Have YOU filled a bucket today?

We made it through our 2nd day! I remembered to take photos of each student today (totally forgot on Tuesday!). The day began with a yummy welcome back pancake breakfast, put on by our SCC (thank you!). Then, students were off to their first K/1/2 gym class. I joined the class for the first few minutes and then left them with the capable hands of Mrs. H- the Grade 1/2 teacher so that I could have my prep. I will be teaching the class on Days 1 and 5. They worked on practicing freezing on the spot with the cue of a whistle, played some Octopus tag, and tried tag games in increasingly smaller general space areas in order to see how hard or easy it was to maintain personal space.

Next up we had our calendar meeting, followed by snack. During free choice centers there was a lot of action in the kitchen, rice table, and even a puppet show broke out! We also had a fix it man on the loose who was measuring everything he could find with a measuring tape.

After recess, we began working on establishing a routine of readings books in the reading area for a few minutes after each recess to get ourselves gathered together. By last period, it was going quite well! I read aloud to them, Have You Filled A Bucket Today? Then, we watched a video of the story How Full Is Your Bucket? For Kids and had a discussion about how everyone could fill someone else's bucket. Finally, students represented their ideas on paper. By lunch I was already hearing "He's dipping my bucket! ....They are filling my bucket!" In case you aren't familiar, the main idea is that we all have invisible buckets. When we use kind and caring actions and words, we fill a bucket. If we use unkind and mean actions and words, then we dip buckets.

 

An example of student work.

After lunch recess, I introduced students to something new to our classroom for all of us. I received a package in the mail yesterday that will be the first of many from Little Passport. We were introduced to characters Sam and Sofia, who will be travelling the world and sending us gifts and photos once a month! We received a suitcase, passport, boarding pass, picture of the magic scooter that is going to take them around the world, stickers, and a world map. I am looking forward to where the learning will go from here. I already had one student pointing out different parts of the map and asking me what each place was.

I also had students work with me in pairs on a beginning of the year assessment. Basically, I get them to record any letters, numbers, words, and shapes that they know. We rounded off the day with some singing and dancing and our first Talking Circle. We will end each day with students sharing their thoughts on the day. It is exciting to me to observe them learning to respect and listen to the person who is holding the talking rock.

Looking back at Tuesday's work, I put together a class book that can be viewed online.

 

 

There were a lot of positive feelings on the first day and they appeared to carry over to today. I'm looking forward to  3 day week next week. Until then, I hope that everyone has a great weekend!

Welcome Back!

Here's to the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year!

 

I made some changes to the classroom environment this year and am very pleased with how it has turned out! Primary coloured furniture were given new life with a more neutral beige paint job and the colourful alphabet mat was replaced with a more neutral toned rug. I also added some new shelving and made the reading area bigger to accommodate all of the books that I gathered throughout my first year of Kindergarten.

Smart Board and general meeting area.

 

Science and Math centers.

 

Reading area.

 

Drama/kitchen center.

 

Rice table.

 

Eight, new little bodies filled the classroom today! We had a lot of free exploration time with the centers throughout the day as sitting for any great length of time is always a bit tricky on the first day of K. Some of the favourites appear to be building blocks, cars, and sand/rice tables. However, some students also chose to explore painting, the drama center, music, and the marble run. We also took some time for some more directed play by exploring all of the different math manipulatives.

After a brief introduction to some of the classroom expectation, we joined the rest of the school staff and students outside at the flag pole. A brand new Canadian flag was raised and everyone sang O' Canada together. Then, we moved into the gymnasium for a brief assembly.

One of the routines that were introduced today was the morning question, which students are to answer when they arrive to school. I also introduced the jobs of calendar and weather reporting, but the rest of the daily jobs (such as various cleaning roles) and our new job chart will be discussed more fully on Thursday.

I love this new owl job chart!

 

We read The Kissing Hand and students were introduced to Chester Raccoon. They learnt the news that each day one student will take Chester and his journal home with him! Chester I always a beloved addition to the classroom. He's also new and improved this year!

 We also viewed last years Kindergarten class' book about first day feelings, before students worked on their own representations of how they were feeling today.

 

Another job that we worked on today were our "This is Me on the First Day of Kindergarten" pictures, which will become a monthly task as the year progresses. Students are encouraged to try their best with a drawing of themselves and printing their name and the date. It is so exciting to watch the progression of their word throughout the school year! Today's drawings were added to our hallway bulletin board.

 Before I knew it, the day had passed by! I hope that the students enjoyed their first full day of Kindergarten. It is always such an exciting, bustling time. 2 more sleeps and we get to do it all over again. :)

Here's to a wonderful year of new Kindergarten Adventures!

Last Day of Kindergarten

Well, our countdown is finally over and we made it to our final day of Kindergarten! There was a buzz in the air all day, as students were very excited for their graduation in the afternoon!!

They had an hour of free choice play this morning, which was a lot of colouring and dramatic play. After our calendar meeting, we read Mrs. Bindergarten Gets Ready for the Last Day of Kindergarten. We practiced songs/poems for the grad and rehearsed what to tell people about what we've learnt this year.

Poem:

I'm a graduate (pointing to chest)
Yes it's true (knodding)
I'm a graduate (pointing to chest)
Ooh ooh ooh (hands on hips)

A little piece of paper is what I'll get (making a square shape with fingers)
So you ought to be proud (hands on hips)
Coz' I'm a graduate! (pointing to chest)


Song:
Start spreading the news (hands 'raising the roof)
I'm leaving today (marching)
I want to be a part of it (marching)
Grade One, Grade One! (turn to side, jazz hands).

After recess, we read Last Day, Hooray! and then students worked in their journals. They printed the date and "My Summer" and drew a picture of themselves this summer. Then I scribed for them their responses to how they will spend their summer.

We also did some body break videos since we were having an in-classroom Phys.Ed today. That was pretty much our morning! The afternoon was our joyful celebration, followed by snacks and dessert with families. Everyone was cleared out by 2:30 pm. and it was time to begin the year end classroom clean up! It's been such a wonderful year that I can't help but feel a little sad over it coming to an end. I've been surrounded with amazing students and staff that have made my first year of teaching such a great learning experience!

I wish my students all the best in Grade One & hope that everyone has a fantastic summer holiday! :)


Until next year....

Outdoor Adventures!

The majority of our previous two K days have been spend learning outdoors! Last Friday, we enjoyed our Play Day with the grades one to fives, as well as help from the 6's and 7's. Students rotated through activities in colour co-ordinated teams (they came up with their own team names, flags, and chants!). The school and team spirit was on high! The activities included basketball, standing long jump, high jump, ball target throw, pool noodle throw, and base running. In the afternoon, we had a few different types of relay races, water balloon toss, and tug-o-war. It was such a great day!!

Tuesday, we had our field trip to the Saskatoon  Forestry Farm Park and Zoo. It was so much fun exploring the zoo and seeing all of the different animals (and airplanes). We had some play time in the park and the Burger King play area as well. In the afternoon, we took part in a guided program called Meet the Creature. We learnt all about different types of animals and students got to feel a skink, salamander, bunny, snake, eagle and hawk feathers, and porcupine quill. We stopped for an ice cream treat on our way home, too. It was another very exciting adventure for our class.

Dads, Numbers, Memories, & Teamwork

Here are the short, but sweet, notes on our 5th last day of Kindergarten:

 

*The Grade One class was learning about birds and we got to take a look at some really cool bird nests!

*We worked on Father's Day presents, including little 'surveys' about our dad and dad portraits. It's always amusing to hear the students guess their dad's age, height, and weight!

*We completed number booklets where students traced the number word and represented the numbers 1-10 in ten frames.

*We played tag games in Phys.Ed.

*We worked on our Kindergarten memories booklets and made invitations for parents to the Kindergarten graduation.

Last period, the K-5s met in their play day teams to create team names, chants, and flags. They collaborated so well together! It was great to see the teamwork happening. I can't to watch the students work together to enjoy the play day events on Friday!

 

Tomorrow I get to meet some of the upcoming Kindergarten students at K orientation! :)

Tick Tock Tick Tock Time is Ticking Away

The days are winding down in Kindergarten! This morning we worked on our "This is me in June" pictures. It was the last time that we will be working on our self portraits. It's so amazing to see the progress from September to now!

In math we continued to work on number recognition. Students worked on a cut and paste activity to show which numbers were represented in ten frames. They also had to count the dots on the dominos and print the number.

We read The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle before heading to the library. The students have really loved the Eric Carle stories. They have been a great fit with our science outcomes of learning about plants and animals.

We finally finished our ocean animal project today. Students had to print the sentence, "A _____ lives in the ocean." by filling in the blank with their ocean animal. The Smart Board came in handy with demonstrating to students how to print their letters using a sentence strip!

The rest of the afternoon was spent working on a Kindergarten memories book. It's becoming a great time for reflecting back upon our year together! I've created two new bulletin boards~ one focused on looking back and looking forward and then the other is all about our ocean learning.

 

Of course, there was also free choice time. This class loves to take the opportunity to practice printing words! I love it!

We have one more full day of classroom time before some exciting adventures including play day, two field trips, and our final day/Kindergarten grad! Fingers crossed that the weather will co-operate with all of our plans. :)

June is here!!

Our countdown continues! We now have 7 days of Kindergarten left and many students were excited that we switched our calendar over to June.

It was a beautiful day today! We took part in the town clean up by pairing up with the Grade 1 class. Students were even commenting that it was TOO hot! The students did a great job cleaning up around the school playground and rink. When we were discussing the task at hand, one of the students commented that we were cleaning up to help make the Earth happy. Then, they requested to hear the "We're Going Green" song/video we had watched in April.

First thing this morning, students had an opportunity to paint their leaves on the mural. They did an excellent job.

In Math, we talked all about the number 10. We watched a video of the song 10 Bears In The Bed, filled in our "All About the Number" chart, and worked on making 10 in two sets with a butterfly activity!

We also talked a lot about animals today. Students shared why they like animals. We brainstormed which animals live in the ocean and which animals do not live in the ocean. Together we read a book called Sharks. It was a higher level book than The Ocean book we read last day. However, we worked together and made it through! Some examples of the words were "Sharks are good swimmers. Sharks are big and little." Students also began a mini project where they each picked an animal that lived in the ocean and began colouring a picture of that animal using wax crayon. We will finish the project on Thursday, as last class we were invited to watch plays performed by the Grade 4's and 5's.

The clock is ticking! There are so many activities that I want to fit in before the end of the school  year. It's going to be a busy/fun month. :)