Gingerbread Houses!

On Wednesday we made gingerbread houses! The kids became masterful architects as they "gingerly" placed gummy bears, spice drops, jelly beans, Skittles, M&M's, peppermints, marshmallows, pretzels, red licorice and other various goodies on top. SO much thanks to those who made this possible. We appreciate all of the things you brought and to those parents who helped assemble. The kids had a wonderful time!

aMAIZEing Corn

Today we made our very own Maize or Indian Corn. We used red, orange, yellow and brown paper for the kernels. Once we created our corn, we graphed the colors that were used. It was a fun project and the kids were very excited that Mrs. Gates had real Indian Corn that we were able to pass around. 

Boo!

Happy Halloween!
We've been busy at work reading spooky stories and making some fun Halloween art projects! Here's a few examples of projects we've created over the last few weeks:


Pumpkin Life Cycle
Story: Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell and Pumpkin Day and Nancy Elizabeth Wallace
We learned the various stages of the life cycle of a pumpkin from seed to orange pumpkin. Question: Is a pumpkin a:
a) vegetable 
b) toy
c) berry


Bats and Nocturnal Animals
Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
Bats: Night Fliers by Betsy Maestro and Giulio Maestro
We made a few different books on bats and made owls and cats


Halloween
Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson
We all designed our very own broomsticks!

Hope you had a Spooktacular Halloween!

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch!

Last Thursday, we had a fun and soggy trip to Prusch Farms. Here are some highlights that the kids shared out following our trip:

• Seeing the peacocks
• Going on the hay ride
• Picking out our pumpkins
• Feeding the goats
• Riding on the school bus
• When we saw the animlas
• Being the our moms and dads (Volunteers)
• Petting the black bunny-Midnight
• Walking in the mud
• When the sheep kissed my hand
• When the rain fell on us
• When I saw the scarecrow
• When we ate our snack

Common Core State Standards

Dear Parents,
Over the next few years, California will be implementing the Common Core State Standards. What are the Common Core State Standards?
Here is the mission statement:

"The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy."

To put it simply, most American schools are all adopting the same standards so we will all be on the same page. There will be both major and minor changes. I encourage you to begin educating yourself on what these standards are and how they will impact your children. Here is a link to some videos that will help begin this process.

http://www.americaschoice.org/commoncorestandardsresources

Words Their Way

The last couple weeks I have been busy assessing our students to determine where they are so I can plan our curriculum.  We have started early concept sorting activities that will be followed with picture sorts that develop phonemic awareness and include activities for rhyming, syllabication, and sound play. The purpose of these activities is to get our students used to these procedures so they are prepared for their individualized program. 

Sight Word Fun

Most of our class has started their sight word homework. I've enjoyed getting pictures of all the creative ways you are practicing your sight words at home! Here are a couple I've received. You can always go to our class webpage to see an ongoing gallery of pictures I receive.

Our Class Virtual Bookshelf

Dear Parents,
If you look on the left, you will see our virtual bookshelf. I have just updated it. It currently has some of my favorite books and will from this point on, contain books that we are reading in class. If you click on the bookshelf, it will take you to our Shelfari page where you can see an ongoing list of books we're reading in class.
Enjoy!

The Ant and the Elephant

      First of all, it was great to see so many faces at Back to School Night! Thank you so much for coming! This week we worked on a lot of projects which you saw hung around the room last night. We also started talking about our first comprehension strategy-Wondering (Self-Questioning). Generating questions while reading are essential components of the reading process and must be explicitly taught. Asking questions is a skill that underpins every comprehension strategy. For this reason, we should ensure that students understand how to create questions by engaging in explicit instruction. This is why I like starting with wondering.
      This week, I read The Ant and the Elephant by Bill Peet. I first explained why it's important to wonder while we read. Before we read, I looked at the cover and said, "This book is about an ant and an elephant. I wonder if the ant and elephant are friends. If so, how can an ant and elephant be friends?" I then read a little bit of the story and modeled how we ask questions while reading. At this point, I had the kids join in and give their wonderings. When we finished the story, I introduced "Turn and Talk" which is where kids turn and share ideas with 1-2 neighbors. I then asked the kids what they thought the author was trying to teach us through his story. I charted responses throughout the book and was really pleased with all of their insight!

 

Welcome to Kindergarten!

Dear Families,

Today was a great day! We all enjoyed our first day of kindergarten. Both A.M's and P.M's sang songs, engaged in a class meeting, went on a tour of the school, read the book, The Kissing Hand, and created our own "Kissing Hands" for your use at home. :)

Thank you so much for all the donations and supplies for our classroom. I'm looking forward to working with you this academic year!

Farewell Frogs!

Enjoy this video of the release of the frogs!

Keep an eye out for the snake...:)

Diary of a Silkworm 5/17/11

Shh....we're all busy going through metamorphosis....so I can't talk long. We finally got good and fat and were about 3 inches long before we knew it was time. The considerate teacher put these egg cartons around our box which proved to be the perfect spot to start building a cocoon. I was worried about building my cocoon as I've never built one before! However, it all came naturally. I found my perfect spot and did a lot of stretching. Then I made my anchor lines which came from the spinnerets near my mouth. Then all of a sudden, my head just knew to make figure eight movements and I slowly begun to spin my cocoon! Wow! I'm amazed with myself! I guess we'll see you soon...!!!

Lily's Diary 5/6/11

Diary of a Silkworm 4/28/11

Well, I've been so busy eating and growing, I haven't had much time for an update. We spent our Spring Break in Mrs. Durbin's room who kindly fed us plenty of fresh mulberry leaves. When Miss Cuenca saw us, she jumped back in surprise. We're so big now that when the kids handle us, they comment on how soft our bodies are. Today I felt like stretching and noticed that some of my skin started to come off! That's so weird! I heard Miss Cuenca say something about molting. Maybe that's what we're doing. Miss Cuenca's friend, Miss Barrack, has gotten us fresh leaves every day since we've been back from Room 18. It's great to be back here but some of us have sensed the presence of tadpoles right next door. I hope tadpoles don't eat silkworms...

Launching Rabbits and Elephants!

Today we made helicopters in the shape of a rabbit and elephant. Then we launched them off the play structure to see what would happen when we dropped them. This is our introduction into observing air....

Enjoy the 9 second clip...!

Say Something

We just finished week three of our animal unit. Our strategy this week was to learn how to stop and say something. We began this strategy by emphasizing the importance of monitoring our understanding while we are reading. Thus, while we are reading, it's important to stop and ask ourselves if what we are reading makes sense. We practiced this as a whole group, in partners and in a small group.

We also worked on creating a labeled picture of an animal (to help us prepare for our animal reports), writing narratives using pictures from magazines and creating animal acrostic poems. We are starting our animal reports this week and I believe our class is ready to take on the challenge!

Welcome Willy and Lily Froglet!

Please welcome the newest additions to our class, Willy and Lily Froglet! Our new tadpoles are straight from the Los Gatos Mountains and are excited to be in their new home. They wanted me to tell you that they will start their diary in a few days once they recover from their jet lag and adjust to their new home.

:)

Drawing and Writing Wonderings

While we've practiced wondering before, we took it to the next level and practiced asking questions before reading, during reading and after reading. Of course, we did have discussions about what we already knew about the topic because we are now expert previewers.

This week we read a book about Whales and brainstormed many questions about the whales. We were amazed to learn so many facts about whales. The class especially liked the fact that Humpback Whales sing songs and enjoyed the Humpback Whale music I played during class.

In our small groups, we practiced wondering while reading Gorillas by Seymour Simon. We learned a lot about gorillas and the kids asked really insightful questions while reading such as:

• How do gorillas walk on their knuckles without hurting their hands?
• What are their enemies?
• How do they communicate?
• Why is the Mountain Gorilla endangered?

Also in small groups, students read non-fiction books and made their own animal fact books, made many words from the mystery word, "Killer Whale" and made bookmarks for their upcoming literature circles.

Diary of a Silkworm 4/8/11

It's been a great few days. The nice class that's taking care of us has made sure to feed us plenty of fresh mulberry leaves as we haven't stopped eating! As you can see, we've doubled in size since we first got here! Without a doubt, our favorite time of the day is when the teacher puts us under something called the ELMO and we become so huge, the kids can see us on the big screen. They must think we are pretty cool creatures because all they do is "ooh" and "ahh." Well, back to my tasty mulberry leaf!

Diary of a Silkworm 4/5/11

Today we got put in a box and were covered with freshly picked mulberry leaves. I was so excited to smell that mulberry plant, I went right to it and started chomping (I haven't stopped!). It is so nice to have this new home. That plastic bag we were in was getting a little suffocating. I think the teacher forgot about us. Good thing she finally remembered!! It's nice in our new home. Chomp...Chomp...Chomp....

Previewing-Let's Set A Purpose for Reading!

This past week, we practiced setting a purpose for reading. It's important that children learn various ways to process information while reading. Before reading, we activated prior knowledge by discussing what we already knew about the topic. Then we thought of various questions, or what we wanted to know, about the topic. We organized these questions by using a semantic questioning map. Thus, while we were reading, we were able to answer some of the questions we had thought of. We practiced this as a whole group and in a small group.

In our small group, we read Bats by Gail Gibbons. We brainstormed what we wanted to know and as we read the book together, took notes using our semantic questioning map. Then when we finished, we made a Facts About Bats pamphlet.

Other groups read non-fiction books, wrote definition poems, prepared for a literature circle and made up stories about animals. Here's a little snapshot of some of the work we did this week.

Enjoy!

Animals, Animals

It's spring! With that, comes our major report that we'll be working on for the next few weeks. We will be exploring the non-fiction works of Seymour Simon, Gail Gibbons and many more fantastic non-fiction authors as we continue to learn how to:

• Use appropriate comprehension skills and strategies
• Interpret and respond to text
• Communicate effectively

Our class will be focusing on the following comprehension strategies:

• Previewing
• Self-Questioning
• Monitoring
• Summarizing

B is for Brachiosaurus...

Well, our dinosaur unit is behind us and as a final project, we made a class ABC book about dinosaurs. This was a lot of fun and the kids were really able to demonstrate what they learned. This book will be displayed at Open House so until you are able to come in and look at it, here's a few pages...

:)

Lyrical Retellings

Since the beginning of the year, we've been practicing the main elements of a retelling. We have the Who? Where? What happened? How did it end?
This week, we took retellings to a new level. We practiced as a class reading a story and completing a retelling sheet. Then we brainstormed a way to take the retelling and turn it into a song using a familiar tune. Check out what we came up with!

Dinosaur Starts School by Pamela Duncan Edwards
(To the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star)
Oh Dinosaur,
Oh Dinosaur,
Don't be so sad!
School can be fun
Just try to be glad.
Here is a trick,
just find a new friend
and you will want
to go back again.
Oh Dinosaur,
Oh Dinosaur,
Don't be so sad!
School can be fun,
Just try to be glad!

Dinosaur Discoveries- Thick and Thin Questions

This week, we focused on different types of questions. In the past, we've mainly focused on, "I wonder." However, as we've had a lot of practice with wondering, we stepped it up and learned about different types of questions in the form of "Thin" and "Thick."

A thin question is a question that is easily answered and usually, "right there" in the text. For example, "What did Tyrannosaurus Rex eat?"

A thick question usually deals with large concepts, is more complex, has longer answers and is open-ended. In order to answer a thick question, we may need to "Think and Search" through the text or imagine. An example of a thick question would be, "What would you do if a Tyrannosaurus Rex wanted to be your pet?"

We practiced these types of questions all week. Kids picked a dinosaur and made a poster. On their poster, they included various thick and thin questions about their dinosaur. They even color-coded them! I must be rubbing off on them....

Dinosaur Discoveries Week One

Big. Heavy. Scaly. Lived a long time ago. These are some of the words that the kids have used to describe what they know about dinosaurs. Over the next few weeks, we will be doing a study on these fascinating creatures.
The overall goals for this unit are to:

• Use appropriate comprehension skills and strategies. Standard: learning to read independently.
• Interpret and respond to literature. Standard: reading, analyzing and interpreting literature
• Write a variety of texts. Standard: types and quality of writing
• Communicate effectively. Standard: types and quality of writing; speaking and listening

Adventures with Arthur

Over the past few weeks, we've been doing an Arthur unit. So far this year, this unit has produced the most laughter. Throughout this unit, we have focused on three main comprehension strategies: Making Connections, Visualization and Retelling.
The student goals for this theme included the following:

• Use appropriate comprehension skills and strategies
• interpret and respond to literature
• write a variety of types of text
• communicate effectively
  

Throughout the theme, various group and independent strategy applications occurred through comprehension centers and routines. Our centers included art, drama, making words, poetry, storytelling and writing. The routines included Reciprocal Teaching and Cross-Age Reading Experiences.

Plants and Animals!

I'm sure you have all heard about the plants and animals that are currently residing in our classroom. Our classroom terrariums have sprouted alfalfa, rye grass and wheat. Wandering among the plants are our earthworms and pill bugs. We are learning about how habitats provide living things what they need (food, water, air, sunlight and space).