Grinch Day

Grinch Day is always a fun-filled one in kindergarten. This year it was extra special with our recess "dance party" addition. We enjoyed Grinch stations as well as a green Grinchy snack.

Text to Self Connections with ChatterPix Kids

In Readers' Workshop we have been focusing on Text to Self connections. This week we used the app ChatterPix Kids to share our connections. After learning how to use this app, the kindergartners did this very independently...I was impressed! Look for the "mouths" we added to make our books come alive!

Fruit Feast

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

Wednesday's Fruit Feast was a perfect way to celebrate Thanksgiving in kindergarten. The video below includes some feast highlights as well as pics of our awesome family turkeys. Thanks for your help with both of these special kindergarten activities!

The 50th Day of School

What fun we had on the 50th Day of School!  Dancing, juke box word games, floats, great outfits, stations, and more! Check out some of the highlights below.

The Bat Facts

BBBBB Bats! Our schema grew and grew for bats as we read, sang, listened, and watched all about bats. We wrote and drew about the new things we have learned in the video below.

Digital Pen Pals

Last week our class received a special email from another kindergarten class in Circle Pines, MN. They want to be our friends! Thanks to a grant from Education Minnesota, we will be digital friends with these kindergartners for the year. In the spring, we will get to meet our new friends in person. We look forward to sharing our digital pen pal journey with you as well! We sent our buddies this video to introduce ourselves.
Meet the Beach Buddies from Katie Zuehlke on Vimeo.

Fair Haven Farms

It's been a few weeks, but we sure had a great time at Fair Haven Farms. We saw the signs on fall in action! We loved the tasty fruit, colorful leaves, pumpkin picking, and more! A shout out to the volunteers who took awesome videos and pics. Enjoy!

Our Strong Schema

During Readers' Workshop we have learned about "schema"-- all the information in our brain...the "stuff" we already know a lot about. Our "schemas" are all different because of our varying experiences in life. We wrote and drew about areas where we have a strong schema. Check our our smart thinking in the video below.

Our Forever Books

We loved sharing our "Forever Books" with the class. Our book buddies helped us re-read our special books and we wrote and drew about our thinking on these loved books.

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Signs of Fall

Signs of fall are surrounding us! We have noticed them on the playground, outside our window, at Fair Haven farms, and more. We made a predictable chart about signs of fall and focused on the words I and SEE. Then we used the app "Drawing Pad" to help us draw our ideas. 

Our Book Thinking

Strong readers THINK while reading! We have been learning the importance of sharing our thinking with partners and on sticky notes. The video below shows the reading thinking we did on Friday. Apologies for the quick/poor quality iPad photos....the thinking is the important part! :)

A Day In K

Each day in kindergarten brings new learning, new activities, new routines, and more! This video gives you a glimpse into our busy days. You are always welcome to visit us to see this progress in action.

Our First Day...

What a great first week of school we had! It always amazes me the growth we see in just three days. We are looking forward to a full week so we can really get into the groove of kindergarten. Enjoy this slideshow with pics from our first day together. Hopefully your kindergartner can name some new friends!

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Kindergarten Advice

On one of the last days of school, the kindergartners shared a piece of advice for the future Beach Buddies. Despite some audio issues, the video still will definitely help next year's kindergartners get ready for the new year. I added the text for each kindergartner since a few have very quiet audio. I wish these now first graders could come and "train in" our new friends! They are definitely kindergarten experts!

We are Animal Researchers

Before our trip to the zoo, we spent the week reading, writing, and looking online for information about various animals we would see at Como Zoo. Next we met in small groups and shared our new learning about our favorite animal. Maybe you'll learn some new facts too!

Como Zoo 2014

What a fun day at Como Zoo! While we may have been a little chilly, we stayed dry and managed to see the sun peek out a few times. Most importantly, we enjoyed time together as a class and loved seeing the animals.  Click PLAY to find a collage of pics from the day. Then click on individual pictures to zoom in.

Picture collage made with Smilebox

Worms, Spiders, and Flies - OH MY!

This week we enjoyed reading another set of books by a favorite author - Dorren Cornin. This time Doreen wrote 3 books in the form of a diary. What a fun way to learn about worms, spiders, and flies. While they are fiction stories, Doreen still helped us learn many new facts.

Play the video below to hear some new facts!

Inventions Party 2014

It never fails, each year our Inventions Party is one of my very favorite days of the year. It is amazing to see those little kindergarten minds planning and creating. Not to mention the quality teamwork happening as fellow inventors need help holding a bottle or need advice on the perfect spot to attach the a straw. I am certain you will be impressed with our awesome creations!

Inventions Party 2014 from Katie Zuehlke on Vimeo.

Nancy Carlson's Big Ideas

Our author study on Nancy Carlson was one of our favorite studies this year. We loved getting to know the similar characters and making many connections with the problems and solutions in the stories. After drawing and coloring like Nancy, we shared the "big ideas" that Nancy taught us through her books.

Spring!?

Even though we started Thursday off with a SnOwY morning, we ended the day in a springy way. When we came back from book buddies, some cotton was left on our floor and our bunny bags were hidden! Check out some pics and videos below.

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Strong Readers and Writers

We are making strong reading and writing choices everyday in kindergarten. These smart choices are getting us ready for first grade!

Hawaii Day

Hawaii Day came at a perfect time when we were needing some sunshine and warm thoughts. We enjoyed a flight with a special guest pilot, beach literacy stations, and many books and songs with a Hawaiian theme. Our book buddies even met us in Hawaii and we traveled to another island to learn how to do the hula! Enjoy some of our memories below.

Our Bird Mental Images

In readers' workshop we have been learning that strong readers make mental images when they read. One of our favorite mental image books was Birds by Kevin Henkes.

Our favorite mental images (movies in our mind!) are below.

Go Cards!

What an exciting week in Annandale! One of the week's highlights was our send off for the boys basketball team on Wednesday afternoon. Instead of just waving to the bus, we were thrilled to see the entire team walking along the sidewalk giving high 5's to all the AES students. What a special Cardinal memory! Here are some pics from the day. Press play and you can click on a picture to zoom in.

Photo collage customized with Smilebox

Digital Writing Celebration

For our last writing celebration, Miss Martinez helped us publish our books online. We used an app called "Shadow Puppet" to take pictures of our writing and record the narration. In this unit we focused on ellipsis, comeback lines, "show not tell", "many moments" stories, and adding an About the Author page. Check them out by clicking the link below. They really are fantastic!!

http://kindergartenbeachbuddies.blogspot.com/p/writing.html

Our Jungle Drawings

In art last month, the kindergartners learned about drawing jungle animals. Their awesome drawings can be found on www.artsonia.com where you can purchase merchandise with the artwork. A big thank you to our art teacher, Mrs. Pawelski, for scanning all of their images onto the website. Your child's personal code was sent home earlier in the year. Otherwise, you can also search by school and easily find the artwork.  A video of their drawings is below.

Valentine's Day 2014

Valentine's Day and the 100th Day in one week....what excitement! The video below captures some smiles, love, and fun of last week.

The Very Busy Spider Readers' Theater

During our Eric Carle author's study we performed one of our favorite books, The Very Busy Spider, in readers' theater form. Watch our budding actors and actresses below!

Our Penguin Research

Penguins here, penguins there.

Penguins are everywhere! 

Miss Martinez helped us become penguin experts. Hear our facts below. 

We Have a Dream...

Last week we spent time talking about Martin Luther King Jr. and all the great things he did for the world. Books like Martin Luther King Jr. and Martin's Big Words helped us understand Martin's dream.

Next, we wrote and drew about our own dreams we have for the world.

The Mitten Readers' Theater

We have been reading several books by author Jan Brett. One of our favorites was The Mitten. After examining the setting, characters, problem, and solution of the story, we read the story in a "readers' theater" format. 

Miss Martinez - Getting to Know Us

We have loved welcoming Miss Martinez into our kindergarten classroom. She has been leading morning meeting and has taught us greetings in many different languages. As one of our morning meeting activities, Miss Martinez helped us create "getting to know you" posters so she could learn about the kindergartners interests. She already has created lessons based on these passions such as basketball, pencil machine pencils, football, and more! Miss Martinez made a video of the kindergartners sharing some of their favorite things.

Kindergarten Snowballs

After reading Lois Elhert's book, Snowballs, our minds were spinning with ideas of "junk" we could use to create our own "snowballs" like Lois. We used lots of teamwork to create our snow creatures from start to finish.

Snowmen 2014 from Katie Zuehlke on Vimeo.