V Week

Hi parents! We have been busy so far this week. Here's a little bit about what we have been doing...

Reading & Writing

So far this week, we have read Stone Soup and two other versions of that story called Kallaloo (which takes place in the West Indies) and Cactus Soup (which takes place in Mexico). We have been making comparisons between the different versions and noticing parts that are similar and parts that are different. Yesterday students did some critical thinking and wrote about whether or not they would share food with hungry strangers coming through town. Today they started writing lists of ingredients for the different soups in the stories. We are continuing to practice sounding out words in order to write down what we are thinking. We also read Tops and Bottoms which is a funny book about a sneaky Hare and a Bear planting vegetables. I borrowed a few other stories and non-fiction books about vegetables from the library for our V week, so we can learn all about them before our vegetable "party" on Friday. Speaking of vegetables, don't forget to send in your secret vegetable Wednesday or Thursday! If you are interested in helping on Friday for our vegetable tasting, please let me know. Or, if you want to come and watch in awe as your child actually eats vegetables you are more than welcome! In addition to the letter V, we are focusing on the sight word from this week.

I have also been snatching up every book by Mo Willems I can find because the kids are loving them! Our latest was Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog as well as several Elephant and Piggie books. We could read those stories over and over and never tire of them.

Math

Yesterday and today we worked with ten sticks and one cubes to show two digit numbers. We practiced counting by tens and forming numbers with the tens and ones manipulatives. This activity builds a foundation for learning place value, which is a math skill that continues to pop up through upper elementary and middle school. For the rest of the week, we are going to continue using pattern blocks to make more complex patterns and we will focus on learning the words hexagon and trapezoid.

Fun Stuff

Next Wednesday both classes will have Art Literacy with Miss Katie. Wednesday is also the last opportunity to turn in cans for the can drive. After the first drop off date, Kindergarten was in fifth place, so please save all of your cans and plastic bottles. If you want to send them in early (if you are sending a smaller amount) please feel free. I will collect them in the classroom and drop them off at the drive next week.

Visitors!

Today our PM class had some special visitors. Mrs. Kolb bought 12 chicks over the weekend for her farm and she brought them to school today since our kiddos have been so interested in the hatching eagle eggs! She brought them over this afternoon so the children could watch them. They each got a chance to hold one, too!

It was really exciting to have real chicks in our room. We enjoyed watching them eat, drink, and huddle together for naps! It was fun to hear all the peeping too.

The chicks will be back for another visit tomorrow during AM Kinder so the morning class can have a chance to see them as well.

Here is some info about our week:

Reading:

This week we are focusing on the letter g and the sight words he and she. Today in the morning class, we wrote a story full of things that start with g. We didn't get to finish our story in the afternoon, so I will post that later this week when it's finished.

Gabe and the Gorilla

By Mrs. Toppel’s AM Kindergarten Class

Gabe met a gorilla at the zoo. The gorilla liked to eat green gum. The gorilla and Gabe had a great time together going golfing and gargling grass. Then they met a giraffe named Gracie. Gabe, the gorilla, and Gracie giggled because they saw a giggling ghoul. Then a gator got grossed out because the gorilla was eating a garbage can. The grass got all gooey from the garbage, so Gabe took the gorilla, Gracie the giraffe, and the gator to do gymnastics at the gym.  Gabe and the gorilla played a guitar and ate green grapes and chewed gooey green gum.

The End

Math:

Today we worked on partners of 10 and both classes did great. They were able to recognize the pattern in our equations and work on their own to finish.  Tomorrow, we are going to work with number partners of 10 again, but this time the students will each get a cup of 10 counters that are red on one side and yellow on the other. Each time they shake the cup and spill out the counters, they will count how many are red and how many are yellow. They will then create a graph that shows how many times each set of number partners came up. Later in the week, the kids will use a picture of a garden to graph how many of each kind of vegetable they see and they will get to explore pattern blocks on Friday. Keep practicing teen numbers at home!

Science:

Since we are focusing on the letter g this week, we are going to plant grass seeds on Wednesday so each child can grow his/her own grass! We will be reading books about plants, gardens, and seeds this week and I know the kiddos will love planting their very own seeds! If anyone is available to come in and help Wednesday, please let me know! Planting will get a little messy, so it would be great to have some extra hands. 

We continued to watch the Bald Eagle in New Jersey today, but we didn't see any babies yet. The eggs look like they are starting to hatch, so we will keep checking in. Hopefully we will see some cool stuff.

School Stuff:

Some Boy (Cub?) Scouts visited our room last week to talk to us about the Can Drive. We will be collecting soda cans and plastic water bottles to raise money for the Caring Closet which is an organization the helps provide clothing for families in need. Each grade level will compete to collect cans and the grade that contributes the most will win a popcorn party. Of course we are excited by the idea of winning a popcorn party, but we are also excited to help a great organization that does good work for members of our community that need help. Please save all your cans for our can drive. You can drop them off/send them to school on either April 13th or April 27th. Cans will be collected at the following times on those dates:

7:45-8:20 am
2:15-3:00 pm
6:30-7:30 pm

 

 

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Yesterday I ran in the Race for the Roses half marathon ( my first 1/2 marathon ever!) and I finished in 2 hours and 3 minutes! It was fun, but I am definitely sore and tired from all that running. I wore my medal today to show the kids.

Eagles

We spent some time today observing this Bald Eagle who is sitting on eggs that are just about ready to hatch. We were hoping we would get to see the eggs actually hatching, but we didn't...We weren't sure how to tell the male from the female eagle, but we did get to see them switch places and take turns laying on the eggs. The kiddos drew pictures of the eagle and wrote about what they observed. I projected the website onto the whiteboard and we kept it up all day as we went about our other activities.

If you want to check in and see if the eggs are starting to hatch, click here.

This weekend I am running in my first half marathon! I hope the weather stays nice. The race starts at 7 am on Sunday-wow that's early! Have a wonderful weekend!

Good News!

I am so happy to announce that my DonorsChoose project has already been fully funded! That means we should be receiving lots of cool science discovery materials within the next few weeks! I have a lot of family and friends to thank for making it happen, but it's nice to know that they care about the children that I teach just as much as I do!

Also, have you heard of Sharing Spree? It is a great site that offers excellent deals on great stuff with huge savings! From April 1st-8th, Sharing Spree is donating 100% of their profits to Tigard-Tualatin School District! Here is some info on how it works.

 

1. SIGN UP

Sign up to receive the daily deal for your city/region. www.sharingspree.com

 

2. DAILY DEAL EMAILS

A new email will arrive in your inbox Monday through Friday providing all the details of a local business offering you great discounts! Or you can visit the site everyday to see the deal of the day.

 

3. BUY AND SAVE!

If you like shopping - but LOVE saving, then this is for you.  Everyday we will feature a local business that will provide you substantial savings over any other offer you may find.  You get the satisfaction of getting a great deal AND helping give back to the local community.
AND, Sharing Spree comes with a guarantee that if the minimum number of deals isn't met, you will not be charged.
Buying through us is the best way to save BIG!  Sign up today to start getting your Sharing Spree deal of the day delivered to you.

 

4. EARN CREDITS BY SHARING

You can easily share the deal with your friends!  When you share the deal with them and they buy it, you will receive a discount on your next Sharing Spree purchase.

 

5. WE GIVE BACK

Every deal you purchase benefits a local charity.  You have the option to select a specific charity within your profile to ensure that they receive credit for every purchase that you make.  This is a great way to support your local school or a cause that you love.

I signed up over a month ago and have gotten some great deals on things like massages and mani/pedis. There are deals for local restaurants, fun places to take kids, and enjoyable events for grownups! I would encourage you to sign up and take a look at the cool deals they have to offer...especially next week when all of the profits go to our district and help our kids!

Authors

Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful break! Here are some of the things we have going on this week:

Reading and Writing:

We are focusing on the letter U this week and the /ou/ sound. Our sight word is here. On Wednesday I am going to introduce the four block strategy for writing to help the kiddos get a sense of how to write several sentences on the same topic with details. As we progress towards the end of the year we will be focusing more on writing and writing in different ways.

Usually on Mondays the kiddos do a letter looking activity and highlight the letter of the week in a short poem. This week I decided to make it a little more interesting and both classes wrote their own stories starring lots of "u" words. We started by reading our letter u book and then each student brainstormed words that start with u and wrote them on a small whiteboard. Then as a whole group, we came up with a story that I typed on my laptop and projected on the big whiteboard. As I wrote, the kids helped me think of what to write next and made sure to include lots of words that start with u! After we were done writing, we reread the story and highlighted all the words that began with the letter u or had the letter u in them. I think we may have to create some illustrations with captions to go along with these great stories!

Unberto and the Unicorn

By: Mrs. Toppel’s AM Kindergarten

One day Unberto found a unicorn under an umbrella. The unicorn was wearing underwear, so Unberto gave him a uniform. The unicorn really likes the Ducks, so Unberto gave him a University of Oregon uniform. Unberto tried to ride the unicorn, but the unicorn said it was unacceptable and he got mad. The unicorn flew up, up, up into universe so he could barely see the United States anymore. Unberto was so upset, he cried, but then he realized the umbrella was magical. He turned the umbrella upside down and the umbrella started to fly. He flew up, up, up into the universe and found the unicorn. Unberto said he was sorry for trying to ride on the unicorn and the unicorn forgave him. Then they flew together under the stars.

The End

Up Goes the Unicorn

By: Mrs. Toppel’s PM Kindergarten

There was a unicorn and she found a mermaid under the water. Up the mermaid came and popped out of the water. She was cute. The unicorn was upset because the mermaid didn’t understand unicorn language because she only spoke mermaid language. The mermaid tied a balloon onto the unicorn and the unicorn went up, up, up into the universe.

The End

Math

We started Unit 4 of math today and we are focusing on a grocery store theme as we practice teen numbers, patterns, and other math concepts. Today we talked about the grocery store poster which I have displayed in the kitchen area and reviewed fruit and vegetable vocabulary. It was fun to hear the kids share what they know about grocery stores and they enjoyed sharing. Tomorrow we will practice telling math stories and using small fruit manipulatives to go along with the stories. The students will also write down math equations that go along with the math stories told by their partners. I don't have my camera at school as I write this, but I will take some photos to give you a better picture!

Conferences & Donors Choose

It was wonderful to see so many of you during conferences and to see all the kiddos showing off their skills! I had never done student-led conferences prior to this year and I thought they were great! It seemed like many families stayed for longer than a half hour, which was wonderful, but I think that next time I would schedule time slots for longer than 30 minutes just so families don't feel rushed. If you have any additional feedback about what you liked or didn't like about this kind of conference, please leave me a comment or let me know. I am always interested to know how parents perceive things and want to make sure that you are getting what you need out of the experience.

I got some feedback from several parents during the conferences that the time with literacy bags is too short, so I am going to extend the length of time each bag can stay at home. I will send a note about this when we return, but I am thinking of extending the return day to Wednesday as I realized it really makes more sense for the bags to be in the hands of students than hanging in my closet during the week.

Right before break, Nikole Emerson and I looked through some of the cool science materials that Lakeshore has to offer and I put together a proposal to get some fun activities through DonorsChoose.org. The project posted yesterday and I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that there have already been $125 in donations from some of my friends and family :0). They very cleverly have created a way to link proposals to facebook to help teachers spread the word. The idea behind DonorsChoose is that public school teachers can request materials needed for a specific project, activity, classroom enrichment, etc. Once donations have been made in the entire amount of my proposal, they will ship the materials. Here are the items that Nikole and I chose to request:

Since we do not have enough time in our short half-day program for science instruction, I want to have these great materials available to students to use for discovery and exploration during choice time. I used DonorsChoose to obtain many of the books that are included in the literacy bags and have had a few other successfully funded projects when I taught first grade. I am hoping this project is funded as well so that my classes this year can benefit from these materials.

See you next week!