February 27 - March 2

This week we are continuing our study of Presidents. We read two non-fiction books about George Washington on Monday and on Tuesday we will read a book about our current president, Barack Obama. To wrap up presidents we will be writing Barack Obama a letter!

This week in reading we will...

• meet Ping Pong who makes the /ng/ sound
• draw a king
• celebrate our characters
• start writers workshop

This week in math we will...

• work on partners of 10
• focus on subtraction in small group
• work on more and fewer

Please think of us when you at the grocery store and also when you are buying goods for the week. We have some dry erase markers and gluesticks, but I am concerned that they won't last till the end of the year. Our kinders love to practice their heart words on white boards with dry erase markers! Which, if you don't have a white board, I know you can find them at the dollar store or Wal-Mart for a cheap price. They are a great tool to help your child practice their writing!

February 20th - February 25th

Welcome back after a long weekend! I really enjoyed getting to visit with you about your kindergartner. They are doing such great things in our classroom and it is exciting to share. Spring break is right around the corner and we have a lot to accomplish before that week.

This week in reading we will...

• Meet Zeke for letter /z/
• Draw a prize
• Meet June and her mule for the sound /ue/, / u _e/

This week in math we will...

• Continue to work on partners of 10
• Work with more and fewer
• Make tiny tumblers. This is a way to see and work with addition.

Monday was also President's Day and this whole week we will be reading and writing about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. I was gone Monday morning and the substitute read a TIME for kids about the presidents and they filled out a KWL about presidents; what I KNOW, what I WANT to know, and what I LEARNED. Later this week we will make an Abraham Lincoln writing craft.

Celebrating 100th day

Recently we celebrated the 100th day of school! I cannot believe that we have been in school for that many days. It really just feels like yesterday that they were walking in our room with backpacks on their shoulders filled with supplies. It is a pretty amazing thing to watch them grow so much both academically and emotionally.  They really are students, friends, and great kids, but you already know this :)

Well, we started off the day by making 100th day hats, complete with label "I made it 100 days of kindergarten!" The hat had 10 strips of paper, with 10 stamps on each strip, totaling 100. Later in the day I gave them a 1, a 0, and another 0 (100). Then I asked them to make a picture with the numbers. The kids came up with some super imaginative pictures; a bee, a horse, giraffe, skateboard.

We also spent some time gluing 100 things to a 100 grid. It took a long time, but they turned out looking so neat. 

February 13th - February 15th

It has been a short and jam-packed week. Tuesday was Valentine's day and we had a blast. In small math groups we did a measuring hearts activity and during reading we put together a sentence, "It is a day for love." At the end of the day we passed out valentines and had a feast. Thank you for sending valentines with your kiddos and for helping out by sending snacks or just being another adult in the room.

This week in reading we...

• Drew a boy, focusing on the /oy/ sound
• Put together a sentence for Valentine's Day
• Met and colored the Whistling Whale, focusing on the /wh/ sound. This is a really hard sound for kiddos to grasp, but they did a great job with it.

This week in math we...

• Went grocery shopping. Using cut out fruit and veggies we worked on adding the items together! They did a great job drawing pictures to represent the objects.
• Talked about more, fewer, and extra.
• Played the "missing partner" game.

Here are some pics from the Valentine's party!

We do not have school on Thursday and Friday due to conferences.

Sunflowers, Tortoises, and Hares, OH MY!

Well I said it would be a crazy week and I did not lie! To celebrate and honor our great state of Kansas we have been learning about the different symbols. On Monday we made sunflowers and they are just so cute. I hung them up in our room to make a field of sunflowers.

Then on Tuesday, we traveled to the Lied Center to see a performance of "The Tortoise and the Hare," and "The Ugly Duckling." I wasn't sure what to expect and I was absolutely blown away by the performance. The company specializes in light display and puppeteering, so both of those were integrated in the production. The kids had a ball and did a great job of showing their Kennedy PRIDE whilst away from school.