Tens and Ones...Compare and Contrast...

This week the students have been working hard at decomposing and composing numbers into groups of tens and ones.  We have been “counting on” from our group of ten so it’s faster!  Instead of counting each dot by itself up to ten, we can recognize that there is a group of ten, and “count on” from there.  Check out the videos of students doing a great job, decomposing numbers into groups of tens and ones and “counting on” to see what we have altogether.  The students have a solid foundation that one group of ten is made up of ten ones. 

For Literacy Workshop, we have been diligently practicing our skills of comparing and contrasting!  Students have been analyzing posters and texts to find “signal” words that let us know that we are comparing how things are alike.  For example, the words “too and both” can signal to good readers that the author is comparing how two things are alike.  The cat and dog BOTH have four legs.  The word BOTH signals to the reader (DING! DING! DING! In our heads!)  that the author is comparing!  There are also “signal” words for when the author is trying to contrast something.  It could be two items, it could be a feeling, etc.  The words “but, and while” can signal that the author is trying to show a difference in two things or feelings.  Some homes are small, WHILE other homes are big.  The word “WHILE” signals good readers that the author is trying to contrast and show a difference in two things.

Students then spent the last half of our Literacy time, creating 2 or 3 sentences that either compare or contrast any two topics of their choice.  Some of the students’ responses were, “I like chocolate chip cookies, BUT I like oatmeal cookies even more.”  “Lions and Tigers are both carnivores, but they can live in different habitats.”  “Grace is my friend.  Chloe is my friend, too.”  Etc. (Obviously the spelling was a little different than I wrote them, but they weren’t too far off!)  

Students enjoying some fun friday time!  

I wanted to extend a thank you to all of those who were able to come to the Open House.  It was so great to see how excited the students were to show everyone all of their hard work!  Thank you!

P.S. "I added some old "inferring" videos to the previous blog that I wasn't able to add earlier!  Check em' out!

INFER! FIGURE IT OUT DUDE! And SAFETY RULES!

This week we have been working hard at learning how to INFER.  Our target was “I can make an inference to help me make better predictions.”  We make inferences every day without even thinking about it.  Infer is simply a fancy word for “figuring it out”.  The students know that Mrs. Kressin is excited and happy to start school every day.  I do not have to come right out and tell the students I am excited and happy every day, but they are able to INFER that I am happy by the big smile on my face and my excited “Good Morning!” they are greeted with.  Good readers are always trying to INFER or FIGURE OUT what is going on.  It is kind of like detective work, trying to figure out what is going to happen before it happens.  To INFER we use CLUES in pictures or words to help us figure things out.  Sometimes they are clues on characters faces to help us know how the character is feeling.  

To INFER we also use our own BRAIN POWER to figure things out.  Using your own BRAIN POWER will help you to use what you already know about something to help you to INFER.  For example, students may be reading a book about a birthday party.  They may be able to infer that the main character will get to have a birthday cake at their party because they know they get to have birthday cake at their own birthday party.  So we are using our own experiences and knowledge to help us figure things out.  Even though we are in Kindergarten, we know a lot of things about a lot of things!  Making inferences helps us predict what will happen next! 

We had a special visitor this week.  A student’s family member came in to give us a SUPERB SAFETY TALK!  Officer Chris was an excellent source of knowledge for our students!  The students were amazed with everything that he carries with him and on his belt!  The student’s learned about gun safety, and that no gun is safe even if it looks like a toy, tell an adult!  Some toy guns look like real guns, so we have to be very careful and always tell an adult if you ever find a gun.  Students learned about seatbelt safety and what it means to be a safe rider in a bus or car.  Students also spent some time talking about STRANGERS.  Students learned what people are “Safe” people.  If a stranger were to ever approach you to try to talk to you, you should put your arms up, take a step back and yell “STAY BACK!”  If they don’t leave you alone, you run away, and scream and yell as loud as you can so that a “safe” adult can come help you!  Check out the video below of the students practicing their “STAY BACK!”  Officer Chris also went over different scenarios of when you should or should NOT call 911.  The students learned a lot and were fascinated by everything Officer Chris was teaching them! 

LUNCH FOR LEADERSHIP!!  3 students in class were recognized for Leadership.  They students were nominated because of their daily leadership abilities.  These students are always kind, helpful and communicate really well with their peers.  These students would also do the “right” thing even if it were not easy!  Here they are enjoying their lunch. 

Happy Heart Day!

Before we enjoyed our happy heart day festivities, we had to review SUMMARIZING!

Students chose their favorite Chapter in "Animals In Their Habitats" to summarize.  They were doing a great job!

Students enjoyed a treat from Mrs. Kressin as they passed out their Valentine's days cards to their friends.

 I heard some "My Mom never lets me have these!!"  Don't worry I only let them have one treat, but I thought it was so cute how excited they were!

Pay It Forward!

We had two more authors this week publish their books by reading them to the class!

We have been working on mastering the reading strategy of "SUMMARIZING".  Summarizing can be very difficult for adults, so breaking it down for students to understand can be a complex concept.  Many times, students want to tell you every last detail they remember.  It is great when they can recall information, however, we have been working hard at recognizing the difference between supporting details of the text and   summarizing the text.  We try to focus on what the text was MOSTLY ABOUT!  Not just a detail.  We need to see the forest and not just one tree.  

 Students are holding links in the chain that describe how they helped to "pay it forward" last week. 

Look how many good deeds we accomplished as a class in just one week!!

Student working on meeting common core standard K.OA.4. "Finds the number that makes ten when added to a given number and records the answer.."

Since it was too cold to go outside for our FUN FRIDAY ACTIVITY, I taught the student's.....wait for it....the MACARENA!!  They thought it was hilarious!! :)

100 DAYS SMARTER!!!

Today was the 100^th DAY OF SCHOOL! 

We had a fantastic day.  First things first, what kind of a party would it be without a 100^th day party hat?!   The students did a great job making their hats. 

Mrs. Kressin's parents came to visit for the special day!

Thanks to the help of Mrs. Kressin’s parents, we had 100 themed science centers.  The first center was predicting how far up a cup would be filled with 100 drops of water.  Students compared their prediction to the actual outcome.   About half of the students predicted that the 100 drops of water would fill up the entire cup!  However, they quickly discovered that the 100 drops ACTUALLY barely filled up the bottom of the cup.  One student then predicted that it would take 150,000 drops to fill the cup!  I told him that was a great prediction!!! 

 Students showing their prediction line on their cups.   

 Transferring 100 drops of water!

The next center students got to know 100cm.  They discovered what things were greater than 100cm (i.e. THEMSELVES!!!), less than 100cm (a book or poster), and things that were equal to 100cm (paper taped together to perfectly make 100cm. I found there isn't much that is equal to 100cm.) 

Students are GREATER THAN 100cm!

Another center was predicting what is heavier?  100 popped pieces of popcorn OR 100 not popped kernels of popcorn.  The students discovered they were equal to!!!  Who would have known?! 

Heavier?? 100 Popped or 100 Not Popped

Check it out! It's equal to!!

The last center was a favorite, but proved to be VERY difficult.  The students were asked to build a 100 cup structure!  Students had great ideas, but they were not always the easiest to follow through with.  Some students made a circle tower, others tried to build a fortress around their buddy, but the cups wouldn’t cooperate and kept falling!  I loved their positive attitudes and effort regardless! 

 They only had a few cups left before it all tumbled to the ground!  But it looks great here!!

This group kept trying and trying!! but standing still proved to be very difficult!!

Once we finished centers, we took 100 steps out of our classroom and made it about halfway through the library!  After the 100 step trek, the students earned their 100^th day treat from Mrs. Kressin!  

Finally it was time to announce the winner of the 100 M&M and 100 Marshmallow vote.  At first everyone was disappointed to find out that everyone guessed the wrong one for both contests!  Lucky for the class, then they were ALL able to share the M&M’s and marshmallows instead of just one person. 

 Voting! 

 Correct answer was: D

Correct Answer was: B

We ended the day with a bouncy ball competition, how many times can you bounce the ball in 100 seconds!  The students took a few moments to write what their favorite thing they learned over the last 100 days was.   Here are some of the students responses: …..that we learned that the earth orbits the sun, about fairy penguins, that fairy penguins like to stay in groups, learning about frogs, etc.  

Couple quick videos!

I wanted to show these two videos!  The first video is of the students partner teaching each other about what they know about writing an informational report. 

The next video, I love how this student takes her time to solve the problem!  Awesome!!!

Informational Reports, Math and Independent Work

We have been working on our 2D and 3D shapes.  Shapes are everywhere!!  Our Kindergarten students can analyze, describe and compare 2D shapes and 3D shapes.  They can explain if a 3D shape has flat faces or curved surfaces.  They can describe how many sides/corners 2D shapes have!  Did you know you can use rectangles to make a square?  Or that you can use triangles to make a diamond?  Or squares to make a rectangle?  The Kindergarteners do!!  Check out the awesome art work they created showing that shapes are everywhere!  They can also segment the word:Everywhere....every and where... 

Happy Leaners!

We have been gearing up for Monday, February 4^th which is our 100^th day of school!  It has been an incredible first 100 days of school.  These students are truly the best students any teacher could ever wish for!  We have been preparing with some fun writing prompts.  Students finished the sentences “When I am 100 years old, I will ……” and “If I had 100 dollars, I would buy….”.  I’m sure you could imagine, the responses were fantastic!  The students would buy a batman cave, toy aliens, real aliens, puppies, cereal, a member to animal jam, etc!  The students said that when they are 100 years old, they will be an old lady, a Grandpa, be bald, have fake teeth, that I won’t know anything, that I will retire from being a rocket scientist, that I will be able to take my teeth in and out of my mouth.” 

The last couple weeks we have been learning and getting smart on the topic of Information Reports.  Students have learned that in order to write a good report, we must first read and get smart on the topic.  Students also learned that a topic can be lots of different things.  Once we read up on our topic, we can then begin to write.  To write a good report we must include: a picture, title, topic sentence and facts to support the topic sentence and title.  After much discussion and learning about Information Reports, we took our first try at writing an Informational Report.  The students all wrote a report on the same topic.  The topic was Fairy Penguins.  Students did an excellent job working through the long writing process.  Some of my speedy writers even got to type their report on the computer! 

The above video is one of the ENDLESS reasons I LOVE teaching these kids!  I am ALWAYS laughing!!!

Speed writers get their first chance at typing their Informational Report!

We have added some “independent work” to our Math centers.  I was so excited to see students picking out their own written assignments to complete before they would move onto to the next station.  They did a fantastic job working independently!  They always do an excellent job working with a partner in math centers; I should have guessed that the transition to independent work would be seamless!    

The students never cease to amaze me!  We have only been working on addition and subtraction word problems for a week, and the students are already becoming pros at it!  (The video below shows a student working on an addition word problem.  There was a technical difficulty at the end, however, she was showing her work correctly (even though using your fingers to solve is a-okay too!) and got the problem right as soon as I fixed the SMART board!