Friday, March 25

Wow! Today is the end of 3rd quarter. Report cards will be coming home to you next Tuesday. Also, parent-teacher conferences are next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, so primary students (K-3) will be dismissed at noon. They will be eating lunch at school, so please send a cold lunch or have your child eat hot lunch as usual. This is different than a typical half-day, so please be aware of the change.

Reading: "What Hatches?", new coin poems, "The Rain Came Down"
"in" family: brainstorm "in" words (win, spin, shin, grin) and then make the "in" slider
Centers and assessments
Math: coins

Enjoy your weekend,
Miss Kimpton

Thursday, March 24

Morning Meeting: /i/ short i sound, identify words with an /i/ sound and fill in the missing blank
Reading: Read "It's Spring", write a list of signs of Spring, "What Hatches?"
Math: identify different coins, sort by different attributes
Centers and assessing

Enjoy your evening,
Miss Kimpton

Wednesday, March 23

We have some missing items in our classroom. If they turn up at your home, can you send them back to school? We are missing a brand new gray Laurel Police Department pencil and two magnetic charms for a bracelet. Thank you!

Morning Meeting: read "Incredible I", greeting
Math: counting nickels and pennies, reading coin poems
Reading: "The Alphabet Tree" by Leo Lionni
Reading Buddies: Math-fractions/parts of a whole
Centers and assessments

Enjoy your evening,
Miss Kimpton

Tuesday, March 22

Brrr! Today was a great reminder that Spring in Montana can be like Winter, so please send your children with warm coats, hats, and gloves. We will go outside in all conditions unless it is below zero degrees or raining.

Morning Meeting: song "Rise and Shine", Greeting with first, middle, and last names (and break down/count syllables)
Centers and assessment
Reading: "It's Spring"
Math: Drawing pictures to solve problems, coins (recognizing coins and values)
Writer's Workshop: use Word Wall words in writing, create sentences, draw quicksketch to organize thoughts

Stay dry!
Miss Kimpton

Monday, March 21

Happy Spring!

Morning Meeting: greeting (share one memorable thing from this weekend), sharing
P.E. with Mrs. Trollope
Reading: "Where Did You Get Your Moccasins?", money poems in poetry folders
Math: Sorting coins, Showing different amounts of money using the coins (pennies and nickels)
Centers and assessments

Miss Kimpton

Our Science Project!

Here are a few photos from our science project in action:

Thursday and Friday, March 17 and 18

We were so busy preparing our Science Project that I didn't have time to post a summary of our day from Thursday, so here is a combination of both of our days:
Morning Meeting: songs: "Hello Around the World", "Lettercise", greet each other
Science: experiment with the "phones" to see which works the best, record your answer on the graph, complete the writing for the graph
Math: coins
Reading: Two Pairs of Shoes, discuss different languages as the class listens to the story (story of a Cree girl who gets different kinds of shoes: black patent leather shoes and moccasins) and introduce the Western Heritage website that has translations for words in Crow and Northern Cheyenne, read and act out "Pig and the Big Rig"
Centers and assessing for report cards

Yesterday, we were able to listen to two guests during an assembly. The students learned the history of St. Patrick's Day, and they also were able to experience the bagpipes as one of our guests played them. We all even stood up to try riverdancing! It was quite enjoyable. Stay tuned for pictures! We also visited Mrs. Schaeffer's 2nd grade classroom to see their leprechaun traps.

If you had a chance to visit our Science Fair today, thank you so much for coming! The kids worked very hard on their project. If you did not, I will post photos on the blog for you to see!

Have a lovely weekend,
Miss Kimpton

Wednesday, March 16

Morning Meeting: "Hello Around the World" song, greet 3 people with a "good morning" and a handshake, read "en" family words
Science: work on the Science Project
Math: sort coins (this did not go so well as many of the kids were not sharing or following directions. We will try again tomorrow, and they will do better!)

Stay dry!
Miss Kimpton

Tuesday, March 15

Morning Meeting: morning greeting song, "Learning Letter Sounds" song, review/read "an", "at", and "en" family words, introduce "ig" words on www.starfall.com
New Centers: add a number/shape book to Match Center, introduce new Word Way center (activities include writing missing sounds, playing "Race to the Top" with Word Wall Words, building Snappy Words, Rainbow words, and writing activities
Centers and assessment for Report Cards

Enjoy the warmth,
Miss Kimpton

Monday, March 14

We got to welcome a new student to our class today! Your children were so kind and helpful to her as she learned the routines, rules, and expectations.

Morning Meeting: "Rise and Shine" song, introduce ourselves to our new friend and tell her one thing about kindergarten in our class
Reading: new weekly book, focus on "ig" family-"Pig and the Big Rig", "Andrew's Loose Tooth"
Math: Coins (names and worth of each coin), Counting change with nickels and pennies
Centers

Stay as dry as possible!
Miss Kimpton

Next Friday is the Science Fair!

Next Friday will be the school-wide Science Fair in the gym all day. You are welcome to come by anytime during the day to view the different science projects. Our class will have one science project that we are investigating together about sound. We will be touring the Science Fair as a class that day, but the time schedule has not come out yet. When I know what time we will be going, I will post it on the blog so that you can join us at that time if you like. You do not have to view it at the same time as us, but it is fun to walk around with the kindergartners and explain the projects to them.

Morning Meeting: read select poems from the Poetry Folders, greeting, "et" slider
Science: determine materials needed for the science project
Reading: "Jet at the Vet", The Little Rabbit
Centers and assessments
Math: Introduce the nickel

Have a fantastic weekend!
Miss Kimpton

Thursday, March 10

Morning Meeting: Greeting with full name (first, middle, and last), read "Eddie E and the Egg" (focus on /e/ sound), brainstorm "et" words
Science: brainstom/decide on a Science Fair question (Can sound travel along a string?)
Math: Penny: investigate with magnifying glasses, then learn Penny poem, count the worth of different pennies, and worksheet
Centers and assessment for Report Cards

Have a fantastic afternoon and evening,
Miss Kimpton

Wednesday, March 9

We had to say good-bye to a student today that is moving, and the students were quite sad about it. It was very apparent to me how much this class has formed relationships and bonds through the work that we do in Morning Meeting, the supportive environment we cultivate, and the caring attitudes we build (through Rachel's Challenge, kind acts, problem-solving, and discussing attitudes and behaviors). This sense of community and trust truly helps each child succeed in school and at life. We have come so far since that first day of school!

Morning Meeting: Rise and Shine song, greet 3 people and share how the sunny weather makes you feel, "et" family, read the weekly books with a partner
Stitch "mittens" together
Story: read the book we made for the child that moved
Reading Buddies: explore the new site www.abcya.com (the link is to the right)
Centers and assessment for Report Cards

The time change is this weekend, so it must mean Spring is right around the corner!
Miss Kimpton

Finally, a lamb day! Tuesday, March 8

You may have heard your children talking about whether or not it is a "lion" day or a "lamb" day. This is in reference to the March saying of "In like a lion, out like a lamb." The kids have been enjoying deciding what type of days we are having!
Morning Meeting: song, greeting, rhyming song, discuss the Morning Message about being "as quiet as mice" during the next week as the 3rd-6th graders are doing their standardized testing, benchmark assessment on writing "at" chunk words
Handwriting: Good-bye book for a student
Story: "Hop on Pop" by Dr. Seuss (focus on rhyming, word families, and opposites)
Centers and assessments for report cards

Enjoy the sun,
Miss Kimpton

Monday, Monday, Monday! March 7

Morning Meeting: "Rise and Shine" song, greet Learning Line partner and share one thing you did this weekend, Morning Message: circle "an" and "an" chunks in the message
Phonemic Awareness: vowel /a/, circle picture with /a/ sound and fill in the missing vowel to spell the word
Math: read "The Paperboy", create frozen tableaus depicting different activities during different times of the day (morning, afternoon, and evening)
Centers

Miss Kimpton

Friday, Mar. 4

Morning Meeting: Vowel Bat song, Opposites with Mrs. Billin: find opposites in Dr. Seuss' One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and create a poster of opposites
Math: Finish March calendar
Reading: "Dolly Digs", "Old Hat, New Hat"
Centers
Finish Cat in the Hat characters with the "at" family

Have a great weekend!
Miss Kimpton

Thurs, Mar. 3

Morning Meeting: greeting with first and last name, brainstorm and write "at" words (cat, fat, flat, mat, hat, etc.)
Art: Cat in the Hat characters
Reading: "There's a Wocket in my Pocket"
Centers and Reading Groups
Calendar

Have a nice evening,
Miss Kimpton

Wednesday, March 2

Morning Meeting: Sharing, songs and dancing (in place of recess-Zumba, Going on a Bear Hunt, Vowel Bat)
Honor Band concert
Guest readers: 6th-graders, Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham
Reading: Wacky Wednesday, The Cat in the Hat
Math: Begin making March calendar
Centers

Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 28 and Mar. 1

In like a lion, and out like a lamb! Judging by today, March is going to live up to this saying!

Morning Meeting: greeting with first/last names, songs "Is it a word or not?" and "Letter Sounds Yo-Yo", "an" family-read list created from Friday (ex. man, pan, man, ran, plan, etc.) then make the "an" family slider, also, introduce the "at" family on Starfall.com
Handwriting: v, w, t
Story: Dr. Seuss books: Go, Dog. Go!, The Foot Book
Math: Introduce Ch. 7 Time and Money, Time of the Day (morning, afternoon, and evening) (in this chapter, we do not tell time on the clocks, but rather discuss aspects of time such as time of the day and ordering events. Also, we helped the school today by sorting (a very important math concept) the Lost and Found into different bins, and then we made signs for each bin!
Centers

***********Super Important Dr. Seuss Birthday News!***************
In recognition of Dr. Seuss' birthday on Wednesday, March 2, the KC Club is creating Hat Day. Students will be allowed to wear a hat in the classroom all day for 50 cents. Your child just needs to bring a hat and 50 cents tomorrow, and he/she can wear the hat in the building. They can be silly or normal hats, but please choose something that will not take away from the learning in the classroom. The proceeds go towards purchasing shirts for the KC clun members.

Have a pleasant evening,
Miss Kimpton