Center Time!

These pictures show a few of our Learning Centers that we have in Kindergarten. The students practice what they have learned in class, extend their learning, and teach each other. This is also a valuable time for problem-solving with others and learning to work together and share. Enjoy!

...And January is almost completed!

Wow, this month has really flown by! The carnival is tonight from 6-8:00. Enjoy food, fun, and games.

Morning Meeting: "Let's Have a Great Day" morning song, say the alphabet and "sound"abet, find items in the room that rhyme, Morning Message: circle Word Wall Words, draw lines to match the rhyming pictures, Sharing
Centers
Math: watch Chicka, Chicka 1, 2, 3, read "How Big is a Million?", Penny Introduction
Music with Mr. Small
Wax Museum
Birthday Celebration

Enjoy the weekend,
Miss Kimpton

Wax Museum, Hundreds Day, and the Carnival

We have a lot happening at Sandstone! Tomorrow, the 5th grade class will present their wax museum during the day. The 5th graders have researched a person from history, and will dress up and "become" that person for the day. For a coin, the person wil "come alive" and answer one question. Our class will be attending the "museum", and I give each student 5 pennies to ask 5 questions. If your child wants to bring more coins to ask more questions, he or she is welcome to. The money raised goes toward the 5th grade Spring field trip.

The 100th Day of School is on Monday, January 31. If you have questions about what type of 100 edible things to bring, here are aome ideas: (must fit in a sandwich/quart size ziploc baggie) 100 lemonheads, 100 chocolate chips, 100 Whoppers, 100 Skittles, 100 marshmallows, 100 gummy candies, 100 pretzels, 100 cheeries, 100 Fruit Loops, etc. We will mix them up on 100's day and then have a feast!

Don't forget the carnival tomorrow night!

Morning Meeting: Syllable Greeting, Letter Sounds Yo Yo song, "From Head to Toe", fill in the missing words (use tools to determine them-check the picture, sound out words, look at the initial letter, ask yourself "Does it make sense?)
Handwriting: Magic letter c
Math: Chicka Chicka 123 video, estimate/measure area of shape
Reading Buddies: area of hands, Math worksheet, reading
Centers
Korean dining with Miss Jeong and using chopsticks

Have a pleasant evening,
Miss Kimpton

Wednesday, January 26

Morning Meeting: greeting in a pattern, add words to the word wall (I, a, can, the), introduce new words: and, have, Sharing story, introduce new center: beading and building/writing words
Handwriting: diver letter "b"
Math: read "Slower Than A Snail", order lengths with rectangular prisms, number sense building with cold lunches
Centers
Reading: Math book, "Ted and Nat" (students read the book aloud by table)

Don't forget the carnival is on Friday night! Tickets are on sale before and after school.
Miss Kimpton

Tuesday, Jan. 25

Morning Meeting: Greet your partner with the matching letter and brainstorm two words that start with that letter, and then share with the class, Sharing, "Can You" poem, read "From Head to Toe"
Handwriting: Write sentence(s) starting with "I see", draw picture to illustrate
Reading/Math: Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3
Centers
Library with Mrs. Mayhall

See you all tomorrow!
Miss Kimpton

Surrounded by Kindness

We had an assembly today to link all of the kindness chains together from the K-4 grades, and the total length equaled 1-1/2 times around the gym! Each link represented an act of kindness that students either experienced ordid themselves. It was a very powerful experience.

Reading: "Ted and Nat", "Snakes-Long, Longer, and Longest"
Math: Comparing Sizes
Centers
Sharing Time

Have a super Monday evening,
Miss Kimpton

Fantastic Friday

The students are bringing home three new reading items this week: "Can You?" poem in the poetry folder, "You Can Do It" book, and "A Plan For Nan". These are excellent reading materials to practice pointing to each word as they read, book handling skills, sounding out words, and finding word wall words. The students and I talked today about saving their paper books in order to practice reading them. They will find that as their reading skills increase (sounding out words, checking the picture for clues as to what the word is, finding words they know), so will their ease of reading these books. Please find a special place in your home for these reading materials.

Report cards are going home today as well! Please use the rubric to determine what those numbers mean in each area. If you have questions, please call me, email me, or check the box on the report card envelope to schedule a conference. We have a limited space to write comments, so I wasn't able to write as much as I wanted! Many of you did not return the report card envelopes and thus have a standard manila envelope. If you still have the envelope at home, please send it back with your child.

Morning Meeting: greeting, reading, sharing
Centers
Math: Ch. 6 Measurement story, work in groups to make small, medium, and tall, find things around the room that are shorter than each student
Handwriting: Write links for the kindness chain

Have a great weekend!
Miss Kimpton

Thursday, Jan. 20

And it's up and running!

Oh, Technology!

Well, we did record our newscast for the day, but it won't post on the blog! As soon as I am able to get it to work, I will!

Morning Meeting: greeting, "small, tall, and fall" alphabet, Morning Message (circle all of the capital letters), Sharing
Writing groups! Graffiti Table, Word Wall Word Table (build words with Wikki-Stix, write words with different tools), Writing Journal
Math: Start Ch. 6: Measurement, Read "Shortest, Fastest, Longest"
Reading Buddies: estimating/comparing area
Centers

Stay warm!
Miss Kimpton

The Kindergarten News Station Is Open!

Welcome to our newscast! We will try to "broadcast" our news each day, although life in Kindergarten can change like our weather! It is a work in progress, and the kids loved recording today. Stay tuned!

Morning Meeting: Syllable greeting using "Shalom" (Israel language for "hello"), acting out "Can You?" poem and highlighting sight words, Morning Message: fill in missing letters, circle sight words, and take a counting survey
Handwriting: lowercase "h" (diver letter: start tall, dive down, swim halfway up, over, down)
Reading: "A Plan for Nan", "How You Got Smart"
Math: Counting/Writing numbers to 31
Centers

I hope you all enjoy this! Thank you for the comments. It is so good to hear feedback!
Miss Kimpton

Tuesday, Jan. 18

Welcome to the Week!

Morning Meeting: Greeting (share news from the weekend), Hip-Hop Letter Sounds, Sharing time, Introduce Tickets!
Handwriting: Diver Letter p
Story: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Math: Place Value (counting groups of 10 to 70), "I Have, Who Has" Game (Number Recognition), Quick Draw dot game (different ways to make a number)
Library with Mrs. Mayhall
Free Time with Puzzles, Cubes, or Shapes

Have a great evening,
Miss Kimpton

The End of Second Quarter

Well, the first half of kindergarten is over, and Tuesday marks the start of the second half! As I have been assessing the students for the last couple of weeks, it has become so apparent how much they have grown. Their biggest strength is learning how to work together as a school family. One of the most difficult aspects in kindergarten is learning how to be in kindergarten and becoming productive problem solvers. Be proud of your children! I hear so many compliments from other teachers and school personnel how wonderful our class is, and I couldn't agree more. Thank you so much for all that you have done to support your children and me for the first 90 days! I hope you enjoy your children for the 3-day weekend, and I will be at a math workshop on Monday, so I will plenty of new ideas when your kids get back to school!

Morning Meeting: Korean greeting ("Ahn-young" and bow), Letter Sounds song, introduce Mrs. Hilden and read a story about an owl with a colorful heart, sharing time
Centers: Assessing for report cards
Music with Mr. Small

Have a glorious weekend! ("Glorious" comes from a kindergartner that told me to have a glorious lunch today!)
Miss Kimpton

Thoughtful Thursday

Here's a few thoughts about the ABC's of my Day:
1. Green is a FANTASTIC day that had no "wobbles".
2. Blue is a day that had a few wobbles. For example, when thinking about behavior, a blue day is a day where a teacher (generally me) has maybe had to talk to that student or redirect behavior, or that student may have had to get a timer for talking loud during centers. For the most part, it was a positive day!
3. Yellow is reserved for days where a student gets a number(s). Generally, students get numbers after a warning/discussion about behavior.
4. If your child has colored any of the letters blue, please keep in mind that it is meant to be a heads-up for your child to be aware of his/her behavior and needs to work on it. It truly means that it was an "OKAY" day, not fantastic but not bad. Again, I want this to be used by your child for them to be thinking about their attitude and behavior. Some students are so focused on wanting to color their letters green to please their parents, but they do not understand that their behavior needs to be actually green

Morning Meeting: Greeting using listening skills to discuss what students like about school, Letter Sounds song, Calendar (counting, patterns)
Special Presentation: Miss Jeong, culture of Korea
Centers: Assessing for Report Cards

Wednesday, January 12

Thank you so much for taking the time to discuss the ABC's chart in the folder with your child. Students are making better choices and becoming more aware of their behaviors and attitudes as they learn from this chart.

Morning Meeting: Syllable Greeting, Workout to the Letter Sounds, Name letters/numbers, sharing time
Centers and assessing for report cards
Writing: Labeling/Writing sentences
Math: Building patterns with cubes

Enjoy your night,
Miss Kimpton

Brrrrr!

Morning Meeting: Dance greeting, Soundabet, Sharing, Update Calendar
Writing: Label pictures of what you can do
Math: Counting/Writing 18, 19, 20
Library with Mrs. Mayhall
Science video about the importance of exercise

Frigid Monday

Morning Meeting: "Happy Monday" greeting, Letter Names/Sounds Alphabet, Begin making "ABC's of My Day" Poster, Sharing Time
P.E. with Mrs. Trollope
Rhyming Story/Worksheet
Centers
Math: Counting Game, Counting milk cartons by grouping into 10's
Begin assessing self-behavior on ABC's of My Day chart

Friday

Morning Meeting: "Hello Around the World", greet each other using a language from the song, brainstorm ideas/name for the carnival basket (decided on a basket filled with dog-related items), Sharing
Centers
Math: Counting 10-20, Worksheet Counting and Writing 16 and 17
Music with Mr. Small

Stay warm this weekend!
Miss Kimpton

Please remember to sign the "ABC's of My Day" in your child's folder after looking at their colors for this week. You may send your child's Library book back on Monday if you like along with the poetry folder. If not, the poetry folder is due on Monday and the Library books on Tuesday.

Thursday, January 6

Morning Meeting: Syllable Name Greeting, new Lower-case/Upper-case ABC game, Sharing Time
Handwriting: m
Math: Counting Game, Number Recognition Game 0-20 "I have, Who has?"
Reading: "The Cool Hen" (students read aloud), "The Panda Palace"
Centers

A note of Sharing time: Sharing is now going to be a part of our Morning Meeting time. It will be a short, 5-minute presentation by one student each day to share something important. At this stage, students will want to bring items from home and use it as show-and-tell. As the year progresses, I hope it becomes a time that students share something important that is happening in their lives and their feelings about it. Through this time, students will learn how to talk to a group, listen to another person, ask questions based on what they hear, develop empathy for others, identify feelings, and build friendships.

Students are wanting to bring a pet for sharing, and I think that's great. Here are the guidelines:
1. The animal MUST be friendly. If it is not, and depending on the level of unfriendliness, I will either not let it in the room or not allow kids to be close to it.
2. You, as the parent, must be with the animal at all times. You would bring it to school during our Morning Meeting (9:10) and stay for approximately 5-10 minutes. You will take the animal when you leave.
3. I must talk to you about it ahead of time. You can email me or call me to discuss it.

Thank you,
Miss Kimpton

Wednesday!

Morning Meeting: Rhythmic Greeting, "You Can Do It" song, Read "Molly Lou Melon" and discuss standing tall despite setbacks, Morning Message (circle Word Wall words/fill in missing words)
Handwriting: "n"
Math: Counting and Writing 13, 14, and 15
Reading Buddies with computers
Centers
Fill in Attitude for the day

Enjoy your evening,
Miss Kimpton

Library Books Go Home!

I sent a new folder home today with your children, and in it are two very important letters. The yellow paper describes the procedure for Library books and the new folder, and the white paper describes the "ABC's of My Day". If you did not receive both of these papers, please let me know.

I am so excited for the ABC's chart. The children did a great job of evaluating their attitudes for ther day. To clarify, this is what the colors mean:
Green: awesome, amazing day, couldn't be better
Blue: average day, wasn't great but wasn't too bad
Yellow: not a great day, made some poor choices, will do better tomorrow
Red: terrible day, maybe even a visit to the principal's office
As I explained to the kids, the purpose of the chart is for them to think about their day and take responsibility for themselves. It is also a method to communicate with you so you know how the day went. This is really a chance for them to learn to take care of themselves and make choices based on an internal motivation. If your child comes home with a yellow or red color, please talk to him/her to help them work through the day and solve problems in order to have a better day tomorrow. It is meant to be a constructive learning process.
I would love to hear feedback from this as it is the first time I have tried this. We may hit a few roadbumps along the way, but in the end, I think it will be very positive.

Morning Meeting: Rhythmic greeting, "Jump, Jump, Wiggle, Wiggle" song, Focus on Attitude (read "The Little Engine That Could" and discuss)
Handwriting: "r" in Handwriting Book
Centers
Math: Count/Write 11 and 12
Reading: "The Cool Hen" (practice sounding out words), "The Crayon Box the Talked" (define vocabulary words)
Library with Mrs. Mayhall
Intro new folders, ABC's of My Day

Have a super night,
Miss Kimpton

Welcome to the New Year!

The children had such a fantastic day back from the break! We did a lot of learning today, and we had a special guest teacher from Korea, Miss Jeong, observing for the day.

Morning Meeting: Greeting, "Hello" song, introduce Miss Jeong, Morning Message (circle the word wall words) and answer the question "What is one thing you did during the break?" with a partner, then share with the class what the PARTNER said (they did a great job listening to each other)
P.E. with Mrs. Trollope
Reading: "The Cool Hen", "The Crayon Box that Talked"
Math: Using a 10-Frame, Introduce Chapter 5: Numbers Through 31
Centers

Today was our first day of learning new vocabulary words! The students learned three new words found in the story about the talking crayon box. Those three words are complete, drift, and unique. We will continue working with these words, so expect to hear them at hone! I will create a box on the side of the blog that has the new words and definitions so you know what we are learning. These are not spelling words, but words designed to increase and enrich vocabulary.

Have a fantastic evening,
Miss Kimpton