A glimpse at our week in Kindergarten....

This week in Kindergarten...

We made daisies in a literacy center. Students trace the patterns, cut and glue and then write words that start with letter Dd on the petals. What the students have finished so far look really nice. We did a math center with butterflies. Students fold a piece of construction paper, cut the butterfly pattern and then put stickers on bot halves. On the first half, the students put the stickers on how they want to, and the other half they have to put the same stickers on to make both sides look the same. We started the centers that I got from TpT last weekend. The students did the count and match game.

This week we will introduce the Monster Math Centers that I purchased earlier this fall. I just put eyes on a few so it would show what students have to do. Students have to place the correct number of googlie eyes on the monster, matching the numeral printed on the monster's stomach. Students will fill out worksheets with matching the number of eyes in the ten frames as well. I laminated a copy of the worksheet pages so we can do things differently after awhile.

Students were glad to get back to centers. I like to keep center groups small, partners. So we have 10 centers going. About half are math and literacy centers and about half are fun centers, like Housekeeping and  blocks. 

Students in the Reading center are supposed to choose books they can read and use the "phones" so they can hear themselves read. 

You can see these two working on the Count and Match center and in the back you can see the painting center. Students really enjoyed making the daisies.  I will have to do similar centers more often. 

Love this picture. Two of my students who didn't speak English at all when school started. Here they are in the housekeeping center. They have started to help each other and use whatever English they have to communicate each other's needs. 

We started learning about Martin Luther King Jr. this week and about how his dream changed our country. I mentioned in another post that students got somber when we talked about how we would not be the same school family if it weren't for Martin's dream. I am posting the picture of this bulletin board that is not finished yet and hopefully I can update it later in the week, when we finish it. 

I am trying to figure out what I want to do for upcoming events: President's day, Valentine's Day, and our 100 days of school. 

Look at this mess that was in my supply stash.  Any good ideas how to use this? 

Foam cut outs: hearts, flowers and more, all Valentine related. 

It was a busy week in Kindergarten. Our letter of the week was letter Uu; our story this week was called See How We Grow; the popcorn words that were introduced this week were see, look. We had a book order due on Friday and we had Fantastic Friday. What is this? It is what we call Fridays because they generally include something fun and special like Bubble Gum Fridays, or Pickle/Popcorn Friday.  We play "Around the World" with letter recognition on Fridays. Students love it. They wouldn't even care if we missed recess, that is how much they love it. Often times on Fridays we have to be flexible and go with the flow. It seems like plans always change on a Friday. We do a motion or chant or cheer (?almost?) about this. It says: "We can be flexible (students put their hands on their hips and flex their knees). When plans change (students put both hands up in the air sort of like gesturing a big 'I don't know'), we go go with the flow (students make a flowing motion with hands like a river)." 

It was good to be back at school. I love teaching. I love learning. I love this school family!