Blogging....blogging...

This is definitely something for me to improve on for the following year. I just can't seem to get on and update this thing! I have so much material to post and am hoping to do it soon. We've got a week and then we are off for a much needed Spring Break! Will update ASAP with videos of what we are doing in science! I can't wait to post videos taken with our new FLIP camcorder! :) The kids are still learning how to use it so the video taken is a little shaky. But, they'll be awesome soon! Thanks for checking in! Stay tuned!

Polar Bears..... Saving them, one at a time

Penguins, and snow and polar bears... Oh MY! This past week, we investigated penguins. We definitely enjoyed looking them up and making a mini penguin book. This week is all about polar bears... check out these sights! The National Wildlife Federation has a great site with to the point facts. We like the site from the National Geographic page for kids. It provides a great video on a mom bear and her cubs and we were able to hear what a polar bear sounds like! Our class plus the ELD (language) group are looking into adopting a polar bear! :)

These are the two sites that provide an outlet for adopting a polar bear. We will investigate and select which to adopt from (it all depends on how much money we can get donated from the students who want to participate). :)

Check them out! Maybe you want to adopt one too!

National Wildlife Federation Adoption
Defenders of Wildlife Adoption

Whoops! Sorry for not updating!

Hello!

Sorry that it's been so long since I've updated! October was a crazy month full of activities, snowstorms, and lots of sickness. I will try to update as much as I can. At our particular school, we have begun to implement a new schedule to our literacy block. That is taking place and will be subject to some tweaks here and there to make it work!

The month of October was busy... the remnants of that month is a pumpkin outside our classroom....rotting.... the pictures of the process will be posted soon!

Currently, my student teacher is flying solo teaching my class as she is about to finish her teaching program at the University of Colorado at Denver Health Sciences. Therefore, I have only been able to peek my head in for brief moments.

Please stay tuned for news about December! My class is embarking on becoming great writers! I am hoping to be able to post the writings here as we do them. It would be a great way to have a record of them and be able to go back and review them.

The many types of leaves...

Check out this great website! We kinders will be checking out all the different types of leaves -- many of which are changing into awesome colors!

There are also these amazing time lapsed videos of a leaf and a whole bunch of trees as they change over a short amount of time!

A big thanks to the University of Illinois and Virginia Tech for providing some great resources!

An interesting article for grown-ups

I was reading through some news and stumbled upon this article about kindergarten. It presented an interest argument. How prepared should our students be going into kindergarten? There are definitely new parameters as our students enter a new world of learning - a definite line where we aim to have them reading when they enter first grade. However, I believe (along with my team) that we must nurture the entire student -- not just the academic portion. We want to send to the next grade students who have skills in all areas: socially (sharing, caring), fine motor skills (cutting, handwriting, coloring, gluing), academically (reading, writing, arithmetic), and emotionally (creating an environment where they feel proud and capable, and love coming to).

So, check out the article! Let me know what you think!

Camping & Conferences & Fall! Oh, my!

What a week last week was! Our theme that surrounding our learning was based on camping. For our Smart Centers, we focused on developing our social skills (camping together), listening for position words (a poster made with shapes), learning camping vocabulary (working on a camping book), and working together (painting a mural).




It was a lot of work, but we worked it in between learning how count and identify our numbers (by 1's and by 10's), and calendar concepts (ask about our months of the year dance!). That is only a small amount of what we are learning in math. In reading, we are all going to one of three reading groups. These groups are based on our individual skill levels. The sight words we are working on are: I, a, my, the. The newest one coming up this week is: go.

Thanks to all the parents who came to parent/teacher conferences! It's great to share with you about your student's growth.

Now we move forward and will be looking at the wonderful season of fall! A look at the trees and changing leaves will be something we shall be exploring. Ms. Lo too the opportunity this weekend to drive the Peak to Peak here in Colorado. She was looking for the beautiful change of color in the leaves! Please feel free to make comments about what you are seeing as the fall season is upon us!

What do we know?

Wash your hands - Isaiah

Cough into your elbow! - Erisema

Germs get you sick! - Malachi

They fly around the air. - Charlie