Writer's Workshop Begins!

The WRITER’S WORKSHOP has been a hit so far!  Our goal through Writer’s Workshop is to have each student complete authentic writing. 

Authentic writing means:

ü  The writing is personal.

ü  Can hear the writer’s voice in their writing.

ü  Work is original.

ü  Stems from connections.

ü  Important to the writer.

Authentic writing:

ü  Creates pride in writer.

ü  Allows writer to express feelings.

The students' "special" Writer's Workshop bins! (Thank you parents for bringing cereal boxes!)

 

Our first Unit during the Writer’s Workshop is focused on the genre of Journals!  People write journals about themselves.  People also write so they can remember what happened to them.  People write in journals to feel better. 

 Some of you may be thinking… “uh…but my child does not know how to write?”  That is ok!  That is what is so great about Writer’s Workshop; it allows each child to work at their own level!  We encourage students to write words or sentences associated with their picture.   Initially, if a student does not know how to sound out words yet, we encourage the student to write the letters we are working on that week in school.   However, we phase each student into sounding out and writing their own words or sentences that go along with their pictures.  Already in the first couple days of Writer’s Workshop I can see the students’ wheels are turning….sounding out words to match a word or words for their drawings.  It’s awesome!  The journal idea packets are relied on heavily!  The students did a phenomenal job on them!

There is an excellent website I invite you to encourage your son or daughter to visit if they are ever bored at home.  They love it in class and it is the one of the best educational websites for young people!  www.starfall.com

We use this website as part of our technology center for Phonics/Reading centers and for a Math center. 

 

The students have been working really hard on Math this week too.  We have been trying to improve our number line in our head.  We have been looking at numbers and deciding what numbers are greater than, less than or equal to for that number.  I have some really fun activities planned for next week to continue our work on these concepts that include Fruit Loops for my constantly hungry Kindergarteners! J  It’s ok, I am hungry all the time too! 

Some of the students work below I wanted to show! 

 

The students are filling up their personal billboards with their work.  The students choose what they would like to showcase in their area.  They are very proud of what they have accomplished so far.  As they should be!

 

 

 

 

 

Kindergarten is the LAND OF ONES!

We had some incredible learning going on this week that just warmed my teaching heart!  We were working on the “sticky” vowel “U” this week.  I completely let the students take the reins in creating words that had the sticky vowel “U” in them.  One student decided “FUN” was a word that used the sticky vowel “U”; I had the students help me sound out the letters in the word “FUN” and write the letter F and N.  Another student shouted out “UP”.  I was about ready to have two groups use the same word “up!” until an unexpected student excitedly shouts “I know another word! RUN!”, then another student chimes in, “Hey!  Run and fun rhyme!”  That’s why students are so fabulous, if you give them the room to grow, they will…and even more than you had anticipated! 

 

For reading comprehension this week, we worked really hard on mastering telling what happens at the “Beginning, Middle and End” of a story.  Ask your student to show you the action we do when working on the beginning, middle and end!  You will see students watching the animated book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”.  We also acted this out in class.  Great book!  (There was also some counting to do!  Mrs. Kressin’s favorite!)  The writing activity was organizing the beginning, middle and end by drawing what happened in the correct sequence on the graphic organizer. 

 

Working on Independent Reading.

At the phonics technology center.  One student is using the SMARTboard while the other student is listening and using the desktop computer. 

Number Power is the word on the street in Kindergarten.  Last Tuesday I had to attend a Professional Development Conference on teaching our young ones numbers.  Really the biggest goal was to give students not only number sense, but number power.  We want our Kindergarten students by the end of the year to have an unshakable number line from 1 all the way to 100 and beyond.  We want students to be able to visualize their number line without any gaps.  The speaker for the day even coined the phrase that Kindergarten is the land of “ones”.  After going to this conference I revamped my Math centers to go along with the latest and greatest of what research says best practices are in Math.  Our new math centers include “Cups and Cardinality” where students can work as a team or individually to build their own cup tower.  The only catch they must be able to count as high as they build their tower.   It is pretty interesting to watch what students can create without any interference from an adult.  One student was absent and the previous day students cycled through the centers and the highest anyone was able to build their tower was 15.  The student who was absent sat down at the “cups and cardinality” center the next day and built a tower totally different than anyone else in the class and her tower was made of 21 cups.   What was even better was the rest of class was just as excited for her, ran over and immediately began congratulating her on her success!  That is what is so great about this class, they really are a community of learners and it is really fun to observe every day. 

Another math center we are working on is “Counting Up”.  This center focuses on number sequence from any number 2-20 through 100 (or less depending on what is appropriate for that student’s level).   We see many students really struggle with the numbers THIRTEEN, FOURTEEN and FIFTEEN.  I wrote those in CAPS because when we say those numbers in class, we do not just skim right over them (you know the LMNOP effect), we enunciate and raise our volume when we address these three numbers.   With our half day, we fit numbers in anytime and anywhere we can.  When we are waiting in line we are always working on counting 1-100.   Of course, we also have whole group instruction on Math, but these are some of the new practices we have put into place last week.

The students worked so hard this last week and part of the “FUN FRIDAY ACTIVITY” they earned included some more counting..but to camouflage the  counting, we used a parachute! J  The students loved it!  They got to get some energy out and completely wore me out!  Playing with a parachute is a workout!

 

 

GROUP HUG!

We have had a couple parent volunteers so far this year and they have been great help in the classroom!  I welcome any volunteers in the future!  As always if you ever would like to discuss anything regarding your son or daughter, my door is always open.  (As well as my email inbox and cell phone!)  I apologize for the delay on this blog update.  My goal is to update every Friday night on the previous week, but I forgot my camera at school and you just can’t update a blog without photos!  (This is why I have so much patience with Kindergarteners I forget things, I spill food/drinks on myself,  it takes me more than one try to get good at things, I can’t sit still and I love to be goofy and silly….we are a perfect fit!)

And yes your child's appetite was ruined last Friday, but we had a birthday celebration!  How can you turn these faces down?? 

 

Have a great week!

 Sincerely,  Mrs. Kressin

The blog has arrived!

 

 

Hello Parents and Friends,

The blog has finally arrived!  I am going to try my best (Classroom Rule #5) to update the blog once a week.  I like to showcase pictures and short video clips of what we have been learning in Kindergarten. 

 

You should be very proud of your son or daughter.  They are doing great in class!  They are doing so GREAT that they already earned 50 stickers towards their first GUMMY BEAR PARTY!  Check out the festivities below.

The first few weeks the students have been working very hard.  We have been working on; Counting 1-20 by ones, counting to tell how many objects are in a group, which group has “more” or “less”, adding two groups together to get a total, writing numbers 1-10, capital and lower case letter identification and sounds,  recalling and retelling information from a text, identifying the beginning, middle, and end of a text,  describing the difference between living and non-living things, and more! 

Your child may or may not be able to accomplish each of the goals listed above, but we are working daily to have your child progress at their own academic level.  For this reason, a lot of our day is spent in center activities that are level appropriate for your son or daughter’s current level.   Students are continuously assessed to make sure they are being accurately challenged. 

 

When we do whole group instruction during the day, I always have the students “Partner Teach”.  This is where students turn to one another and take turns teaching their partner about what we are learning.  This helps student own their learning, engage with their classmates and promotes good communication and listening skills.  Mrs. Kressin requires that everyone participates during this time.  If they don’t, they are asked to move their name down on the “Behavior Chart”.  It is never an issue though, students are excited to share what they know with their partner.   Below you will see students  partner teach during Math. 

 

 

This week we had a Science themed week.  It was a bit hit.  Above students are acting out… “Plants are ALIVE!!!”  …with ZoMBie like actions!  We did classroom walks and outdoor excursions to “spy with our eye” different living and non-living things.   Our read-aloud books related to our theme as well.  Students loved “acting” out what living things must have in order to survive.  Students remember so much easier when there is movement, hands on activites or songs associated with what we are learning!  Check it out below! 

Last week we also celebrated Patriot’s Day on September 11^th.  We did a school wide “CLAP-OUT!” where we stood in the hallway and clapped for local heroes; firemen, police, and first responders.  Mrs. Kressin’s class made flags and waved them.  The flags said, “LAND OF THE FREE, HOME OF THE BRAVE.”  We are all proud to be Americans!

 

 

 Every day one student will welcome the rest of the class to story time.  They literally say, "Hi......Welcome to story time!"  It's great!

Before, during and after the story we stop to discuss as a class or with a partner different topics from the book.  Most days we use our reading comprehension wands to answer questions about the story. The wands have questions about the main characters, main idea of the story, setting, what happened at the beginning or end, etc.   

The boys and girls in this class are a great group.  Everyone is smart, gets along well, works hard, and is as sweet as can be!