
14. Build your Lego guy.
15. Enjoy!

Great Artist Grand Finale!

2011-04-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

From Grand Finale

The Amazing Food Table!

From Grand Finale

The VERY Hungry Caterpillar!

From Grand Finale

All dressed up!

From Grand Finale

And the fire fly wasn't lonely anymore...

From Grand Finale

Amazing Artists...

From Grand Finale

Amazing Artists..

From Grand Finale

Thanks for all the support!

Head To Toe... Here We Go!

2011-03-17T16:17:00.000-07:00

Head To Toe... Here We Go! from Lisa J on Vimeo.

On Friday, Brian joined us to read Head To Toe by Eric Carle. After his wonderful reading we learned all about how Eric Carle made this book. The children enjoyed a good giggle when they learned that if all began in a Dummy Book. To learn more, click here. The children enjoyed swaying their hips like a crocodile and kicking their legs like a donkey. Can you do it? They can do it!
We discovered a catchy tune on youtube that sings our new favorite book. During job time the children are often singing it to one another. Here it is if you want to enjoy.

The children are now learning the song in Spanish!
I'll have more photos and scanned images for you next week!

Another Busy Week!

2011-03-11T14:23:00.001-08:00

This week we sent our letters to Eric Carle learned a lot of interesting facts about him. Did you know that it took him one week to write “Little Cloud” and two years to write “Will You Be My Friend?” (which also happens to be his favorite book). During job time we focused our activities on “The Grouchy Ladybug”. The children learned about symmetry and made symmetrical Ladybugs, discussed our feeling and wrote about what makes us grouchy (and happy) and created our own Friendly Ladybug scenarios. The children have all chosen their favorite Eric Carle animal to create and some children began painting their tissue on Friday.

Our Questions for Eric Carle

2011-03-08T13:43:00.000-08:00

From Eric Carle

-How did you draw your seahorse? _E.F-G
-Why did your whale fit on 8 pages? –K.H
-Why is the very quiet cricket so quiet? –K.S
-Why did the very hungry caterpillar turn fat? –R.W
-Your movie is very cool! How did you paint your fish? –M.M
-I got “The Art of Eric Carle” the book. How did you make the rooster sooo perfect? –D.B-C
-Why did you make the very hungry caterpillar? –L.F
-Which one is your favorite book? –A.D
-How do you do your drawings? –D.B
-How do you do good art? –N.L
-Can you come to The Children’s School? –E.G
-Where do you live? How do you paint a dolphin? –I.F
-Have you written any books about Monkeys? –L.S
-Where were you born? Where do you do your art? –R.MA
-I love the book “Does Kangaroo Have A Mother Too?” How do you stick the tissue paper? –C.F
-Why do you use tissue paper? –E.K
-Why do you make animals for your books? –A.O
-Why didn’t you put any other fish in your books? Why did you not do it? I want to know more too! –A.R
-Can you show me how to draw a dog? I am studying you in my class. –K.F

Great Artists

2011-03-04T13:53:00.000-08:00

From Eric Carle

We began our Eric Carle study on the 100th day of school by reading “1, 2, 3 To The Zoo” The children made their own zoo trains and wrote about what their favorite animal at the zoo was (and why). We integrated our learning about Eric Carle by mathematically solving how many animals were driven to the zoo, writing about our favorite zoo animals, playing dominoes with Eric Carle animals and playing “Go Fish” with our Eric Carle number cards.

On Wednesday we began making our own Very Hungry Caterpillars (what a learning experience that is!). The children watched a video where Eric Carle taught them how to make a caterpillar just like his. We then painted tissue (not nearly as easy as Eric Carle makes it seem), drew our caterpillars (ours were WAY cuter than his) and cut out and traced our templates. We also wrote about why the caterpillar was still so hungry. Lily said it best with “because he didn’t want the story to end.” so true!

On Friday we read “A House For Hermit Crab”. During the story we discussed if and why hermit crab was a good friend and how his feelings changed throughout the story. We then learned about habitats and got to create our own imaginary creatures and the habitats they lived in. The children also decorated their own hermit crabs and drew the habitat surrounding a hermit crab.
All is all it was a wonderful and busy week! I hope we can keep it up!

A Balance Becomes A Catapult

2011-01-30T20:28:00.000-08:00

From Balances

During lunch last week D.BC mentioned to me that he would really like to do an activity with seesaws and catapults. I discussed this idea with Kara (whom had recently finished teaching them all about balances) and our lesson was formed. We began by reviewing Kara's lesson on balances with the children and letting them use anything in the classroom to make a seesaw. After a quick brainstorming session on what could be used for the base and beam the children were off and creating their seesaws with triangles, blocks, yard sticks and rulers. To see more images click on the photo to view the Picasa album. Below is K.H testing his seesaw while D.BC & D.B using their seesaws to catapult their marshmallows.

K.H Balances Marshmallows from Lisa J on Vimeo.

A balance becomes a catapult from Lisa J on Vimeo.

Three Little?!

2011-01-27T21:42:00.000-08:00

The children have been busy working on a variety of versions of The Three Little Pigs. After reading tales such as "The TRUE Story of the Three Little Pigs" and "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig" the children were excited to create their own stories. Here is a sneak peek at what they have been working on.

Huff and Puff

2011-01-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

While almost half of our class was at home huffing and puffing from an awful cold, friends in room 5 were doing their own form of huffing and puffing. This week we read the classic version of "The Three Little Pigs" and the not so well known tale of "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig." On Tuesday the children participated in a Huff and Puff experiment where they had to predict how many huffs (and puffs) it would take to blow a lego, marble and a piece of tissue across the table (see video below). On Friday the children constructed towers that had to withstand my huffing and puffing. Each child's structure had to use at least 10 objects and could only be one foot high. I was quite impressed by their structures (and pretty lightheaded as well).

Huff & Puff from Lisa J on Vimeo.

CGI on the WSJ

2011-01-12T21:34:00.000-08:00

Here is a great video that may help you better understand the value behind CGI (Cognitively Guided Instruction).

Long Ago....

2010-12-07T18:09:00.000-08:00

Last week we looked at pictures of La Jolla from long ago. The children discussed the differences between the way La Jolla looks now (a lot more buildings and better roads) to how it looked then (a lot of dirt and not a lot of color). We saw photographs of businesses in La Jolla, people golfing at Torrey Pines and playing at La Jolla Shores. Here is some of the feedback we got when we asked the children what life was like 100 years ago.

One Hundred Years Ago…..
K.S. “Long ago, they had slow cars.”
C.F. “They horses that go fast.”
A.DR. “The cars had no windows.”
R.MA. “There were dirt roads.”
E.G. “They had horses and carriages.”
N.L. “There was no sun.”
R.W. “A lot of people died.”
D.B. “The train has circle windows.”
L.S. “The cars can be on water.”
E.G. “ They had house boats.”
A.O. “I think they had black and white T.V.”
M.M. “There is no food.”
A.R. “The film is black and white.”
L.F. “Cars looked like tractors.”
E.K. “They rode horses.”
K.F “The road was dirt.”
D.B. “The carriages were motorized.”
K.H. “The film was black and white.”

What is a Community?

2010-11-21T21:01:00.000-08:00

Last week we focused on the meaning of community, and the role jobs and businesses play in our community. It is always nice to see the world through the eyes of 5 and 6 year old children. Below is a peek at some of the adorable responses to a simple question.

From Avenida de la Playa

Did You Know….

“We have hair cutters in our community, because if the boys have too long hair it will be in their eyes.” ~A.DR
“We have store clerks in our community, because they let us buy food.” ~R.W
“We have presidents in our community, because they say what the cities have to do to help the world.” ~E.F.G
“We have police in our community, because burglars steal.” ~M.M
“We have police in our community so everyone behaves.” ~D.B
“We have teachers in our community, because they teach,” ~R.MA
“We have police in our community, because they keep people safe.” ~K.S
“We have fire fighters in our community, because they put out fires.” ~A.O
“We have train engineers in our community, because they drive trains.” ~D.BC
“We have doctors in our community, because if we get sick I know they can help us.” ~L.S
“We have presidents in our community, because they make good choices.” ~K.F
“We have doctors in our community, because they can help us stop bleeding.” ~A.R
“We have veterinarians in our community because my cat has to go to the hospital today.” ~E.K
“We have doctors in our community because people get hurt.” ~L.F
“We have fire fighters in our community because they save people and they make fires disappear.” ~C.F
“We have ballerinas in our community because they dance so pretty on the stage.” ~E.G
“We have squishy sellers in our community because if kids don’t have toys to play with they will be crying all the time.” ~N.L
“We have fire fighters in our community because they save people.” ~M.L
“We have store workers in our community because we buy our food.” ~K.H

Our Visit to La Jolla Shores Market

2010-11-14T20:43:00.000-08:00

From La Jolla Shores Market

On Tuesday we visited the La Jolla Shores Market. Taft (the owners son) took us on an amazing tour through the freezer, behind the deli counter, into the refrigerators and around the market. After our tour we were each treated to a delicious apple.

La Jolla Shores Market Freezer from Lisa J on Vimeo.

Sushi with Jen!

2010-11-14T20:40:00.000-08:00

From Book Cooks

In Book Cooks this week, Jen joined us and we got to make sushi!! After reading “Yoko”, a cute story about trying and accepting different foods from different cultures, we made sushi and learned how to write in Japanese. The children wrote their names in Hiragana, and wrote Katakana symbols on Popsicle sticks that were woven together to make a “book” (read top to bottom, right to left). For more information on the book, and to learn how we made sushi, see the google doc below. Thanks Jen for putting this together!

A Sweet Thank You

2010-11-10T12:56:00.000-08:00

From Avenida de la Playa

Sometimes a child will work all morning on something that may normally take them a few moments. Here is an example of one of those times.

Fire Station #9

2010-11-07T15:24:00.001-08:00

On Friday the Fire Fighters from Station #9 welcomed us to an action packed afternoon complete with shooting the hose, touring the fire truck and watching them leave for a rescue!

Shooting Down the Cones from Lisa J on Vimeo.

Here are the answers to some of the questions that were asked on our tour:
E.G: The fire fighters save all sorts of animals including goats, chickens, pigs, dogs and even a hawk once! The have a special oxygen tank that is made just for dogs!
L.S: Most fire fighters at Station #9 work at 3-4 stations but have one home station.
A.O: The fire fighters at Station #9 put out 2-3 fires per day.
D.B: When a fire breaks out, 5 stations usually report to the fire and work together as a team to put it out.
K.S: Kyle (one of the fire fighters) has put out 100s of fires in his time (24 years) as a fire fighter.
R.W: When fire fighters fight fires they bring their fire hose and usually pump water through the truck and fight the fire with water.
L.F: Four people are usually in the fire truck and two people are in the ambulance, so 6 people work at Station #9.
R.M.A: We wear out pants over our boots so we don’t get burned, and we leave our pants on our boots so that we can put them on quickly.
M.L: To put the fires out “we put the wet stuff on the red stuff.”
A.D: There are three different types of fire trucks for different types of fires. One truck pumps water out of the fire hydrant, one truck carries water in it and the other has a big ladder that helps the fire fighters get to fires in tall buildings.
A.R: When the fire fighters are not fighting fires, they work with the community, exercise, clean, and check on the equipment.
K.H: When they are fighting fires with chemicals (not water) they use a powder that acts as a blanket. The powder lands on the fire and takes away the air it breathes and doesn’t let it run away. Kind of like what would happen if someone threw a blanket on you when you were trying to run away.
C.F: Station #9 does not have a fire pole because it is a one story fire station. The reason stations do have poles is because they are safer and faster than running down stairs.
M.M: They have 1,000 feet of 4” hoses, 800 feet of 2.5” hoses and 450-500 feet of 1 ¾” hoses at Station #9.
E.G: We ALL got to go in the fire truck!
K.F: The Big Houe (Fire Station #1 downtown) has the most fire fighters and equipment, but Fire Station # 17 is the busiest.
E.K: Station #9 does not have a Dalmatian, but Station #40 does and Station # 19 has a rabbit named Cool.
D.B.C: Station #9 works with the fire helicopters and planes, but harbor patrol works with the fire boats.

Station #9 Off to Save the Day! from Lisa J on Vimeo.

N.L asked “What happens when the fire alarm goes off and we are here?” and we found out! See the video above!

Book Cooks!

2010-11-07T14:53:00.000-08:00

From Book Cooks

On Friday Peter and Kristie joined us for Book Cooks! It was the ultimate multi-media day complete with iPads, Document cameras and our new monitor! We "read" "Green Eggs & Ham" by Dr. Seuss as an interactive book. For any of you with iPads or iPhones, please look into Oceanhouse Media to download Dr. Seuss and Berenstain Bears books. During Book Cooks we got to make our own Cat in the Hat hats and enjoy green eggs and ham!

Untitled from Lisa J on Vimeo.

Hotel La Jolla Here We Come!

2010-11-04T21:52:00.001-07:00

A.R after asking me "Lisa J. Can I write 'It is beautiful' in my notebook?"

Sketching Hotel La Jolla
Today 9 of us traveled across the REALLY big bridge all the way to Hotel La Jolla. The children were prepared with interview questions, their clipboards and sharpies and a bundle of energy. Here is what they discovered:

The super troopers after walking up 11+ flights of stairs

N.L:
Hotel La Jolla has 11 floors, has never has a fire and currently has 105 guests. We also walked up all 11 flights of stairs to learn that there are 161 stairs!

M.M:
The pool is eight feet deep, there are three computers in the office, five in the back office and three at the front desk. There are also, roughly 648 plugs and 2 elevators!

E.K:
The hotel makes between $8,000 and $12,000 per day (we had to explain that when asked ”How much do you make each day?” we really meant the hotel).
The hotel usually has 185 guests/day and it can hold 1-4 people per room with 108 rooms available. There is no golf course, but there are 11 floors.

E.G:
It “currently” costs $149/night to stay “all day” at Hotel La Jolla and we can stay for” as many days as you want.” In addition to this, we learned that they serve pasta!

E.G:
After climbing up 11+ stories, we found that there are 161 stairs in Hotel La Jolla, there is a pool and Clays serves deep fried Macaroni and Cheese balls on a stick!

D.B.C:
Hotel La Jolla is 112 feet tall. There are 28,000 gallons of water in the pool. There are 132 windows and there were 22 cars in the back parking lot and 45 in the front lot.

A.O:
When asked if they served chicken strips the response was “Yes.” When asked if there was a hot tub, the response was “Yes.” When asked if there was a hot bath, the response was “No.” When asked how many stairs there were, we were directed to the stairwell and asked to meet the group on the 10th floor.

A.R:
There are 216 chairs in all of the hotel rooms and 18 chairs by the pool. Each wall is 8 feet tall and there are 109 TVs.

L.F.:
There are 108 rooms, 150+ beds and 125 cars can fit in the parking lot.

Avenida de la Playa Through The Eyes of Room 5

2010-11-02T22:22:00.001-07:00

From Avenida de la Playa

Thank you to everyone who helped out today. We all had a BLAST and I could not have hoped for a better field trip to kick off our amazing community study! Please click on the photos above to see more photo’s of our day.

Here is some information gathered from the children today:
~It takes 108-1,030 steps to walk across the bridge
~There are 10-20 floors at Hotel La Jolla
~The houses on the way to Avenida de la Playa are; gray, brown, white, peach, blue, yellow, orange, black, salmon, cream, baby blue, coral and red.
~The sign at La Jolla Shores Market includes a pumpkin, water, plumb, “Accordance Nest”, gallon of milk, grapes, eggplant, a basket and thanksgiving stuff

Last but not least, WE FOUND Cat in the Hat!! Bill from Yogurt Escape discovered him and opened his shop early just for us! We are so excited to have him back in Room 5 with us!

We found Cat in the Hat!! from Lisa J on Vimeo.

Pumpkin Fun!

2010-11-02T22:01:00.001-07:00

A BIG Thank you to Debbie for making our Halloween celebration so fun! We enjoyed a morning complete with decorating pumpkins, creating haunted houses, roasting pumpkins seeds (Thanks Laura!) and listening to The Monster Mash on repeat!

Brazilian Book Cooks!

2010-11-02T21:59:00.000-07:00

Last Monday we got to do Book Cooks with D.B and Carla!! It was so fun! Carla read us stories about Brazil and shared photographs and a 3D book with us. In one of the books we learned about the Azure Jay, a bird that eats the seeds of the Araucaria angustifolia tree. During our cooking time we got to make Pao de Queijo, a gluten free cheese puff! They were delicious and we enjoyed them after recess.
During Math Job time Kara and the kids continued to build connections between 3D objects and their 2D counterparts. Did you know a triangular prism is made up of 4 triangles, and one square? Or that the “footprint” of a cylinder is a rectangle and two circles? For handwriting this week we reviewed the letters H, K, L and U. The children were able to see if their letters were too wide by placing their 2 fingers over it. If the letter peaked out from either side then they knew it was too wide.

A Fun Few Weeks in K

2010-10-24T09:30:00.000-07:00

The BIG News for this week was that our Cat in the Hat went missing!! This came as quite the surprise and Room 5 is ready to get him back!! So far all we know is that he is on an adventure and trying to find his way to the beach. I wonder if he will take Avenida de la Playa to get there. Hmmm…

Where Is The Cat in the Hat? from Lisa J on Vimeo.

This week the children’s word study focused on the short vowel sounds /a./ and /e/, the letter sounds for B, M. R, and S as well as words that end in –at. During our mini-lessons the children would listen to a story and recall all of the words that followed the particular sounds we were focused on.
In Math, Kara has been teaching the children about 3-D and 2-D shapes. As I listened in on the lesson, I was so impressed to hear everyone’s observations about how a cylinder can roll, but a rectangular prism cannot. The children also had quite a discussion about whether or not the orange round object was a sphere or a ball.. In the end we agreed that it was both!
In Global Buddies we have now read books about children in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Africa. We have also seen how many ways there are to make a difference (Give a goat, give a hen, collect pennies, host a bake sale or host a car wash). This week we traced our hands and came up with ways in which we could all “Lend a Hand.” In class, the children wrote about some of the things that we have and what children in developing countries need (not want). I am curious to see what the children will want to do with all of this information!

This past Friday we had our first Book Cooks! Kate came in and read us "Curious George Makes Pancakes" and we spent the morning making pancakes and completing fun monkey jobs.
Below is a video of C.F illustrating how many Pancakes his monkey can eat.

How Many Banana's Can Your Monkey Eat? from Lisa J on Vimeo.

Another Busy Week!

2010-10-12T20:59:00.000-07:00

From Book Share

What a wonderful week! Last week began with a showcase of our amazing authors. Many of the children were really into making books (wordless and full of what they are most passionate about), so we had an author share on Monday afternoon. The pictures aren’t the best (wrong setting), but I hope you enjoy the video!

D.B Book Share from Lisa J on Vimeo.

From Exploration

As many of you know “Squishies” have become quite the common interest among some of the children in our class. It is cute to see how they are cared for, kept safe in pockets and the excitement on the children's faces when they discuss how a new Squishy was acquired (or discovered). Above are some photos of the boys using their recess to build a Squishy/Pirate town.

From Writer's Workshop

In handwriting, the children have been reviewing their uppercase letters and getting used to the colored handwriting paper. They are focusing on bumping the lines, starting at the top and following the proper steps in forming their letters. Handwriting begins with practice on the colored paper and finishing up in their Handwriting Without Tears notebooks. So far we have reviewed how to properly write F, E, D, B, P, R, M and N. On the right you will find a link to the page that explains how to properly form each letter. Please encourage your children to take pride in their handwriting and bump those lines!

From Integrated Learning

During job time the children made their own pumpkins using a pumpkin glyph. To find out which pumpkin belongs to your child follow the glyph below:
Stripes-How many letters are in their name
Eyes-The color of your child’s eyes.
Nose-If they a boy, a triangle. If they are a girl, a circle.
Teeth-How many teeth they have lost. (Some chose to just draw a lot of teeth)
Stem-Your child’s favorite color.
We also measured the circumference of Penelope and Peter (our pumpkins) and counted all of their seeds. Unfortunately the mold got the best of them and they have now become compost :(

From Integrated Learning

We read “The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin” (thank you D.B) and we all wrote about how we are all just a little bit different. Can you guess which one is your child?
1. “I am the only one who knows how to shoot a bow and arrow really far”
2. “I know how to ride a motorcycle”
3. “I speak Dutch”
4. “My wiggly tooth is on the other one”
5. “I like to draw the most”
6. “I went to school in Brazil”
7. “My address has two of the same numbers”
8. “My name is different.”
9. “I went hiking more than anyone”
10. “I lost 4 teeth and have 4 pre-cavities”
11. “My hair is different than everyone else. And my bump (on his lip)”
12. “I go on lots of trips”
13. “My hair is dark”
14. “I am different because I can run fast”
15. “I wear a blue hat”
16. “My brother is in Toddlers”
17. “My brother is in Pre-K”
18. “I have the most Squishies”
19. “I am the only Monfredi boy with a birthday in October”

1.) N.L 2) K.S 3) A.DR 4) D.BC 5) L.S 6) E.C 7) K.H 8) M.L 9) C.F 10) K.F 11) R.W 12) L.F 13) R.AG 14) A.R 15) D.B 16) E.K 17) EG 18) A.O 19) M.F

Pumpkins and Planting

2010-10-03T13:01:00.000-07:00

Our week began with writing about our weekends. I was so impressed to see that children in kindergarten were attending Hebrew school, Sunday school and Dutch school on the weekends! Wow! We now have nine Quick-and-Easy words on our word wall which we practice writing every Monday with our Rainbow Writing. Quick-and-Easy words are the first 100 sight words that children should instantly recognize upon reading.

From Integrated Learning

Through our pumpkin study we have painted, measured and washed Peter our BIG Pumpkin. On Tuesday Peter was joined by a smaller pumpkin Penelope and we had fun comparing their sizes and circumference.

From Writer's Workshop

In Writer’s Workshop we read “Owl Moon” and noticed how the author used her words to describe how cold and quite it was in the woods, rather than telling us “It was quiet and cold in the woods.” We then practiced writing using “Show Don’t Tell”. To inspire us we all got to taste a piece of Pumpkin pie and describe how it tasted without telling our audience that it tasted like pumpkin pie.

In Math we continued to solve word problems and count our days in school. Did you know that in October there are five birthdays and only one in September? We also began our routine of solving morning math (simple addition and subtraction equations) problems.

From Global Buddies

During our Global Buddies time this week we read the book “Four Feet, Two Sandals” a story about 2 Afghani refugee children that become friends by sharing a pair of sandals. The children noticed that the students in “Four Feet, Two Sandals” and the students in “Listen to the Wind” both practiced their letters and numbers in the dirt. After reading and discussing the story we all went outside and tried writing in the dirt.

From Global Buddies

On Thursday, we planted flowers with our 5th grade buddies! The 5th graders read “Mrs. Spitzers” garden to the class and helped them plant their own pot of flowers. The project was lead by Lisa A. and is a part of the 5th graders Community Service Learning class.

Our First Post!

2010-09-26T20:26:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Kindergarten blog and our first post for the 2010-2011 school year! I am looking forward to keeping you all posted on the wonderful adventures and experiences your child will discover during their kindergarten year. For a sneak peek of how the blog works feel free to scroll through some of the posts and albums from last year.

From Green Machine

The year began with a visit from “The Green Machine”. The children got to sift through dirt and find worms, learn about the food chain and how Ladybugs help protect our crops and some children got to put on a play about the water cycle! Click on the photo above to see more photos from that day.

From Global Buddies

On Tuesdays we get to meet with our Global Buddies! This is a time where we will meet with the 6th graders (and sometimes the 5th too) and work on projects and activities that increase our global awareness. Over the past two weeks we read “Listen to the Wind”, watch a video by Dr. Greg Mortenson’s daughter and made Peace Pinwheels for International Peace Day.

Winding Down

2010-05-24T17:47:00.000-07:00

As the days slowly begin to grow longer, our time together is drawing to an end. In Writer’s Workshop the children have been busy writing and editing drafts of their “How To” books. The topics range from teaching friends how to walk a guinea pig and play a video game, to how to play basketball, go to sleep or make a friend. Last week the children worked with their buddies to help with the editing process. Below you can see a video of the changes J.L. realized he had to make after reading his book to Q.G.

J.B Teaches Q.G How To Play Basketball from Lisa J on Vimeo.

In math the children have been busy practicing how to read an analog clock to the hour and half hour. Some children are already using their ability to skip count by 5s to read to the nearest 5 or 10 minutes. We have also started sorting and identifying coins. Some of the poems we are using in class to help us remember are as follows: “Penny penny, easily spent, copper brown and worth one cent.”
“Nickel, nickel, thick and fat. Your worth 5, I know that!”
“Dime, dime, little and thin. I remember! Your worth 10!”
“Quarter, Quarter, BIG and bold. Your worth 25 I’m told.”
For a fun break from our normal math routine we read the books "M&M Addition" and "M&M Subtraction". The children enjoyed sorting, graphing, comparing, adding subtracting and yes, finally eating their M&M’s!

From M&M Math

In science this week our focus has been on caterpillars! We have found caterpillars all around campus and have successfully watched Harry the caterpillar transform into Flappy the butterfly. Inspired by the books “Diary of a Fly” “Diary of a Spider” and “Diary of a Worm” the children have been making their own “Diary of Flappy” book. Through reading some of their diary responses I have found that “Flappy is Happy because he has forgotten about the outside world.” and “Flappy is sad because his chrysalis won’t let him fly.” On our next post I will try to include some images of the responses.

Spring has begun!

2010-04-18T20:45:00.000-07:00

From Spring

"Spring is biting plants and a carrot." ~ P.B

The children began their week using words and pictures to describe what spring was to them. The illustrations they made are priceless, if you have the chance please come see them on display in Room 5. Below is their explanation of what spring is.
Spring is...
When squirrels come out. ~D.L
Spring showers. ~J.B
Biting plants and a carrot. ~P.B
Leaves blooming. ~L.A
Vegetable garden. ~J.L
Roses growing. ~D.R
The wind. ~S.H
Rain. ~Q.G
New plants and trees. ~F.V
When flowers grow and roses grow. ~ A.A
Flowers growing. ~A.H
Flowers growing. ~L.M.W
When chickens and bunny rabbits hatch. ~M.F
I think roses growing in the spring. ~Ash

To begin our study of plants and insects I asked the children to share what they want to learn about.

From Spring

"Why do insects have 6 legs?" ~L.A

From Spring

"Why do some bugs bite?" ~J.L

From Spring

"Why does my tree in the spring have flowers and in the summer have leaves?" ~M.F

From Spring

"How Birds of Paradise look so good?" ~L.A

Here are some of the questions we will use to help guide our study of plants and insects!
Wonders about Insects:
A.H. I want to know about the biggest insect.
A.A. I want to learn how insects hide.
Ash. I want to learn about where Ladybugs live.
D.R. I wonder what the biggest bug is.
D.L. Can bugs swim?
F.V. How do plants grow?
J.B Where is the biggest bug?
J.L Why do some bugs bite?
L.M.W How do they fly?
L.A. Why do insects have 6 legs?
M.F. What is the biggest bug in the world?
Q.G. Why do flies lay eggs?
S.H. I want to know how insects are born.

Wonders about Plants:
A.H I want to learn about the Venus Fly Trap.
A.A I want to learn about cactus.
Ash. I want to learn about Venus Fly Traps and how they grow.
D.L. Can plants survive in water?
F.V. I want to learn about Tulips
J.L. How do (plants) help the Earth.
L.M.W. I want to know how seeds are made.
Luke: How do Birds of Paradise look so good?
M.F. Why does my tree in spring have flowers and in summer have leaves?
P.B. Why do plants die?
Q.G I want to know why cactus thorns are leaves.
S.H. I want to learn how plants grow.

Hand to Earth... Sand and Stone

2010-03-17T13:23:00.000-07:00

From Great Artists

Last week we survived the harsh weather conditions of La Jolla Shores for our field trip to the beach. Carrie, Amy, Anna, Claudia, Sondra, Vi and Anna were able to capture some amazing works of art as well as assist in keeping the children on task! Click on the album above to get a sneak peak of your children's work.

"I enjoy working in a quiet and subversive way." ~Andy Goldsworthy

2010-03-08T13:16:00.000-08:00

From Great Artists

Our Great Artist study has begun! Throughout the past two weeks the children have begun exploring the artistic style of Andy Goldsworthy. The children have had multiple opportunities to work with sand, stone, clay, leaves, berries, pinecones, twigs, bark and more. When Andy Goldsworthy creates his art in nature, his intention is not to “make his mark” on the landscape, but rather to work with it and create a new perception and an every growing understanding of the land. The children have begun to embrace and understand his philosophy as well as build an awareness and appreciation for the environment around them.

From Read 2010

On Tuesday we took a break from our regular routine to enjoy some pancakes, get comfortable in our pajamas and snuggle up with our favorite books. The children took and active part in reading books and listening to stories for 2,010 seconds! It was truly spectacular to look around the campus and see everyone reading!

Help For Haiti

2010-02-17T10:49:00.000-08:00

From Haiti Care Kits

As many of you were aware, on January 12, 2010 a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, devastating many of the homes, schools and orphanages in and surrounding the capital and largest city, Port-au-Prince. Our entire TCS community came together to collect soap, soap dishes, toothpaste, tooth brushes, band aids, wide-tooth combs, washcloths, hand towels, ziplock bags and shampoo. With the support of the children and their families we were able to assemble 238 Care Kits as well as share our message of hope through the news! Please enjoy the video below that was aired on NBC!

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/video.

Science With Dr. Lou!

2010-02-17T10:42:00.000-08:00

From Guest Scientist

Last week we were joined by S.H’s grandmother “Dr. Lou” and his mother Charlotte for an amazing science experiment. The children made predictions and hypothesis about the buoyancy of various objects in corn syrup, oil, water and alcohol. Please enjoy the videos of the children making their predictions and conclusions of the buoyancy of a red chip in water.

Red Chip Predictions from Lisa J on Vimeo.

Red Chip results from Lisa J on Vimeo.

Cinderella Stories

2010-01-22T14:00:00.000-08:00

From Singles

Our Cinderella Study was in full swing this week as we huddled indoors and tried to keep warm and dry. This week we read four more versions of Cinderella and began making lots and lots of text-to-text connections between all of the stories. On Friday we shared the pen to create a poster that helped us illustrate the similarities and differences between all of the stories.
In Math the children worked on solving a word problem involving Cinderella shopping for a pair of shoes. Please see the videos below to see how a few of the children approached this problem

LA Cinderella Math from Lisa J on Vimeo.

AH Cinderella Math from Lisa J on Vimeo.

DR Cinderella Math from Lisa J on Vimeo.

Fairy Tales and Cinderella

2010-01-17T10:16:00.000-08:00

From Book Buddies

What a week it has been! Amidst assessments and our fairy tale study it is hard to know where all of the time has gone! This week the children continued their weekly routines of weekend report, handwriting, reading, math practice and writing in their journals. In word study, the children focused on the –an family. Their word study included reading three new –an books, “Flip and Write” as well as making their own –an books. The children were recently introduced to the ‘Magic 5 of Writing’. After completing a writing assignment the children need to check and make sure that they have used the following 5 things: 1. Each sentence begins with a capital letter. 2. Use punctuation 3. Use the word wall 4. Use spacing 5. Use lowercase letters.
Our fairy tale study began with a reading of Cinderella with our Book Buddies. During job time the children traced their buddies shoes of feet to make an outline of their “glass slipper” and measured their glass slippers using blocks, cubes, rulers and dominoes.
During Reader’s Workshop we read Cinderella Skeleton and created our own silly Cinderella stories. In one story Cinderella was an Alien who lost a heart when the clock struck midnight and danced with a monster at the ball and lived in outer space forever…

New Year... New News!

2010-01-11T21:02:00.000-08:00

ADLP movie from Lisa Bergin on Vimeo.

We are back with so much to catch up on! I apologize for the lack of recent pictures, but hope you enjoy the video and pod guide from our Avenida de la Playa study. To access the pod guide please click on the link below:
http://sites.google.com/site/kindergartenavenida/home

This week for word work we focused on the –at family. We had a shared reading of the book “Pat the Bat” and the children followed up the reading with their own copies that they could use to search for and high-light all of the –at words. We also brainstormed –at words and came up with 18! During job times the children played Roll & Write, practiced writing –at words and built word puzzles.
In math the children worked on writing their numbers to thirty, addition and subtraction problems to 20, and solving word problems that included multiple step addition and subtraction problems as well as fractions.
During Writers’ Workshop we worked on our new years resolutions using Snail Speak. Snail Speak is a fun way of stretching out words r-e-a-l-l-y s-l-o-w-l-y. The children also learned a game using snail speak that you can play at home. The children wrote resolutions for school, home and with their friends.
This week we also kicked off our Fairy Tale study by reading “The Frog Prince Continued” and “The Fairy Tale News”. The children shared ideas about what they already know about fairy tales (they will be on the white board for the remainder of our study) and what aspects of the story made it a fairy tale. On Friday they helped guide our fairy tale study by sharing things that they would like to learn more about.

What We Have Been Doing!

2009-12-14T21:27:00.000-08:00

From La Jolla Shores Market

This past Wednesday we completed our last field trip to Avenida de la Playa and are now beginning to reflect on all that we have learned. We have been so fortunate to be part of such an amazing community and the children have gained knowledge and experiences that could never be taught in the classroom.

From Singles

In the classroom we have been learning how to make maps and what makes a community. The students have made maps of their classroom, Avenida de la playa and of course their neighborhoods!
After learning about Maps we read the book Roxaboxen, which is a wonderful story about children and they town they created with their imagination. We then worked in small cooperative groups to make our own towns.

Roxaboxen 1 from Lisa J on Vimeo.

Roxaboxen from Lisa J on Vimeo.

From Singles

Thank you to all of the wonderful guest chefs we have had over the past few months. This past Monday we joined Lisa B’s class to read “The Runaway Tortilla” by Eric A. Kimmel. The children made tortillas from scratch and enjoyed making their own restaurant menus and puppets.

Untitled from Lisa J on Vimeo.

In Book Buddies we continued our exploration of domino math by playing “1-2-3 Flip”.

All About Avenida

2009-11-24T14:01:00.000-08:00

From LJBTC

The children have been busy learning about their community. We have been so fortunate to have the support of our families, the businesses and all of the community members surrounding Avenida de la Playa. The students enjoyed golfing a morning of golf, tennis, gardening, touring and enjoying milk and cookies by the pool. Please click on the LJBTC album tab to see some photographs of our trip.

From Dentist & Hotel

During our trip to the dentist the children learned how to make a silver/gold tooth, what dentists do if they need have a cavity and what they use to make your gums numb. After our trip to the dentist we visited our neighbors at Hotel La Jolla. We learned that there are 108 rooms and that we can see our school from the top floor! The highlight of the trip was getting into the shower and raising and lowering the shower covering (see the Hotel/Dentist album).

From Surf and Kayak

This past Friday we visited all of our favorite ocean sport stores. At Surf Diva J.L counted all of the hats he could find and told us that there are 159 hats! At Rusty’s Boardhouse we learned that Rusty is the name of the man who shapes all of the boards. Corey at La Jolla Kayak taught us how to paddle a kayak and even let us put on life jackets and get in (thankfully we stayed on dry land!).

Our Guest Scientist!

2009-11-05T13:39:00.000-08:00

From Guest Scientist

On Wednesday, S.H and his mom were our guest scientists!
"The experiment was from my grandma. My mom was actually not the helper, actually my grandma was. My grandma told my mom and my mom forgot a little bit. We poured chemicals into the cabbage water and it turned different colors. One turned green, one turned pink and one turned blue. The water was purple when we started. We got to wear scientist goggles because if the chemicals went on your eyes it would burn. Some of the chemicals smelled kind of weird so we wafted the smells. To waft the smells we moved our hand toward our nose to move them smell to our nose. We wafted the smell because you don't want to get the chemicals inside your nose because it might go up the nostril and down and out the other nostril." ~S.H

Our Visit to Station #9

2009-11-05T13:11:00.000-08:00

From Fire Station #9

On Tuesday we went on a field trip to the La Jolla Fire Station #9. This was the first of eight trips we will go on throughout our community study of Avenida de la Playa. The children were able to ride in the fire truck, find a hidden firefighter in the dark and wear "Firefighter Steve's" boots, pants, jacket and helmet. On the tour the children asked the firefighters questions about being a firefighter (see below). It was a great trip, thank you to all of the parent volunteers who made it happen.
• Is there a helicopter and pole? A.H
We have two helicopters at other stations, but we don’t have a pole.
• Do you have a pumper, a hook and ladder and a brush breaker truck? L.A.
Yes. There are all different kinds of rigs that attach to a truck. We have a pumper truck with 1,000 gallons of water and a 1,000 feet of hose and a pump. This is called a “fire engine”.
• What is it like to be a firefighter? J.L.
It is great and a lot of fun.
• What are your names? S.H.
Andy, Steve, Rich and Karen.
• How do you put out the fires? F.V.
Normally we use water.
• How do you put out brush fires? D.L.
We drive off road and use water and shovels.
• How do you use the brush breaker? D.R.
The brush breaker trucks drive off the road and have bigger wheels. They hold less water, because they are smaller, and we also use shovels.
• How do you breathe in the air mask and how does it connect to the tank? J.B.
The air mask is attached to the air tank with a tube.
• How do the helicopters dump out the water or chemicals? J.B.
Helicopters have a “door” with a bucket and they push a button to open the door. It’s like pouring out a glass of water.
• How do you put on your mask? A.H.
You have to attach the mask to the air tanks, because you need air when walk into a smokey fire.
• How do you put on your pants? A.A.
We put them on at the same time as our boots.
• How do you put on your boots? M.F.
They are attached to our pants, so we just step into them.
• How many fires have you put out? LM.W
There have been too many to count!
• Are there any girl fire fighters? Q.G
Yep!
• Do you take people to the hospital for surgery? P.B
Yes. We have an ambulance that will take them there if the need to have surgery.

Fun On the Playground

2009-10-17T13:26:00.000-07:00

From Fun On the Playground

On Friday during lunch recess some children decided to make a human flower while others were learning to fly (see album). Needless to say, fun was had by all!

Pumpkins Galore

2009-10-14T21:55:00.000-07:00

From Pumpkins and Butterflies

Lots of sharing in kindergarten has been occurring. Last week Q.G was kind enough to share the special release of her butterflies with us. To see more photos of the release, click on the photo above and it will link you to the Picasa album. D.L also shared the book Ten Red Apples with us. As we read the book we “flashed” the numbers 1-10 and discussed the different ways to flash numbers with our fingers. J.B also brought in a book about a class that wanted to count pumpkin seeds. After reading the story we learned that the number of seeds in a pumpkin depends on the number of ridges on the pumpkin. The following day we opened up our own pumpkins and roasted our own pumpkin seeds. After roasting them we were so excited to eat them that we completely forgot to count them! We did find out that the small pumpkin had the most seeds, followed the big pumpkin.

From Roasting Pumpkins

The Estrada family gave us our very own BIG Pumpkin. After measuring it we got to paint it, then wash it. To see activities we have done around our BIG Pumpkin click on the photo and you can follow the adventures of our pumpkin.

From Painting Pumpkins

In Math the children worked in small groups or independently to solve the math problem “Dominic and David want to count the seeds in their pumpkin. 5 seeds fit on the plate. If Dominic and David have scooped out ___ seeds, how many plates will they fill?” Each problem was individualized for each student.

From Math Problems

Where Is The Cat in the Hat?

2009-10-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

On Monday we arrived at school with a message from The Cat in the Hat, stating that he has run away and is off on an adventure. The children decided that they need to follow "clues" to find our missing cat. Below are the clues they found while they were at recess.

Cat Clues! from Lisa J on Vimeo.

2009-10-07T20:15:00.000-07:00

Before making our own pumpkin and apple pies the children have been working in collaborative groups to determine what ingredients we will need. LM and AA have decided to take this activity to the next level...

Pumpkin Song from Lisa J on Vimeo.

A Busy Week in Kindergarten

2009-10-03T14:45:00.000-07:00

What a week it has been! The children continued their apple study this week with measuring the height of our apples, singing an apple song with Lauren, using watercolors to paint an apple growing from a branch, comparing apples, hypothesizing on why apples were only growing on the top of one of our apple trees and brainstorming all of the things we can do with apples!

During Writer's Workshop the children continued to gain independence in stretching out their words and using a 2 finger space between each word. We finished our review on the leapfrog letters (F,E,D,P,R & B) and began our review on starting corner letters (H, K, N, & M). The focus of our handwriting has been bumping the lines and starting the letters at the top. If your child is writing at home please encourage them (or ask them to show you how) to properly form these letters.

In Math this week we began exploring the calendar and figuring out how to count the days we have been in school. The children suggested that we use the snack sign up calendar and our sign in sheets to tally our days in school so that is what we did. After determining that we had been in school for 15 days we explored all of the different ways to count to 15 (skip counting by 2's, 3's and 5's) and represent 15 (tallies, 15, buildings of 15 things) .

We also continued to solve word problems in our math notebooks. This week the children all worked on a subtraction word problem. Below you can see video's of the different methods students use to solve the same problem. SH chose to use his mental math, AH used blocks and JL used a picture. After solving the problem they explained their method to their classmates.

SH Pumpkin Problem from Lisa J on Vimeo.

JL Solving an Apple Problem from Lisa J on Vimeo.

AH Solves An Apple Problem from Lisa J on Vimeo.

In Book Buddies this week our second grade Book Buddies taught us how to play the math game "Poison Apple". After playing a few rounds we had some time to read our favorite books. This week I was also able to read with each of your children to determine which books would be "Just Right" for them. Everyone was very excited to read and I am looking forward to teaching them new strategies and making them their book baggies..

Keeping Busy in Kindergarten!

2009-09-23T19:04:00.000-07:00

The children have been busy getting used to their classroom routines, exploring new materials, making friends and learning new math and writing strategies. Last week the children were introduced to “Sharing the Pen”. This is an opportunity for the children to mix their inventive spelling with the conventional spelling patterns of words they would like to write. We will be using this strategy throughout the year and it is a great strategy to use at home when your children want to write with “book spelling”.

This week we had a lesson on how to write our Weekend Reports independently while focusing on stretching out our words and using spacing between each word. The children worked really hard and did an amazing job. This week they also began working on solving word problems in their math books. We had lessons on how mathematicians draw pictures without detail to help them solve problems and they also worked on using their words to describe our problem solving strategies to their classmates.

On Tuesday we had our first shared job time with friends in Room 6. We read the big book "Apples and Pumpkins" and discussed some of the differences between the apples and pumpkins. The children then solved a math problem with Lisa B and wrote about whether or not they would like to learn about apples or pumpkins with Lisa J.

On Wednesday we reviewed how to write the letters F, E, D, R and P. We focused on bumping the lines while starting all of the letters at the top, then leapfrogging back up to complete the letter. Our Book Buddies came to our classroom to participate in some of our favorite jobs (legos, playdough, building trains, free choice art etc.). The children have had a busy few days and I am looking forward to many more!

Magical Monday and Terrific Tuesday

2009-09-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

“On Monday morning Jesse helped us with morning jobs. After morning meeting we went to art with Carrie. We made a self-portraits on a piece of paper. We used colored pencils, markers and sharpies. For free choice at art we played with clay. In music we got to try all these different new instruments. One of them, you put your hand gently on the beads and you spin the handle and it makes a cool noise. After recess we went to Todd Time. At Todd Time we played Mr. Fox. After peaceful time we had a lesson on stretching words out. We pictured the word like a piece of bubblegum, then we chewed the bubblegum (word) in our mind then we stretched out the words to hear all of the letters and stretched it again and again and again until we wrote the last letter of the word. At the end of a thought (sentence) you put a dot (period).
Today after morning meeting Lisa A came in and talked to us about germs and washing our hands. She told us that when you cough, you should cough into your arm (not your hand). She told us that when you wash your hands you have to sing the whole alphabet. When you are done singing the alphabet you are done washing your hands! During job time at the Horseshoe table we made a book about our family. At the Little Low table I finished my butterfly bead thing. At the Rectangle table we grabbed bears and drawed how many we got and wrote down the number. Like 5 blue bears, 3 red bears and 2 green bears. At the Red Spin table we writed peoples names and we counted how many letters there are in their name. Two times I got 13 and one time I got eight. In the wet exploration table there was little magnet thingies, some of them were balls and some of them were flat round things. I was playing with J.B and D.R. In Spanish we writed our name and then we writed our school name TCS and then we drawed a picture of the school. I drawed the blacktop, the tree house, the basketball hoop and my brother’s classroom. During read aloud we readed another book by Peter H. Reynolds called The North Star. It was about this boy that was going on a journey and he saw a star. At the end of the book it said ‘The Beginning’ instead of ‘The End’ because it was the beginning of his journey.” ~M.F

Our Hopes and Dreams

2009-09-11T15:28:00.000-07:00

“Today at community meeting they showed us some new shirts and a video. After community meeting I went back to the classroom and played with play dough. After morning meeting we had job time. My have to job was to draw what I wished for kindergarten. I wished that the classroom was made out of toys. At the sparkle table there were crafts. It was really hot today. At Todd Time we played musical hoops and tunnel tag. After recess I visited Ryan in Room 2.” ~J.L
Below are the hopes and dreams of friends in Room 5:
“To surf and catch butterflies.” D.L
“To learn to read.” LM.W
“I want to learn to read.” Q.G
“Learn about volcanoes.” P.B
“The classroom (will have) has Lego's around.” A.H
“Run on the tires.” J.B
“To learn about bugs.” S.H
“To learn about tigers.” M.F
“To learn about camping.” D.R
“I want to learn about sharks.” A.H
“I want to learn to count to 101.” L.A
“I want to learn about dogs.” A.A
“Learn about dinosaurs.” F.V
“The classroom was made of toys.” J.L

The Dot

2009-09-10T15:30:00.000-07:00

Today we began our mini author study on Peter H. Reynolds by reading The Dot. While we read the story the children made connections between the frustration they feel when they cannot come up with an idea and the feeling Vashti was having in art class. Throughout the story the children discovered hidden dots and the illustrators artistic style. Below is a reflection of our day from J.B.
“After morning meeting we went to Spanish with Isabel. In Spanish we drawed pictures of animals doing stuff. They kind of dance. After Spanish we went back in the class and we read The Dot and Super Puffy. During job time I went to Legos and builded two guys with helmets that had a screen that lifted up and down. I also builded a guy with a jet pack and a police and a doctor holding a guy with a skateboard. At the Sparkle table I painted lots of dots. I painted yellow and blue dots. First I put the yellow then I put the blue. At the Red Spin table I colored dots with the oil pastels. At the Horseshoe table I made a calendar, writed words and drawed a picture. This year in kindergarten I want to learn all about Snow Leopards.” –J.B

Our First Day of Kindergarten

2009-09-08T19:24:00.000-07:00

The children survived their first day of kindergarten. We spent the day exploring around our classroom, naming our tables and making friends. Below you will find their first blog post of the year!
“I feel happy.” M.F
“I am looking forward to our field trips at school.” L.A
“I like school because you get to play. My favorite table is the Sparkle Table. I also like surfing.” A.H
“I had a great day. My favorite part was peaceful time because I got to read books.” J.L
“I started out the day happy, but I turned out exhausted. I am exhausted because I did a lot of work.” S.H
“I had a good day and I feel happy.” D.L
“I had a great day.” D.R
“I had a fun time playing with the Lego’s.” F.V
“I am exhausted from drawing.” A.H
“My favorite part of the day was recess because I love to do tricks on the blue bars!” L.W
“I liked finding the caterpillar. I put it in a cup in my parent file.” Q.R
“I was really really sad because I fell on my face and landed my eye on a tire.” J.B
“I had a fun day in kindergarten. I went to the movie theater yesterday!” A.A