As we continued to learn about our community and the important people inside of our community we took a closer look at different important jobs. Since we are unable to do a field trip due to the pandemic, we took a virtual field trip to the post office and learned about the job of the mail carrier. As part of the virtual field trip we were able to click on interactive links, ask questions through a classroom chat function and learned vocabulary that is used in the post office.
For reading students practiced reading non-fiction emergent reader books that taught us about different community helpers. The All-Stars also partner read books to each other.
For math students worked on matching numbers to the correct quantity of square counters. Students practiced in partners making different sets based on color and side of the counter.
For read aloud we read the book Officer Buckle and Gloria and created paper bag puppets of Officer Buckle. Finally students cut and glued tools that matched the appropriate community helper.
This week in math we’ve been learning about recognizing numbers 1-5 and counting quantities. To connect to the song “Five Little Monkeys”, one of the songs we sing during our morning routines, we cut and glued monkeys with numbers on them to the correct number of counters.
As we continue to get to know our friends in the classroom we took pictures of ourselves and shared the pictures with special colored t-shirts. Students let their artist skills shine and were encouraged to color the t-shirts anyway they chose.
For reading we’ve been reading books about going to school and making friends. We read the story, “Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindegarten” and as a class we created an anchor chart that compared and contrasted how we got ready for kindergarten.
During our literacy workshop block students are learning how to choose activities that they would like to work on while building up their academic skills. Some activities include identifying capital and lowercase letters, learning to read color words, and highlighting target letters.
Last week was our apple unit. We learned about living things and how they grow and change. We talked about how apples are living things and we learned about their life cycle. We read the book A Day at the Apple Orchard and made a life cycle of the apple using the book as our guide.
For math we worked on learning quantities and number words 1-10. We read the emergent reader book Apples in the Basket and drew the number of apples that matched the words on the page.
Last week was our unit on families; how our families roles and responsibilities are different, and activities that families do.
We started off by reading an informational text called What Makes a Family. For math we made a family tree, gluing apples on our tree that match the number of people who are in our immediate family.
For writing we’ve been learning how to draw circles and sticks and how to be illustrators. We drew our family portrait that matched the same number of family members on our family tree. The activities can be found here.
Today we continued our unit on the Polar Express. We read the story Christmas Kitten and compared the gift that the boy got (the bell) as the first gift of Christmas in the Polar Express and the gift Sophie got (a kitten) in Christmas Kitten. Based on the story Christmas Kitten we guessed on what we thought Sophie would have picked as the first gift of Christmas. Then we wrote about what we would pick.
During read to self, students read the emergent reader Santa Has.. and filled in the blank line with the word ‘has’ and drew the picture of what the sentence said Santa had.
For math & art students completed a cut and paste puzzle that matched numbers with their number word. Students then colored the picture showing The Polar Express and the conductor.
We learned about graphs last week and how to analyze data. Â We wrote about what we wanted to be for Halloween and drew a picture on a pumpkin cut out. Â Then students took their pumpkin and put their pumpkin into one of three categories; fun, scary, or superhero. Â Then students fill out their own individual graphs and describe which category is greatest, and which group is fewer.
We read the story The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams and to help us tell the story we used musical instruments.  For the shoes we used a woodblock, tambourine for the pants, maracas for the shirt, castanets for the gloves, and rhythm sticks for the hat.  During free choice centers students got to retell the story on their own using the instruments.
 
During math students did a roll and draw to draw a scarecrow like the scarecrow in the story and learned the shapes that they drew. Â They added details to the picture after they drew the scarecrow.
Students also made paper plate jack-o-lanterns like the scarecrow face during art time and part of free choice center time.
The month of October is fire safety month so we have been learning what to do if there is ever a fire, as well things that we shouldn’t play with. Â We started on Monday with fire safety related literacy & math centers from Having Fun in Primary. Â There were also a few centers from Home School Creations.
 
We discussed how there are things that are not safe for kids to touch or play with, we then sorted pictures into two categories ‘safe to touch‘ and ‘not safe to touch‘. Â During free choice centers students got to sort the pictures on their own, working with a partner.
Finally today we read the story Stop Drop and Roll by Margery Cuyler and made a firetruck craft courtesy of Miss-Kindergarten.
This week is color week and we are having lots of fun with different colors!  We read the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr & Eric Carle.  We retold the story by creating paper bag puppets of the brown bear with the other animal characters in the story.  You can get the paper bag puppets from Mrs. Ricca’s Kindergarten.
 
 
 
During math workshop there were activities that help students our to read color words, number words, and help students with their number recognition. Â Most of these activities come from the Moffatt Girls October No Prep packet.
Finally for our science experiment; students learned the word hypothesis and how to make a guess on what might happen as a result of an experiment.  We took drops of a couple of colors in whole milk.  Then we dipped Q-Tips in dish soap and then dipped the Q-Tips in the milk with the food coloring.  The dish soap pushed the colors away and turned the colors tie die.  The lesson plan can be found here.
This week we started our apples unit and began the unit by reading the story Ten Apples up on Top by Theo. LeSeig.  Then students picked a number and made a cut and paste art project that illustrated how many apples they can count up on top of their head.
