Oops on Pictures!

Today your child took home a class composite picture.  I thought all the composites were the same and did not realize that each composite also has a larger picture of your child.  So they were put into folders incorrectly.  Please return the pictures to school tomorrow so that I can get each student the right picture.  Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience!


On a brighter note, here are some pictures from our 100th day of school:

Working with a partner to do 100 tally marks!

Building to 100 using groups of 10!

Making 100 day hats with 100 things!

Sorting 100 things into 10 groups of 10!

100 paint dots!

Rolling to 100 with a die.

Come Support Carpenter TODAY!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have your teacher serve you? Now's your opportunity! Carpenter Staff and Leo's Coney Island have teamed up for a School Event. On Tuesday, February 25th from 5pm-8pm Carpenter staff will be Leo's Coney Island Wait Staff!
10% of all orders taken at Leo's between 5pm-8pm will go to the Carpenter PTO. And 100% of the tips will go directly to the classrooms of the serving teachers. Come support our Staff and children, and have a few laughs!  (3644 Carpenter Road, Ypsilanti) 

I will be there from 5:00-6:30 pm, so stop by then to sit at my tables!

100th Day of School Family Project!

I hope everyone has had a nice start to your mid-winter break!  When we return to school, the 100th Day of School will be upon us!  This is a big event in K.  We use the day to build number sense and to celebrate all of our hard work thus far in the school year.

So... you have another family project to work on over break!
Your task is to design a collection of 100 things.
Again, this is a great opportunity to have some fun and to get creative!  Play to your child's interests and make it a worthwhile experience.
Here are some pictures of past projects:

100 Skittles

100 Nickels

100 Candies

100 Pennies

This project shows 10 groups of 10 with different objects.

100s Garden

(Again, each row in the garden is a different group of 10.)

100 LEGOS

100 Stickers

The best way to count out 100 things is to make 10 groups of 10.  Then your child can count by 10s to check it.  As a challenge, you might also count out groups of 5s afterwards and count by 5s to 100.  

You might also use a 100s chart to help you count.  Click here for one!  You can color each row of ten as you count it out.  This is a great way to incorporate number reading too!

Check out these links for more ideas:

50  100 Days of School Projects

26 Amazing 100th Day of School Activities

(some of these are other activities beyond the project to do)

Poster Board Projects

THE PROJECTS MUST COME TO SCHOOL ON TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25TH!

Now, on to FAMILY VOLUNTEERS!  This is a very busy day and I need your help.  There are a few ways you can do that...
1.  Volunteer from 9:00-11:30 on Tuesday.  During this time, you will support students in station-based activities.  This is the most-needed time.
2.  Volunteer from 1:40-3:30 on Tuesday to support students in classroom activities.
3.  Volunteer Monday at any time to help me prep materials for the day.

If you can help, please send me an email and let me know what time/day you can help!  Thank you for your support!

Valentine Learners

We had some fun, Valentine-themed learning today!  We read Felica Bond's The Day it Rained Hearts.

In the story, the main character Cornelia Augusta thinks very thoughtfully about her friends and makes each one a special Valentine.  So, we talked about special things we might write on a Valentine and we gave it a shot:

Wow, was it a hit! :)

For math, we each got a box of Sweethearts and used many different math skills to think about what was in our box.  So first, we sorted them by color:

Then, we counted each:

We recorded each count in tallies and then graphed the results!  We were busy Valentine learners today! :)

Valentine's Party

I hope your valentines and mailboxes are coming along well! :)  I can't wait to see them!

On Friday, we will celebrate Valentine's Day.  So I am calling all volunteers!  I can use family volunteers from 12:30 pm through the end of the day.  If you are able to come in, send me a note! :)
Also, I thought it might be fun to decorate heart-shaped cookies.  Is there any generous family out there willing to make them for the class on Friday?  Let me know!

Last week, we looked more at Mo Willems' work.  We noticed that he uses two types of "bubbles"... speech bubbles and thought bubbles.  So, we did some directed drawing with Mo's beloved character the Pigeon.  We added a thought bubble to show what the pigeon might think about driving next in Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.  Here are some of my favorites:

Garbage Truck

Tractor

Ice Cream Truck

Scooter

Mail Truck

Motorcycle

What great thinking beyond the text! :)

Here are some videos of other books we read together.  Watch them at home together!

Valentine's Day Family Project

Well, they have already been talking about it... VALENTINE'S DAY!   Yes, we will be exchanging valentines and a note went home today with a list of names for our classroom.  Addressing valentines is a great opportunity for writing at home - and your child (not you) should be doing the writing ;)  Or you can share the task.

This is also a great opportunity for a family project!  Your other task is to construct a valentines mailbox.  There are a plethora of ideas online (and Pinterest - wowee).  But I took the liberty of finding some examples in the links below.

The goals of this project are:
1.  Have FUN!
2.  Work together on something meaningful.
3.  Get creative!

WARNING:  This project will take some time (but it WILL be worth it!).  Make it a weekend project!

Click these for examples and directions:
Puppy Dog Mailbox
Valentine's Mailbox
Cereal Box Valentines Holder
Frog Prince Valentine Holder
14 Creative Valentine Box Ideas
20 Valentine Card Holders


Enjoy!  Your child should have his/her mailbox and valentines ready for Friday, February 14th!

Mo Willems & Speech Bubbles

First and foremost, tomorrow Friday, February 7th is Pajama Day!  When the announcement came yesterday, there was quite a lot of excitement in the room!  Your child can wear pjs and bring some slippers to wear in the classroom, if he/she likes.


Now, onto the good stuff.  This week during writing, we learned how to add speech bubbles to give our readers more details in our narrative books.  We explored an author who uses these speech bubbles often in his work, Mo Willems.  Click here to learn more about him with your child!

So far, we have read Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.






Our Ks LOVE his work and laughter fills the room when we read his stories.  He has many more books with the Pigeon, as well as a series of Piggie & Elephant books (we haven't gotten to those yet!).  Go check some out from the library to enjoy at home with your child this week! :)
Want to see some of his books?  Click here!



So, after we learned about what Mo does, we tried it in our own writing.  Take a look at some examples:

Here, Ciaran was writing about when he went to Lego Land.  In his speech bubble he writes, "Yes."  He must have been pretty excited!

Here, Toby writes about when he moved.  We drove and we drove.

Looks like it must have been a long drive!

Here, Emma is writing about being at the park and watching the boats go by.

She says, "Look at the boats!"

A Whole Lotta Learning Going On!

Despite a whole lotta snow & cold days, there's a whole lotta learning going on in our classroom!

LITERACY 

To add a little extra something to our library literacy station, we learned how to draw & write the book we read:

 We opened up the sensory table to hunt for letters in rice:

We have been learning about the parts of narrative stories.  So we read & re-read Goldilocks & the Three Bears many times to think about these elements:

These are great elements to discuss at home while you read together to build reading comprehension.

We also thought more about characters.  Although what characters look like are important, we also want to think about what their actions tell us and their character traits.  This can be a tricky skill for Ks because it is vocabulary intensive.   Talk more about characters at home of your child's favorite stories!

Click here to get printable story props for re-telling the story at home!

In the Dramatic Play Station, we are having Tea Parties!

Our Ks can make invitations for the tea party to give to their friends.

MATH

This week, we learned how to count by 5s to 100!  We discussed that sometimes mathematicians group things together and count the groups.  So we did so with a natural group on our bodies: fingers on a hand!

We added these fives to our classroom days of school number line. 

AND we learned about tally marks!

We read Tally O'Malley and saw that we can use tally marks to count things.

Then, we used tally marks to count the number of kids in our class:

Click here to play a Tally game at home!

Here's a video to like to use to practice:

Math Stations...

Ordering numbers 1-20 & writing them!

Counting and representing teen numbers in different ways.

Here students use number cards, ten frames, teen frames, & base-ten blocks to represent numbers 10-20.

Dice Throw Game

Students role 2 die & add them together.  They say, "1 plus 4 equals..."  Then students graph the totals.

Teen Spin

Students work with a partner & each spin for a teen number.  Both students build and write the number.  Here, a "ten stick" is being used to represent the ten in 17.  Then, students compare their numbers to decide which is greater.

Last week in the computer lab, we played a new addition game.  Click here to play at home!

And last but not least, this week Carpenter recognized the Lunar New Year with a parade:

Kindergarten Narrative Writing

Early this week, your child brought home a collection of narrative writing from October through December.  I hope you have enjoy sharing in this beginning writing with your child.  It may have looked something like this:

In January, we have been learning how to stretch our stories across pages.  This requires our Ks to tell stories in more detail and to think about sequence.  It might look like this:

We also learned how to use a special tool to help us make sure our story is complete:

Our story should have: characters, a setting, and at least 3 parts.  We want to make sure we show the "heart" of the story.  This shows how the author feels about this event in his/her left.

In Emilie's story above, her "heart" was when she got the sting ray stuffed animal at the end of her zoo trip.  She wrote, "I was happy."  We talked about that she can always remember her trip when she has her sting ray with her.

Here is another example:

 We are working on picking a "short & sweet" title :)

Wow, you can hear that heart of the story! :)

Here are some resources to support writing development at home:

25 Ways to Make Writing Fun

Kindergarten Writing Milestones

Kindergarten Developmental Writing Stages