Getting Ready for Conferences, Introduction to Poetry Study, Etc.

We had a busy but short week for the students due to parent teacher conferences. We worked on our reading skills in literacy lab, finished our writing for 3rd quarter, read and colored a book about our color words, the students shared their portfolios with their classmates as well as their preschool reading buddies, and we received our monthly scholastic books! Take a look below for more details!

In literacy lab, I worked with my group on reading the story "At Work" about how animals work. Then, the students worked on retelling the story, discussing their favorite part and writing their own sentences related to the story about different animals working as well as how they can work.

 Ms. Roland worked on reading the story "Jake's Car" and answering comprehension questions. Ms. Roland was out on the day the picture was taken (top right). In Mrs. Boyd worked with students on making sight words in different ways. Mrs. Arnold worked on making letters and matching uppercase letter to the lowercase letters. In the listening center, the students listened to "Who took the farmer's hat?" and drew their favorite part.

 In writing this week, the students finished their work from 3rd quarter. They chose their best work to go in their portfolios to share at conferences and they took the rest of their work home. Once the students were finished with their writing, they read and colored a book about color words, "I can read colors". 

 The students practiced sharing their portfolios with multiple classmates in order to get ready to share them with you all at parent teacher conferences.

They also practiced sharing with their preschool reading buddies. 

 As I shared with you all at conferences, we will be publishing our own poetry book next month and we begin our poetry study this week. I shared books from previous classes with the students and they were very inspired! We learned how to write an all about me poem and focused on that so far. The students wrote about them and their favorite things as well as drew a picture to illustrate their poem. 

I can't wait to see what they come up with during our poetry study! 

 A big thank you again to Mila's mommy Monica for ordering monthly scholastic books for all of the students! They love picking out which book they would like and are always so appreciative. 

Have a great spring break! Come back again after break to see what we are up to next!

Mrs.  Brittany Garrabrant

Leprechauns, St. Patrick's Day Activities & More!

Of course we had another great and busy week in Kindergarten! We worked on practicing our literacy and reading skills in Literacy Lab, had another directed drawing to draw a leprechaun, made leprechaun traps and shared them with our preschool reading buddies, enjoyed a St. Patrick's Day snack, and more! Take a look below to find out more details about our busy week.

In Literacy Lab this week, the students worked on making sight words with Mrs. Boyd, increasing recognition of letters and letter sounds with Mrs. Arnold, and listening to the story "Who took the farmer's hat".

 The students also read the story "Have you seen my pot of gold?" with Ms. Roland, when the students worked with me I reread the familiar story "Llama llama mad at mama" to them, we worked on story comprehension, and read the story "Pets". 

 While I was working on finishing up testing with the students and updating their data folders, Mrs. Rawlins came in and subbed in our classroom. She worked on another directed drawing with the students and this time they made a leprechaun. They turned out great and are now hanging up around the classroom for you to see during conferences!

 The students also worked on making leprechaun traps. They worked in 5 different groups to create their own unique traps using different materials that I had set out for them. It was fun to see what they came up with. Then, on Friday the groups shared their work with our preschool reading buddies and explained to them why they created their specific trap and how it would catch a leprechaun. 

 We also listened to some fun St. Patrick's day videos, danced, and enjoyed some green Hawaiian punch with our preschool reading buddies.

 Later on Friday we read St. Patrick's day stories, enjoyed a festive snack including different "gold coins" pretzels and more green juice, watched a video of Irish river dancing, and even tried to dance like them as well. It was much harder than they thought it would be!

Mrs. Boxley came on Tuesday and the students were happy to see her as always. She also worked with the students to practice their lunch numbers in order to help them get faster!

You all should've received your child's spring pictures back on Friday if your child was at school that day. It works a little differently than pictures from the fall so it can be confusing sometimes. You only have to pay for the pictures that you want to keep. If you do not like the pictures or do not want to keep them, them just send them all back to school. If you would like to keep some or all of the pictures, just fill out the form inside the envelope, send in the correct amount of money, and keep the pictures that you pay for. I hope this helps! 

 The cat in the hat directed drawings that the students did have been displayed in the hallway for you to see when you come in for conferences this week. 

I am looking forward to meeting with you all for conferences this coming week. Thank you for checking in. Come back next week to see how else we are preparing for conferences! 

Have a great week!

Mrs. Brittany Garrabrant

More Dr. Seuss, Stuart Little 2 Movie, Etc.

We had another busy week in Kindergarten! We worked more on Dr. Seuss inspired activities and writing, finished the book Stuart Little so we watched the movie, had our high schoolers come to visit and much more. Take a look below to see more details!

Monday we had our spring picture day! When the pictures come in they will be sent home, you can choose which ones you want to keep, pay for them, and send the rest back in the package. 

 In literacy lab, groups that worked with me practiced reading a story called "Dan Gets Dressed". We worked on retelling the story, discussing our favorite part, characters, setting and making a connection to the text. You can be practicing these skills after you read stories with your children at home as well. Mrs. Arnold practiced reading and writing sentences with the students.

 In the listening area, the students listened to the story, "Fox in Socks", Mrs. Roland practiced various decoding skills with her groups, and Mrs. Boyd worked on making sight words.

One day this week, I had a day where I was working with the students on updating their data folders in order for me to complete their report cards. While I was doing that, Mrs. Rawlins was working with the students on doing a directed drawing for The Cat in the Hat. She went through step by step directions on how to draw him and the students had to follow directions. You can see below the step by step instructions as well as Mrs. Rawlins completed example Cat in the Hat. The students did a great job following directions and their completed drawings are up in the hallway for you to see when you come for conferences!

On Tuesday, the high schoolers came to visit for our last Pirates & Peeps visit of the year. They worked with the students during our choice time to explore in various areas around the classroom. The students really enjoyed working with them throughout the year!

 In writing, the students created a character to fall asleep like in the book, "The Sleep Book". It could be made up or a real character and the students had to write what the kind of creature was, how many feet it has, how many arms it has, and what kind of neck it has. Gabriel created a giraffe with 4 feet, 0 arms, and a giraffe neck. Mila created a box with 5 feet, 4 arms, and a person neck.

We also discussed what they would do if they found the last truffula tree (like in the story The Lorax). Alexander said that he would make more and Aicha said that she would take care of it, make more because she likes Truffula trees, and get more.

We also worked on making a class book based on Green Eggs and Ham. We came up with some rhyming words as a class and I wrote them on the board for the students to use as a reference if they needed to. They came up with some creative ideas of things they might eat instead and their illustrations turned out awesome! 

On Friday the students shared their writing with their preschool reading buddies.

 The lunch department has given all of the students their student ID numbers with a keypad in order for them to practice and memorize their numbers. In a couple weeks, they will begin putting their numbers in when they go through the lunch line in order to practice for first grade.

 We finished the book Stuart Little so we watched the movie. The movie Stuart Little 2 goes along with the story line of the book better so we watched the second one. I also found a book about a sailing adventure that Stuart goes on that we read. We also started a book that goes along with the movie and even has pictures from the book that we are currently reading together.

We continued working on our Dr. Suess inspired workstations. Including another one that I added to look like Truffula trees (on the left) where the students had to put the matching number of beads that the tree has on it.

Thanks for checking in. Have a great week! 

Mrs. Brittany Garrabrant

Dr. Seuss, Jelly Bean Party & More

This week was full of fun and learning! We worked hard on our reading skills, celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday, enjoyed our class jelly bean party, created our own made up characters, shared with our preschool reading buddies and explored new Dr. Seuss inspired workstations. Take a look below for more details on the fun we had this week.

In Literacy Lab, groups that worked with me read a guided reading book called "pets" as well as a book to learn more about Dr. Seuss. In the listening center, the students listened to "The Cat in the Hat" and drew a picture of their favorite part.

 They also practiced sounding out and writing words with Mrs. Arnold, stamping sight words with Mrs. Boyd & reading with Ms. Roland.

Since Dr. Seuss' birthday was this week, we had dress up days all week that went along with some of his books to celebrate.

 Monday we wore red or blue and read "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish".

 Tuesday we wore a hat or stripes and read "The Cat in the Hat".

 Wednesday we wore crazy socks and read "Fox in Socks".

 Thursday we wore green and read "Green Eggs and Ham".

 Friday we wore pajamas and read "The Sleep Book".

 We read many more Dr. Seuss books, there are so many. Here are just some of them that we read!

When Mrs. Boxley came on Tuesday, all of the students were taking turns holding her hand in the hallway and she felt very special!

 Mrs. Boxley was glad that she was able to join us for our class jelly bean party that the students earned. The students got Starburst jelly beans, sorted them by color, graphed them and they got to enjoy them! There were a few students who aren't able to have jelly beans, so they enjoyed various flavors of life savers. The students really enjoyed the Jelly Bean party and were proud of themselves for earning it! 

 Mila and her family ordered books from our Scholastic order for all of the students in our class and they came in this week. The students really enjoyed getting to pick out a book! Mila's mom, Monica also brought the students a snack in on Friday to go along with our Dr. Seuss week. She brought in colored goldfish to go with the book, "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish". I forgot to get pictures of the students enjoying their snack but they really appreciated it so thank you again!

 In writing this week we worked on rhyming. As a class we came up with the rhyming words for the "I Will Read" poem and the students wrote their own rhyming words (real or nonsense) for their "Crazy Socks" paper. 

Dr. Seuss likes to make up crazy characters and the students got to create their own characters. They drew their character, came up with a name for it as well as where it lives. You can see below that Kendra drew Foxey who lives in a house. Alexander drew Robert who lives in the woods. Tommy drew Boley who lives in the forest. Dakota drew Gak who lives in a treehouse. I loved seeing the creative ideas that the students came up with. 

 The students shared their writing with their preschool reading buddies. Mrs. Vogt had many students out sick so some of our students got to share with each other.

 In workstations, the students worked on surveying their classmates on what kind of crazy socks they were wearing (on Wednesday) & what their favorite Dr. Seuss book was.

 I also set up a Write the Room challenge where I put up cards around the room with sight words on them. The students had to find the picture on their page and write the matching sight word on it. There was also a Cat in the Hat writing challenge where the students had to find words around the room for each specific letter.

 We read the story "Ten Apples up on Top" and in the workstation below, the students had to pick a number of red apples, add them to a number of green apples and write a number sentence to match. There was also a Seuss-O bingo workstation as well.

Thanks for checking in. Have a great week!

Mrs. Brittany Garrabrant