Estimating and Solving Problems

Today in Math, we were learning about some fancy guesswork called estimating.  An estimate is just a guess and we discovered that sometimes guessing is hard for us!  We kind of like to be right, so we talked about observing and making a reasonable guess.

Mrs. Kurt had 100 plastic sea creatures in a grocery bag - only we did not know how many there were! She would reach into the bag and pull out a bunch and put them on the floor.  We would observe the group and then estimate how many we thought were in the group.  Next, using our counting mats (that look like ten frames), we counted to see exactly how many there were.  Finally, we would compare the exact amount to the estimates to see how close we were.  By the end of the activity, our estimates had gotten much closer to the exact amounts.

We participated in our Math workplaces after lunch and even had some Free Choice Time.  Life is good!

Our Social Studies chapter this week is titled "How Do I Solve Problems With Others?"  Most of our read alouds have centered around this theme.  Today we discussed that everyone gets angry, but it is how you handle this anger that really matters.  We talked about the concept that our words and actions are ours...they belong to us and we control them.  Sometimes when we get angry, we might say and do things that we don't mean.  When we get angry, we need to calm down.

We discussed and role played five different strategies for us to try to help us calm down when we are feeling angry.  They were:

1.  Sit quietly.
2.  Take 5 deep breaths.
3.  Count to 10.
4.  Do 5 jumping jacks.
5.  Hum a tune.

Of course, there are many other things you can do to calm down.  Take some time to discuss these and other strategies for calming down with your child

Writing Workshop and Library with Mrs. Hemsey

Hello!

Kindergarten Plus continues to be a busy place for our students.  Since it is already the middle of January and Parent - Teacher Conferences are just around the corner, we have been busy completing lots of assessments so you can see how much we have learned so far in Kindergarten.  We think you are going to be impressed with our progress!

In Writing Workshop, we are learning how to use our Writing Partners.  We have found that when we are planning a story, it is extremely helpful to chat with our partners about it.  Our partners listen to us and ask us about any details we may be able to add to our stories.  We are also learning about planning out a story before we write it.  Today we told our stories "across our fingers" when we explained our ideas to our partners.  Working with our writing partners is really helping us.  :-)

For Specialist time today, we went to the Library with Mrs. Hemsey.  Mrs. Hemsey is teaching us about the Caldecott Medal.  We checked out new books and worked on a word search activity with her.

Our "Good Stuff" snowmen are hanging in the hallway.  Thank you all so much for sending in such good stuff!

"Good Stuff" Snowmen

Our snowy day project is finished and hanging near the office.

Miss Claire read us the book "Snowballs" by Lois Ehlert.

We made our "good stuff" snowmen this morning.  It was such a fun project and the kids were so creative.  I've never seen such "good stuff"!   

Now I just need to find a way to hang them all up......

Have a great weekend!

Mid-Year Assessments and Sequencing

Well, we did the last part of our Snowy Day project.  We are just waiting for them to dry so we can hang them up!

We did workplaces in Math today.

We are working on our mid-year assessments for conferences.  Today many of us completed the sentence dictation part of the assessment.

This afternoon, we completed a sequencing activity.  If you are not sure what sequence means, be sure to ask your child.  They know what sequence means!!  :-)

We are excited for tomorrow and our "Good Stuff"snowman project!

A Chubby Little Snowman

This morning we worked on the second part of our Snowy Day project......

This afternoon, we learned a new poem.

Chubby Little Snowman

A chubby, little snowman
Had a carrot nose.
Along came a bunny
And what do you suppose?
That hungry, little bunny
Looking for his lunch
Ate that snowman's carrot nose
Nibble, nibble crunch!

Then we made our own chubby, little snowmen!!

The Snowy Day and a Visitor

It has been a busy couple of days in Kindergarten Plus!

On Monday, we worked on our Science Notebooks.  We have finished our unit on Paper and are writing about all the cool stuff we learned in this unit.

In Writing Workshop, we started a new Small Moments story yesterday.  Small Moment stories are when we think of something to write about and stretch it on to three pages.  We are focusing on details, stretching out our words and writing down the sounds that we hear, and sketching our pictures quickly. It is pretty amazing how much our writing has improved since September, but we will keep working on it so it gets even better.

We are still enjoying our lunch time.  It is a great time to socialize and get to know our friends.

We read the story "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats.  This book won a Caldecott Medal in 1962!! Be sure you ask your child what the Caldecott Medal is awarded for...they can tell you!

We started our own snowy day project.  Mrs. Radermacher is helping us with this.  It involves lots of painting so it will take about three days to complete it.  We will be sure to get some photos of the finished product!

We had a special visitor in our classroom this afternoon and her name is Miss Claire Elliott.  Claire is a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse majoring in Elementary Education.  She is a 2011 graduate of Eastview High School and is spending some time observing in our classroom while she is home for her winter break.  We welcome Miss Claire and hope you enjoy learning in our Kindergarten Plus classroom.