Word Study

This week we started our differentiated Words Their Way groups. We have groups focusing on various consonant sounds, vowel sounds and digraph sounds. Wish us luck! It's always a challenge starting something new in a classroom but I am confident the kids are ready to take this next step in their learning.

Eric Carle Unit

Our Eric Carle Unit is going very well. We are starting our second week. We had to take a week off to focus on Thanksgiving but we are back on track. Thus far, we have read excellent literature and focused on two main comprehension strategies.

Week One: Wonderings
Having children wonder while reading is vital to their comprehension as it it the basis for asking questions. Asking questions helps clarify and deepen understanding. Many times it encourages and enhances imagination as children will often put themselves in the story and wonder "What would it be like if I could climb to the moon?"
Our focus books for this unit were:

• Do You Want to Be My Friend?
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Week Two: Making Connections
There are three types of connections we teach children: Text to Self, Text to Text and Text to World. When you make a connection while reading, it basically means that what you're reading reminds you of something else. This is a big clue that you are making meaning or understanding the book. For example, in our book,Does A Kangaroo Have a Mother Too?, many of the students recollected times with their own mothers. We primarily focused on Text to Self connections where students shared out how parts of the stories reminded them of things in their own lives. Our focus books were:

• Does A Kangaroo Have a Mother Too?
• Pancakes, Pancakes!
• I Will Never, Not Ever, Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child (Not an Eric Carle book, but excellent story!)

Classroom Meetings

Weekly class meetings are an essential part of kindergarten instruction.  Usually the topics have to deal with social situations. This past week, we discussed what it means to be a good friend. I had the kids brainstorm what it means to be a good friend. Children shared with partners nice things they do for their friends. Then they shared out and we wrote examples on the board. We also shared things we should not do to our friends.

Shape Cities

The past month, we've been learning about shapes. We did shape hunts in the classroom, made a shape book and have practiced drawing shapes. As a fun activity to wrap up our shape unit, we made shape cities! We used the four main shapes we learned about (circle, square, rectangle and triangle) to create a city skyline at sunset. We used black paper for the buildings to create the illusion of silhouettes. We used colored paper for the windows and doors. We also experimented with mixing paints to create a beautiful sunset. It was a fun project!

Apples!

It's apple time! With apple season, there are always plenty of fun projects going on in kindergarten classrooms. We started our learning about apples by learning about Johnny Appleseed. In our writing center, we talked about character traits and the traits that Johnny Appleseed had. He was kind, giving and loved animals. We also made apple books and made beautiful apples for our classroom window. We will continue our learning next week so stay tuned...

Sort, Sort, Sort

We have survived the first month of school! It has definitely been a month of adjusting and learning. As we dive into our curriculum, one of the routines I introduced this past week is sorting.  
We have started early concept and shape 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.

How Many Dinosaurs Do You See?

On Friday, I posed the following question to the class: You are swimming underwater in a lake and see dinosaur feet in the water. You don't want to go to the surface in case they are not friendly dinosaurs. How many dinosaurs are standing in the lake?

Prior to asking them this question, I wanted to tap into their background knowledge to ensure that they knew what dinosaurs were. I read them the story, How Do Dinosaurs Go To School and then showed them various pictures of dinosaurs. While looking at the pictures, I had the kids observe how many legs each dinosaur had, what they looked like, if they looked like a meat eater etc.

I then projected the question onto the screen and had the kids look at the picture to the problem. The picture showed eight dinosaur feet. I then opened it up for discussion. Kids went up one by one to explain how many dinosaurs they thought there were and why. A few of the kids got into a debate about why their answer was the correct one citing "bone structure" and "leg curvatures" to justify their reasoning. :)

The Common Core State Standards for Math focuses on these 8 Standards for Mathematical Practice in addition to specific grade level standards. I encourage you to read them and reflect on what standards for mathematical practice you think were addressed by the kids solving this problem. How many dinosaurs do you think there are? I think there are 8...all posing like ballerinas on one foot. ;)

Cookies Do A Body Good...

While I consider myself fairly health conscious, I love the occasional sweet just as much as the next person. I took a baking class a while back and was talking to our instructor about how she manages the sugar intake with her two young daughters. She said the key to sweets is portion control and quality ingredients. She bakes her daughters cookies with all natural ingredients and makes the cookies really small so they still get that satisfaction but aren't eating as much.
I saw this on my Twitter feed and had to share. Maybe a fun activity to do this Labor Day weekend?

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blog/after-school-cookies?sf5746579=1

The Kissing Hand

We completed and survived our first week of kindergarten! We had smiles, tears, laughs and wails.  When my brother and I started school, we were complete opposites. I didn't even realize my mother had left while my brother cried before they even reached the door! This is fairly typical for the kindergarten transition and I know as the weeks continue, our smiles and laughs will outweigh the tears.

Our theme this week was based on the book, The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. We read this book on Monday and talked about how we were feeling about starting school. Answers varied from, "excited" to "sad." Throughout the week, we made our own kissing hands, Chester books, went on school tours, made new friends and started becoming more familiar with our new "home."

By Friday, I could tell even our more reluctant group of students were becoming more comfortable with me and our class. How do I know this? Well...one of my rules in kindergarten is, "No scribble scrabble" and I explained that to the kids daily this week. On Friday, a group of girls (whom shall remain nameless), came up to me and said they had a present for me. They had a mischievous grin on their face as they handed me a paper full of nothing but...SCRIBBLE SCRABBLE!! I couldn't help but burst out laughing. Only one week and they totally get my sense of humor!

I can tell that I am going to really enjoy this group of kids...:)

A New Year Begins...

Dear Kinders,

It was so fun meeting you today and singing with you at our sing-along. I am sure that you are feeling excited, scared, nervous and happy about starting school. All of those feelings are natural and I can assure you that come Monday morning, any anxious feelings you have will go away as soon as you walk in the door and see your new classroom. 

I can't wait to see you!

Love, Miss Cuenca

Dear Parents,

It was so fun meeting you today and singing with you at our sing-along. I am sure you that you feeling excited, scared, nervous and happy about your child starting school. All of those feelings are natural and I can assure you that come Monday morning, any anxious feelings you have will go away as soon as your child walks in the door.....

;)

Looking forward to a great year!

Lawmakers Look at English Learner Education

Dear Parents,
Many of you have children who are learning the English language. In kindergarten, many of our students are referred to the English Language Development Center. Cupertino offers this support program which is critical to our students' needs, growth and confidence.
As parents of English Learners, the best thing you can do is educate yourselves on English learner educational policies.
Here's a report I heard this morning. I encourage you to listen to it.

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201203280850/b

Dr. Seuss Day

Dr. Seuss Day was a tremendous success. We celebrated this on March 2nd which is also called, Read Across America Day. All week, we read Dr. Seuss books, created art inspired by Dr. Suess characters, did Dr. Suess activities and even had Officer Holly from Sunnyvale Police Department come and read us The Cat in the Hat.
I can't emphasize enough how important these stories are for young, developing readers. I myself learned to read with Dr. Seuss and I'm sure some of you did as well. Here are some pictures from our fun and exciting week.

100 Days!

We had a lot of fun celebrating our 100th day of school! We had a fun rotation. Some of the activities we did were:

• Race to 100
• Made 100-shaped glasses
• Made crowns
• Drew pictures of what thought we would look like when we are 100 years old
• Made Fruit Loop or "Silly Circle" necklaces
• 100 exercises
• Made 100 handprints
• Dot-to-dots up to 100
• I wish I had 100 of...
• 100 paper chains

It was a fun day! Here are some pictures of our amazing 100 projects!

Arthur Unit

Arthur stories by Marc Brown are a class favorite. They are also a wonderful teaching tool. We've been using this Arthur unit to:

• Use appropriate comprehension skills and strategies
• Interpret and respond to literature
• Write a variety of types of texts
• Communicate effectively

Throughout this unit, we are focusing on Making Connections, Visualizing and Summarizing. The kids are responding well and as the unit has progressed, the kids have been able to make more Text-to-Text connections. Unsure what that is? Ask your child! :)

Visualizing how the characters were feeling

Welcome 2012

Happy New Year!
We welcomed the new year with writing our own resolutions. The kids had great ideas of things they could work on in the new year. "Being nice," "Helping Mommy with the dishes," and "Read more books," were just a few of the things the kids came up with.
Miss Cuenca's resolution? Getting the classroom organized and keeping it CLEAN. ;)
Hope all your resolutions last longer than mine inevitably will!

:)

Getting organized at Target. Thanks N.L for the gift card from the beginning of the year! It went to great use! (Finally!)