Next Monday Durham is starting the hygiene drive. My classes have been assigned toilet paper and I will be collecting rolls beginning Monday the 15th!
Speaking of Monday the 15th, that is the day of our Literacy Bag Work Party (yay!!) Please come help out from 2:30-3:30. Children will be writing thank you cards/pictures to the generous donors who contributed to my project on Donorschoose.org and decorating the canvas bags that will become our fabulous Literacy Bags. Once we get all the bags decorated and filled, the children can start taking them home on the weekends! This activity is for children and their families (siblings are welcome!!)
Have a terrific weekend!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
What are those boxes for?
You may have noticed that our new math program uses a lot of big empty boxes on the math worksheets. When those sheets go home for homework, I noticed that the boxes are often left empty when they get returned. It appears as though there are no directions that go with them, yet they are just a bit hidden. The directions for what to draw in the box are on the bottom of the front side. Mystery solved! It's a bit silly, but that is where they are!
You will see in this week's edition of the Nifty News that we are having a hygiene drive at Durham during the month of November. My classes have been assigned toilet paper, so please help out by contributing some! I will be collecting contributions between Monday November 15th and Wednesday November 24th. Thanks for your support!
Also, tomorrow I will be sending home our "Gorgeous Gobbler" turkey project. Your child will be taking home a large piece of card stock with the outline of a turkey drawn on it. Instructions for the project will be stapled to the card stock. This is a fun and creative art project that I will hang in the hallway so make those gobblers gorgeous!
P.S. Library books are due for the PM class tomorrow!
You will see in this week's edition of the Nifty News that we are having a hygiene drive at Durham during the month of November. My classes have been assigned toilet paper, so please help out by contributing some! I will be collecting contributions between Monday November 15th and Wednesday November 24th. Thanks for your support!
Also, tomorrow I will be sending home our "Gorgeous Gobbler" turkey project. Your child will be taking home a large piece of card stock with the outline of a turkey drawn on it. Instructions for the project will be stapled to the card stock. This is a fun and creative art project that I will hang in the hallway so make those gobblers gorgeous!
P.S. Library books are due for the PM class tomorrow!
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
T is for ties
Today, in honor of our letter of the week, we made ties! We talked about what kinds of patterns we have seen on ties and then each child got to decorate his/her own. Both classes did a great job coming up with words that start with T and we enjoyed some alphabet cookies and Teddy Grahams for our star of the week snacks!
Reminder for the PM class: library books are due on Friday!
Reminder for the PM class: library books are due on Friday!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Math Tiles
I recently introduced some new math games during choice time and they have become a big hit! (in the morning group). These games were created by Marcy Cook and when my first grade team and I went to one of her workshops a few years ago, we knew we had to have her activities and games for our classrooms. I used these a lot in my first grade classroom, but they are great and very appropriate for Kindergarten as well.
In order to play, students need tiles with the numbers 0-9 on them. There are numbered cards in each set and students need to figure out where each number belongs on each card. I check student answers and then put a star on their sheet over the number of the card they completed. They are pretty excited because when they complete a whole set (20 cards) they get a small prize for their hard work and they get to move on to a more challenging set. The sets relate to counting, number recognition, 1:1 correspondence, addition, more than, less than, and other number sense concepts. We are working hard with our new math curriculum, but these activities are a great supplement to our other math activities!
In order to play, students need tiles with the numbers 0-9 on them. There are numbered cards in each set and students need to figure out where each number belongs on each card. I check student answers and then put a star on their sheet over the number of the card they completed. They are pretty excited because when they complete a whole set (20 cards) they get a small prize for their hard work and they get to move on to a more challenging set. The sets relate to counting, number recognition, 1:1 correspondence, addition, more than, less than, and other number sense concepts. We are working hard with our new math curriculum, but these activities are a great supplement to our other math activities!
Monday, November 1, 2010
New Sight Word & New Groups
This week we are focusing on the letter T and the sight word "see." I will introduce our "see" song tomorrow and it goes like this:
Also, I switched seats around, so the kiddos are now sitting at different table groups with different classmates. Ask your child who his/her new table mates are!
I sent home November calendars today on which I marked the days when library books are due. We have had a lot of kids forgetting to return their books on our library day which means they don't get to choose another one. I try to give a reminder the day before when it's time to go home, but sometimes I forget, so please keep track on your calendar too! Thanks!
I can spell "see", s-e-e,
All you need is an s-e-e
Also, I switched seats around, so the kiddos are now sitting at different table groups with different classmates. Ask your child who his/her new table mates are!
I sent home November calendars today on which I marked the days when library books are due. We have had a lot of kids forgetting to return their books on our library day which means they don't get to choose another one. I try to give a reminder the day before when it's time to go home, but sometimes I forget, so please keep track on your calendar too! Thanks!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Photos and New Activities
I just uploaded my Halloween photos to our Kindergarten Shutterfly account so you can log on and view them. Unfortunately I was a lot more successful in getting pictures during the AM session and there are only a few from the afternoon. :0(
Go to www.shutterfly.com and log in with my email [ ktoppel@ttsd.k12.or.us ] and the password [ 2010kinder ]. You can upload your photos too if you took any! This will be a great way for me to share photos with you throughout the year in a format where you can buy the ones you like!
I also got some great new activities that I will introduce during choice time this week. I am transitioning the kiddos from having daily choice time to focusing a bit more on "work" activities during that 30 minute block. By incorporating fun activities that also help to build skills, it's a win-win since they have fun, but they are also learning!
Go to www.shutterfly.com and log in with my email [ ktoppel@ttsd.k12.or.us ] and the password [ 2010kinder ]. You can upload your photos too if you took any! This will be a great way for me to share photos with you throughout the year in a format where you can buy the ones you like!
I also got some great new activities that I will introduce during choice time this week. I am transitioning the kiddos from having daily choice time to focusing a bit more on "work" activities during that 30 minute block. By incorporating fun activities that also help to build skills, it's a win-win since they have fun, but they are also learning!
sight word magnets to go along with our magnetic letters. Now the kids can practice the sight words and can start building sentences!
Fun rhyming game with cute little objects to match rhyming words
Word family game with sliding letter card to make different words
Word building which is great to build "Break it down" skills. The children will sound out words and then build them with letters according to the sounds they hear.
Addition and Pattern puzzle cards
Difficult to see in this photo, but these are counting stamps where the kiddos will have to write in the number of objects they see. Each stamp has a sentence such as "I see ____ frogs." This will be great for practicing writing numbers!
Happy Halloween!
Friday, October 29, 2010
Happy Halloween
A BIG thank you to Brandi Coffman-Luckcuck and Heather Bakker for taking the lead in organizing and planning our classroom Halloween parties and to all of the other parents that provided treats and came to help out. Both parties were great and the kids had tons of fun. Several kids remarked that it was the best party ever or that they didn't want to go home because it was such a fun day. I cannot express how lucky I feel to have such fantastic parent helpers!
The morning class decorated goody bags for their treats, colored Halloween pictures, played pin the tail on the black cat, did a ghost toss, and did pumpkin bowling. We also paraded over to the Durham Center where the kids got candy and treats from the students and teachers.
The afternoon class decorated Halloween sugar cookies, played musical chairs, and wrapped each other up like mummies with toilet paper. Since the Durham Center was closed, we paraded through the school and visited some of the upper grade classrooms.
Since lots of photographs were taken, I made a Shutterfly account so that any parent who took photos can log on and upload them. [ www.shutterfly.com ] That way, parents can view all of the photos and purchase ones they like. You can log in with my email: ktoppel@ttsd.k12.or.us and the password: 2010kinder. I have not yet uploaded my photos because I think I left my camera in the classroom, so check back next week. If you have some photos to share, please upload them. It would be helpful if you can include either AM or PM when you name the album!
I was out two days this week, so I didn't get a lot of posting in, but I promise to be better next week! Just an fyi, I am participating on two different teams that are part of the district's Courageous Conversations about Race training that meet once a month. I was out on Tuesday with the PASS team which stands for Partnerships for the Academic Success of Students. It is really hard to be away from the classroom, but the work we are doing is very important so I appreciate getting excellent reports from the sub and knowing that the kiddos are secure enough in their routines that they do just fine without me. I did get a lot of hugs upon returning though! I am sending home a November calendar on Monday and I marked down the dates that I will be out just so you are aware.
Next week we are focusing on the letter T and the sight word see!
The morning class decorated goody bags for their treats, colored Halloween pictures, played pin the tail on the black cat, did a ghost toss, and did pumpkin bowling. We also paraded over to the Durham Center where the kids got candy and treats from the students and teachers.
The afternoon class decorated Halloween sugar cookies, played musical chairs, and wrapped each other up like mummies with toilet paper. Since the Durham Center was closed, we paraded through the school and visited some of the upper grade classrooms.
Since lots of photographs were taken, I made a Shutterfly account so that any parent who took photos can log on and upload them. [ www.shutterfly.com ] That way, parents can view all of the photos and purchase ones they like. You can log in with my email: ktoppel@ttsd.k12.or.us and the password: 2010kinder. I have not yet uploaded my photos because I think I left my camera in the classroom, so check back next week. If you have some photos to share, please upload them. It would be helpful if you can include either AM or PM when you name the album!
I was out two days this week, so I didn't get a lot of posting in, but I promise to be better next week! Just an fyi, I am participating on two different teams that are part of the district's Courageous Conversations about Race training that meet once a month. I was out on Tuesday with the PASS team which stands for Partnerships for the Academic Success of Students. It is really hard to be away from the classroom, but the work we are doing is very important so I appreciate getting excellent reports from the sub and knowing that the kiddos are secure enough in their routines that they do just fine without me. I did get a lot of hugs upon returning though! I am sending home a November calendar on Monday and I marked down the dates that I will be out just so you are aware.
Next week we are focusing on the letter T and the sight word see!
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