The Very Busy Spider

Parents and friends, this years presentation of "The Very Busy Spider", was a great success!  I hope you enjoy this video as much as we did performing it.  They did a GREAT job!

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today we learned a song about Dr. King.  We had so much fun with this activity locating popcorn words and discussing rules we have learned in Communication Arts.  We counted our popcorn words and built the number.  Mrs. Redfern got excited and counted a word that wasn't a popcorn word, but you can't get anything past some of these guys - someone noticed and we corrected it.  These kiddos are sooooo smart! 

Birthday Bear Graph

One of my favorite activities to do with the kiddos!  They have so much fun with this. I hope you enjoy!!!!!

Color Train

We love our color train. It helps us recognize how to spell our colors. We worked really hard to paint it and cut the wheels. We even learned that mixing colors make different colors. 

We are Bucket Fillers!!!!!!

Today, we talked about how to fill a friend or family members bucket. These guys were spot on!,,,  don't be surprised if you get a hug or "I love you", from your child today. 

The Very Busy Spider.....by Room 113

Our finally continued............

I was so proud of all of my friends.  Sometimes speaking in front of a group of people can be very intimidating and hard for many (including myself).  I was very proud of all our friends who played an important role in "The Very Busy Spider"- what a great team effort!  These guys are great, and I've had so much fun this year!  I have 12 more days, and I miss them already!!!!! Thanks to all my wonderful parents who used their creativity to make costumes.  I am truly blessed by students and parents!

Ladybugs

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Learning About Spider's and Their Webs

This week we have been using our reading comprehension skills to understand spiders. 

Students worked hard to draw a spider according to our spider facts.

Sharing our spider drawings.

Our share circle.

Let me tell you all about spiders.

Spiders use silk, we use silly string!

Labeling Red Eyed Tree Frogs

I'm sure you have been hearing a lot about these frogs lately. We have become quite the experts about these amphibians. Check out some of our great work we are doing. 

Merry Christmas Room 113 Families!

I wish you all well on this holiday vacation!

We are Readers!

Parents,

Check this out! We have been working really hard on building stamina and reading in our bubble spots.  There are 3 ways to read:
1. Look at the pictures
2. Read the words
3. Retell a story

We can do all three with our picture books and "just right" books in our book boxes.

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A note from our Morning Messenger!

Every morning, our Morning Messenger for the week writes a message to their friends.  This message is a helpful hint of how our friends can make our class a safe and productive environment for learning.  I had to post this one, because I loved all the details in the illustration and how this friend is using digraphs and rules of language.  

Eyes on the teacher.

Wh is for White Whistling Whale

OK folks, I'm a little tardy for the party on this one, but I really wanted to share with you some amazing stuff I am getting from your kiddos! Earlier this week, we learned about the digraph "wh" and wrote some really great connections to the stories we read. Here are 4 of the connections that were shared.

This is an angel fish.

What if a whirlpool was here?

I like this book because the whale is in the ocean.

I like the color white.

We are Engineers!

Future jobs for our children include scientist and engineers. As kindergarteners, it is important for us to create and build objects using our problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Here are some of the projects we created today!

Alberto created a jet.

George made the number 1.

Jenna, Linkin and Jacob made a motorcycle race track.

Shanik and Anabel created art.

Armour made a car.

Jaxon created a car too.

Kean created a castle

Micheal created a castle as well.

Elizabeth made a house, tree and see-saw.

Juan made a race car.

Easton made a table.

Jesse created a square with a hodge podge.

Nora developed a tree house.

Austin made a car.

Thank You Belton Educational Foundation!!!

Parents and Guardians,

Your child came home with a non-fiction book this afternoon provided by the Belton Educational Foundation!  This book is for your child to KEEP!  The district is eager to support the Common Core emphasis on non-fiction and we are so appreciative of their generous gift! We've been discussing the different ways to read a book this week, and we realized that looking at the details in pictures really helps us understand information in the book.  Please find time (as I understand how precious it always is) to look at the details in the photos/pictures to understand the information the illustrator is wanting to share.  Sight words (a.k.a. popcorn words) have been a strong emphasis in our class as well.  If your child finds a sight word,  please join in the celebration of their success of noticing them.  We have been recognizing how these words just "pop" up everywhere in books!

Favorite Phonics Videos

First Day of Kindergarten

OK, folks........ The moment you have been waiting for! Look at these "Cutie Putooties"!

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N is for Night

Our class is part of a letter exchange this year, and we are so excited to build our word wall letters with 25 other classrooms. Our letter is N, and the students and I brainstormed different words that begin with the sound /n/. We found a picture of the letter "N" that depicts night. I gave your child a homework assignment to look outside tonight when the moon is out and create a mental image of the night sky. We will begin creating 26 N's to share with 25 other classrooms, and place one on our word wall this week. If you would like to donate silver glitter or silver sticker stars, we would really appreciate your help. Be looking for a picture of our word wall sometime in Ocotober!

located @ http://www.fantasticfunandlearning.com/n-is-for-night-sky-letter-recognition-activities.html

September Newsletter

Parents,

I will be sending out monthly newsletters to update you on our progress in kindergarten. While we are concentrating on our letters and sounds, it may be more frequently. I will also send this out in an email once I get the list completed!

ELA (English Language Arts)

We have been working on our letters and sounds. Each letter has a gesture to help us remember the sound. Letter recognition and sounds are so important when it comes to developing our decoding skills. Please review these skills with your child:

P – Polly Panda, (painting brush strokes up and down)
U – Uncle Upton, (pointing up)
M – Mimi Mermaid, (mopping the floor)
O – Ollie Ostrich, (pointing to your throat)
X – Felix the Fox and Max the Ox, (moving your hands in a boxing motion)
A – Annie Actress, (making a plus motion with your arms)
D – Daisy Dragon, (hands above head in a dancing motion)
T – Timmy Tiger, (hands at belly in a tickling motion)
S - Sadie Seal, (hands cupped in a swimming motion)

We are working on sight words (popcorn) as well. Students are working on recognizing the following popcorn words (they keep popping up everywhere!):
I
like
my
can

We are so exited when we recognize these words. Please help your child practice finding these words at home.

Recognizing the letter and sounds in our name is very important, but we have also been working on writing our name utilizing lower case letters. Please work with your child at home using the upper case for the first letter and the lower case for the remaining.

WRITING

We write every day! We are constantly listening to sounds and trying to decode what we are hearing. Sometimes kindergarten writing may not look like what we are used to as adults, but allowing our students to share through pictures, letters and even marks is developmentally appropriate. Please encourage your child to create illustrations and provide their “Author’s Touch”.

MATH

We are working on the relationship between numbers and quantities. Number formation is another area we are working on as well.

Homework:
I will be sending home number and letter practice sheets for students to work on. If this is a resource you and your child would like to practice, they will be readily available. I encourage my parents and students to read to each other, with each other, and with siblings. Reading is the KEY! Students learn from hearing us read!!!!

Tracey Redfern

Specials Calendar

Parents,

To keep you better informed of what our "specials class" is for the day, I have added it to the blog calendar. I hope you find this an informative tool.

Tracey Redfern

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