Boy, oh boy!

October FLEW by!!

Look at some of the fun things we did!

Dr. Xanekes visited our class!

Dr. X., as the kids call her, works at our school with students who have Hearing Impairement (HI). Since a student in our class has HI we wanted the children to have a chance to learn all about it.

More importantly, we wanted to answer any questions they may have and give our student a chance to show off her equiptment. After the lesson, the children had more appreciation and understanding.

 

 Dr. X read the children a story about having a friend with hearing aides.

 She passed around her model ear for us to explore exactly how our ears work.

We all had a turn using the sound system microphone properly. This is used in our classroom to be sure that our friend with HI can successfull hear ALL students and staff when they speak.

 

After her lesson, the children drew a picture of themselves with our friend who has hearing aides to assist with her hearing. You can clearly note the aides in their detailed illustrations. This was a very informational and relevant lesson! We are very thankful for having Dr. X at our school to share her knowledge!

 

Fire Safety Program

On October 7th The Delaware City Fire Company visited Wilbur to give our Kinder Kids the background on Fire Safety! The children learned about five important things:

1. Call 911 for emergencies only.

2. Always have a plan with a special meeting place if there is a fire where you live.

3. Change batteries in the smoke detector twice a year.

4. Crawl low in the good air.

5. Firefighters are there to help. They are not scary.

Firefighter Bill gave us the info to help keep us safe!

 

We also got to tour the fire truck! Enjoy these adorable images of your little firefighters!

 

Our Class

 

Fall Festival

Our 2nd Annual Fall Festival was great! The kindergarten children all had the opportunity to attend with their parents, teachers, and classmates. Each child was able to play Grab and Count with pumpkin seeds, paint a pumpkin, have a pumpkin balancing race, and make a popsicle stick scarecrow. Congratulations to Jayda! She won the pumpkin balancing race!

It was a great time for all!

 

 

Storybook Character Day-Rock Star Day-Grandparent's Day October 2013

On this very fun and exciting day, the children could dress up in a costume from their favorite story book or as a Rock Star. They could also bring their Grandparents to school! Can you guess what Mrs. Williamson and I dressed up as?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even our school nurses dressed up!!

 

We loved having Grandparents in the classroom! We had many laughs completing the "Grandparents Can, Have, Give" chart. We even awarded those Grandparents with the MOST grandchildren, and those who traveled the FARTHEST to get to our school. We had so much fun!

 

 

Thank you for stopping by to check out everything we did in October! I can't wait to see what November will have in store!

 

 

 

 

 

 



Math is Fun!

Numbers and counting come alive in Room G1!

Check out some of the activities that we have been doing!

Number Talks

For Number Talks, we have been working with rekenreks.

Check out my pin on pinterest for directions to make one at home with craft supplies.

I made a complete class set for under $10!

We use these to show quantities and to make groups of 10 (and soon, up to 20).

Click this video to see how to effectively use a rekenrek to build number sense.

 

 

These friends showed us three and six.

 

 

Ten Frames

In our curriculum Investigations we use ten frames all the time! I purchased this ten frame stamp from Really Good Stuff and it is worth every penny! For this activity, I gave the children a triangle shape with a ten frame stamped in one corner. I wrote a numeral in the center of each triangle. Their job was to represent the number in three ways:

color the ten frame to match

draw dots to represent the amount

draw a picture to match the quantity

 

Check out some of our samples!

 

Number Lines

As part of the Common Core integration for math we are talking more about number lines. The children absolutely LOVE making and using number lines. They learned the word "infinity" when we discussed the arrows on our number lines! They thought it was really cool that there are 26 letters, but numbers keep going and going!

 

First we played a class favorite game called "I notice". In this game I show the children an image. It could be a numeral, a ten frame with dots, or in this case, a number line. The children observe and raise their hands to share what they "notice". I record their answers on a chart. We refer back to the chart many times to build understanding. This is an example of our "I Notice" chart for Number Lines.

 

 

Check out the number lines we made!

We talked in depth about "how do you know what number comes next or before?"

 

Today's Question

Each day at arrival time students come in and record their answer to our "Today's Question" on a two columned chart. At math time, we compare the data using words like "more, less, same".

We also ask Higher Order Thinking questions, or HOTS, like "what would happen to our data if more people answered yes or no". This is an example of our Today's Question Chart. I bought this one from Lakeshore Learning. It would make a great holiday gift to have at home to build understanding of comparing data.

 

 

Please check out my Math pinterest board for activities that you can do at home to build your child's math understanding. Please let me know if you ever have any questions! Comment below and I will get back to you as soon as I can! Thank you for taking the time to check out our blog today!

 

 

 

 

 

Bye Bye September!

 Boy, oh boy did the first month of kindergarten FLY BY!!??
We had so much fun getting to know each other!
We focused on learning eachother's names, classroom rules, and how to be a good friend. Check out some of the exciting events of September!

Our First Day of School!

We celebrated the first day in grand style!

Paparazzi were everywhere to capture this special moment!
I grabbed this idea from my pinterest board.
Come check it out and follow my boards here: 

Mrs. Williams' Pinterest Boards

 

 

Take a peek into our classroom!

I like my classroom to look bright and colorful!

You may notice a ton of chevron and polka dots!

 My students quickly learn that those are my favorite patterns!

 

Where all the magic happens!

 

Learning to be Peacemakers!

We learned the characteristics of a Peacemaker and Peacebreaker!

Then we created our own version of David from the Story No, David by David Shannon.

This activity and more can be found on my pinterest boards for Behavior Management and Back to School.

 

 

Kissing Hands!

We read the story The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn and talked about our feelings on the first week back. As a gift for our parents, we painted a puzzle with our tiny handprints and added the poem below. This is a keepsake parents are sure to love! Check out this activity and more ideas for gifts for parents on my pinterest board Gifts for Parents and Friends.

 

 

Bus Safety!

Learning the rules on the bus is just as important as learning the rules in school.

We took a trip out to the bus court to learn about sitting "bottom to bottom, back to back", keeping quiet while the bus was moving, and always staying in your seat.

 We even got to practice a drill on the bus by jumping off the back (with teachers help).

 

 

 

We learned about names!

Meeting new friends can be tough. With all of the nerves from the first day, it's nice to see a smiling face next to you! Everyone has worries about not making friends. As parents, it's the thing we worry about most on our child's first day. Let's face it, life is easier with a good friend by your side. In order to become friends we have to learn eachothers names. We had A LOT of practice to do that! Check out some of the name activities we did in the first month.

 

Graphing the letters in our names

Learning to check in with the Daily Question using our first names



We used push pins to create tiny holes for the letters of our names. They look like tiny stars when held up to the light!

Open House!

We welcomed parents into our classroom in the beginning of September to hear all about Kindergarten! Before they came, we made Kindegarten Keepsake Boxes. All of our craft projects, and important kinder work can be saved in these boxes for the year! The children really did a great job on these! Each parent also got to take home a packet of popcorn to say "thank you for popping in" and a balloon for their child. If you weren't able to attend Open House, I still have your keepsake box here and will give it out at conference time.

Zero the Hero!

We are counting our way to the 100th Day of School! Every 10th day, Zero the Hero will come and visit us! He lets two students take turns to wear his special cape and on the 100th day, he will leave a special treat for all of the students! Check out our students rocking the cape for the 10th Day and the 20th Day!

 

Our First Spirit Day!

We will have Spirit Days all throughout the year! They are so much fun! Our first Spirit Day was Crazy Hair and Hat Day! I wore a purple wig and a tiny top hat to celebrate! Mrs. Williamson donned her favorite sun hat! Check out her blog over at The Kindergarten Garden!

I hope these images make you smile!

 

 

 

 

We had a very good time getting to know each other in September! Wait until you see what October has in store!