Ten Apples Up On Top

This week we continued our apple unit.  We made an a book, we stamped apples, and made an apple glyph.  We also had a visit from the Guidance Counselor, Mrs. Herr.  She will be coming in once a month to talk about Safety, Respect, and Responsibility.  This time, it was a getting to know you session.  After each visit, she gives the students a "tool" to put in their toolbox to remember the activity.  At the end of the year, they will get to take them home.  The children got a group of 3 balloons today to remind them our school rules: Be safe. Be respectful. Be responsible.

In Readers Workshop, we are making new "old favorite" storybooks.  We do this by hearing a book so often that we can "read" it.  I sent home If You Give A Dog Donut for each student to keep.

In math, we have continued to compare numbers.  We moved from using one to one matching to counting to compare numbers.  We use the words equal, greater than, and less than when we compare.

We read these books:

     

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We Love Apples!

     Our apple unit of study is off to a great start.  We started by taste testing Red Delicious, Granny Smith, and Golden Delicious apples.  We graphed the results and were surprised to find that most kindergarteners liked the green Granny Smith apples.  We also wrote a predictable chart where every student has a sentence that follows the pattern, "I like (color) apples.  We talked about periods at the end of the sentence and matching one spoken word to one written word.  Then we turned the sentences into a class book.  I am surprised at how quickly the students were able to unscramble the words in their sentence.   We also each got a copy of our very first Scholastic News magazine, and the students got to take it home! We will continue to learn about apples next week.

     We have finished the first part of our first unit in Readers Workshop which was about reading "Learn About the World" books.  The students have gotten very good at reading and rereading to find out more.  At this point, we are still getting the information from the pictures, although we are starting to find the words we know like the and is.  We also talked about how to be a Book Lover
and take care of all the books in our classroom library.  We are using symbols on post it notes to mark pages in books we want to share.

Next, we will begin reading storybooks by looking at the pictures of familiar books and remembering the words we heard the author use.  At home you can practice this too!  When your child asks you to reread a favorite book, say, "YES!"  After a few times, have your child "read" it to you!

We finished our first topic in math about Numbers 0 to 5.  The students were able to successfully count objects to 5 and record the count with a numeral.  They were able to show numbers in different ways like with counters and drawings.  It was a little tricky for them when they were asked to mark the paper with zero objects.  They were hesitant to leave it blank.  Now, we are looking at Comparing Numbers to 5.  We started finding out if sets were equal by matching them one to one.  If each object has a match, the set is equal.  If there are any extras, the sets or groups are not equal.  Then, we moved on to finding out which set was greater.  Next week, we will talk about less than and compare numbers by counting.

This week we read and reread some favorite stories.  Here are some:


               


While we read them, we practice reading with characters' voices, we act them out, we remember the beginning, middle, and end, we think about how the characters are feeling in different parts of the book, and we talk about new vocabulary like rushing (as in the rushing river).