Congratulations

Caitlynn and Taylor have both made a huge accomplishment. They have learned all of their sight words. All the basic list and 17 other lists in the sight word folder. Today they finished list 17 and got to go buy a candy bar and get a round of applause from the class. They will now will join Jacob and work on a new list of 1000 sight words. The more they know, the better they will be in 1st grade next year!

GREAT JOB, girls.

Abraham Lincoln

Last week we were learning about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The Spunky Monkeys made Abraham Lincoln while the Happy Hounds made George Washington. Each class wrote about what they knew about each President.

Taylor wrote:

Lincoln was tall. He was a nice guy too. He was good. He was nice too. Everyone liked him. He always told the turth and he was nice.

Several Lincolns and the writing.

Kason wrote:

Lincoln was tall. He was brave. He was on a state. He lived in a log cabin.

A whole wall of Lincolns.

Abby wrote:

Abraham Lincoln was good and honest. He loves books.

Some more Lincolns.

Emilee wrote:

Abraham Lincoln is on a 5 dollar bill. He likes to read.

Gold Award Celebration

BCPS was awarded the Gold Award from Governor Perdue on December 15th. This was due to our students making great gains in student achievement. To receive this honor, our school had to meet 3 criteria:
1. Make adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for 2 consecutive years;
2. Demonstrate that at least 30% of students exceed standards in all test areas as measured by the state assessment; and
3. Place in the 97th percentile or higher statewide in the greatest achievement gains.
Well, we did it for the 2008-2009 year! So we had a celebration. Mrs. Reiselt has been telling the students how proud she is of them and this award is HUGE for our school. So, to celebrate, she had each student write about an accomplishment he/she was proud of. We put these in balloons and released them today!

Here we are getting ready to go outside.

Walking down the kindergarten hall.

Making our way to the rest of the kids.

Waiting to release our balloons. Notice our "gold awards" on our shirts. My camera battery went dead as I was taking the release picture, so hopefully, I can get one from another teacher soon and post it! We had a great time!

Fireworks Experiment

We have been learning about Presidents and American Symbols. This week for our science experiment we made fireworks. We used water and oil. Watched them separate, then we added food coloring. Each child had to use a pencil to push the bead of food coloring through the oil and into the water. Then the fireworks began.

Here is Mrs. Smith adding the food coloring so Andy can make his fireworks.
Abby, Braison, Kason, Caitlynn, Jacob, and Nathaniel

Reyne, Jose, Martin, Logan, Taylor, and Emilee

Abby, Jacob, Andy, Nathaniel

Never Tell a Lie Cherry Pies

During our study of Presidents, we heard the story of young George Washington chopping down the family cherry tree and telling the truth. George's father asked if he chopped it down and George said, "I can't tell a lie, I did it." I asked the class what would they have done and everyone said they would tell the truth. After hearing the story, we made:
Never Tell a Lie Cherry Pies.

Zack loved to eat his pie. Going...

GONE!

Everyone enjoyed making them.
Martin, Taylor, Zack, and Aubree

The red team was very happy.
Emilee, Kason, Colton, and Caitlynn

Jose thinks it is finger licking good!
Macy, Jose, Reyne, and Logan

The green team couldn't wait to taste theirs.
Andy, Abby, Braison, Jacob, and Nathaniel

My Book of Words

We have been working hard on our writing. We use our Book of Words to help us write. Below is Taylor, Aubree, and Zack writing in their Learning Logs.

Braison and Jacob writing.

Mason loves to write about his friend Carlie. She was in his pre-K class last year. One of his other favorite topics is basketball.

Here Macy is using her sight word folder to figure out how to spell a word.

The kids just keep getting better and better at writing.

Star Readers

We are learning to be Star Readers. Here you can see Jacob using the Star Reading strategies to figure out an unknown word.

Here is the the Star Reading strategy organizer. We have learned that Star Readers stop, think and make predictions. Then if they come to a word they do not know, they use the points (strategies) on the star to help them. Here are the strategies: look at the picture, get your mouth ready, look for chunks, does it look like a word I know, and try again! If they use all the strategies and they still can't figure you the word, on the back of the star are wikki sticks and they can underline the word in the book using the wikki stick. After we come back together as a group, we discuss any words we had trouble with.

I have been so impressed with just how independent the kids have become while reading. I feel like I don't even teach reading any more because they help each other figure out the words they don't know.

Taylor has her Star Reading organizer ready in case she needs it.

Valentine's Day Sight Word Activity

I love to read!
Yes! It's true.
Let me read
These words for you!
That is what our hearts said on one side. The other side had 10 sight words we have been working on. Now, we can take them home and read all these sight words to someone who loves us!

Taylor, Zack, and Aubree

Macy is using the sight word wall to write her words.

Emilee, Kason, Colton, Caitlynn, and Aiden working on their heart of sight words.

Aubree and Mason putting the finishing touches on their heart of words.

Valentine's Day

Enjoy the slide show of the fun activities we did on Valentine's Day!

Leo Lionni Author Study

We have been learning all about story elements: characters, setting, problem, solution, and ending. We having been reading books by the author Leo Lionni. As a final project, we made a matrix about the story elements in four Leo Lionni books. The kids were broken up into five groups. Each group had an illustrator and the group had to work together to have the finished piece. Take a look as each group works on their story element.

Characters: Macy and Colton

Ending: Aubree, Jacob, Jose, and Zack

Solution: Taylor, Braison, Martin, and Reyne

Setting: Mason, Andy, Abby, and Nathaniel

Problem: Emilee, Caitlynn, and Aiden

Groundhog's Day

For our Funky Food this week, we made Groundhogs. Look at all the snow! This little guy just popped right up. Check out all the other groundhogs. Thanks to Colton's family for providing the ingredients for this Funky Food activity.

Jose and Macy show their groundhogs off while Reyne finishes making hers.

Taylor, Zack, Cody, Aubree, and Mason

Kason, Emilee, Colton, Caitlynn, and Aiden

Braison, Andy, Jacob, and Nathaniel

Reading for Fluency

We have been practicing reading our guided reading books to work on fluency. We spend about 10 minutes a day reading to a buddy. (Logan and Taylor)

Reading with a group of friends. Caitlynn is reading to Aiden and Abby. Afterwards, they each read to the group.

And sometimes we like to read to ourselves. Emilee is doing great.