Happy Tuesday!

We had a great day again! Here are some writing samples from today. Just so you know....right now, in writing, we are learning to..

*Write stories about our life (no pretty pictures just to make pretty pictures)

*Be neat, neat, neat

*Add labels by sayyyiiinnng theeee woorrrddsss sllloowwwllly and quickly writing the sounds we think we hear (FYI-don't spell words for your kids-have them say the words slowly) 

*Using one page at a time

*Being brave like Eric Carle 

*Writing 'by' and our name! 

Here is a story by Nora! She was writing about how we practice 'Who Let the Letters Out?' Hey! I think that's me in this story! 

Gabe wrote about going to the Black Hills! Don't you love his BIG tree?? Oh and his label for Gabe! 

Will wrote a story about a twister! Do you love his label or what? 

Reagan wrote a story about her wiggly tooth and her favorite tennis shoes. WOW! 

Owen wrote about playing a dice game. Do you see his label for 'dice' and 'Owen?'

Today Cyan let us use her story to remind ourselves that we have to be neat, neat, neat. She is going to try this again! Her story about her family was very neat! Sometimes, when we write, we might end up not liking a story and just scratching it :) 

Dawson was also a good modeler for us today...he showed us how he was writing this imaginary story and then he realized it wasn't a real life story! So...recycling bin! 

Bryanna is exploring with attribute blocks :) 

Layla figured out that you can count attribute blocks :) 

Morning sentence! Figuring out how to count letters vs. words vs. sentences...

We started a VALUE chart in math today. Notice our first attempt at the value for 1 :) Ha. We got this great idea from Nora, because she used circles this week in one of our math problems. 

Practicing reading at reading tubs! 

Happy Monday!

Look at us finding 'just right spots' to work on our math problem of the day! We use our math problem solving notebooks. 

Today's problem: How many kids are at your table? How can you show your answer?

The last part of the question is really important. I'm already trying to get the kids to see that there might be more than one way. I even have some kiddos (look below) that are showing their answer in more than one way. 

Today we decided that it should 'make sense' and I talked about picking kids with neat notebooks to share. I want them to develop good habits in their notebooks. 

You can see that Layla is actually drawing her table. 

Jenna drew each person at the table and wrote the numeral. (Two ways to solve!)

Whoa! Jaxon has three ways to solve! Today when Nora shared, she explained the reason she drew dots in her notebook, instead of people. She said people would take very long to draw and said that the dots stand for each person. A new strategy! 

I noticed that Eve made her dots look like the 5 on a dice :) 

Oooh! Tally marks. Hm, I didn't even show this one--better dig this journal back out today! 

Here we are representing some of the ways we showed our answer in our BIG K02 math notebook! 

During our reading time, we are learning how every book has it's own place in our library. Our kiddos practiced reading and putting the books back in the right place. 

I have to tell you..next week I'll do a lesson on the 3 ways to read a book and I can't believe how many of these kids are already doing this on their own! Way to go parents! 

Pete....ah :) 

Cozy futon....will become cozier when I bring pillows :) 

Jaxon was in love with all of Eric Carle's end pages! I teach a lot of Eric Carle right now to show them that an author is brave and will try anything! You can't sit and call mom when you're stuck...you have to keep pushing, thinking and just write anything! 

FYI: We are already talking about 'getting stuck,' and how it's a good thing! Please encourage your child to get stuck at home by asking questions. Don't ever give your child the answer...if they're working on something. 

Another end page! 

This was cute! Brody was reading to me at choicetime :) What a sweetie! 

It's the weekend!

Here we are writing our morning sentence again :) Alora found the 'starting point'...or the left side of the board. We are learning that you write and read from left to right! 

Today our picture clue helped us figure out that the morning sentence was about Jenna! 

We had a small team come up and write the word 'see.' 

Here is a friend working on math problem solving! 

I will be working closely with you this year to help you understand some of the huge changes in math instruction (especially from when you were children). 

Some simple things to remember...

*Don't give your child equations to solve or memorize

*Focus on the why....the explanation and reasoning behind their work

Today's problem was "Draw a picture of yourself. How many eyes do you have?" It seems simple and it is. We are learning to use our notebooks, where to sit, where to put the problem on the page, etc. 

Look below though! (the very last picture--sorry, it's out of order) Jenna solved the problem in two ways! She drew a person with two eyes AND she wrote the numeral 2! So you can see that I reiterated her idea in our BIG K02 MATH BOOK below :)  

A sample of writing from our friend Nora. This is so cute! She is running off of the dock and jumping into the lake. Notice the LABELS! Nora wrote 'Nora' by the drawing of herself so the reader will know the story is about her!

Here is a story by Olivia. It's about her vacation to a hotel this summer! Notice that all of these stories are about real life :) Olivia also added a label for 'mommy' and 'daddy!' 

Peyton wrote a story about playing outside and notice his label! 

Dawson wrote a story about how his big brother, Andrew, walks him to the line in the morning. He also labeled himself and a big A for Andrew! 

We started a chart today to list ideas for 'what writers write about!' 

Here is Jenna's work today for math problem solving :) 

Happy Thursday!

During our writing time we've been reading a LOT of Eric Carle books! 

Eric is very brave and doesn't worry when he makes a 'mistake!' 

Also, we write about life. A lot of kindergarten kids pick up a marker and just draw 'pretty pictures' or pretend things. 

So now you know that you can help your child at home by giving him or her ideas to write about! 

Here is our morning sentence! We already know the difference between the letter C and the word 'see.' 

We use picture clues to help us figure out who the sentence is about! 

Working with pattern blocks...our new math tool! 

A bunch of kiddos at the yellow tables quickly figured out that you can use the red trapezoid and the blue rhombus (don't call it a diamond at home---that is incorrect now) to make a hexagon! Miles knew that the yellow shape is called a hexagon :) 

They showed us how to build these shapes on our fancy Smartboard camera...the ELMO! 

Happy Wednesday!

Today was our second day of answering the 'survey.' This is how we are learning about picture clues and that you can use a picture clue to read words! Amazing! They're reading! 

Boy....Natalee sure is focused! She is writing! We are working in our writing notebooks. Her picture is very neat :) Today we learned a lot about Eric Carle. He's a great author and is super brave! He isn't afraid to try. Writer's write anything! 

We also learned that writers can be neat, neat, neat! 

Here is Cyan showing off her story! She wrote about sleeping in her bedroom and even colored it pink like it is in real life! You can see that she wrote her name (a label) next to the picture of herself. She also wrote 'zzzzz' to show she's sleeping! 

Our new math tool is geoblocks! We had fun exploring with them today! 

Oh...here is an example of a student's writing from years ago. Scribbles?! That's not a fun story to read! 

We can be neat, neat, neat! 

We use I Charts to help us understand expectations for routines in K02. The chart looks like a gigantic I! It stands for being independent---which I always describe as meaning, "that you can do it yourself!"

We worked REALLY hard on self portraits today! We tried to make them look just like us! I am hanging them in the morning and will take a picture! 

Our FIRST choicetime! Yay!