Monsters + More

It was a busy week, hence the one blog post!

Our integrated theme this past week was MONSTERS - and what a fun theme it turned out to be.  With the popularity of the movie Monsters, Inc., there are no scaredy cats in this class when it comes to monsters.

We introduced our new theme with our weekly poem titled "Monster":

If there's a Monster in your closet,
And, you don't know what to do,
Sneak up right behind him
and yell a great big
BOO!

I completely forgot to take a picture of the illustrated poem that the kids added to their poetry journals :(  Some of them were so detailed and creative.

We also focused on two books - The Monster Who Lost His Mean by Tiffany Strelitz Haber and There's a Nightmare in My Closet by Mercer Mayer

We created a monster glyph based on data that we collected as a class.

Favorite Color = color of monster
Age = number of spots on monster
Preference of Book Read = color of mouth on monster
(The Monster who Lost His Mean - red mouth, There's a Nightmare in My Closet - blue mouth)

We had 6 girls vote for pink, but then change their vote to purple.  The six tally marks do not reflect the actual number of 4 that we recorded.  I meant to white it out later and couldn't find my white out :)  oops.

I grouped the kids by their favorite color and had them sequence a sentence to add to their glyphs.  The sentence read "Go away big ________ monster."  They had to fill in the blank with their color monster.

In addition to our glyphs, we also took part in our first class science experiment.  We learned about the scientific method and what scientists do when they perform experiments.

Our question was "What will happen if we put Mentos candy in a bottle of Diet Coke?"

We each formed our own hypothesis - or as one student said - "a smarty pants guess." ha!

We tested our "smarty pants guesses" by performing our experiment outside.  The kids could barely contain their excitement!

                     We did indeed see a "monster explosion" and we all recorded the results accordingly.

Adding to our Daily Five time, we practiced using our Word Work materials.  It's important that the kids know how to use the materials and understand how to properly take care of them as well.  We practice our sight words and CVC words during this time.

This week we will practice rotating between all five centers.  Thank you to Eden's mom for donating a pair of headphones!  We are only in need of one pair now.  One more pair will allow for two people to do the listening center!  If you have a pair you can donate, we would greatly appreciate it!!

The Daily Five should be fully implemented by the beginning of next week (as long as the kids prove themselves this week).  That means we can officially start small groups!  Yay!

On a completely different note, I plan our Fridays to be "Fun Fridays," which means I stray a bit from our routine curriculum and incorporate other activities that the kids can look forward to.  For example, this past Friday we closed our sorting unit with a yummy jelly bean activity.  The kids worked on their color words and their sorting and graphing skills by sorting jelly beans and graphing their results.  They also analyzed their data by answering questions based on their graphs.

Another new addition to our week - Reading Buddies.  I have set up a buddy system with Ms. Chinault's 4th graders and Mrs. Gilstrap's 8th graders.  Every Friday, half of our class is buddied up with one of these upper grade students.  They read for 20 minutes with their buddy.  The following Friday, the other half of the class is buddied up.  This was the first Friday of our Reading Buddies and it went very well.  The Kinders LOVED being with the older kids and the older kids really loved reading with the Kinders.  It was definitely a win, win.

I hope everyone is voting in our Limeades for Learning contest.  We are voting as a school on specific projects each week.  Make sure to check PALS Facebook page to see which project you need to be voting for.  The more projects we can get funded, the more materials we will have for our school!  I'm hoping by the end of the October our class will have a new Read Aloud Library, as well as two iPad Minis!!!!  Keep voting so we can work towards our goal!

 

Limeades For Learning

Our new Star Student is Matthew Green!

Matthew demonstrated perseverance this past week.  He was on a plus all week, but he made a personal goal to be on +2.  He reached his goal, not once, but twice - and he beamed with pride with his sweet smile.  Congratulations, Matthew G.

When I Grow Up

Learning about community helpers this week got us all thinking about what we might want to be when we grow up.  Many of us wanted to be in a role of service, while others wanted to entertain.  Either way, we agreed that we all were helping the community in some way in becoming a better place to live.

We made another class book that will be kept in our class library for the kids to read during our D5 time.  The illustrations are colorful and the detail plentiful!

Congratulations to Tate Nelson, our new Star Student!  Tate made a personal goal a couple of weeks ago to get on +2 so he could pick a specific treasure from our treasure drawer.  His goal was met quickly and he has continued to excel with good behavior.  Tate also cares very much about his work therefore everything he turns in is high quality!  It is my pleasure to honor him this week!

Happy Saturday!

Sorting It Out

This carries a double meaning...

We've literally been sorting it out in math this week.  We've learned that sorting is all about finding what is the same and noticing what is different - in doing so, we discovered we can sort based on various criteria.

We began our exploration with shoes  --- and P - U!!--- who knew five and six year olds could have stinky feet! :)  We sorted our shoes based on color, laces/velcro/neither and style.  We also picked a shoe out of the massive shoe pile and attempted to find a match based on the criteria mentioned above.

We also used attribute blocks and  learned how to sort by color and shape (number of sides).  With their math partner, the kids sorted their blocks and made observations about what made them the same and different.

We began working in our math journals this week.  The kids will begin recording their math work and thinking during problem solving sessions.  This will be a daily task to encourage higher level thinking.

I introduced our Community Helper Unit this week by reading the book Career Day by Anne Rockwell.

The book describes all the different work people do in the community.  We discussed how each person's job made our community a safer, better place to live.

Also in the sorting realm, we matched our community helpers to the vehicles they drive.  We followed up that activity with a quick game of  Community Helper Memory.  Don't be surprised when your child is pointing out every work vehicle they see on the road!

We will finish up this unit on Friday and I will have some more things to share :)

I'm excited to give an update on our Daily Five progress.  I managed to pull a small group today while the other kids were either reading to self or reading with someone.  I was absolutely elated that they managed to read for 10 straight minutes!!  They have worked so hard on building their reading stamina!  We will add in listen to reading and computer over the next few days.  I'm crossing my fingers that we will be ready to start small groups the first week of October!

Once again, thank you to those who have responded to our class request for headphones and clip boards.  We received one set of headphones, so we are still in need of 4 pairs.  I would love to have clip boards in by Monday so we can begin working together on the carpet during our math time.

Ta Ta for now!