Stories

If I could fly,I would...

Moriah Banks
If I could fly, I would go to Washington D.C. with my mom and Dad and my sister and my brother. We would see my dad’s other family.
My dad had a Mom and Dad. His dad died a few years ago. He died in Washington D.C.. I love him. He was a very very very good man. My dad’s mom died, too.
I will fly back to Ruston.

Erica Davis
If I could fly, I would play airplane and I would fly to earth. I could fly to school. I could fly back home. Then, I could fly to New York, City.

Keaira Davis
If I could fly, I would fly to the moon and the stars. I will sit down on the moon. I will lie down on the moon. I am staying on the moon.

Keshauna Davis
If I could fly, I would fly to my house. I will fly to my mom and my brother. Then, my mom, my brother, and I will fly to the store. We will go to buy a new car in Monroe. Then, we will go home. My mom and my brother will drive home, and I will fly home.

Veonce Fisher
If I could fly, I would catch birds. They will be my new pet. I will put them in a cage. I will give them some bird food.

Raytavious Kelly
If I could fly, I would go to the beach. I would swim. I would dive. It’s lunchtime, so I have to come home. I will fly home. I will fly around my house. It’s time to come in.

Moesha Moore
If I could fly, I would fly to the rainbow and to the moon. Then, I would fly to my house. I would fly to the store to buy candy. I would fly to WalMart to buy groceries. I would go to the hospital to see my Auntie, she live in Bastrop. I would fly to my Auntie’s house. I would go to see my grandpa. I would fly on the way back home. Then, I would play with all of my toys.

Kerrington Nelson
If I could fly, I would fly to my house. I will go to the store, and I will fly with my brother. My mom will fly with me and my brother. We will go to the park to play. We will play ball with Baxter.

Joshua Richardson
If I could fly, I would fly over to my house. I will watch TV, eat some popcorn, and go to bed. In the morning, I will get up, eat breakfast, and go to school. I will ride my bike to school.

Eric Roane
If I could fly, I would see the clouds. I would jump up on the clouds. I will hop to each one. I will stand on the clouds. I will see airplanes.

Chanse Robinson
If I could fly, I would fly to the store. I would see the rainbow. I would see the birds and the clouds. If I could fly, I would fly to the WalMart.

NiAsia Stringfellow
If I could fly, I would fly to my dad’s. I can fly to the doctor. I can fly to the park. I can fly to my friend’s house and my Auntie’s house. I would fly to my Granny’s house. Then, I would fly to the store to get some food. I will eat the food at the park. I will have a picnic, play, then fly to my house and take a nap.

SiNiyea Thomas
If I could fly, I would go to the moon. I can stand on the moon. I could lie down on the moon. I could stay on the moon lying down. I like lying down at home. I am going to go back home and eat a snack.

Jasmine Turner
If I could fly, I would go to my dad’s. I would play with him and stay with him for a whole week. We would have a sleep over. We would play games with my baby sister and my baby brother, then we would get up and eat breakfast. I would fly to my brother’s house. I would have so much fun with my dad, my baby sister, my baby brother, and my big ‘ole brother.

D’Reginald Tyler
If I could fly, I would go to the moon. I could jump rope on the moon. I could sail on the moon. I could touch the moon and touch the stars. Then, I could see a flower cloud. I could see a cloud that is shaped like a rectangle. I could see a cloud that is shaped like a triangle. Then, I could jump on the moon. I could take my sister to the moon, and I could take my brother to the moon. We would jump down and eat breakfast at home. We would go to sleep at night. I would dream about the moon and the things that I did on the moon.

Quinterrious Jones
If I could fly, I would go to Arcadia. I would go to the pet shop and go to the store. I would go to Arcadia to see my cousin. Her name is Mya. She is my big ‘ole cousin. We will play basketball and soccer. We will fly to the school, and we will stop by home and get a snack. I will spend a night over at her house. In the morning, we will eat pancakes for breakfast. In the evening, we will go outside to play and ride bikes. Bikes are fun to ride around the house. So, anytime you want to ride bikes, we will ride bikes with you. Friday, I will go home. Soon I will come back. Bye, bye Mya. I fly back home.

Teija Jenkins
If I could fly, I would fly to my mom’s. My mom will be proud of me because I came home. I will fall down and my mom will say that she doesn’t want me to do that again because I will fall again. She will tell me that I am not going back outside. I will have to stay in the house and play. I cannot fly anymore.

N’Kya McDonald
If I could fly, I would catch the rainbow. The air will blow on my face. When I catch the rainbow, I will fly back home. If my sisters know how to fly, too, we will play airplane. Then, we will have fun.

Alvin Jones
If I could fly, I would go up to the beach. I would play at the beach. I would play in the sand, go in the water, and play. I would fly home and ride my bike.

Kindergarten Memories

Practicing What We've Learned

You Are Sunshine

New Computer Lab

We started using our new computer lab this month. It is our favorite part of the day, so we will be using the lab everyday rather than just twice a week. We are very lucky to have the use of such terrific computer technology.

Morning Routine

As I told you earlier this year, we recite the pledge as a part of our morning routine. Our daily helper gets to hold the flag and direct us by saying the words attention, salute, pledge.
We also sing "My Country 'tis of Thee" and "God Bless America" in order to develop a patriotic spirit. We began to sing "God Bless America" in February while learning about our country. It is still our favorite song because we sing it with such robust enthusiasm. Patriotism can be contagious, so watch for it. Your kindergartner might bring it home and spread it around your house.

Subtraction

We have been reading and writing subtraction sentences all year while celebrating holidays, seasons, and themes, so we know words that describe subtraction. We know that subtracting is "counting back" to see how many there are "left". We have "counted back" to state subtraction sentences with apples, pumpkins, turkeys, Christmas trees, snowmen, flags, kites, eggs and the list goes on and on.
Last week we finished our workbook unit on subtraction. We will continue to practice adding and subtracting sets this year.
Next year the children will be required to memorize the addition and subtraction facts. In First Grade, the children begin having "timed test" to measure their speed and accuracy with calculations. Good luck next year boys and girls. You might want to start memorizing some of those facts now.
We have practiced naming the answers to the problems in which one is added or the numbers being added are doubles. We'll start memorizing the subtraction problems that belong in the same family. For example, 1+1=2 and 2-1=1. That is a fact family. Another fact family is 2+1=3 or 1+2=3 and 3-1=2 or 3-2=1.

National Symbols

Progress Moinitoring

Welcoming Spring and Hunting for Eggs

My Kite

My Word Wall

My Word Wall

the	I	you	do	with
a	is	have	for	was
my	said	to	he	see
that	we	me	she	of
and	are	go	has	not

one	two	three	four	five
six	seven	eight	nine	ten

red	orange	yellow	green	blue
purple	brown	black	pink	white

Addition

We have been reading and writing addition sentences all year while celebrating holidays, seasons, and themes, so we know words that describe adding. We know that adding is "counting on" to see how many there are "in all". We have "counted on" to state addition sentences with apples, pumpkins, turkeys, Christmas trees, snowmen, and the list goes on and on.
Last week we began our workbook unit on addition. We were counting "sets" of pennies on Friday when the snow began to fall. Tomorrow the boys and girls will have to check their counting to see if the sets they counted "equal" their answers they wrote. Sometimes when things get too exciting, like snow falling, our counting gets mixed up. Now there will be a reason for us to talk about "checking addition" and to learn how to do that. We will also begin to use the term, sum. We will learn that the answer to an addition sentence is the sum.

Snow

This was Ruston's first real snowfall in seven years, so the kids at Cypress Springs Elementary had never seen snow before. It was an exciting day to say the least, and certainly a day they will remember. We'll have to write about it on Monday.

Dr. Seuss

Yesterday was NEA's Read Across America Day which was celebrated in conjunction with Dr. Seuss' birthday, March 2. The students designed their own Dr. Seuss, cat hats. We used that activity as another opportunity to practice writing. The students wrote, "My hat is ___________ and ___________." The color words written in the blanks were different according to their own hat design. The students had to retrieve the spellings of the words independently. They found My, is, and, and the color words on the word wall. They found the spelling of hat by saying all the sounds heard in the word, then writing the letters that made those sounds. When we visited the library on Monday, our librarian, Mrs. West, entertained us all. She was dressed up as Thing 1 from our favorite Dr. Seuss book, The Cat in the Hat. Her hair was blue!!! I am soooo sorry that I forgot to take pictures of any of these activities. Sometimes that happens when we are so busy having fun learning. Having fun learning with Dr. Seuss is something we do all year in kindergarten.

Today we brainstormed to think of the spellings for the "____at" family. Each child wrote his/her list of ____at words on cat hats, then cut them out to take home.

What Happens When the Wind Blows?

The weekly Scholastic newspaper, Let's Find Out, has become one of our springboards for guided writing. As emergent writers, we use opportunities throughout each day to practice reading and writing.
We have learned that the sight words are on the word wall. We know where to find those words, but we are the keepers of other words. To write a word that is "in our head", we say the word, say all the sounds we hear in the word, then write the letters that make those sounds. This is what we practice daily.

We have been listening to words that begin and end with /g/Gg. We have also been working with /e/Ee by listening for its sound at the beginning, the middle, and the end of words.

We also learned the Secret Stories for sh, ar, and the vowels walking together.
S and h love to tell everyone sh, shhhhhh in the library.
A is a super hero, but a let's r do the talking whenever they are together. Together ar say arrrrrr.
When two vowels are side by side in a word (like ai,ee,ea,ie,oa,ay), we say that they are walking together. The first one does the talking and the second one does the walking.

Reading, Writing, and Singing a Song

We would like to thank our friend from the Junior Auxiliary for visiting our room. She read the book, The Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown. A big surprise was when she gave each child a copy of the book to take home. What a treat that was to get a brand new book to call your own.

Make America Great

I can help make America great.
I can...
The students drew pictures and wrote words to show how they could help make America great. We talked about litter and flowers, so those were the most popular ideas. Some of the children thought that celebrations were important, too.
Learning about America has been very interesting. Our new favorite song is God Bless America. The students think it is a pretty song, so we have added it to our morning routine. Now after we say the Pledge of Allegiance, we sing two patriotic songs, My Country 'tis of Thee and God Bless America.
We also added a daily review of our national and state symbols. We are very patriotic.

February Lessons

In kindergarten, we learn about money. In our class, we count coins daily as part of our morning routine. For the last couple of weeks, we've been having extra practice counting money. Each day this week we've watched Coins For Candy which has helped us to understand what we have been doing with money.
The boys and girls have also been learning about the Presidents who have their pictures on the coins. Because Monday was President's Day, we began learning more about our country. Today we listened to the story Arthur Meets the President. We also watched slide shows about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

Reading Valentine Cards

We celebrated Valentine's Day a couple of days early. After we read our cards, we enjoyed refreshments.

Dr. Ward, the Dentist

Dr. Ward made his annual visit to our school on Friday. He presents to the kindergarten classes information on the importance of dental health. February is dental health month.
After his lesson about dental health, he shared a video to reinforce their understanding, taught the children a neat poem to help them remember how to brush their teeth, and demonstrated brushing and flossing using great props.

Up like a plane,
Down like the rain,
Back and forth like a choo choo train.

He gave a new toothbrush to every kid in kindergarten. How neat is that!!!

Winter Writing

During this child directed activity time, some were choosing to write the room using mini chalkboards, some were using tracing frames from the writing center, some were making winter cards using chalk, while some were enjoying blocks or manipulatives on the rug.

Krewe of 100 Days, Mardi Gras Parade

We celebrated our one hundredth day of school with our annual Krewe of 100 Days, Mardi Gras parade. Laissez les bons temps rouler, let the good times roll! The kids were definitely letting the good times roll as we say in Louisiana.
We didn't forget all of the usual one hundredth day of school activities. The kids' favorite this year was ten sets of ten exercises. As another teacher said would happen, my favorite was the 100 seconds of silence that followed the exercises. I have to thank Cathy N. for that 100th day of school activity idea little treasure.

Activity Time

The kindergarten room is constantly changing because we are constantly growing. The block center is now much smaller, and the small writing center is now the most popular activity. Tomorrow we will move this center from a single desk to a whole table.

Computer Lab

We usually go to the computer lab twice a week for thirty minute sessions. Last week, we were able to spend a little more time at the lab because of the cold weather. It was a great way to spend time indoors. We practiced our reading skills using our favorite site, Starfall.com.

How Tall Are You?

We are learning about measurement. In our Scholastic newspaper this week, we measured snowmen using pennies as the standard unit of measure. Now we are using snowmen as the standard unit of measure to measure ourselves. We learned that more of our classmates are ten snowmen tall. Fewer are nine snowmen tall, but the fewest number of classmates are eleven snowmen tall. We learned that the teachers at our school are thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen snowmen tall. The teachers are taller than the kindergartners.

Reading for Fun

Reading is fun, and we do read for fun. There is absolutely nothing more enjoyable in kindergarten than practicing reading fluency with friends. It's like riding a bike for the first time. What a great thrill.

End of First Semester

The report cards go home today! This is my favorite time of the school year. Learning is so much fun, and kindergartners love to learn.
Our reading series, Macmillan/McGraw-Hill, has been great, but this will be our last year to use this series. This is textbook adoption year. The teachers are looking at the new series and deciding which to choose. We get to vote, but majority rules. It will be all new next year, but for now we are loving our reading series we've used for the last seven years.
We're at the point in reading where everyone is reading phonetically as well as by sight. Some words we memorize and then know by sight. Other words can be broken apart by each letter sound. We call that phoneme segmentation.
DIBELS benchmark testing was done this week. The students were tested on initial sounds, letter names, phoneme sequencing, nonsense words, and word usage.

In shared writing today, we played with the rhyming words(onsets and rimes). After making several lists, we used some of the words to create a sentence. Later in the day, we used our sentence for our journal entry. We also used our LiPS chart to help us spell. The "lifter" card and letter "r" were added today because we are now studying it in our reading/phonics book.

ABC Center

In our ever changing classroom, we have an ABC center. It houses our reading and writing corner.

 

 

Winter Stories

Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner was our "just for fun" book today. We know that snowmen are real, but we decided that this was definitely a make-believe story.

Later, I read Little Polar Bear by Hans de Beer. This book helped the students understand what we had discussed last week about polar regions and tropical regions. The characters in the book gave the children the ability to conceptualize the geographic regions. We can now talk about where Lars lived and where he traveled. Tomorrow we will recall the animals he met and the likenesses and differences in the jungle and polar regions. A Venn diagram will probably work well. Student drawn pictures will also be used.

Our shared writing activity today gave us the opportunity to expand our sentences. We wrote a story about winter. Again, we were writing in our journals. We didn't give it a title, but we did have time to create our own illustrations.
We recalled the spelling of sight words and used our phoneme segmentation skills to spell the other words. Each sentence was expressed by a different student. The spelling was shared by the whole class.
This is the whiteboard copy of our journal entry.

 

Snowmen

It was fun to listen to the story The Biggest Snowman Ever by Steven Kroll. Of course we recalled the story The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Steven Kroll. It was easy to name the similarities and the differences in the two stories.

After reading Snowballs by Lois Ehlert, we were more than ready to create our own. Making these snowmen was such fun.

Yesterday during a shared writing activity, we wrote a poem about winter. The students wrote in their journals as I modeled for them on the white board. Phonics skills were put to the test. To add interest, the students wrote their poem in the shape of an icicle.
Winter is
cold, snow,
freezing,
icicles,
flakes,
and
fun.

Journaling on the Rug

We are enjoying guided writing activities about winter. The students are constructing their sentences using sight words they've learned.
Each day more and more of the students are able to express their understanding of addition by grouping their snowman's buttons in two sets.

Today, we read The Polar Bear Son: An Inuit Tale. This led us to look at the map of the world and the globe. We're starting to wonder about the different animals around the world. Tomorrow we'll check out the Polar Bear Cam at http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/blogs/through-the-lens/
(scroll down to see a cam clip) and at http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/churchill-blogs/
(streaming, so probably can't see it at school)

Technology in the Classroom

I received a letter of congratulations today from our district's technology department. I'll be getting some really cool new equipment very soon. I am excited beyond words. This TeacherTube video says it all.

Writing Addition Sentences

D'Reginald created and recorded 8 + 2 = 10.

We made a daily math journal entry. Again, we wrote the numeral 10 at the top of the journal page. Together we each drew a snowman. This was a quick review of shapes and positions vocabulary. The last thing we drew was his buttons. I introduced the concept of random grouping of sets. I told the children to draw ten buttons starting at the top of the middle snowball. Randomly, we organized two sets of buttons. My snowman had six buttons on the middle circle and four buttons on the bottom circle. Of course, we had varying groupings of sets. I modeled writing the addition sentence to match my random grouping of two sets. Next, I wrote my addition sentence in front of the ten I had written at the top of my whiteboard. My addition sentence was 6 + 4 = 10.
When Mrs. Williams joined us later in the day, she helped each child one on one. She found one child who had comprehended the directions and had completed the task independently.

Working as Illustrators

For today's language journal entry, the students used their holiday stories. We cut and glued the word documents which I had made for them. I reread the stories to each child. They worked as illustrators to further express their thoughts.

Experience Stories

We are getting back into the swing of things. The holiday was a memorable break, so I asked the students what was the most fun. It was an interesting assessment of language skills and an excellent documentation of abilities. I recorded the responses on the class blog, and I also read them to the class. Some students talked about presents, others mentioned people and places. I then copied them to a word document and printed them to be used in a journal activity tomorrow. The students will glue their sentences in their journals, then illustrate their impressions of the statements. It will be an interesting journal entry for their language page.


The holiday is over.
What fun did you have? Where did you go? Who did you see?

Alvin: I got a present from my Auntie. It was a whale. It shoots water when you put it in the water.
Chanse: I rode on my new dirt bike. I went to see my cousin. Santa brought me the dirt bike and then left.
D'Reginald: I got a truck. I got some wrestling figures. I got some transformers. I got a transformer that can turn into a car.
Eric: I got a play truck with a remote control. I got a bike and I got a toy piano.
Erica: I went to see my grandma. I played with my cousin. I got a baby doll.
Jasmine: I got me a baby doll. I got me a Dora kitchen. It's a fake. It can talk, too. I got me a talking baby doll. She looks like a robot.
Joshua: I have a ball. Yes. I was playing, bouncing. I saw Mama. I went to the park with my Auntie. I have transformer and a Spiderman game.
Keaira: I got a ballerina and a princess. I got a heart with some dolls in there. I got some shoes. I got a cheerleader doll.
Keshauna: Santa Claus gave me a guitar. He gave me microphone. He gave me Scooby Doo. He gave me a basketball goal.
Kerrington: It was so great. I got fifteen baby dolls. My brother got a guitar for Christmas. His name is Isaiah. He goes to the daycare center.
Moesha: I got a computer. I got twins. I got three baby dolls. I got a cell phone. I got a toy horse.
Moriah: I got a bike. I got a car. I got a Care Bear. I went over to my Grandma's house. I stayed over at her house for six days.
NiAsia: My sister helped me open my presents. I got a doll, a computer, a game, and that's it.
Quedricia: Christmas...shoes
Quinterrious: My mama had bought me a good toy. She got me a Ninja Turtle. My auntie bought me a toy 4-wheeler. I got the blue one. My brother got the red one. I got a stethoscope
Raytavious: I got presents. I got a transformer, a Batman kind. I got a race car.
SiNiyea: I opened my presents. I played with my toys. I don't have the rest of them opened. I got a cash register and scissors and glue.
Tiaja: I saw my brother. I played. I got a doll and play dough.
Veonce: I got a Dora house. I got a Dora tent. I got a jewelry box. I got a collection. I got a pony, a unicorn.

Library Center

A favorite place is the reading corner.

Good friends and good books go hand in hand.

Graphing Activity

"Will the Pumpkin Float?" was a graphing activity in my Kindergarten classroom. The children followed the scientific method to complete this project. The question was asked. Will the pumpkin float? Each child stated their hypothesis. It will float or it will not float. The procedure was discussed and implemented. We decided we would have to put the pumpkin in water to find the answer. The results were stated. The pumpkin floats. More students guessed yes and less guessed no. The children were thrilled and proud of their completed project. They graphed the data using the math terms more and less.
It was apparent that they understood what they had learned. The students continued to talk about the experiment each time they passed by the display. They transferred the knowledge through discussions. Reflecting on what they had learned, the explanation of why the bubbles were floating was heard at the hand washing station the next day. The students experienced authentic writing, scientific investigation, and mathematical application of data.

LiPS

LiPS is our daily phoneme sequencing lesson.