Tasting Party

During Science, we have been learning about our five senses: hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch. To better understand our sense of taste, we had a Tasting Party. Students tasted foods that were sweet (Starbursts and grapes), salty (pretzels and potato chips), and sour (dill pickles and lemons). They tasted foods that are flowers (broccoli), leaves (lettuce and parsley), seeds (sunflower seeds and peanuts), roots (carrots), fruit (apples and bananas), dairy (cheese, milk, and yogurt), and meat (bologna). We were happy to have our principal, Mrs. Gray, and our assistant principal, Miss Bartley, join us for the Tasting Party. Don't you wish you could come to kindergarten to learn about your sense of taste?

Skills Block

During Skills Block, we learn about letters, sounds, and words. We use letter tiles to practice making our sight words. Students are learning to read the following sight words: a, for, I, it, me, to, the. If your youngster is struggling to read these words, please practice at home.

WE ARE SCIENTISTS

Scientists ask questions, such as, "Which is heavier, a pine cone or a stick?" Then they experiment to find the answer to their questions. Our students measured with balances - learning which items are heavier and lighter. Finally, scientists draw pictures or write down the answers to their questions. Our students drew pictures of their answers in their Science Journals.

COUNTING FUN

Kindergarten students practice counting one-to-one. That is, they say one number for each object they are counting. Our students had fun counting plastic farm animals and putting them in the pen. Math sure is fun, isn't it?

STAR Books

Each week, students are introduced to a new STAR book. STAR stands for Story Telling And Retelling. Mrs. Doiron reads the book every day after recess. We use this book to learn about several aspects of comprehension; setting, characters, and sequence of events (what happened in the beginning, middle, and ending of the story). Our first STAR book was Goldilocks and the Three Bears by James Marshall. In addition to this book, students heard six other versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We compared the stories, looking for similarities and differences. In some stories, Goldilocks ate the porridge first, then sat in the chairs and slept in the beds, while in other versions she sat in the chairs first, then ate the porridge and slept in the beds! In this photo, you see students placing pictures in order to show the sequence of events in James Marshall's version of the story. Ask your students who the characters were in this story and where it took place. Our next STAR book will be Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell. Do you know how Clifford got to be so big? Ask your child...

Buddy Reading

Today our students learned about Buddy Reading. In this photo, they are practicing reading to their buddies. Students are looking at the illustrations and trying to figure out what is happening in the story. As they learn to read, students will actually read the story to their buddy, but for now they are telling the story and looking at the pictures.

FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL

During our first week of school, students were busy learning the class and school rules, as well as the rituals and routines of our school day. Most of the girls and boys did an outstanding job of listening and following the directions. Now that we have begun our second week of school, the class is getting accustomed to our daily schedule. We start each day with Math Workshop, and Reader's Workshop follows. Then we go to lunch from 10:50-11:20, followed by recess on the playground. After a drink of cold water and our STAR book, we finish the day with Science or Social Studies, Skills Block (generally Phonics), and Writer's Workshop. Please note that Ms. Anthony, an ESE teacher, comes to help out in our classroom each day during Reader's Workshop, and again during Writer's Workshop.

This week, we begin our Resource Classes. On Monday mornings the children go to either Music with Mr. Barnes OR Art with Miss Reiger. Every other Tuesday morning they go to the Media Center (Library) with Mrs. Merritt. Every Thursday afternoon, the class goes to Physical Education with Mrs. Brown-Smith. We will have an opportunity to visit our Computer Lab each Friday morning, beginning in about a month.