Hope you all had a nice winter break part 1 this week!  During the past two day we have been working on the short Ii sound.  To remember the sound short Ii makes, we pretend like we are itching our arm.  We did our reading centers today, and I was able to meet with all the groups. Your child has a new book coming home tonight, if they have brought back their old one.  Looking forward to next week with our spirit days, Jack Frost Jam, and winter party!

Spirit Days:

Monday- Tacky Holiday Sweater

Tuesday- Jack Frost (wear blue and white)

Wednesday- Pajama Day

Have a nice weekend!

~Meredith

Could you hear the screams of joy as the first snowflakes of the season fell this week?!  We were lucky enough to be outside when the snow started and see the kids reactions.

We had a busy, busy week in room 135.  We are working hard while still sneaking in some extra fun as we get closer to the winter break.  I enjoyed listening to the students present their Holiday Tradition project today.  They were very excited and proud to share about their holiday.

Our Winter Party will be on 12/18 from 12:45-1:45!  Be on the lookout for a sign up on myschoolanywhere for volunteering or sending in supplies for the party!  Thank you to Mrs. Huntley for organizing this fun event for our class!

Please remember to read the Coyote Courier every week to keep on top of school wide events and news!

Highlights from the week:

~In language arts, our focus was on short Aa sound and working on our sight words.  Our literacy centers had some extra fun rotations! Using our sight words, we made candy canes and used QR codes to listen to stories.  Next week, our focus will be on the short Ii sound!

~In math, we continued with number sense with a focus on tens and ones. Using the ten rods and one cubes students had to figure out what number was being built.  We also began discussion about part-part-whole.  This is when we break a number down by parts to make the whole. We will continue our number sense unit next week.

In social studies and science, we learned about needs and wants.  This is always a highly debated discussion on what is a need and what is want.  I always enjoy hearing the opinions as the students try and state their case of why something is a need or want.  They all agreed that a smartphone is a need for an adult, but not for a kid!

Have a great weekend!

~Meredith

It is hard to believe we made it to December!  We settled right back into our routines after our Thanksgiving break.  We are already very excited about the upcoming holidays and winter break.  It’s hard to believe it is only 2 ½  weeks away!

Just a reminder that I will be placing an order for Scholastic Book Club on Monday.  If you are interested in new books before the break, please go to https://clubs.scholastic.com/ and enter our class code J8JV4. Thanks to those that have already placed an order!

All students will have a bag of books that we have been working on in our small groups. Students are keeping the books in their desk, but can also take them home.  If they bring them home, just make sure it makes its way back into the backpack.

From Ed Krauss (music teacher):

Celebrate the holidays and upcoming winter break by attending the KES Winter Music Fest, Thursday, December 13^th @ 6:30pm in our gym! Enjoy an evening of song and merriment as our talented musicians, singers and dancers in grades 3-5 perform songs from the great American holiday songs collection, which you can be certain will warm your heart and put a smile on your face. That’s Thursday, December 13^th @ 6:30pm in our gym and dress for the party!

Highlights from the week:

~In language arts, our focus was on the letters Bb and Mm, sight words, and writing prompts!  We made reindeer by listening to step by step directions and then wrote about where our reindeer would like to go.  The reindeer are hanging up and turned out super cute. One of my favorite things to see are these budding writers put pen to paper.  They get so excited to see their ideas on paper.

~In math, we finished up our unit on graphs. We had a lot of fun this week making our own graphs, collecting data, putting our graph together, and then analyzing the data.  Today we did a few graphs using tally marks.  It was great practice for counting by 5’s! Next week we will start our unit on number sense.

In science, we learned about magnets and the terms repel and attract. We started off the week with an awesome lesson from the Young Scientists! We also discussed that magnets have a north and south pole.  We learned that when you put the opposite sides together they attract and that the same sides repel. We thought it was really neat to feel the same sides of the magnets pushing apart. We used our magnets to find things in the room that our magnet was attracted too.  Some favorites were the trash can, chair legs, and scissors.

Have a great weekend!
~Meredith

It was so nice to finally see the sun today! We had another productive week in room 135 and enjoyed learning about Thanksgiving.  I hope everyone has a wonderful few days off next week and can enjoy some time with family and friends.  I am thankful to work with your sweet kiddos every day!

Highlights from the week

~In language arts, our focus was on the letter Q and ending sounds.  We also had some fun Thanksgiving activities. One story we read was called Turkey Trouble. It was a fun story about how one turkey had many disguises so the farmer wouldn’t find him.  The students then had to come up with a disguise for the turkey.  There were many creative ideas! Today we made some turkey necklaces with a fun poem on back.  The kids are excited to show these off on Thanksgiving Day! The best part about today was the QU wedding!!! We had a blast!  Check out the pictures under the photos tab!

~In math, we started our unit on graphs and collecting data. We learned about the different parts of a graph, watched a Brainpop Jr. about pictographs, and learned about tally marks. We also made lots of different types of graphs from types of shoes to Thanksgiving items.  When the graphs are complete we had a fun time analyzing the data to see what has the most and least. Some students even use their choice time to make their own graphs! We will continue our unit on graphs for the next couple weeks.

In social studies and science, we learned about the first Thanksgiving and why we celebrate it today. We also discussed our own Thanksgiving traditions. The class was nice enough to tell me how to cook a turkey. Wow! I never know there were so many different ways to cook a turkey. Please enjoy your child’s directions coming home in the orange folder.

Have a great weekend and a wonderful Thanksgiving!

~Meredith

What a great week at KES!  Our Veteran’ s Day assembly was truly moving and a great show of our appreciation for all that have served our country.  Our class was lucky to have a front row seat during the assembly.  Thank you to everyone who sent in items for our care packages.

Highlights from the week:

~In language arts, our focus was on the letter Xx and sentence writing. My two favorite words they came up with for Xx were Netflix and TJ Maxx. J We also did a multi letter picture sort, then tried writing the word that went with the picture.  On Wednesday we made thank you cards for our soldiers that will be put in the care packages! Next week our focus will be on the letter Qq.  We will also be having writing activities centered around Thanksgiving and have our Qu wedding.

~In math, we finished up our unit on patterns.  Students did an excellent job naming the core and extending patterns on their own.  During our math centers students had to make their own “challenge” pattern and see if their partner could extend it.  Some of them were really hard!  Next week, start our unit on graphing.

In social studies and science, we learned about past and present.  We read books and compared pictures about different items form the past and how they look today.  We also learned about a website called Pebblego where we can do research!  We researched the different between things from long ago and today. On Thursday, we had our book buddies from Mrs. Terry’s class help us with past/present activity using QR codes! This unit always makes me feel so old when I tell them how in the olden days they didn’t have smart phones and used chalkboards in their classrooms! J

Have a great weekend!

~Meredith

We made it to November and through Halloween….on a Wednesday!  It is hard to believe we have come to the end of the 1^st quarter.  The students have grown so much in the past nine weeks. This is a great group of kids and I am looking forward to a successful 2^nd quarter as well!

We had a blast yesterday with our Fall Stations! We did apple painting, counted how many seeds were in a pumpkin, tasted different color apples, did a pumpkin investigation, and tried to stack apples with only play dough! Thank you to all the volunteers that came to help out.  I couldn’t have done it without you!

If you are interested in donating items for our deployed troops, then please use this link to see what they need. Thanks!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BmdTd_kVFtc0BFqeQ_ypUczyX4koK7vQo7mGt1FuEzs/edit?usp=sharing

Highlights from the week:

~In language arts, our focus was on the letters Jj and Ww.  During our writing we wrote about what we would do if we had one wish. We also wrote about what I should be for Halloween, there were some very creative costumes! These budding writers are working hard to use lowercase letters, spacing, and staying on the line. Next week our focus will be on the letter Xx and sentence writing.

~In math, I finished the math screener with all the students and will share those results at conference time. We reviewed many math skills with fun math stations. We also read a story called, Ten Black Dots. Then in pairs, students had to come up with a picture with their own black dots and write about it.  Next week, we dive deeper into patterns.

In science, we learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin.  We read books and watched a video about how a pumpkin starts out as a seed and all the stages it goes through. Ask your child if you can name all the stages. We also read our first Scholastic News magazine and were excited to take it home. Next week we will be learning about past and present.

Have a great weekend! I’ll be in Raleigh all weekend for a soccer tournament!
~Meredith

We had a fabulous time on our field trip today!  Luckily we picked our pumpkins right before the rain started to steadily come down.  A HUGE thank you to all the chaperones that came with us!

In Language Arts, we focused on the letters Dd and Ff.  Each week we practice writing our letters in our handwriting booklet.  When we take our time, we have beautiful handwriting!  As we say each week, “Always start your letters at the top!” We also made our amazing class book titled, The Haunted House! Each student contributed their own page and we worked together to make all our pages make sense in a story. Be on the lookout for it coming home!

In math, we learned how to count by 5’s to 30 and 10’s to 100.  We learned some fun songs, had many hands on activities, and used cards to put each other in order. Next week, we will have use math centers to review skills we learned during the first quarter. I will also be pulling students to complete a HCPS math screener. The results will be shared with you during conferences.

In science, we finished our five senses unit.  A fun way to end the unit was to use ALL our senses to make popcorn! In order to pop the popcorn, we went to use the microwaves in the teachers’ lounge.  That was probably more exciting than the popcorn. 🙂 Next week we will learn about a pumpkin life cycle and participate in our fall stations! Thank you to everyone that has signed up to volunteer or send supplies in.

Remember to wear orange and black on Halloween!

Have a wonderful weekend!

~Meredith

TGIF!  We had a very productive week in room 135.  It’s been a while since we came to school for five days! We have done many of the PALs assessments this week and are looking forward to finishing up next week.

Please remember that next Friday is our field trip to Ashland Berry Farm.  Please make sure your child has a disposable bag lunch and is dressed for the weather. It should be a fun day!

Highlights from the week:

~In language arts, we focused on the letter Yy and Zz. We also reviewed all the letters we have learned this year. To help us review we played a class game called, “I Have, Who Has.”  We also had literacy centers focusing on many of the letter sounds and sight words we have learned this year.  We also made our illustration for our poem, “P” is for Pumpkin. Next week our focus will be on the letters Dd and Ff as well as some fun Halloween writing activities!

~In math, our focus was on the numbers 1-5.  To explore these numbers, we had math stations where we did many hands on activities. Students had story mats where they created and acted out their own number problem, completed a number puzzle, built structures out of linking cubes, and worked on number sense activities with me in small groups.  Next week we will begin skip counting by 5’s and 10’s, as well as, counting backwards.

~In science we learned about the 5 senses!  We watched a Brain Pop Jr., read books, and used our eyes to draw things we saw around the school.  Today, we used our sense of smell to try and figure out what was in some containers.  My favorite one was the aftershave because they all said it smelt like their dad!

Have a great weekend!
~Meredith

We had a super FUN Friday today!  To end our unit on apples we made homemade applesauce! Each student helped cut up a few apple slices and put them in the slow cooker.  We added some cinnamon, sugar, and let it cook for about 4 hours.  Our classroom smelled delicious!  Most of the class tried the applesauce and enjoyed it.

Yesterday, we went to the book fair preview to check out all the new books.  They took home their “wish list “on Thursday. Check out the book fair hours on the Coyote Courier or on the homework sheet.

There are two important items coming home today in the folder.  First, is the permission form for our field trip to Ashland Berry Farm on 10/26! The cost of the trip is $8 per student.  You can go online to pay OR send in a check made out to KES for $8. The second item is a large cut out of a person. I explained to the class today that we will learn about community helpers next week.  Their only homework for the week will be to transform this cut out into something they want to be when they grow up.  Look for more detailed instructions in the orange folder.

Highlights from the week:

In language arts, we focused on the Hh and Cc sound.  We also learned that non-fiction books have a table of contents and what that means.  The class is continuing to do an amazing job staying on task and working together during their literacy centers. We have started to write more and learning how to s-t-r-e-t-c-h out our words to hear all the sounds.  Next week we will focus on the letters Ll and Kk.

~In math, our focus was on counting sets of 10 and building numbers 1-5.  We played a couple fun hands on games to help us learn this skill as well as showing what we know on paper. Next week we will be learning about describe the location and orientation of things.

~In social studies and science, we learned about the apple like cycle and Johnny Appleseed. We made apples and labeled all the parts, read books, watched a Brain Pop Jr., and of course made apple sauce! We will learn about community helpers next week!

Have a great three day weekend!

We made it through September!  It is hard to believe that we have been Kindergarteners for a whole month.  In 4 short weeks they have been able to tackle new responsibilities, make new friends, and take risks.  I look forward to continued success in these areas.

On October 5th, our entire school will participate in Mr. Kaechele Day. We will celebrate by wearing his favorite color (BLUE), lunch choices that day will be his favorite food            (Meatball subs and vanilla ice cream), and at recess his favorite sports game (golf) will be available. One of his daughters will also come read to our class.  Please have your child wear BLUE on Friday!

Highlights from the week:

~In language arts, we focused on the letter Gg and Pp and reviewed the sounds we have already introduced. To help us review we played a class game called, “I Have, Who Has.”  We also had literacy centers and are continuing to work on staying on task during our literacy centers. They improve on this every day!  Today we made our illustration for our poem, “My Family”. Next week our focus will be on the letters Hh and Cc and the difference between fiction and nonfiction!

~In math, our focus was on patterns.  We found patterns everywhere we looked this week!  We even had fun finding them on our clothes.  We watched a BrainPop Jr. about patterns and read some books about patterns. We had fun in our math centers where we practiced AB, ABB, and ABC patterns.  We used unifix cubes, links, pom poms, pattern blocks, and dot markers to help us master our patterns. Next week we will learning how to count sets with no more than 10 objects.

In social studies we introduced the season Fall and how it was different from the other seasons.  We made a T chart to show differences between summer and Autumn, painted a Fall tree using water colors, and read many books.  We also learned about how some books are to inform us and how some are to entertain. We had a great discussion on what clues we can find in the books to help us figure it out.  We will continue with Fall next week with the focus being on apples and Johnny Appleseed.

Have a great weekend!
~Meredith