K Red- Duckworth

 

Hello! It's May Day!

 

Here's how our school days went this week:

 

 

Our students arrived recharged for their school week. They started out the day by catching up their April Calendars, then worked on a Bunny Craft that will go in their Calendar Folders. 

 

After Morning Meeting, I asked everyone to bring their Readers to the carpet. We read "The Wind on the Hill" together. 

 

I did a mini-lesson on Pop Art and introduced them to artist Andy Warhol. I showed some pictures of him, then some pictures of his paintings. Ms. Masters had made a sample of the Art Project we would be completing, so I showed this to the kids to explain the procedure for what we would do. I told them I would be taking pictures ("Mug Shots", see Maggie, above) of them later in the morning.

 

In Reading Groups, two groups listened to Rooster's Off to See the World by Eric Carle. Two groups played a word game with Mrs. Wolfe. Two groups did Write the Room. Two groups did a compound words game with me.

 

The read-aloud for the day included all the months of the year as it told the story of a hermit crab who was looking for a new home. This was Eric Carle's A House for Hermit Crab. 

 

For our Math/Writing Block, I introduced the Writing lesson by doing a mini-lesson about Pets. I read through the sentence stem on the page, then talked through several different sentences I could write using the word bank on the left side of the page. Then I showed the class the Math Workbook page about things we do on each day of the week. I dismissed them to work on both of these assignments, Math first (with a timer set for 15 minutes), followed by Writing.

 

I took the Mug Shot pictures of the students for the Andy Warhol project.

 

After Lunch and Recess, we practiced for Graduation. Then we came back to the room to work on yet another Art Project  - this one based on the work of Mary Blair. Blair was a talented artist who worked for the Disney company as an animator, author, and designer from the 1940's to the 1960's. She designed the attraction "It's a Small World" at Disneyland. https://www.designingdisney.com/parks/disneyland-paris/disneyland-park/fantasyland/designing-its-small-world-mary-blair/

 

My classes and Ms. Masters' classes will be making a collaborative project that will be our stage backdrop for Graduation!

 

We cleaned up and lined up for Dismissal.

 

 

On Wednesday, Mrs. Wolfe had set up desks with copies of the new May Calendar. Since they only had to write a "1" in the appropriate box and color the banner at the top, I gave them some time to do a little watercolor painting.

 

We learned the new Signal Word for the month of May, then came to the carpet for Morning Meeting. We started a new chapter of Little Pilgrim, practiced all our Bible Verses, etc.

 

Then we got down to the business of the morning - Animal Reports! We did the first 8 before Snack and Recess, then did the remaining 7 before Lunch. It really took us the entire morning to do all the presentations! But they were fantastic! The kids were so excited to hear about all the animals. They clapped after each page as their classmates were presenting!

 

We had a wonderful variety of animals, all different.

 

Emory: Sea Turtles

Ellie: Hippos

Evie: Pink River Dolphins

Emerson: Capybaras

Levi: Spinosaurus

Addie: Red Pandas

Jake: Saber-Tooth Tiger

Silas: Blue-Ringed Octopus

Maggie: Koala

Brooklyn: Kangaroos

Everett: Coelacanths

Quinn: Black Bears

Rosie Mae: Cheetahs

Wilder: Lizards

Beckham: Flying Squirrels

 

Again, after Lunch and Recess, we had Graduation Practice. Then we came back to the classroom to work on coloring our Andy Warhol Pop Art Projects.

 

We cleaned up, then dismissed for the day.

 

 

And that's a wrap!

Mrs. Duckworth

 

 

 

 

Shout Out! to those that brought in shopping bags and Ziplocs. We've got plenty of the shopping bags now. 

 

Syllabus Work: We did not get to do any of the syllabus work today, since the Animal Report Presentations were happening all morning. I'll need to change the syllabus for next year so that we don't have any other assignments on Animal Report Day.

 

Field Day is Monday, May 6. Please watch out for school-wide announcements from organizer Janie Wells. I know you've all got your orange to wear! I'll see you there. No school that day, just Field Day activities up till noon.

 

 

Hey, all!

 

We've had a busy and productive week in Kindergarten! This week, we learned a bit about savannas, as in Africa. So we started each day by doing our Morning Work to the classic soundtrack from Disney's The Lion King. That makes for a toe-tapping good time! The kids caught up their Calendars, then colored, cut out, and glued on some adorable simbas. And we learned that simba is actually the Swahili word for "lion." Pretty cool!

 

At our Morning Meeting, we finished up a chapter of Little Pilgrim's Big Journey, Part 3. I've probably already told y'all this, but this is my first year reading the Part 3, because it is newly published. Such great lessons. The kids eat it up!

 

To kick off our Reading Block, I had a paper on which I had written the sentences that describe "Biff" from our reader story "Biff and the Bathtub." I put it on the board and had the students read each sentences as I traced the original pencil with sharpie. I told them they would be drawing the creature that went with this description (round face, big eyes, big smile, fur, long tail, sharp teeth, claws) during Reading Groups. It was interesting to hear the kinds of creatures they thought this might describe. I didn't let on that it was the monster from the story. Some thought it was a jaguar or a dinosaur. 

 

Next, I introduced the habitat for the week - savannas - by showing pictures, telling fun facts, and revealing pictures of the animals that live there. At their desks, students completed an animal sort of animals that live in a savanna and animals that do not live in a savanna. 

 

We dismissed to Reading Groups. Two groups read from Book Bins. Two groups drew and colored the picture of Biff. Two groups did a Ziggy Game with Mrs. Wolfe. Two groups read from the reader with me and read fluency practice sentences. 

 

The read-aloud was We All Went On Safari: A Counting Journey Through Tanzania by Laurie Krebs. I LOVE this book! It's a beautifully-illustrated, rhyming counting book. The pictures are pretty realistic. It shows different numbers of savanna animals and Maasai people on each two-page spread. It gives the Swahili word for each number. At the end of the book, we also read the Swahili names for all the animals. The kids loved trying to say all these! 

 

After Snack and Recess, we began our Math Block by skipping across the carpet while skip-counting by 2's. Then we stretched while counting to 100 by 5's, and jumped while counting to 100 by 10's. We sang our 3's song, too. Since it was a review day for Math concepts, we did a Splat and an Estimation Jar filled with dominos.

 

We sang the "12 Months of the Year" song, then I placed magnetic strips on the board with the names of the months. I grouped them according to seasons and wrote the season names. Then we brainstormed holidays and activities we could do in each month, in preparation for this week's workbook lessons.

 

At desks, our helpers had set out felt mats and Pattern Blocks. We reviewed making various patterns. I gave out rulers and asked them to measure the length of each of their patterns. Then I let them make a freestyle symmetrical design. 

 

We went over how to do the Writing Lesson about helpers, then everyone completed that page in their workbooks.

 

After Lunch and Recess, we had an extra-long Graduation Practice. Then we came back to the classroom to paint! Several students got to work on their Jackson Pollock painting while others sponge painted some props we're using for Graduation. Wow! We had paint all over the place. It took three adults to clean it all afterward. We had to be very creative in finding drying space for all these creations!!! There were paintings all down the hall on the floor, on every horizontal surface in the classroom, in every cubbie, nook, and cranny!

 

Mrs. Wolfe read a bit, then we sang our Goodbyes.

 

Wednesday started similarly, with the music, the calendars, and the coloring. This time, we were coloring a giraffe. Here's the cute lineup of twigas on our Gallery Wall, above. Students who needed to do their Jackson Pollock got to do those. And then we finally got to regain that real estate on our horseshoe table. Mrs. Wolfe was quite glad to be done with the paint. She's trying to coax me into foregoing any more paint this year, but there's still a few more weeks! LOL!

 

After Morning Meeting, we read "Biff and the Bathtub." They really liked this story and wanted to read it again. I told them we would do that in Reading Groups. 

 

I showed them a poem called, "Yellow." We read it a couple of times, then went to desks to mark it. They marked some sight words with various colors, then colored the word "yellow" with yellow crayon. We stood up and read it all together two times. Then we sat down and I called on individuals to read a line. We went through the poem four times in this fashion until all students had had a chance to read part of it alone. We collected these to put in their Calendar Folders.

 

We did our Reading Group rotations, then met at the carpet for two read-alouds. The first one was a photo book I had made and written the text for. First, I told the kids about the Basset Hounds our family had when our girls were growing up. The last two we had were brothers named "Tank" and "Duke." One year for Christmas, a family friend gave the girls little stuffed Basset Hounds. I had the idea to take these little guys on special trips and take pictures with them in all kinds of places. They went with Doug and I to Germany. Then they began to travel with friends who were visiting other countries. One went to Scotland and New Zealand. The other went to Tanzania.

The Tanzania trip was the basis of the photo book I read to the class. I called it Sir Bertram Barksalot's African Adventure. I used the photos our friend Shawna took with Bert. She even took him on a real safari! 

 

The second book I read was Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae. Although many of the students had read or seen this book before, we enjoyed sharing it.

 

We enjoyed our Snack and Recess, then got to work on our other academics. I got out the Writing Workbook and explained the assignment. I told them we would be doing it after we finished Math.

 

We started by doing another Domino Estimation Jar. We gathered around a table and counted by 2's to group dominos by tens. There were 154 dominoes in there! It took us a little while to count all those. But we got in some great practice in counting by 2's and 10's, and in grasping the concept of numbers up to and over 100! The hard part for them was writing down their estimates, since we haven't really learned how to write numbers over 100. But sometimes, it's good to struggle with a new concept.

 

I asked what holidays or activities students had drawn on their home Math page. Many students were eager to share what they'd drawn. We gave out 12-month Calendars to each student at their desks. We pointed to each month, said the name, then spelled the name aloud together. Then I asked them to point to random months as we skipped around. We gave Elbow Partners (two students seated beside each other) a set of cards with the months on them. They were to work together to place these in the correct order on their desk. One of us came by to check their work, then asked them to mix up the cards and try it again. 

 

When everyone completed and cleaned up from this task, I asked them to get out their Math Workbooks and complete the page. Once these were checked, I directed them to do their Writing. We shared the work of three students who had written very nice sentences and had colored their pictures carefully.

 

In the afternoon, we had another long Graduation Practice, then came back to the room to play. I gathered them at the carpet to practice a song, then Mrs. Wolfe read to them.

 

Guys, I got to tell some of you in person, but I was so excited listening to students read to me this week! It's like there's been a few lightbulbs turned on! It about makes me come out of my skin, let me tell you! {happy dance!}

 

 

And that's a wrap!

Proudly,

Mrs. Duckworth

 

 

 

In Need Of: A few gallon-sized and snack-sized ziploc baggies. Also large plastic shopping bags, like the Kroger Pick-Up bags. We like to use these to send home all the kids' classroom supplies the last week of school.

 

Animal Reports: Wednesday, May 1. We'll spread these presentations throughout the morning. Students will turn in the written report to me to evaluate.

 

Field Day: Monday, May 6 at Cokesbury. There will not be school that day. Only Field Day activities for Red and Blue classes. If you want to stay for the morning and are not volunteering for something else, you are welcome to hang around to help us keep our class together and to watch all the fun. I'll be bringing my rolling cooler for toting water bottles. 

 

 

I told the kids this morning that we have four weeks until Graduation; five more weeks of school! That's just ten more days together in Kindergarten! Wow! We are making the most of all the moments together and having the most fun we can have!

 

We celebrated Earth Day on Monday by reading Genesis 1:1, 28. God made the Earth and made the man and woman to fill the Earth and rule over the birds and animals. I asked everyone to trace the words of these important verses and to draw a picture of themselves taking care of creatures or a picture of the Earth. They made some wonderful drawings! They also caught up the April Calendars in their folders.

 

I told everyone that Mrs. Howard (Amy) had filled in last Wednesday as our classroom assistant and had complimented the class on how well-behaved and sweet they were! That gave us the 10th coin for our Compliments Bowl! I told the class we would have our Reward Day on Wednesday  - a Build-It Day!

 

We did our Morning Meeting Routine, then read "Ducks in a Truck" from the reader. I introduced the Desert Habitat, some Fun Facts, some pictures, some animals and plants. Students completed a Desert Animals Sort. We discussed their answers together.

 

In Reading Groups, two groups listened to Jack and the Beanstalk and the French Fries by Mark Teague. Two groups played a word game with Mrs. Wolfe. Two groups made torn-paper art Earths in their Fine Motor Journals. Two groups met with me to play a Find and Build the Word activity with C-V-C-e ("Ninja E") words.

 

I read I'm a Hare, So There by Julie Rowan-Zoch. It was a comic book-style story about the similarities and differences between various desert animals such as jackrabbits and hares, crows and ravens, chipmunks and ground squirrels, jackals and coyotes, and many more. It quickly became a class favorite! Several students went on to write about it in their Writing assignment later in the day.

 

After Snack and Recess, we began our Math Block by Counting to 100 with Jack Hartmann. I had asked Mrs. Wolfe to cover some of the numbers on the Hundred Chart with index cards. I called on stuednts to point to one of the index cards, then tell us what number was hidden underneath. I asked them to share their thinking in coming up with their answer.

 

I introduced the class to our Bean Counting Mats by placing one on the front board. The mat has five two-inch circles on the left and an open space on the right with a blank at the bottom. After explaining that each circle could hold exactly 10 beans, I wrote the number "35" on the blank, then used my dry erase marker to make ten marks (beans) in each of three circles. Then i made 5 marks on the right side for the "leftovers." I counted the dots in the circles by 10's, then counted five more by 1's to get 35.

 

At their desks, students practiced using the mats with beans to count out. Following this, we completed the Math Workbook page. 

 

I explained the Writing assignment ("My favorite book is ...") and assisted children in forming their sentences and sounding out words. I chose a couple of students' work to show to the whole class when we were finished.

 

We practiced for Graduation in the Castle for the first time, then returned to class to learn about our Artist of the Month (last month), Jackson Pollock. His style fits our Kindergarten audience to a "T." He used dripping and slinging methods to create very large works of art that were messy and abstract. I set up a "Splatter Box" so students could get their Jackson Pollock on and sling some paint on their own canvas. You'll get to see these colorful works at our Graduation Art Show. I was only able to get to a few students to do their painting, so I told them we would continue it next time.

 

We read from the April Mystery, then sang Goodbye.

 

 

Everyone was pumped for Wednesday, having already dubbed it, "The Best Day of School Ever!" Besides our Build-It Day, we were also having Class Store and more Jackson Pollock painting! Whoa, Nellie!

 

We got everyone and their duct tape and their toilet paper tubes situated, then got started with the busy day. After Calendar Folders, students got to wander around the room with clipboards to do a special Earth Day Write the Room. 

 

After Morning Meeting, we started our Reading Block with a long Phonics Routine. I taught them to "chop" words into sounds, then put them together. Then I taught them to "roller coaster" words to blend the sounds and to isolate the vowel sound and tell if it was short or long. Next, we used sentence strips in the Pocket Chart to do a Fluency Routine. I had taken some sentences from "Ducks in a Truck" and broken them into one-word chunks. "The," "The truck," "The truck on," "The truck on the," "The truck on the path," etc. We changed the last word of the sentence several times to match the sentences in the story. After reading through all of it with the whole class, I called on individual students to read it for us.

 

We did our Reading Group rotations, then I read Cactus Hotel by Brenda Z. Guiberson. They enjoyed hearing about all the birds and animals that sheltered inside a saguaro cactus over its 150-year lifespan!

 

For Math, we practiced counting to 100 by 5's several different ways. Then I asked students to circle all the numbers you would say when counting to 100 by 5's on a Hundred Chart, then say them to a partner. When they finished, I asked them to do their Math Lesson, followed by the Writing Lesson. Again, I chose some Writing to share with the class.

 

While students played Math Partner Games, I called them up two at a time to purchase items from the Class Store. We got all the shopping done in time for Lunch.

 

After Lunch, we decided to skip Recess so we would have more time to do our Build-It Projects! They were raring to go! They were able to work for a little while before taking a break to do a brief Graduation Practice. Then we came back and picked up with more building. While students were engrossed in their creative building, I called some of them to do their Jackson Pollock painting. We got a few more done, but will still need another day to finish these up.

 

I chose the photo above because Silas was rightfully proud of his creation, but you can see all that's going on behind him, too. Levi and Wilder are playing with Levi's sword he made. Rosie is delighted with having figured out how to hold her sword together. Addie is excited about one of her projects. Emerson and Everett are focused on creating. Jake is in the back getting more supplies from the bin. I'm helping Quinn with his painting. 

 

They were so thrilled that they could make ANYTHING they wanted, that they could make AS MANY THINGS as they wanted, and that they got to take everything home with them! I was so impressed with their imagination, their engineering skills, their craftsmanship, and their sharing of ideas. They were so excited for each other and would help each other make telescopes (I think Everett made the first one and put the Eclipse inside it!), binoculars, masks, swords, dinosaurs (Levi was busy drawing dinosaurs with markers on several friends' projects!), cell phones, tablets (Maggie and Emory were making all the "technology") and animals (Evie, Addie, and Silas made great ones!). At the end of the day, we cleaned up quickly and briefly shared what we made.

 

Which brings me to the title of this post. When I asked Silas if his animal was a lion, he said, "No! It's an axolotl!" Of course, it is!!! Lol! 

 

I can't tell you how exhausted I was at the end of the day! Mrs. Wolfe called me crazy for trying to do all that in one day. Yeah...but there's only ten more days together! 

 

 

Love y'all!

Mrs. Duckworth

 

 

 

Shout out! Thanks for your great response to sending in Dollars for Art! We got the cost of the canvases covered!

 

Shout out! For sending in duct tape, masking tape, and cardboard tubes for Build-It Day! It's a great Earth Day Activity - all about the recycling!

 

Reminder: You don't need to send in a Calendar for Math next week.

 

Reminder 2: Don't forget water bottles and a change of clothes each school day. It's getting HOT outside and we are all out of cups.

 

By the way... If I've forgotten to tell you, we do Graduation the week before the final week of school. Yes, we still come to school after Graduation. It gives us a chance to relax and have some fun after the pressure of our Graduation Program is done!

 

 

Hey, y'all!

 

It looks like you're going to get a second scoop of goodness this week. Are you ready for Update #2?

 

 

First off, I was supposed to be gone today. I was gone from school and was supposed to be on my way to Virginia.

 

I got news late yesterday afternoon that my father-in-law had been transferred from the rehab center back to the hospital and was "very sick." My sister-in-law called me later from the hospital and said he had coded on the way, but the transport team had revived him. My husband was hopping a redeye from Nevada back to Raleigh/Durham, so I thought I'd better prepare to go.

 

As I bustled about this morning, my husband called to say that his Dad had made it through the night and was stable. Doug preferred that I wait and come tomorrow. So I took the day to organize, write lesson plans, do chores, and rest so I'll be ready to leave in the morning. Many of you have reached out to let me know you're praying for our family. Thank you!

 

Mrs. Wolfe filled in for me today and had a surprise assistant - Amy Howard! I stopped by school right after pickup to deliver some books, supplies, and lesson plans and had a chance to debrief with Mrs. Wolfe about the day.

 

Kids checked in and did their Calendar for Morning Work. As they finished, Mrs. Wolfe gave them an eclipse-themed craft to do.

 

They had Morning Meeting, then started into the Reading Block. Today, the Ocean Habitat theme was on the docket. Students came up to the Pocket Chart and took turns flipping over some pictures of Ocean Animals. Mrs. Wolfe shared some facts about Ocean Habitats and How to Build an Ocean Habitat. Then students went to their desks to complete an Ocean Animals Sort. 

 

Reading Groups were up next. Two groups of students read books from Book Bins. Two groups played a word game with Mrs. Amy. Two groups read from the reader and built words with word tiles with Mrs. Wolfe. Two groups made an underwater scene with fish cut out of ovals and curvy lines to make scales and waves.

 

The read-aloud was Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau by Jennifer Berne. I grew up watching Jacques Cousteau on TV, so I was delighted to find this wonderful book about his life. He invented and improved upon lots of the sea diver equipment that's used today. He also developed methods of filming underwater and bringing that footage to movie theaters and television screens for the first time.

 

Snack and Indoor Recess.

 

For the Math Block, the class was joined by two high school students who have been helping out during their free period - Luka Bella and Mia. These young ladies have been a big help to us in assisting our students with our hands-on Math. 

 

To warm up, the class practiced counting by 2's and 10's. They stood in a circle and played a Counting by 10's Game, where each person around the circle says the next number as they count by 10 to 100. Each time they get to 100, the person who said "100" sits down. Play continues until all but one are seated.

 

The students went to their desks and did their Math Workbook page. As they finished and were checked, they got out their Writing Books and did the two-page introduction to Opinion Writing.

 

Quiet Lunch and Outdoor Recess.

 

To continue the Ocean Theme, Mrs. Wolfe introduced the students to some new vocabulary describing the five underwater zones of the ocean. I had placed a color copy of the five zones on the board. The surface of the ocean was very blue, then each succeeding layer got darker. Next, they talked about what animals and fish live in each layer. Mrs. Wolfe gave out sheets that had little pictures of all the animals. Students tried to decide which zone each would live in. Mrs. Wolfe then placed her color copies of the creatures in the correct zones on the board. Students could then correct their own work and glue the creatures in the correct zones on their copies.

 

Clean up and Mystery Book, then time for Pickup!

 

 

That's a wrap!

Blessings,

Mrs. Duckworth

 

 

 

Dollars for Art: Thanks to those that have already sent in $1 for defraying the cost of the art canvases for our next project. 

 

Class Store: Next Wednesday

 

Hey, everyone!

 

We keep having unusual weeks for Red Class. Last week, no Monday class. This week, Eclipse Day! I did all the Eclipse activities with my Blue Class last Thursday, so I thought I would go ahead and report to you today. I'll send another update on Wednesday this week.

 

I've just come in from a half-hour walking around outside in the rain. From where I was, I couldn't see anything in the sky except clouds. It did get darker and a little bit cooler. The street lights came on. I really hope you had a better view from where you were!

 

My daughter, Abby, sent me a meme last night:

"not to spoil the eclipse for y'all but bella chooses edward lol"

My daughters and I were Twi-hards back in the day. So if any of you were, also, you'll get the reference!

 

Anyway, here's what we crammed into this morning:

 

Evie arrived wearing a cute planets dress. Maggie was sporting a black t-shirt dress on which she had painted an eclipse - very cool!

 

I was playing my "Sun" Playlist.

 

The kids caught up their April Calendars. I had them cut out a "Little Moon" and attach it to a craft stick. They set these aside to dry and use later. Next, I had them cut out a sun, moon, earth, and two strips. We hole-punched these and put them together to make an eclipse model. I asked them to keep these on their desk also.

 

We had our Morning Meeting. The part of the devotion book we read today had three characters riding horseback, which led to everyone raising their hand to tell us their horse stories. So that was a little bunny trail we hopped down for a few...

 

I used the planets we have hanging from the ceiling to explain what "orbit" means. I pointed to the little moon next to the Earth and showed how it orbits the Earth once every month. Then I pointed to the Earth and walked around the Sun to show the orbit of the Earth once every year. I explained that the Earth, Moon, and Sun line up to create a Solar Eclipse every once in a while. The kids wanted to know how the tiny Moon can block out the giant Sun. I showed them my "Little Moon" on the craft stick. I covered one eye with my hand, then held the Little Moon fairly closely in front of the other eye as I faced toward the Sun (the one on our ceiling). Since the Moon is very close to me, it can completely block my view of the Sun. I told them that's what would be happening in the sky today. I asked them to get their Little Moons from their desks and try it. We helped everyone do it successfully.

 

We began our Reading Block with a lesson on new sounds for /e/, /u/, /y/, and /ch/. Everyone is doing quite well with their phonemic awareness and were able to contribute lots of words that have those sounds.

 

Following this, I introduced some Eclipse Vocabulary words. We learned "sun," "solar," "moon," "lunar," "earth," "eclipse," "totality," and "corona." Then I read an informational text called, "Solar Eclipse" that also included definitions for these words. I gave out emergent readers titled, "Solar Eclipse." We read the booklet together. I told the students they were going to be the illustrators. As they read the sentence on each page, they were to trace the vocabulary word, then draw a picture to match. When all were finished, I called on students to read each page. We put these in our take-home folders and got out our Writing Books.

 

Since the page we were doing in Writing had three boxes for illustrations, I asked the students to write three sentences about the eclipse. We titled the page, "The Eclipse," then wrote, "I see...", "I hear ...", and "I feel ...". We brainstormed some ideas, then set to work. Mrs. Wolfe and I assisted and corrected.

 

I called the class to the carpet, where I read the brand-new book, A Few Beautiful Minutes: Experiencing a Solar Eclipse, by Kate Allen Fox. The text was very poetic and I wasn't sure the kids would get into the style. But the illustrations were lovely and the story about people watching the Eclipse was spot-on. Emory said, "Mrs. Duckworth, that book should have one of those gold medals on it. I liked it so much!" The other kids agreed with her. So that was a yay!

 

We had Snack and a quick in-classroom Recess, because it started to drizzle right at Recess. I was running a super-tight ship this morning, because I was trying to fit in everything I needed and wanted to do. I had everything written down precisely. So, I called them to clean up and come to the carpet after exactly 15 minutes of play time.

 

For our Math Block, we started out by using our Hundred Chart to count to 50 by 2's. We still had the even numbers to 30 turned over to the "white side," so we added the rest of the even numbers to 50 as we counted. We used the Hundred Chart also to count to 50 by 10's. Then, I had everybody stand and do 50 exercises with me as we counted by 1's.

 

Next, I took out 5 little baggies of chocolate chips. (This idea came from the Teacher's Manual.) In each baggie, I had exactly 10 chocolate chips. I used magnets to hang each of these on the board. Under these, I wrote 10, 20 , 30, 40, 50. I asked several students to come up and pretend they were the Chocolate Shop clerks. I asked to buy 20 Chocolates; she gave me two baggies. We counted "10, 20." Another student came up and I asked if I could buy 40 Chocolates; he gave me 4 bags. We counted. "10, 20, 30, 40." Of course as with any activity where they get called on to take a turn, they asked if they would all get a turn. I told them that not everyone would get to do it today, but that we will do it again. I'm sure they'll remind me.

 

I gave out Partner Cards to pair them up. Each pair got a little bag with a set of Rocket Cards with even numbers 2 - 50. They were to work together to put the cards in number order to count by 2's from 2 to 50. We gave support where needed. As teams finished, I asked them to get out their Math Workbooks and complete the lesson page. Some of the kids struggled with counting the mittens by 2's. We'll keep working on this skill.

 

I gave everyone a little square card with an outline of any eclipse on it. I asked them to color it with colored pencils, then they were to cut it in half along a dotted line. Next, we gave them a little strip that had the heading, "I know about the solar eclipse!" They colored the little boy and girl wearing their Solar Glasses at the top of this strip. I gave them another strip that had 5 pictures showing the phases of the Eclipse. They were to color these and cut them apart, then glue them onto the first strip in the correct order. We helped them accordion-fold these into little booklets.

 

At last, we got around to talking about the Eclipse Craft they had put together during Morning Work. Mrs. Wolfe and I had put these together for them with brads so each piece could rotate. I asked everyone to stretch all the pieces out. First, I told them to show the Moon orbiting around the Earth. They did this. Then, I told them to show the Moon and Earth orbiting the Sun. They did this. Last, I told them to line up the three, with the Moon between the Sun and Earth. They did. That's the Eclipse! I hope they can explain it to you.

 

I gave everyone their special Eclipse Crowns and we took some fun pictures making our "oooh and ahhhh" faces!

 

We cleared off the desks, asked the blessing, then shared our special Eclipse Snack. Everyone got a Capri SUN, SUN Chips, and an ECLIPSE cookie (These showed various phases of the Eclipse with chocolate and plain cookie sort of "yin and yanged" together!). 

 

The kids were so grateful for the Crowns and the Snacks. They wanted to tell all of the Moms "Thank You!" And so do I! Thank you to Amy for the Eclipse Glasses, to Mariannina for the Capri Suns, to Jen for the Sun Chips, and to Erin for the Cookies and plates! 

 

 

That's all for now. Whew! We did it!

I'll update again on Wednesday, so look for that.

Mrs. Duckworth

 

 

 

Art Project: We will be doing an art project this week (I hope) that involves an 8 x 10 canvas. I went ahead and bought these in bulk. If you would like to contribute and can bring $1 for these, that would be great!

 

 

 

Hey, All!

 

This amazing double rainbow appeared on Easter afternoon as my husband and I returned to the hospital where my husband had spent the last four nights by his Dad's bedside. I had convinced him to take a break for a couple of hours so we could drive over to his Dad's house to get a shower. Emotionally drained and physically exhausted, we looked to the sky where God's covenant promise shone vividly throughout the 25-minute drive. Not only did the rainbows not fade as we neared the hospital, but we noticed that they were centered just above it.

 

Wow!

 

Our lives are filled with difficult conversations, decisions, and situations right now. I know we aren't the only ones. I hope these rainbows will also remind you of God's promises. The God who promised never to flood the whole world again also promised He will never leave or forsake us, that He will be our refuge and strength, that He will sustain us, that He hears us and sees us, that He will give us peace, that He's preparing a place for us, that He has saved, is saving, and will save us.

 

Now, about our day in school today:

 

Our students arrived to a brand-new April Calendar. They filled in the days, then copied pictures of ducks into their Fine Motor Journals. I told them of newly-assigned jobs for the week, taught them our new Signal Word, then called them to the carpet for Morning Meeting.

 

Again, our morning Devotional opened up some deep theological discussions. These books (Little Pilgrim's Big Journey) elicit such wonderful questions! I took as much time as I could to answer them. I taught the kids our new Bible Verse.

 

After a quick break, the kids brought their Cobweb the Cat books to the carpet so we could read and discuss "Pip the Milkman." Following this, I introduced our theme for the week: Rainforest Habitat. I had some full-color laminated pictures showing the environment, what elements make it up, and what animals live there. They loved taking turns coming to the Pocket Chart to flip over a card to see what animal was on it. After each, we all said, "A _______ lives in the rainforest." (lemur, anaconda, sloth, morpho butterfly, jaguar, etc.) We learned some new vocabulary, like the names of the layers of habitation in the rainforest: emergent layer, canopy, understory, and forest floor.

 

At their desks, students completed a Rainforest Animal Sort. They categorized eight animals as either living in a rainforest or not living in a rainforest. When everyone was finished, we talked through these to make sure everyone had sorted them correctly.

 

In Reading Groups, two groups listened to the story, Life on Mars by Jon Agee. Two groups did Write the Room with an Easter Theme. Two groups played a Word Game with Mrs. Wolfe. Two groups opened Easter Eggs to find lower-case magnetic letters, then color the corresponding letter on their recording sheet (with me).

 

I read The Leaf Detective: How Margaret Lowman Uncovered Secrets in the Rainforest by Heather Lang. This beautifully illustrated book tells about the inventions and innovations made by this scientist who wanted to study the leaves in the tops of the rainforest trees. She invented harnesses to hoist herself up there, a raft that could perch in the treetops, and canopy walkways (rope bridges) so the rest of us could come explore with her. So fun!

 

Our Math Block was non-stop action for about 70 minutes! We warmed up by "following the bouncing pointer" up and down the number line as we skip-counted by 2's to 30. We stood in a circle and counted how many shoes were in the circle (by 2's again), then how many hands (again by 2's). Everyone sat down and we used our Hundred Chart to count by 2's to 30. I flipped around each number we said such that all the even numbers were white and the odds were red. I asked students to identify patterns. Several students shared their observations.

 

At desks, we had laminated Hundred Charts for them. I asked everyone to take out their dry-erase markers and circle the numbers we say when we count by 2's to 30. That was a total of 5 ways we practiced our 2's! Once we had checked everybody's charts, I asked the class to come back to the carpet to do our Splat and our Estimation Jar. 

 

Next, I paired everyone up with an Elbow Partner at their tables. We gave each pair 4 ten-frames and a container of counters. I had 4 ten-frames displayed on the front board. I showed them an example of what we would be doing. I wrote the number 17, then made dots in 17 of the squares on the ten-frames. We did several of these - from teen numbers to thirties. After each, I explained how to look at the number in the tens' place then correspond that to the number of full ten-frames they had. Then to look at the number in the ones' place and correspond that to the number of "extras" they had. So that 35 was three full ten-frames plus five more.

 

We worked with students to complete the Math Workbook page. As students finished, they were free to play with Math Partner Games or Busy Bags.

 

Just before Lunch, I called everyone to the carpet so we could count the actual number of squishy balls in the Estimation Jar. I explained what we would be doing in the afternoon for Writing.

 

After Lunch and Recess, Ms. Masters' class joined us for a Graduation Practice. 

 

I gave out sheets with a rainforest picture that were titled, "All About Rainforests." I told the kids these would be their recording sheets for writing two things about rainforests they had learned today. I wrote two sentence stems on the board: Rainforests have... and A rainforest is .... They got out their markers and colored the recording sheets. That's what they wanted to do first, of course. I made sure they also wrote two words or phrases that they wanted to write sentences about. When I had checked these, I asked them to get out their Writing Workbooks to record two complete sentences about rainforests. They could write about any of the animals we had seen, about the habitat, about plants, etc. I chose Everett's and Emerson's to share with the class.

 

I talked through the Animal Report template that Mrs. Wolfe had placed into their take-home folders. We looked at each page and the information they will be learning about their animals. Again, you know your child's abilities as far as Writing. Please challenge them to do as much as they can, but adapt if you need to! These are due May 1. 

 

I read a brief informational text called All About Habitats as an introduction to the themes for the next several weeks. 

 

 

That's a wrap!

Gratefully,

Mrs. Duckworth

 

 

 

Eclipse Day! We are so excited for Monday! Thank you all for your overwhelming response to my pleas for help with an Eclipse Party. Shout out to Amy Howard for the eclipse glasses. Erin Perry, Mariannina Montag, and Jen Douglass are providing a fun snack.

 

Eclipse Day Part 2: Remember, we will be releasing from school at 12:30 on Monday, but we will not be doing Lunch. Your kids are used to eating a Snack and a Lunch at school by that time of the day. That's why we're doing a special Snack. But you should probably go ahead and send in your child's regular morning Snack, too. Just don't want to have a horde of hangry kiddos on my hands. Yikes! Thank you!

 

Looking Ahead on the Syllabus: Week 6 of the 4th 9 weeks, we will be using Calendars in class. On the syllabus for the previous week, it says that you will need to send one to school. You don't need to do this. I've already got Calendars.

 

Hello Friends!

 

I know the syllabus said "Birds" for this week, but I don't think we realized it was going to be an early Easter. We needed to set aside the creatures of the avian persuasion for the Greatest Story of All.

 

Our scholars arrived on Monday bursting with energy for the new week, as always. Oh, to have the enthusiasm of a Kindergarten Kid! I pray that I can match it. They caught up Calendars and worked on Shamrock Projects.

 

At Morning Meeting, we did our Pledge to the Flag, I read from the Little Pilgrims devo, I prayed, we practiced our Bible Verse, we added a straw to our Days in School chart, we looked at the Calendar and Weather, and we edited our Daily Edit sentence ("Which team will win the game?").

 

From our Readers, we read and discussed "The Lost List." I read the story about The Triumphal Entry from 10 Days of the Easter Story: A Family Experience Through the Feelings of Holy Week, by Dr. Josh Straub and Christi Straub. I opened the Resurrection Egg with the Donkey in it and told a bit about it.

 

At desks, students had a story sheet about Palm Sunday. As I read the sentences and got to a blank box, the students had to paste the correct picture to complete the sentence. Each time we added a new picture, I started over from the beginning and reread the story.

 

We went to Reading Groups. Two groups made and colored a booklet with the four major events of Holy Week: Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. Two groups read from their Book Bins. Two Groups worked on Sight Words by playing a game with Mrs. Wolfe. Two groups met with me and worked on sequencing events from Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

 

I read The Little Donkey: The Story of Palm Sunday. This is a little board book that belonged to my daughters. I searched but couldn't find it online. It's short and sweet and the class loved it. I taught them a little song I wrote for our Preschool Choir many years ago called, appropriately, "The Donkey." We went ahead and opened the second Resurrection Egg, the Silver Coins, discussed the story of Judas, and learned another little song called, "The Tattler." 

 

We began our Math block with a rousing round of "Some Bunny Loves Money." We are having far fewer missed turns on account of not being able to identify the coin on the bunnies' bellies!

 

I showed them a new activity called "Splat!" I had some counters on the board, some of which were hidden by a big Splat (looks like a splash of water. It actually came from an activity in the AAR Activity Book!) I asked the class how many counters are visible (there were 2). I wrote 2 on the board. Then I told them that there are a total of 7 counters on the board. How many are hidden under the Splat? They use the information to find the difference. It's actually a sneaky way of doing a subtraction problem. Now here's the best part: I ask several students what their answer is and what their thinking was. Some students start at 2 and add on until they get to 7. They add on 5, so their answer is that 5 counters are under the Splat. Some students think 7, then count back 2 to get 5. I write down the equations they use for each of their answers, so their mental and verbal reasoning can be translated into "Math Language." The cool thing I love to point out to the kids is that people can arrive at the same correct answer by thinking in different ways. This is so valuable for kids to learn. We will do a Splat activity each day from now on.

 

The third Math Activity we did (another new one) was called "The Estimation Jar." I had a container on my desk filled with plastic Easter Eggs. I showed it to the kids and rotated it around. I gave each student a sticky note with their name on it and asked them to make an estimate of how many eggs were in the jar. They then brought these up and stuck them on the board to wait until the end of the Math Block.

 

At desks, each student wrote their numerals 0 - 9 on a strip. We corrected these, then asked students to do the Math Workbook lesson followed by the Writing lesson. When all were finished and checked, we gathered at the front to count the Eggs in the Estimation Jar. There were 18. No one got the exact answer, but we got some very close estimates. I explained that we use estimation in everyday life all the time and that it's a very useful skill. We are working to develop it.

 

After Lunch and Recess, Ms. Masters' class joined us for a Graduation Practice. We are still working on learning songs at this point. 

 

For Theme Study, we measured a Leprechaun's beard hairs! Doesn't that sound interesting?

 

Again, this was about estimation! I helped them out by showing them Beard Hair #1 and demonstrating that it was 5 blocks long. They could then use this information to estimate the lengths of each of the other 5 Beard Hairs. They filled out a chart with their estimates and the actual lengths. Then I gave them a leprechaun head to color and cut out and paste on a background sheet. I showed them how to curl the Beard Hairs then paste them onto the Leprechaun's chin! Some kids named their Leprechauns, too! These were so cute!

 

Mrs. Wolfe read to them then we sang GoodBye!

 

 

To the natural 5/6-year-old energy, we added the excitement of Easter Party Day on Wednesday!

 

Again, students caught up their Calendar and worked on their Shamrocks. I had saved the plastic bunny-shaped container my Easter chocolates came in (thank you, Quinn and Bri!) and washed it very thoroughly. I set these two pieces out on the counter along with some white paper. Students enjoyed tracing the large bunny and coloring it how they pleased. We had some polka-dotted, some colorful and some striped Bunnies!

 

We held our Morning Meeting. Then for Reading Block, we learned about Holy Thursday. We had some interesting and deep theological discussions all morning. Why does Satan hate us? What is Passover? Why did God send an angel to kill people? (Yowza! Hard questions to answer!) Why is it called Good Friday; it seems like Bad or Sad Friday? 

 

We completed the story of Holy Thursday (The Last Supper) at desks. Then we did the remaining two rotations of Reading Groups.

 

I read The Legend of The Three Trees by Catherine McCafferty. 

 

We had Snack and did an indoor Recess in the Castle, since it was still pretty wet outside.

 

For our Math Block, we warmed up by doing the same three activities as on Monday: "Some Bunny Loves Money," "Splat," and "The Estimation Jar." This time with the estimation, students noticed that it looked like there were fewer eggs than there were last time. This gave them an advantage in making their estimate, therefore built off of their prior knowledge. Two students were able to guess the number correctly, but all of the students made an estimate that was LESS THAN 18. So that's a big win. They were able to produce logical answers, whether right or wrong. With the exception of one student, who estimated 700. Hmmm... next time I'll watch to help students correct obviously wrong answers.

 

We completed our Math and Writing and got it checked. Miss Luka Bella brought the kids the cutest Peeps Bunny Sidewalk Chalk. They thanked her. I gave out Partner Cards so I could pair students up for the walk to my house. I explained that we would keep each other safe by holding hands and staying together on the walk there and back again. (A Hobbit's Tale by Bilbo Baggins. Wink. Those of you that know Lord of the Rings will catch that.)

 

We did all that and still had extra time before Lunch. Last year, we had learned a bunch of the little Resurrection Eggs songs and invited the parents to a program. We surprised the parents at the end by having their kids "wash" their feet. 

 

I felt a nudge from the Spirit that I should bring the footwashing supplies with me to school. I wasn't sure whether I could fit it in or how I would do it. So with a bit of extra time, I asked students to get with their partners. We reviewed what we had read about Holy Thursday. Jesus had surprised his disciples by washing their dirty feet. We discussed why people did that back in Jesus' time, how the servants of the house were the ones who typically did it, and that Jesus was showing he was going to be the kind of King who served others, rather than being served. Jesus told his surprised students that He wanted them to do the same thing for others. 

 

So I told my surprised students that I wanted them to do that for their partners. I asked everyone to take off their shoes and socks (what a treat!). I showed them that I had lotion for them to rub on the top of their partners' feet and a washcloth for each student to wipe the feet. A couple of them balked and said they didn't want to. I honored that and said that they did not have to do it or have it done to them. I gave the option of a) doing it on the feet, b) doing the hands, or c) not doing it at all. I wanted everyone to feel comfortable with what we were doing. The interesting thing was that almost everyone, even the ones who were unsure at first, ended up doing it. When they were finished, they washed their hands and we came back to the carpet to talk about it.

 

It's very unusual and uncomfortable in our culture to touch someone else's feet. It's completely humbling both to wash someone's feet AND to have someone do it for us. Wow! I was so proud that the kids pushed a little beyond their comfort zone and tried this. 

 

Many years ago, when my daughters were this age, I served at a Women's Retreat. The highlight of the weekend was the evening all the women took a vow of silence, then went to their rooms to reflect. We knocked on each person's door, brought in a CD player with some soft Worship Music, and washed their feet. The pent-up tears flowed. Women who were hurting, alone, feeling unloved, and defeated; women who hadn't even wanted to go on this Retreat but came because a friend or family member sponsored them, began to let go and let in some love. It was transformative. 

 

When I returned home, changed from all I'd witnessed, I washed each of my daughters' feet. It was something they have never forgotten.

 

Jesus was right. Washing feet is the way to greatness.

 

I challenge you to talk to your kids about it. And to try it within your home. It's awkward and your family may balk or joke, but I bet they come around.

 

Ok, no extra charge for that little interlude...

 

We ate our Lunch, so excited we could hardly stand it! Almost time!

 

We paired up and walked over to my house. We were joined by Ms. Masters' class and lots of Moms and Dads and Grandmas! Evie's Dad, Quinn's Mom and little brother, Brooklyn's Grandma, and Beckham's Mom and baby brother walked over and back with us. Jake's Mom and Addie and Emory's Mom joined us at the party. Everett's Mom and Levi's Mom put the party together. Everyone had a great time! Praise God, the weather was beautiful! We hunted for eggs, opened and traded eggs, had a snack, played a relay game, made a craft, played some more relay games, and explored the yard. So, so fun! Then we lined up and walked back to school.

 

We did a debrief of the event, then Mrs. Wolfe finished the March Mystery.

 

Enjoy a very blessed and blessedly long Easter Weekend! I will see you in one week!

 

 

And that's a Wrap!

Humbly,

Mrs. Duckworth

 

No School  Good Friday and Easter Monday!

 

Eclipse Day: This is a once-in-a-lifetime event that we get to enjoy on Monday, April 8. Mrs. Moore just announced that we would dismiss early that day, at 12:30. She has asked that we not do Lunch that day, so there will be more instruction time.

I am going to be teaching about the Eclipse that morning at school. I attended a webinar last night with two nationally-known teachers/authors to learn a bit about how to teach this. I got some great tips!

Since we aren't having Lunch, I thought it would be fun to do a big, Eclipse-themed snack. If you would be willing to bring a sun, moon, or space-themed snack, let me know. Here are some ideas: Capri SUN, SUNflower seeds, Oreo is putting out a special-edition eclipse-themed cookie (available at Walmart and Sam's), Moon Pies, etc. If you can come up with a more nutritious snack that looks like an eclipse, that would be great. Don't want to go heavy on sweets.

Also, if anyone can get their hands on some of the eclipse (NASA-approved) glasses, there's a cute mask we can make.

Email me if you have an idea or can help with this. 

 

Animal Report: I'll be sending home a template next week. There are lots of pages, so you will want to spread out the fun and do one or two pages per day. You can adjust this to your child's ability. If you need to write the sentences and have them trace, that's ok. I just want them to be involved in researching their animal. 

We are going to spend the next month learning about various habitats and the animals that live in them. I am going to be emphasizing how we can write down a fact we learn from a book or video. This will build some skills needed for their report.

They may choose any animal the want! 

 

Happy Spring, friends!

 

We had a fun time with our theme this week: Spring Animals. More specifically: Ducks! As the kids arrived refreshed from Spring Break on Monday morning, they were delighted to be greeted by little Rubber Duckies on their desks. Lots of squeaking ensued. Everyone caught up their March Calendars, did a Duck Maze (where they wound through numbers to get from 1 to 20), then thought of a word that began with the consonant blend written on the bottom of their Rubber Duckie.

 

When I called everyone to the front carpet, I asked them to bring the Rubber Duckies along. After the Pledge to the Flag, I called students forward one at a time to show their Duckie and to tell us the word that started with their blend. This was our method of reviewing consonant blends.

 

We had some chat time about our Spring Break activities and finished Morning Meeting.

 

We changed things up a bit and started our Reading Block time with our Read-Aloud: Make Way For Ducklings, a classic (published in 1941!) Caldecott Medal winner. After reading, I showed a postcard I bought in Boston after visiting the Public Garden, where there are statues of Mrs. Mallard and her eight ducklings, in honor of the story. I also showed a print of a photo my daughter Abby took of a Mama mallard and her ducklings we saw crossing a busy road in front of us one day! Just as happened in the book, all the traffic going both directions stopped and allowed the ducks to cross the road to get to the canal on the other side!

 

In Reading Groups, students listened to How to Trap a Leprechaun by Sue Fliess, played Go Fish with Sight Words, finished the sentence, "Make way for ..." and colored a picture to match (kids wrote "dinosaurs," "meteors," "ducklings," etc.) and labeled the parts of a duckling and spelled some duck-related words ("pond," "swim," "duck").

 

Before reading the rhyming poem, "Maxwell the Duck," I asked the class to raise their hands each time they heard a rhyme. There were lots of them in this cute little story/poem about a duck who was afraid to try flying. We asked our Blessing for Snack, then I dismissed students to wash hands after they told me a rhyming word for the word I gave them. 

 

Our Math Block started with some cute little Bunny Peeps finger puppets I had found at Smart Toys and Books. I put these on my fingers and did some subtraction stories with them. I wrote each subtraction equation on the board and we practiced saying them. Next, I reviewed the coins we've studied so far: pennies, nickels, and dimes. We said a little rhyme to go with each. Then I introduced the quarter and its little rhyme. 

 

Students went to their desks and wrote their numerals 0-9 on their paper strip. We checked and collected these. Then I asked everyone to open the coin containers Mrs. Wolfe had placed on their desks. Everyone sorted the coins into piles of pennies, nickels, and dimes. They investigated the heads and tails sides of each. I gave them a quarter and let them make observations about it. 

 

They completed the Math and the Writing lessons. We assisted and checked. When everyone was finished, we met again on the carpet so I could show them how to play "Some Bunny Loves Money." There were 24 numbered Bunny Peep cards with a picture of the heads or tails of a coin. When I called on a student, they had to tell me the number of the Bunny and the kind of coin on its belly. If they got it right, I removed the card from the Pocket Chart to see if the Easter Basket was hidden behind it. 

 

To dismiss for Lunch, students had to tell me the number that was "one more" than the number card I showed them. These were numerals up to 50.

 

After Lunch and Recess, Ms. Masters and her class joined us for our first Graduation Practice. Yes, it's time for that! I taught them a whole song with motions! They did great! Such wonderful singing. 

 

For Theme Study, we solved "The Case of the Lucky Charms." Someone had stolen the leprechaun's Lucky Charms cereal. The suspects were the rainbow, the golden horseshoe, the shamrock, the hat, and the pot of gold. We made predictions based on inferences (and on sneaky feelings), listened carefully to clues, eliminated suspects, and finally solved the crime! Students recorded their thoughts on a sheet, colored a picture of the culprit, and wrote a sentence.

 

Mrs. Wolfe read from the March Mystery book, then we sang our Goodbye Song.

 

On Wednesday, students caught up their March Calendars and used markers to color a beautiful "stained glass-style" shamrock that will go in their Calendar Folders for their March craft. 

 

We had our Morning Meeting, followed by our Reading Block. 

 

First, we read "Fast Fun" from our AAR Reader. This was a collection of tongue twisters that was so fun to read, we read it again! I explained what makes tongue twisters. We read some predictable sentences about seeing colors in the sky. The final sentence revealed it was a rainbow. At their desks, the children traced the color word in each sentence and colored the little blob at the end to match. At the end was a rainbow for them to color. I called on students to read each sentence for the whole class. I began teaching them a poem about a rainbow. We'll work on that more next time.

 

We completed the other two rotations for our Reading Groups. 

 

The read-aloud for the day came with a warning - I was going to sound like a pirate when reading it! That's how I do my fake Irish accent in reading Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie dePaola. This book lends itself to making predictions and we made quite a few. One of my favorites!

 

For Math, we started with a mini-lesson about subtraction. I wrote a subtraction expression on the board and drew 9 objects under it. I called on one student to come to the board and "x" out the appropriate number of objects, then another student to count how many were left and to write the difference in our equation. Then the whole class read the equation together. We did several of these.

 

Students went to their desks and wrote their numerals 0-9 on their paper strip, then completed their Math and their Writing lessons. When all were finished, we played another round of "Some Bunny Loves Money." 

 

This is where Mrs. Jen (Douglass) and Mrs. Mariannina (Montag) and Ellie Faith Ross came in to relieve Mrs. Wolfe and I so we could attend the Teacher Appreciation Luncheon. I showed the kids all the wonderful items from the gift tub y'all gave me. They gave Mrs. Wolfe and I Group Hugs.

 

We enjoyed the quiet time of chatting with our fellow teachers and assistants and savoring a delicious meal! Katie Tipton, Kristen Hardy, and Bri Hedger hosted us with beautifully set tables with floral centerpieces. They brought us drinks and cleared our plates and showed us lots of love! I tried to taste a little of everything, but there was a lot! We had soups, breads, salads, and desserts. I can't tell you what a treat it is to not have to pack a Lunch! It's the simplest thing, but it feels like such a holiday! Katie brought each of us a Snack Bag filled with treats to take home, too. Wow!

 

While we were gone, Jen and Mariannina had the kids make beautiful floral cards with lots of love and stickers. They did Lunch, Cleanup, and Recess with them.

 

When I brought the kids back into the classroom after Recess, we sat down to look at all the cards they had made me and the great framed class photo. I told them they looked like such babies then and that they looked like big kids now! Then we sang a couple of our Graduation songs.

 

For Theme Study, we colored/dot markered rainbows. Most of the kids decided to cut their rainbow out and mount it on colored cardstock. Several of the kids wanted me to keep their rainbow so I "would remember them."

 

Mrs. Wolfe read, then we sang Goodbye.

 

 

And that's a wrap!

Feeling loved,

Mrs. Duckworth

 

 

 

 

Shoutout! All of you for the thoughtful class gift tub! Love every bit of it. To Megan Finch for putting it together so beautifully! To Mariannina and Jen for taking over my class and for bringing me a gorgeous begonia, sweet flowery cards from the kids, and the framed class picture. To Bri Hedger for "life-saving chocolate!" To all of you that brought food or any of the accessories for the Lunch, Snack Bags, and Big Tub of Snacks for the Staff Kitchen! To all of you for the hugs and the words of encouragement. Thank you! I love you all!

 

Easter Party is next Wednesday from 12:30 to 2:00!  I'll have permission forms for you to sign on Monday so your kids can walk over to my house for the Easter Party/Easter Egg Hunt. They are so excited! Kaitlin Gaff and Erin Perry are hosting the party. If any of you want to come, please park at the school and walk over with us. Also let Kaitlin and Erin know that you plan to come.

 

We get an Easter Holiday! Good Friday and Easter Monday!

 

 

Progress Reports: If I didn't catch you and give this to you this morning at drop-off, it was placed in your child's folder. Please check for it and let me know if you have questions.

 

Kindergarten Graduation: You'll be starting to hear about this after Break. Save the date: Wednesday, May 15, 1 p.m. in the Castle.

 

Spring Break! 

 

 

Of the many milestones your children reach, losing their first tooth is one of the most exciting of their young lives. And this typically coincides with their Kindergarten year. I enjoy hearing "tooth stories:" I swallowed it! I lost it while I was eating an apple! My Dad pulled it! I was wiggling it and it just fell out! My brother punched it! 

 

This week, we talked about taking care of our teeth.

 

 

Our diminutive scholars arrived on Monday all perky and ready for a grueling day of Kindergarten. They quickly caught up their February Calendars, then cut out and colored their pictures of "a baby screaming." {This is what they were calling it!} (See above visual.) I asked them to tuck these away for Mathematical use.

 

We began our Morning Meeting only to be interrupted by a visit from none other than Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, and Rosa Parks. That was quiet a shock! They invited us to come visit them at the Wax Museum. We thanked them for the kind invitation and promised to come.

 

We went ahead and finished the Morning Meeting, read our story from the third reader (!!!) "Cobweb the Cat," and learned a poem called "Tooth Fairy." We went over some Wax Museum etiquette, then ventured forth to see who we could meet. The kids were quite excited to meet George Washington (since we have just been learning about him) - they told me several times - and many other historical figures. I was so pleased with how well they interacted with and paid kind attention to the presentations! 

 

After debriefing a bit about what we had seen, I read George Washington's Teeth by Deborah Chandra. I bought this book years ago for my daughters. It was a family favorite. My girls always ask if I've read it to my class each year! They know their History Geek Mama well enough to know the answer is always, "yes!" 

 

We used various crayon colors to mark sight words in our copies of the poem from earlier, "Tooth Fairy."

 

I asked two students to come up in front and hold a sign. One read: Bad for my teeth. The other read: Good for my teeth. As I held up various foods, the rest of the class determined which category it belonged in. 

 

We had our Snack and Recess, then came back in for the Math Block. We warmed up by writing our name on a strip of lined paper, then writing numerals 0 - 9. We made corrections with students as necessary, then collected the strips.

 

I asked students to take out their screaming babies and write an X on each tooth they have lost (if any). I wrote the numbers 0-4 on the board. I asked for any students who had lost zero teeth to bring their screaming babies to me and I tacked them up horizontally beside the 0. We did the same with the other numbers until we had the giant Pictograph you see in the photo above. We talked about our data and made comparisons.

 

Next, I called everyone to gather at the carpet so we could talk about the Math topic, which was "Pounds." I had brought a bag of dumbbells and other weights from home. I called on various students to come up and hold the different weights in one hand and compare it to some hardback books in the other hand. Which weighed more or less? Everyone got a turn to try one of the weights (1-lb., 3-lb., 5-lb., or 10-lb.) and some books.

 

They took out their Math workbooks and completed their page. We assisted with and corrected these.

 

I told everyone that they were going to get the chance to be Dental Hygienists. We divided into pairs and got supplies, then went to work. Each team had an empty ice tray, a bag of pom-poms, a toothbrush, and a flosser. The first team member stuffed the pom-poms (germs and food particles) between the humps of the upside-down ice tray (the teeth). The second team member was the Hygienist. Their job was to use the toothbrush and floss to clean out all the little germies! Then, they switched jobs with their partner. I got this activity idea from a Tooth Fairy who has visited our school the last couple of years for Dental Hygiene Week. I'm not sure why the Tooth Fairy didn't return this year, but I borrowed her activity idea! The kids loved it!

 

Just before Lunch, I read The Selfish Crocodile by Faustin Charles. We had a great discussion about what "selfish" means and how the little mouse in the story was very brave.

 

Following Lunch and Recess, we came in to have a Writing mini-lesson. I introduced Information Writing, as well as the terms, "Realism" and "Fantasy." I threw out some ideas for stories and asked if they would be Realism or Fantasy. The class got out their Writing books and copied the two facts about bats. I made corrections and checked their work.

 

I asked for everyone to help clean up our tables to prepare for our Theme Study activity. I sat in my chair behind the horseshoe table and showed everyone a picture of how the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra is laid out. It's a semi-circle, just like our table. I had copied and laminated pictures of all the instruments included in the KSO. I introduced the four families of instruments then all of the instruments in those families. I laid the pictures all out on the table facing a little picture of the conductor. We talked about how the 1st chair Violinist would stand and get the orchestra all tuned up before the Conductor walked out. We discussed some theater etiquette. 

 

I read from the February Mystery book, then we sang our Goodbye.

 

 

Wednesday was our Symphony Field Trip Day! It was a pleasure meeting up with you there and seeing all the kids with their families attending. Isn't this concert a wonderful gift to our community from our Symphony? I always love seeing what fun programs the KSO comes up with that are geared to our littles. The Space Theme was a great choice for this one.

 

 

A bit blown about by the wind,

Mrs. Duckworth

 

 

 

 

Shout out! to Mariannina Montag for coordinating the KSO Field Trip! It's a tricky one to plan, but we are so grateful for her work in doing it! Thank you!

 

Book Reports next Wednesday! We will spread the presentations throughout the morning, so we can have some breaks to do some more active things. If your student has a costume, you can just send it and I'll have them change into it when it's time for their presentation. Please also send a copy of the book, so we're all able to look at it.

 

Our Second Class Store: I've got to squeeze this in sometime next week, too! I'm trying for Wednesday.

 

Progress Reports go home on Wednesday. I will hand these directly to you at pickup. 

 

Can it be? Spring Break is already here? March 11-15 is Spring Break!

 

Hey! We don't usually come to school on Presidents' Day, so I was happy to get this opportunity to teach more about these important historical figures this week.

 

On Monday, students came in and caught up on their February Calendars, then did a fun "around the room" activity called "Lincoln's Letters." The kids were excited to receive a clipboard (wow!) with their paper. They grabbed pencils then Mrs. Wolfe and I showed them how to find the little pictures of Lincoln on the walls around the room, numbered 1 - 16. At the bottom of each picture were two letters of the alphabet and an empty box. They had to figure out the missing letter and write it in the numbered box on their paper. When they had successfully completed this, they colored the picture of Abraham Lincoln at the bottom of the page, then placed the paper into their Take-Home Folder.

 

We enjoyed our Morning Meeting, then re-convened at the carpet for Reading. I introduced compound words by talking about "doing surgery" on these long words to cut them apart into two smaller words. Cobweb = cob + web. We went through all the AAR cards for the lesson. 

 

I placed cards into our Pocket Chart to make some predictable sentences about Abraham Lincoln. We learned some facts about him as we read these sentences. At desks, students filled in the Sight Word "He" in each sentence on their sheet. I called on various students to read the sentences aloud, then we repeated each one.

 

In Reading Groups, two groups listened to Everywhere, Wonder by Matthew Swanson. Two groups did Write the Room: Dental Health theme. Two groups played a word game with Mrs. Wolfe. And two groups did a dot marker Digraph activity and played a spinner game about consonant blends with me.

 

I read Abe Lincoln: The Boy Who Loved Books by Kay Winters.

 

For our Math Block, we started with something big! Really big! Of course, the kids had noticed it right when they entered the classroom. I had hung a life-sized outline of Abraham Lincoln on the back of the kitchen door. With his iconic tall, black hat, he was 7' tall! So, we all got a turn standing next to him to measure our height next to his! Then I asked everyone to go to their desks to draw and label a picture of themselves standing next to him.

 

I asked everyone to retrieve their Reading Buddies, then we used links and square tiles to measure their length. 

 

Mrs. Wolfe had placed a real penny and a recording sheet on each desk. I explained that the penny has a picture of Abraham Lincoln on the "heads" side and a picture of the Lincoln Memorial (we had just learned about this in Reading) on the "tails" side. I asked them to predict whether they thought their penny would land more times on heads or tails. They recorded their prediction. They flipped the penny ten times and recorded which way it landed for each. Then they made tally marks and a bar graph to match their data.

 

We got out Math Workbooks and did the page, using Square Tiles as our measurement tool. Early finishers played with Busy Bags. 

 

When everyone was finished, we did a Directed Drawing of Abraham Lincoln.

 

In the afternoon, we had a Writing mini-lesson, then wrote stories.

 

Finally, I read Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day and we began a craft project that showed Cause and Effect in the story. Mrs. Wolfe read from February Friend, then we sang our Goodbye.

 

Wednesday morning started out with February Calendars and coloring a poem page. I asked them to save the poem on their desks to use later.

 

We had our Morning Meeting, then got into the Reading Block. We learned the poem "Abraham" then sang it to the tune of "Jingle Bells" several times.

 

I gave out Partner Cards and the kids found their partners for the board game "Washington's Words." (Mrs. Wolfe and Wilder are playing it, above.) All the teams did such a great job of playing together and helping each other with reading the word cards! There were Sight Words, Color Words, and Number Words. They were so into it! I went around to each team and gave them all Gold Tags for doing such good partner work. We recited our "Abraham" poem again.

 

We went to Reading Groups and did our other two rotations.

 

I read Lewis and Clark: A Prairie Dog for the President by Shirley-Raye Redmond. I told the kids it was about my favorite President. They tried to guess, but no one came up with the answer: Thomas Jefferson.

 

For Math, we warmed up by singing our 3's Song and then counting by 2's to 30. I introduced measuring with a ruler, showing the inches and the centimeters that are on the typical ruler. Then, I had everyone take turns measuring their feet against the size of George Washington's boots! I had outlined a size 13 shoe on the floor! I used my ruler to measure how many inches their feet were.

 

At their desks, Mrs. Wolfe had placed everyone's rulers. I asked them to measure the length of their name plate, then the width. We helped them to make sure they were measuring correctly. They measured the length of their pencil boxes, then the height. I asked them to measure the height of their chair or stool legs. I demonstrated what to do if the object being measured was longer than their ruler. I asked them to measure across the desk top, then down the length. The kids started helping each other out by lining up several students' rulers to go the length of the table.

 

When we finished all our measuring, we got out our Math Workbooks and completed the page.

 

Students played with Busy Bags and Math Games until time for Lunch. Just before Lunch, I read a few poems and showed the beautiful accompanying photos from the National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry. 

 

After Lunch and Recess, we made an Idea Tree. I asked Addie to come up and draw a tree trunk with branches on a sheet of posterboard. I explained what "brainstorming" is and how it helps us come up with ideas for stories, because sometimes, we just don't know what we want to write about. As each student shared an idea, I wrote it on a green heart-shaped stickie, and asked that student to attach it to our Idea Tree. They were surprised to see how each Idea sparked other Ideas, until our brains were creating a whole storm of Ideas! By the time we warpped up, they were mad that I had to cut them off so we could have time to write! I put on some calm piano music and asked them to work quietly for 20 minutes. I put on a timer. I worked with students to sound out words as they wrote their story ideas on one of the two pages. I allowed them to choose which format page they wanted to use. I chose two students' work to share with the class (Ellie and Silas). If your student ran out of time to finish their story, please have them work on it at home tomorrow. If they did finish, have them read it to you. 

 

By the way, when Kindergarten students are writing stories, I don't bog them down too much with perfection. I mainly want them to see that they can take an Idea and get it down on paper so others can read it. I do ask them to correct reversals in letters that alter the meaning of a word, such as "bab" when they are writing about "Dad." I use Writing as a means to see what phonics they've learned. If they can hear the sound /u/ and write a "u" or the sound /th/ and write the letters "th," then I know what they've internalized about phonics we've learned so far. They don't have the tools yet to do a lot of sounds like /oo/, /ow/, etc. They may put some random "y's" and other letters, but that is the sound they are hearing when they say the word. That's okay! This is a stepping stone. Resist the temptation to spell words for them or to correct their spelling, unless it's a sound you know they should know. In that case, I would say, "I notice you used "e" in that word, but the sound is /i/. Do you hear that? Can you fix it?"

 

Bottom line = we want them to be excited to write! Let them see that they can convey something by writing. 

 

We finished the Snowy Day Cause and Effect Project by adding Peter's snowsuit, face, and hair, then matching up the "effects" to the "causes" we had glued in on Monday. They were excited to bring these home today.

 

Mrs. Wolfe read a bit, then we sang Goodbye.

 

 

And that's a wrap!

Adjusting to the Freezing mornings and Balmy afternoons (it's okay, I'll take it!)

Mrs. Duckworth

 

 

 

 

Send new Reader: Cobweb the Cat starts on Monday

 

Symphony Field Trip! Wednesday, February 28th. We will not come to school at all that day! If you're attending the Symphony, please meet at the Clayton Center. Details are being communicated by Mariannina Montag. Mrs. Wolfe, Ms. Masters, and I will be meeting our classes at the venue. Our Blue Day classes are coming, too, so we'll split our time hanging out with each class. 

 

When the syllabus was laid out last Spring and Summer, we had a tentative date for the Symphony (Feb. 29). That's why the syllabus has that date all over it. Since our Moms chose the Clayton Center venue rather than the Tennessee Theater venue, the date is February 28.

 

A note about personal belongings: My class rule is that no toys or other items should be brought to school unless we are having a special day and I have notified you that you should send something. Please make every effort to make sure your child isn't smuggling toys to school in their backpack. There's a host of reasons for this, which I will happily share with you, if you'd like to discuss. 

 

It was a beautiful Valentine's Day all week long in Kindergarten! We did lots of things to celebrate.

 

Before I get going too far, let me comment about the adorable twinning happening in this photo! Maggie and Brooklyn were so excited to show off the matching outfits Brooklyn's Grandma got them at Dollywood. Then we realized that the twins were twinning them with the burgundy theme, and we just had to have a picture!

 

Although Monday was a bit of a dreary "hangover from a crazy weekend" sort of day, we had a great time. The kids came in and worked on catching up their February Calendars, then did their February Craft - a heart. They had lots of pieces to cut out. These turned out very well and will go into their Calendar Folders.

 

We discussed new jobs for the week, then held our Morning Meeting. We paused for lots of conversation about the Super Bowl, Daddy/Daughter Dance, and the Oak Grove Valentine Dance. We did our Daily Sentence Building (Who, What, Where), our Daily Sentence Edit, and Joke of the Day.

 

To start out our Reading Block, I taught them about Ninja E. He sneaks up and scares the other vowel in the word and makes the vowel scream its name, but he is silent and you don't say his sound. We looked at the words "like" and "here" as examples. We read some predictable sentences about candy hearts: "Here is the red candy heart. Here is the orange candy heart." We tried to imagine what flavor each of these candies would be according to their colors. 

 

At their desks, the students filled in the word "Here" at the beginning of each sentence. They had to color the heart at the end of the sentence the color that matched the color word in the sentence. When everyone was finished, we checked the work, then read the sentences again from the paper.

 

In Reading Groups, we had Book Bins, a sorting activity with Sports You Do in the Snow and Sports You Do Not Do in the Snow, a Word Game with Mrs. Wolfe, and a Valentine delivery game with me.

 

Our read-aloud for the day was a class favorite! I had ordered a couple of books by this author from the Library to use in class last week when we were supposed to do picture books with no words. The books weren't available then, so I decided to use them this week. This Caldecott Award Winner by David Wiesner was called, Tuesday. Obviously, with no words, the story was told very skillfully with imaginative illustrations. I held up the book and the kids told what was happening on each page. They hooted and hollered and got so excited about this book! 

 

We did our Snack and an In-Classroom Recess.

 

Mrs. Wolfe and Miss Luca Bella set out our tools for Math. We warmed up by counting to 20 forward and backward. I sent everyone to their desks and asked them to open up their two containers of counters (each having ten shaped erasers or two-color counters) and their packet of number cards (two sets of #11-20), then set these on their double-ten-frame.

 

As I called out teen numbers, everyone built the number with counters on the ten-frames, then found the matching number card and placed it down on their ten-frame mat. We did several of these. We cleaned this up, then got out our Math Workbooks and did the Connect-the-Dots picture and colored it. 

 

When all were finished and checked, we worked on a Groundhog Craft. I had planned to do this last week, but our materials didn't arrive from Amazon in time. Oh, well! Students cut out and colored a groundhog. I taped it onto a sheet of black construction paper, then gave them a piece of white chalk to color around the groundhog. When he "wakes up," he sees his shadow on the ground! Of course, the kids were quick to point out that P. Phil didn't see his shadow this year. But they still loved making their craft!

 

After Lunch and Recess, we discussed our Building Writers assignment. Students volunteered ideas of what they would do at a Water Park. I helped them think through the sentence they would write and how many words they would write. We looked at the word bank that was on the page then discussed how to go about Smarty Spelling words that were not on the page. Everyone went to their desks to do their writing and coloring.

 

I called everyone to the front with their pencils and erasers to do a Directed Drawing of sorts. I gave them a sheet with the verse John 3:16 printed on it. On each line, a letter was missing.

 

First, we turned the paper over and practiced making some hearts. We made sure we could fit a letter inside our hearts. I asked students to make hearts with each letter of their name. Then we flipped the paper over and drew 9 hearts down the middle of the page, vertically. I called out the letters and they wrote a letter in each heart, until they had spelled the word, "Valentine." I asked them to color the hearts, go over their letters with a thin sharpie, then glue the paper to a colorful, Valentiney paper. 

 

We read some of February Friend and then sang our Goodbye.

 

Wednesday was full of excitement as the kids entered bearing their Valentine treats for their classmates. They settled down to fill in the two days on their February Calendars, then do a Heart-shaped Wordle with some of the January Sight Words.

 

We had our Morning Meeting and did all the regular routine. I talked them through our different schedule for the day, including Store! and a Valentine Party!

 

I asked students to bring their Readers to the carpet so we could read, "Frank Shrank." Then we learned a short poem called, "With You." They went to their desks and marked some Sight Words in the poem with various colors. I asked them to use those same colors on the picture at the bottom. We collected these to include in our Calendar Folders.

 

I had set up all the Class Store items in containers and grouped them according to how much they cost - 5, 10, or 15 Gold Tags. I took some time to show the kids all the different things, so they could be familiar with what was available.

 

Rather than doing full-on Reading Groups, I asked the class to get their Reading Buddies and Book Bins. I placed the Class Store on the front table and pulled Number Sticks to invite students to come shop. Everyone was able to buy at least one item with their Gold Tags. All the items are toys that y'all have donated as our Incentive Suppliers (thank you!!!). Students had to have at least 5 Gold Tags to purchase items. They were all very happy with their purchases and shopped much more quickly than I had anticipated.

 

I read The House of Love by Adriana Trigiani. It's a little bit wordy, so I summarized some of the pages. It's a sweet book about a little girl and her Mom who make Valentine's Day special for their large family.

 

For Math, we used the #11-20 Number Card sets with dry-erase boards. First, I asked the students to sort out their Number Cards and put them in number order from 11 to 20. I asked them to place the duplicate of each card on top of its match. Then I called out a number, asked students to show me that card, then write the number on their board. We did all the teen numbers and 20. For a special challenge, we ended by writing all the numbers 11-20 on the boards! We corrected reversals and prompted those that were struggling. I was very pleased that all of the students were catching on. This is really good practice for them.

 

We didn't have a Math Workbook page to do, so we went to the carpet to discuss our Building Writers assignment for the day. This time, we were to write about a visit to the Park. We looked at the word bank and illustration provided and talked about what sentences we could make. Students successfully composed sentences beginning with "I can," "I like," or "We can." I chose Emerson's and Silas's workbooks to share in front of the class. I point out at least 3 "Likes" about their work and a "Wish," if there is something they could do better. We ended by giving each of these students a "Firework Cheer."

 

Miss Luca Bella had brought Valentines for the kids, so she gave those out. I also gave out my Valentines. The students were very sweet and appreciative to both of us!

 

We ate Lunch and cleaned the room to prepare for our Valentine Party. Becky Daigle and Amy Howard threw our Party. Jen Douglass and Erin Perry were signed up to do the Party, but both had sick kids, so Becky and Amy volunteered to fill in!

 

The kids got to decorate white gift bags with LOTS of stickers and markers. Becky, Amy, and I escorted students around the room to place their Valentines in each classmate's Valentine Bag. Everyone got a bag of Boom Chicka Pop Kettle Corn and a Juice Box to snack on while they played Valentine BINGO.

 

They went to the Castle for a Scavenger Hunt and to play a Would You Rather game. They came back to the classroom so quietly, I didn't even hear them coming! We thanked the Moms and signed out their kids, then I read (or I should say, "showed") another David Wiesner picture book. This was another of his Caldecott Medal winners called, Flotsam. This book is day-dream-like in its imaginative illustrations of scenes happening under the sea. A boy finds an old box camera on the shore, takes the film to the One-Hour Photo Shop (I had to explain that!) to be processed, then studies the beautiful pictures. It's really cool! Even though this wasn't funny like Tuesday, the kids appreciated it for the unique and fun story it was.

 

We collected all our wonderful treats and sang our Goodbye.

 

 

That's a shiny-foil, box-of-chocolates wrap!

Lovingly Yours,

Mrs. Duckworth

 

 

 

 

Shout Out! to all of you that signed up to be Incentive Suppliers! You've brought in wonderful things for the kids to buy in the store. They are so motivated to do the right thing so they can earn Gold Tags. Thank you!

 

Shout Out! to Erin Perry and Jen Douglass for planning a sweet Valentine Party and to Amy Howard and Becky Daigle for carrying out their plans! Thank you all!

 

Happy Valentine's Day, Sweet Moms and Dads! You fill my heart with joy! I'm so glad to get to teach your kids and to get to know your families! I love you all!

 

Hello again, my Red Class Fans!

 

We filled in the days up to the 5th on our February Calendars to start off the week. Afterward, students could get out their Fine Motor Journals and decorate a page or two with Washi tape and brightly-colored masking tape. They were so engaged, I started to cancel lessons for the day and just let them create.

 

Just kidding!

 

We met for Morning Meeting and did our usual routine. We changed up a couple of elements for the new month. Our Joke of the Day has become a Knock, Knock Joke of the Day. Also, I've added a little something I call "The Daily Edit." I put a sentence strip on the board sporting a sentence that needs some help from our Kindergarten Editorial Staff! They have to tell me how to fix it! It takes a few days of doing it for them to really catch on (as I experienced last year, when I first tried this), but then they start to look forward to it each day. The edits will have to do with Handwriting Rules, letter formation, spelling of Sight Words, etc.

 

After a Stretch and Water Break, we returned to the carpet with our AAR Readers so we could read "The Bat and King Sam" together. We worked on reading fluently, comprehension, and inferencing from the illustrations.

 

We read some Mix and Fix sentences in our Pocket Chart that utilized quotations marks and many of our Sight Words. The pattern was, "My mom said, "Get on your ______." She was directing the child to dress warmly to play in the snow. Once the child donned all the gear, Mom said that he could go out and play!

 

At desks, students cut out six words to make a sentence about ice skating, glued them in the correct order, then wrote the resulting sentence.

 

In Reading Groups, students did a Write the Room with Arctic Animals Theme, listened to The Three Billy Goats Gruff with headphones, played a Word Game with Mrs. Wolfe, or read from the Reader and made C-V-C words with me.

 

I read The Missing Mitten Mystery by Steven Kellogg.

 

We were celebrating three half-birthdays - Addie, Emory, and Wilder. Wilder shared some Veggie Hearts snacks and cool Lip Balms with clip-on holders. We enjoyed these during Snack. At Lunch, Addie and Emory  shared Juice Boxes and Boom Chicka Pop. We sang Happy Birthday to the three of them!

 

For our Math Block, we crammed in a lot of activities. First, I introduced the concept of "ten and some more" by using my Magnetic Ten-Frame on the front board. We started with ten counters on the first Ten-Frame, then added one more at a time to the second one. As I added each counter, I wrote the numeral and we sang a little tune with it. After we had sung through to 20, I invited students to come to the board to write the number of Tally Marks to correspond with each numeral.

 

Students went to their desks where we had placed a container of coins (just pennies and nickels) and one dime. First, I had everyone pick up the dime and we described it and told its value. Then I asked them to place it on their desk and add one penny at a time beside it until we got to 19. We sang the same tune we had sung when filling the Ten-Frame on the board. When we got to 20, I gave them another dime. We collected the coin containers.

 

Next, students wrote their names on an Ice Cream Cone page. The Ice Cream had numbers 0-20 on it. As I held up cards illustrating the numbers on Ten-Frames, students found the number and colored it on their Ice Cream.

 

Everyone got out their Math Workbooks and we helped them do the lesson page, then checked it.

 

After Lunch and Recess, we did a mini-lesson about our Writing assignment. I showed them on the globe where India is, then we talked through how to form the sentences describing travel to India.

 

We gathered at the carpet again to learn a bit about Pablo Picasso (actually our January Artist of the Month). I showed some of his paintings so students could see his unique style! I ended this by showing the painting we would be emulating: "Three Musicians" (1921). {https://www.pablopicasso.org/three-musicians.jsp} I showed the class my sample of the Art Project we would do. Rather than painting, we made a collage using pieces of scrapbook paper on a sheet music background. I told them they needed to have three people - they could do boys or girls. After they built the bodies, they could choose three musical instruments (we had also photo copied these) to place in their musicians' hands. You can see Quinn working on his collage, above.

 

We'll save these for the Graduation Art Show.

 

 

We started off our Wednesday by catching up our Calendars (only two days to fill in, so this was quick), then cutting ovals and circles with decorative scissors and adding Valentine stickers to our Fine Motor Journals. Again, they're loving the creative time!

 

The kids are enjoying my "Love Playlist" and really perk up when they hear Taylor Swift and Ed Sheerin, among others. 

 

Morning Meeting was followed by our Reading Block.

 

We started off with a little phonemic awareness routine. I gave the students a word and asked for a rhyming word. Then I said a word and asked them to change the beginning sound, then the ending sound, then the medial sound.

 

We learned some things about George Washington by building some sentences about him, starting with, "This is George Washington." Each of the other sentences began with the word "He," and told a fact about him. "He was the 1st President." "He is on the dollar bill." etc.

 

At their desks, students had a sheet with a copy of all the sentnces we had made together about George Washington. They filled in the Sight Word "He" in each sentence, then colored the pictures. I called on students to read the sentences aloud, then the whole class repeated them. 

 

I showed a picture of the painting, "Washington Crossing the Delaware" by Emanuel Leutze. We discussed it and made observations.

 

We did our two Reading Group rotations, then gathered for the Read-Aloud, My Little Golden Book About George Washington by Lori H. Houran. I do love teaching History (and Art History), so it's fun for me to get to introduce important historical figures to our students. For most of them, it's their first exposure to History, so I'm laying a foundation that you and subsequent teachers can build upon! 

 

Following Snack and Recess (we've had the most beautiful days this week and have soaked up the sun during our outdoor playtimes!), we came back in to get to work on our Math.

 

This was a day of new concepts, which called for some songs! First, to work on our counting backward from 20, I taught a little song called, "Zoom! We're Going to the Moon!" At the end of it, we count down from 20 to 0 and do a Blast Off!

 

Next, I taught them how to count by 3's then introduced my 3's Song (to the tune of "Once Upon a December" from Anastasia. A couple of other students came up and shared their Skip-Counting by 3's Songs!

 

We reviewed our little Ten and Some More Song from Monday, while I again added counters on the Magnetic Ten-Frame.

 

At desks, I asked students to write their numerals 0 - 9 on a little strip of paper. We corrected these, if students had reversals. We will start doing this each day to start out Math Lessons, so students get those numerals ingrained. 

 

Again, we used the coin containers. I asked students to separate the coins into three piles: pennies, nickels, and dimes. First, we counted the pennies by 1's, then the nickels by 5's, and the dimes by 10's. Then I made up some items that we were going to purchase with our coins and asked the students to show me the coins they would use to buy them. We cleaned these up, then got out Math Workbooks and completed the lesson.

 

I called everyone back to the carpet to do a Directed Drawing of George Washington. They drew each part by copying what I drew on the board, step by step. They went back to desks and colored these. They used the illustrations from our Read-Aloud to get the colors of his uniform right. We hung these in our Classroom Gallery.

 

We celebrated Maggie's Birthday at Lunch. She shared some Kinder Eggs with all her classmates. We sang Happy Birthday.

 

After Recess, we did our Writing Lesson about traveling to China. When everyone was finished and checked, we gathered for our Theme Study. We solved our first classroom Mystery: The Case of the Secret Valentine. Bear had received a Valentine from a Secret Friend. We had to use the clues to help us figure out who it was from! After the first two clues eliminated 2 of the 5 suspects, students went to their desks to make a prediction who the Secret Valentine was from. After Clue #3, they went back to desks and eliminated another suspect (and revised their predictions). After Clue #4, we eliminated the next-to-last suspect, so we figured out the Secret Valentine Sender! Kids went back to their predictions again and drew a picture of the Cactus! who was the Sender. Very Fun!

 

Mrs. Wolfe read a bit of the February Mystery Book, then we sang our Goodbye.

 

 

That's a wrap!

Basking in the Spring-like Days,

Mrs. Duckworth

 

 

 

Book Reports: Thanks to those who have let me know the book your child is doing for their report.

 

Valentine Party: Wednesday, February 14 (12:30)

 

Our First Class Store: I'll squeeze this in on Wednesday also. Students will get their first opportunity to spend their Gold Tags!

 

Symphony Trip: February 28th at 11:00. This is different than what the syllabus says. It had been scheduled tentatively on the syllabus for Thursday the 29th, but Mariannina Montag was able to secure reserved seating for us at the Clayton Center (Maryville) venue on the 28th. Since this is a regular Red Day Co-op Day, please know that we will NOT be meeting for school that day. Mrs. Wolfe, Ms. Masters, and I will all be attending the concert. If you're attending the concert, we will just meet at the venue. Following the concert, you may take your student on home. We will not go back to school. Please complete the syllabus work for that day on your own. 

100^th Day of School Week

 

Here’s what’s been happening in Kindergarten this week:

Monday morning, our scholars arrived early and ready to learn! They got right to work on their January Calendars. We are working on numeral formation, along with proper Calendar Form. Students also found a little library pocket on their desk, which they will use for storing their Gold Tags. I asked them to write their name on the pocket and to decorate it, if they wanted. I gave everyone two Gold Tags to get them started. I gave out lots of others throughout the day.

At Morning Meeting, we had some time for sharing anecdotes (of which there were many!).  I took some prayer requests and prayed. We noticed that we are on Day 95 of school, therefore, they were confused that our 100^th Day Party will not actually be on the 100^th day of school! Many were confused, thinking that the 100^th Day is the last day of school. No, no, my dears! There’s much more to come! {Correction: Ms. Simmons brought it to my attention that I had forgotten to count the 4 Snow Days that we were not at Oak Grove, but y'all still did school at home. So it actually was the 99th Day of School! Oops!}

We built a silly sentence: Who? An old woman. What? Is jumping. Where? In a bag. An old woman is jumping in a bag. We told a joke: What do you call a snowman on roller blades? A snow-mobile! Then we looked at the word of the day: groundhog.

 

After a water break, we began our Reading Block by reading “The Pet Duck.” I taught them what a tongue twister is and we practiced this one: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck…? Did you know that Native Americans called groundhogs “wochuck?” This was later anglicized to “woodchuck.”

Speaking of groundhogs, of course we know that they are hibernating in Winter, soon to be rudely awakened to predict the weather on February 2! I showed everyone a flip book we were going to make with five animals that hibernate in Winter. I asked the kids to go to their desks to make their Hibernation Flip Books. As they finished these, I stapled the parts together, then we read the whole Flip Book.

In Reading Groups, Mrs. Wolfe worked with her groups on a word game. Two groups read from their Book Bins. Two groups did a Tiny Task, which was watching a video about Macaroni Penguins and writing a fact they learned. My groups read an emergent reader about groundhogs and wrote the word “groundhog” on each page.

Our Read-Aloud was The Legend of the Groundhog by Hilary Statum. Before reading, we had a discussion about what a “legend” is so I could see what students already knew. We also discussed why a groundhog would be afraid of his shadow. We stopped frequently during the reading of the booklet, because there were LOADS of questions and observations.

As I called students to line up for hand washing, we did a “Snowy Day Poem” and students got to choose a number card or snow activity card out of my bowl. They had to read the number correctly or act out the snow activity.

It was a mite chilly out, but we still did an outdoor recess!

 

We warmed up for Math by playing Find That Snowman! The snowman won today, because the students were not able to discover him (behind #17) on the Hundred Chart!

I asked Miss Luca to place a random number of magnetic letters on the board and told students that we were going to count them without moving them around. At first, the letters were line up neatly in two rows, so when Everett came up to count them for us, it was pretty easy to determine there were 11. I explained that our brains can’t really subitize that many objects; our brains want to group objects into 2’s,’3’s, 4’s, or 5’s. We can subitize objects well when they’re in straight lines that look like our ten-frame. I asked Miss Luca to add some more letters and I moved them around on the board until they were in random places. I asked Emerson to come up and count them. She used my dry-erase marker to put a check by each one as she counted them. We talked about that as a strategy. I then took the marker and drew circles around groups of three, then counted by 3’s to find the total number. I asked a couple more students to come up and show different ways they would group the letters together and count them. Next, I demonstrated that I could hold one finger on a letter that I started counting on, while a moved the pointer finger on my other hand to count all the letters. We discussed that this strategy would be helpful when you didn’t have a pencil to mark them. Finally, I demonstrated counting the letters by moving back and forth randomly around the group and counting some numbers more that once. We discussed what was wonky about that approach.

Everyone had the opportunity to put this skill into practice by completing their Math Workbook page. We supported those that needed help, then checked work.

Once all were done, I gave everyone a small groundhog and asked them to cut it out and color it. I taped a popsicle stick on the back, so they had a little “shadow puppet.” Next, we used our scissors to make a “fringe” of grass on a sheet of green paper, then glued a little poem to it. They glued the grass in a cylinder shape and /or I taped it for them. Then we all put our groundhog puppets down in their “burrows,” made them snore through January 29 and January 30. They started to turn over and stretch a bit on February 1, then they woke up and popped out of their burrows on February 2!

We brought the shadow puppets to the front carpet, turned off the lights, shined a flashlight on the board, and had a groundhog wake-up call! Each student had a turn taking their puppet in front of the class to make its shadow dance, then run away because it got scared of its shadow!

There were a few more minutes before Lunch, so we talked about whether we might see our own shadows outside today. I asked each student to make a prediction about whether or not they would see their shadow when we go outside for Recess later. They drew a picture of themselves, either with or without a shadow, then filled in a blank that read, “will” or “will not.” When we went outside after Lunch, we immediately went up to the parking lot and looked around for our shadows. We couldn’t find them! The kids said, “It’s too cloudy! We can’t see it!” When we went back inside, I asked them to draw another picture at the bottom of the prediction sheet that showed what actually happened.

Next, we gathered at the front carpet to talk about things that make us sad. I showed them the page in the Building Writers book. We read the examples that were in it, then everyone gave ideas of their own. I taught them about Smarty Spelling by explaining that I was going to do something that was very weird as a teacher! If they asked me to spell something, I was going to say, “No, I want you to sound it out and write the sounds you hear!” We did some examples on the board until they understood what I meant. I sent everyone to get their books and complete the sentence. They were very creative in their responses and didn’t let their limited grasp of spelling inhibit their writing! Win! Win! Win! I was very proud of their efforts. You may notice that I put checks on their work, even if it didn’t look perfect. I want to encourage the process of thinking about what they want to say and communicating it in a way that they’re able. So, if I could see how they sounded it out and wrote the sounds they understood, I encouraged that by giving them a check!

Right after Lunch I had placed a tub of ice on the front table. Of course, this drew some curious stares! I asked Mrs. Wolfe to add water to the tub while we went out for recess…lots of questions about that!

I gathered everyone up front and told them we were going to do an experiment about Penguins! We had talked last week about how Penguins are different from us, so we reviewed our schema. I reminded them that we had read that Penguins’ feathers keep their skin from getting wet and that they are able to swim for long periods of time in arctic waters.

I asked Ellie to come up and let me put some Vaseline on both sides of her hand. As I did this, I told the class that Penguins keep their skin dry because of feathers that are coated with oil, rather like what I was putting on Ellie’s hand. She dunked her hand into the ice water, pulled it out, and observed what happened to the water on her skin. The water beaded up and the oil protected her hand from feeling wet. It did feel very weird, though, she said. EVERYBODY wanted to have a turn doing this, but I said that we were going to do another demo first.

Penguins (and other Arctic animals) stay warm because of a layer of blubber beneath their skin. Now, you’ve heard of a Rubber Glove, right? But have you ever heard of a Blubber Glub? I had prepared a Crisco-filled Ziploc contraption that students could put their hand into and take it for a Cold Plunge in our Arctic water! Everybody came up and tried out the Blubber Glub. They were amazed that they couldn’t feel the icy water through it.

Once they had all tried out the Blubber Glub, I let them line up to try the Vaseline hand vs. the naked hand experiment so they could compare how the two felt. Some of them got it line several times. We all washed with Dawn dishwashing liquid to get all the oil off. This is something fun to try again at home!

We ended the day with some January Joker mystery.

 

Wednesday was a blast watching all those hundred-year-olds make their way to the classroom! Such CUTE old people!

There was a very quick catch-up on their Calendar Folders (only two days to add since the last school day). We did our first Calendar Folder Monthly Craft Picture - a Penguin! They had to cut out all the pieces, glue them on blue cardstock, then color the penguin and background. They turned out really well.

We had Morning Meeting, followed by our Reading Block. The new sound we were working on for AAR was /-ng/, so we used the word "Spring" as the Word of the Day. We learned a big new vocabulary word: oviparous (creatures that lay eggs in order to reproduce are oviparous). I wrote this sentence on the board: Penguins are oviparous. I gave everyone a strip of paper with those three words in mixed-up order. They had to cut the words apart, then glue them on their Penguin Craft (from Morning Work) in the proper order.

When they finished this, they made a flip book of animals that migrate with the seasons. We got these all put together and colored, then we all read the sentences together.

Everyone went to their two Reading Group rotations, then we met on the carpet where I read the Caldecott Medal-winning book, Extra Yarn. Emory said, "I really like this book!" It's a cute, imaginative story with fun illustrations by Jon Klassen (This is Not My Hat, I Want My Hat Back).

We did an indoor Recess in the Castle, then returned to the classroom for our Math and Writing. We searched for the hidden Snowman (he won again today!), completed our Math and Writing assignments, then did a Penguin color-by-adding numbers picture.

I had the WILD idea to have a Silent Lunch today. I thought it might help us get our Lunch eaten quickly and more thoroughly and get settled down and ready for the Moms to come in and do the 100th Day Party! And much to my surprise, it worked! I should add that I promised each of them a Gold Tag if they could do it. I probably would not be able to get away with this often (I Wish!), but for today, it was exactly what we needed. The kids finished their Lunch and packed their backpacks in about 15  minutes and were all sitting on the carpet silently reading books when Megan and Kristin arrived.  

Kristin read the book The Smart Cookie by Jory John while Megan set up the desks for counting out 100 Fruit Loops. The kids were really excited to make Fruit Loop necklaces (fine motor skills with a great payoff!) and 100th Day of School Crowns. They enjoyed going on a Hershey Kiss Scavenger Hunt and placing all 100 of those kisses on color-coded ten-frames. Then, table groups got to compete to build the biggest tower of plastic cups in two minutes! Megan and Kristin had lots of other great activities planned, but ran out of time so they sent these home with students. They also sent home a tasty Smart Cookie treat!

We cleaned up the room then read a bit from January Joker before saying our Woodchuck Tongue Twister and singing our Goodbye!

 

And that's a wrap!

Geriatrically,

Mrs. Duckworth

 

Coming Up, etc.

Book Reports: You will notice a flier that came home in your child's folder today with details about this upcoming project. 

Shout Out! to Megan Finch and Kristin Howard for a wonderful 100th Day Party! Thank you! Y'all are such naturals!

 

 

 

 

I'm so glad to be back at school! (I think the kids were, too!)

 

 

Everybody came in this morning ready to work on their January Calendars. They had lots of days to catch up on it!

 

We enjoyed telling each other all about our MANY Snow Days during Morning Meeting. I told a "Joke of the Day" about Snowmen, selected two students to come up front and "spin the spinner" on our Snowman "Floss+Z Rule" and read the words, plus all the other usual Morning Meeting things.

 

For our Reading Block, I set a timer for 3 minutes while we played "Pass the Mitten." These were foamy mitten shapes with "-ck" words. We passed these around until I said, "stop!" The person holding the mitten read a word. 

 

We read "Fish Class" from our readers, then learned a poem called, "I'm a Little Snowman." Afterward, they went to their desks and marked sight words on their own copies of the poem. Mrs. Wolfe saved the poem sheets to add to their Calendar Folders.

 

In Reading Groups, two groups used their headphones to listen to The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf by Mark Teague. Two groups played a Sight Word game with Mrs. Wolfe. Two groups watched a video about emperor penguins and wrote a fact they learned (this was very challenging for them, but I'm trying to teach them this new skill!). Two groups read about penguins with me in a Scholastic Let's Find Out! issue called, "Penguins Don't Need Boots." We are learning how to gather information from non-fiction (Informational) texts. I helped them write a fact they learned from the article.

 

Our read-aloud was Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester. So if you hear your child singing, "How many toes does a fish have? And how many wings on a cow?", you'll know that's the best thing they learned from me at school today!

 

We kicked off our Math Block by doing a teen numbers counting activity. I had placed a group of magnetic letters on the board, then drew a large box beside them. I called a student up to count out 12 of the letters and place them inside the box. I called another student up to write the numeral "12" underneath. The next student counted out 15 letters; the following student made 15 tally marks underneath; another student wrote the numeral "15." 

 

We played "Find the Snowman," where the tiny Snowman is hidden behind a random number on the Hundred Chart. Kids had been so looking forward to this (since we had played it last time we had been at school), that they began asking early in the morning when we were going to play it! I gave the first clue: it was an even number. The first person guessed an odd number, but the second person (Evie) guessed the correct number! Everyone was so surprised, because it usually takes two rounds of everybody guessing a number! Wow! They all clapped and clapped for her!

 

Next up, I revealed my very large Snowman on the front board. It just had the three balls for his body and head, plus his eyes and mouth. I told them we were going to make him wear cool colors. I added a scarf, a nose, arms, and a hat. They noticed the hat had some words on it. I read it to them: Buttons, buttons in the snow, ____ and ____ make 10, I know!

 

I took out 10 two-color counters, shook them in my hands, and dropped them on the shelf. 3 landed yellow-side up and 7 landed red-side up. I filled in the numbers 3 and 7 on the hat, then invited students to come up and put 3 green and 7 blue buttons on my Snowman. I told them they would get to make one of these later.

 

But first, they got out their Math Workbooks and did their adding page. We checked it, then began giving out all the pieces for them to make their own Snowmen. I always enjoy seeing projects all lined up, so we hung them in our Gallery and snapped a pic for you! This was a fun way to review combos of 10! We worked on this right up until lunch.

 

I told them that next week, we'll be starting a new incentive called Gold Tags. I explained that they'll be able to save Gold Tags I give them for following directions, doing good partner work, and doing the right thing. Every three - four weeks, we will have a Class Store and they'll be able to buy items to keep using the Gold Tags as currency. They are really pumped for this, as you can imagine!

 

After a lively Lunch in our classroom and an Indoor Recess in the Castle, we returned to the classroom to talk through our Handwriting assignment for the day. They went to their desks and completed this. We're getting some good practice (with scaffolding, so far) in constructing sentences.

 

Copying words that students have to gather from other places on a page or on another text is a new skill. In the last semester, students didn't have to think much about what they were writing, they just had to copy a word or sentence directly below the source. Now the student is having to make sense of the sentences they're writing and add missing information to it.

 

If your student is struggling to write a complete sentence, have them copy just one word that you write. Another option for assisting them is to write a blank for each word you want them to write in their sentence. Say the sentence aloud and have the student just count the number of words you say. Then say the sentence again and point to each blank where you want them to write that word. I tried some of these strategies in class with students who needed extra support. They will get it! It's going to take some time. We are trying to set them up for being successful writers moving forward in their school careers.

 

Next, we completed an Art Project inspired by Henri Matisse. It was a color wheel that we painted with watercolors. I taught them about Primary and Secondary colors, then we learned how to mix the Primary colors to make our Secondary colors. It was like magic to them! They loved it!

 

When everyone was finished, I gathered them around a table, where I did a Science demonstration. I'm sure you'll all hear about this, because they all wanted to try it at home! I had six cups of water. I placed them on the table in a circle. I put two drops of food dye (the Primary Colors) in three of the cups. Then, I put one drop of Red and one of Blue into a cup; one drop of Blue and one of Yellow into another cup; one drop of Yellow and one of Red into another. We ended up with a beautiful reproduction of our Color Wheels!

 

 

And that's a wrap!

Yours,

Mrs. Duckworth

 

 

 

Shout-out! Again to Kristin Howard, who has just brought us ALL the number cards, tally mark cards, counting by 10's cards, mathematical operations cards ... 16 copies of every set of cards we need for all the Math lessons! I am so grateful! Thanks to Kristin, y'all are not having to send in index cards for all those number activities and we are able to play lots of games and do loads of great activities with numbers at school!