Delightful December

Cookie baking, caroling, Kwanzaa beads, Grinch Day, 5th grade plays, the dreidel game...December was fast and busy in kindergarten! So much action, I needed to make 2 videos! The first one is from Grinch day and the second is from the rest of our December fun.

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Fruit Feast

Fruit Feast, Fruit Feast
Yum, Yum, Yum!
Which fruit is your favorite one?

The Little Red Hen

In readers' workshop we have been making text to text connections. After reading many versions of The Little Red Hen, we performed our own version of the story. **You may need to turn up the volume...some parts are a little tricky to hear. We'll try again with another play soon!

Scarecrow Day

Scarecrow, Scarecrow,
How scary can you be?
You scared the kindergartners,
but you can't scare me!

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50th Day of School

Oh...What a fun, fun day!  First we did reading, writing, and math stations with a 50's theme. Our hard work was followed by floats, a sock hop, hula hooping, jump roping, yo-yoing, and a bubble blowing contest. What's not to love? I hope this video makes you smile as much as I did!

Whoooooo knows about Owls?

The Beach Buddies definitely do! We researched owls by reading books and looking online. After charting our new learning, we each drew an owl and added owl facts around it. We talked about how our schema for owls was growing and growing. In the video below we shared our favorite owl fact.
Owl Facts from Katie Zuehlke on Vimeo.

Fair Haven Farms

So maybe it has been a few weeks since our trip to Fair Haven Farms, but we still enjoy looking at the pictures of the fun morning. We loved examining signs of fall with our five senses. Check out some clips from the trip.

Unity Day

While "Unity Day" was a few weeks ago, we still have been learning and sharing about ways we can be kind friends and stop bullying at AES. Amy, our school social worker, visited us last week and read the book Spookley the Square Pumpkin.  You can find a reading of the book below. We were reminded that differences make us special.

Later in the week we watched a Sesame Street video clip about including others. It's a great message!  You can find the clip here:

Here we are looking awesome in our orange shirts!

Our Schema

During readers' workshop this week we learned about SCHEMA. Our schema includes all the ideas that stick to our brains.... ideas learned from books, families, websites, conversations,  TV, and any other life experiences that mold us. We found out that our schemas are all different because our experiences are different. Our schema will influence how we comprehend as we read.  We enjoyed writing and drawing about ideas we have a lot of schema for. Then, using a sticky lint roller, we "picked up" our ideas to show them "sticking" to our brains. The kindergartners picked one area they really have a STRONG SCHEMA for and shared that idea below.

Signs of Fall

We have seen signs of fall everywhere....Fair Haven Farms, the playground, outside our classroom windows, and in our own yards. Here are some of our favorite sights!

Our Forever Books

We know strong readers read books over and over. We loved checking out each others' favorite "Forever Books" from home.

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Cheers to our Writing!

On Thursday we had our first writers' workshop writing celebration. We sure had a lot to celebrate! Since the first day of school, we have written stories about our life using words and pictures. We are getting better at stretching our words, adding details to our pictures, and using periods.

At the end of our writing unit, we each selected a story to "fix and fancy". As part of our celebration, we sat in a circle and shared one page from our special story. Next, we used juice to "toast" all the fantastic writing we have already done this year...as well as the wonderful stories yet to come! Cheers!

Explore Kindergarten

Thank you for attending "Explore Kindergarten Night" tonight. We loved sharing our classroom with you. It made to me smile to see the kindergartners proudly show you around AES. Below is the video of our day that was playing on the SMARTboard.

Our First Day

The big day finally arrived...the first day of Kindergarten in our brand new school. We had an excellent week as we learned the new routines of our classroom. Enjoy some pics from our first day together. Maybe your kindergartner can name you a new friend or two.

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End of the Year

I came across these end of the year pictures that needed to be shared! Enjoy! :)

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The Zoo's the Place to Be...

We sure lucked out to stay dry all day at Como Zoo last Friday. We had a wonderful time checking out the animals- big and small!

Ms. Mott's Surprise

On Ms. Mott's last day, she surprised us with a video highlighting something special about each kindergartner. What a treat! We were very fortunate to have Ms. Mott share her talents with us this spring.

Spring has Sprung

Hello All!  Ms. Mott here-Spring has (finally) come, and we have been celebrating in Kindergarten.  We had a plant expert come in, and she let us plant our own seeds.  Now they are sprouting!  We made our own paper sunflowers and learned about all kinds of plants!  We also learned about gross bugs, check out the awesome posters we made!  We had a special math lesson on patterns, and another expert came in to show us how to weave...take a look!  Please comment on our Voice Thread so we can hear your thoughts :) ~Carly~

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Fridays are always perfect days for Invention Parties, but Mother Nature thought Earth Day would be an even better day to reuse and invent! What a fun Monday we had!  Any of the kindergartners can tell you, I love a clean, organized classroom. During Invention Day parties, however, the messier the better! These creative kinders thought of some quality ideas! I know you will be impressed. Happy Earth Day!

Mrs. Wishy Washy

We love Mrs. Wishy Washy in kindergarten. We have gotten to know characters traits of Mrs. Wishy Washy while reading many of her books. We even met her husband, Mr. Dishy Washy! In small groups we selected a favorite Mrs. Wishy Washy book to write and draw about the main idea. Some of us recored ourselves reading the whole book while other groups chose to record their favorite pages. Press play below and you will fall in love with Mrs. Wishy Washy too!

listen to ‘Mrs Wishy Washy ’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘The Hole in the Tub’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Mud Walk’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Wishy Washy Day’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Dishy Washy’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Splishy Sploshy’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Mrs Wishy Washy and the Big Wash’ on Audioboo

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream

Thanks to Ms. Mott, last week we researched how ice cream is made and discovered we could each make our very own bag of ice cream right in our classroom. Friday we gave it a try! Here is a link to the recipe we used. Ice Cream in a Bag  Many of us used our mittens to keep our hands warm as we shook our bag.  Ask your kindergartner if they liked eating their ice cream!

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Spring Mental Images

While it doesn't quite feel like spring outside, we still are reading, writing, and drawing about spring in kindergarten. After reading many books about spring, we used the Drawing Pad app to create these mental images of spring.

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Everybody Likes to Read!

Everyday in kindergarten we remind ourselves that strong readers read A LOT! We are fortunate to have so many wonderful adults in our life to listen to us....the blooming readers that we are! Here are some favorite shots from Family Reading Night, I Love to Read month, and our visits to the Care Center. These experiences remind us that reading is important to people of all ages!

Experts Take 3

We have been lucky to have more experts share their thinking with us recently. We are learning a lot!

Our very own Bryn was an expert on Florida creatures! We were able to Skype Bryn while she was on vacation in Florida. Thanks, Bryn....and mom and dad too! 

Look! More Beach Buddy experts! Gavin and Weston shared their guitar talents with us. We were very impressed with their rhythm and music reading! 

On Tuesday we had very special guests all the way from Monitcello! Ron and Brendan (Mrs. Fee's family) were experts on Canada. We learned about Canadian money, animals, sports, attractions, and much more. Brendan was even on his spring break, but worked hard to share his expertise with us. Thanks Ron and Brendan. We loved it!

Also on Tuesday, Jack's mom, Shari, taught us all about bus safety. We learned cool fun facts about buses and loved the great yellow bus Silly Bands. Thanks, Shari. 

Experts (Take 2)

The Beach Buddies sure have some talented family and friends. Here are some pics from more experts that visited. 

 Marc is a physical therapist. He helped us learn about ways to be strong and healthy. 

Christie is a 911 dispatcher. We learned lots about how we can be safe and help others. 

Julia Cook is the author that visited our school a few weeks ago. She is definitely an expert author! She not only taught us about writing, but also about how to use our CARES values. 

Dinosaur Drawings

Have you explored your child's artwork on Artsonia? This site houses projects completed with Mrs. Pawelski in art class. You can even purchase products that show off your child's art. We ordered a coffee thermos with Graham's self-portrait and it turned out great! Below is a slideshow highlighting the dinosaur drawings you can find on Artsonia.

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Penguin Experts

Wow, we sure are experts on penguins! Listen to all the facts we know. After recording, we realized some names were on the back....how well do you know your child's voice? :)

It Snowed a Heap...

We are loving the new, fresh snow to play in during recess. "It snowed a heap..." has become a favorite little tune in our classroom. Enjoy! :)

Experts (Take 1)

We have been fortunate to learn from many high quality experts in kindergarten.  Ask your kindergartner to share ideas from each visitor. Any more experts out there? We would love to have you!

Pam taught us about caring for our teeth. No more cavities for us!

I am sure many of you heard about the famous pickle! Ryan is an electrician. We had an excellent science lesson on electricity. 

Mrs. S shared her expertise on writing her own book. She explained all the work that goes into publishing a book- much like we do in writers' workshop. 

Nick is an expert fisherman. We learned many tips and tricks for ice fishing in Minnesota. 

Nancy Carlson's "Big Ideas"

Recently we did an author's study on Nancy Carlson. Nancy is a Minnesota author who writes about interesting animal characters like Loud Mouth George, Arnie, Henry, Harriet, and many more. Nancy's funny stories are not only entertaining, but also teach us a lesson. As we read Nancy's books, we focused on main idea and charted all the "big ideas" we gleaned from Nancy's books. Next we found Nancy's drawing lessons online and made our own illustrations just like Nancy. Using the iPad, we took pictures of our drawings and added our voice to share our favorite "big idea" from the books. Thank you, Nancy, for teaching us a great deal about writing, illustrating, and life!