Fire Safety

Such an awesome day in Kindergarten Plus!  This is Fire Prevention Week and we had some special activities and very important visitors who came to our school today!

Our day began with a fire drill.  We were able to evacuate the entire building in less than two minutes and Mrs. Carl was so proud of all of us.  We are getting good at knowing exactly what to do when the fire alarm rings at school.

Following the fire drill, it was off to P.E. with Mrs. Smith.  Then we got to go back outside and visit a REAL fire truck, with REAL Eagan fire fighters!!  Visiting the fire truck was the highlight of the day.  One of the firefighters showed us all of the equipment on the truck and told us what they use each thing for.  Then he even let us sit inside the truck!  We LOVED it!!

  

   

After we learned all about the fire truck, we got to meet two other Eagan fire fighters.  They showed us the gear the fire fighters wear so in case we are ever in a fire or see a fire fighter dressed in their gear, we won't be scared.  We know that they are there to help us.

We learned some cool things about the fire fighters that visited us today.  One of them has children that attend Northview.  Another one decided to trade his helmet for one of our friend's name hat!

And the fire fighter that dressed up in the gear actually was a student at Northview, just like we are!

   

Ms. Arboe even had a chance to try on one of the helmets!

Yesterday we made these sweet fire fighter hats, so we put them on for a photo today!

Many thanks to the Eagan Fire Department for having their fire fighters visit us today.  We learned many things.  Please take some time at home to discuss with your family what to do in the event of a fire at home.  Remember to have two escape routes, check the batteries in all of your smoke detectors, and have a designated meeting place for your family in case you ever have a fire at home.  We want all of our friends to be safe!

Ten Frames and Bugs

In today's Math lesson, we learned how to use ten frames to help us count.  A ten frame is a frame with ten boxes...five in each row.  These help us count quickly because if one row is full, we know that is five and we can count on from there.  If both rows of boxes are full, we know there are ten.  

Ms. Arboe chose helpers to hold up ten frame cards.  We noticed that they were all mixed up...out of sequence!  We had to work together to put the cards in the pocket chart in the right order.

   

   

      

Then we had to match the number cards with the ten frame cards.

    

Ms. Arboe thinks we are pretty good Math students!

Tomorrow will be a big day in Kindergarten Plus...a fire drill, a visit to a real fire truck and a visit from Eagan fire fighters to our classroom.  Look for some fun photos tomorrow!

Reading Workshop and Work Places

Last Friday was a busy day in Kindergarten Plus!  In Reading Workshop, we are learning about how to choose books to read that are interesting to us.  Mrs. Kurt put us in to small groups.  Each group got to have a basket of books and we looked through them.  We found some books that we did want to look through...and we also found some that were not interesting to us, too.  It was fun to do this and Mrs. Kurt said we had some great conversations in our groups about our books!

   

During Math we got to do our work places.  The work places we have are Polydrons, Geoboards and Geobands, Which Bug Will Win?, Unifix Cube Patterns, and Pattern Blocks.

   

   

It was a good day!

Patterning and More Scarecrows

In Math today, we worked on patterns.  First we made patterns using ourselves.  Then we made unifix cube patterns.  We learned about copying a pattern and extending a pattern, too.  Did you know that extend means to make the pattern bigger or longer?  Well, we know that now.  Just ask us!

Our newest workplaces are called "Which Bug Will Win?" and "Unifix Cube Patterns".  We are all excited for tomorrow when we get to explore workplaces in Math!  Look for some photos coming up...

   

   

Today we read the story "Scarecrow's Hat" written and illustrated by Ken Brown.  When we started reading the book, we all wondered why a chicken would be sitting on a scarecrow's hat.  We thought that seemed a little strange.  We learned a new word in this story, too.  The word is swap.  Swap means to trade or change something with someone.  In this story, lots of the animal characters had something that they wanted to swap.  Be sure to ask your child about this fun story!

We started making another scarecrow project today.  It is not quite done yet...they need a few finishing touches.  Look for some photos of them tomorrow.

  

Scarecrows and Sorting

For our Fall unit, Ms. Arboe read us a story called "Lonely Scarecrow".  We talked about why people use scarecrows and that we see lots of them for decorations in the fall.

Then we went to work making some super cute scarecrows to hang in our classroom.  We used construction paper, paper plates, googley eyes, glue and scissors.  They turned out really well and look so nice hanging in our classroom!

   

   

Yesterday in Math, we sorted our bug cards.  We sorted by bugs that had wings we could see and wings we couldn't see.  We made a class graph to organize our information.

   

Today we will do more work on our fall unit and learn about patterns in a new Math workplace!

Writing Workshop, Reading Workshop and Math

We are really getting good at our Writing Workshop.  We have been learning that writers think first, then they sketch a picture, label it and add words.  We have also been talking about what writers do when they are "done".  Mrs. Kurt taught us this cool saying..."When I'm done, I've just begun!"  Now this means that when we are writing and we think we are finished with a story, we need to look at our work and check on some things.

First, I ask myself if I can add anything to the picture.  Maybe some details.  Maybe some color.  Next, I ask myself if I could add to the words.  Maybe I could add another sentence.  After I have added to the picture and the words, my story would be done.  Then it would be time to get a new piece of paper and start a new story.

   

Look at all of this good writing going on.  So exciting!

Since it is a new month, our Number Corner has changed!  We are anxious to see what the calendar markers will be like...

 Today's Math lesson was on sorting.  This time we sorted bugs.  We came up with several ways that the bugs were alike and how they were different.

   

    

 In Reading Workshop, we learned that sometimes people read magazines.  Mrs. Hemsey loaned us some really cool kids magazines from the library.  We got to have a magazine and find a cozy reading spot somewhere in the classroom to "read" the magazines.  Check it out!

   

In our Social Skills lesson today, we talked about how sometimes we get frustrated and say things like "I can't!" or "I don't know!"  We talked about words we could use instead and look at the great ideas we came up with...

Our goal is to use some of these ideas  instead of saying I can't or I don't know.  We will add more ideas to our list tomorrow.

Whew!  We had a busy day today!