Family, Family What Do You Read?

We have lots of experience with Bill Martin, Jr.'s Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, but over the next few days we are going to be looking at some more of his classic and well loved books. 

 

We will be talking about the work that writers do and using Bill Martin, Jr. as a mentor.  Not only does he provide the perfect cadence, rhythm, and sentence structure for beginning readers and writers, he provides an example of determination and perseverance perfect for the young and old alike.  

You may not know that the famous and beloved teacher, principal, and author grew up in a home without the joy of books.  Bill Martin, Jr. learned to love the language of books from a special teacher in elementary school, and he only learned to enjoy the wonders of the printed word on his own after entering college.  

He soon went on to find his life's work in introducing the world's youngest readers to the joy of books!

This week I am posing a reading challenge for the families in our classroom.

Each night this week, I would like you to share a book with your child--snuggle up with an old favorite, head to the library and try something new, look for something by Bill Martin, Jr., or even get online to watch/listen to a book.

Comment below with some of your favorites.  Did they make you laugh? cy? cheer?  You may be surprised to see how many families share your taste in books, or you might get some ideas for a new favorite author or series.

We will be checking the blog every afternoon before we go home for a little motivation and inspiration! 

Happy Reading!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom We're Still Having Fun in Ms. Rachel's Room!

It's been another great week in Kindergarten, and the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom fun just keeps coming!  

First we had to introduce our final literacy center--Technology Center!  We loved listening to books on i-pads, exploring the alphabet on Chromebooks, and practicing rhymes at listening center!  We may not get our hands on all this technology every day, but we are always looking for new and meaningful ways to use technology. 

 

After a week of alphabet practice centered around the coconut tree and some silly, alphabet pirates, it was time for some real coconut and pirate fun!

We passed the coconut, and like all good scientists, used our senses to make some observations about that crazy, hairy sphere you find at the top of the coconut tree.

             

Did you know that coconuts smell like grass?  Did you know they are hard and scratchy?  Did you know they are heavy?  And...if you shake them you can hear a liquid inside!

Again, like all good scientists, our next step was an experiment!  Do coconuts sink or float?  We had some different ideas--all good ones--but we soon found out coconuts FLOAT!

                                  

Then we put that coconut to use!  The students used some of their counting and math skills to help me make some coconut toast! 

                                

           

But the fun didn't stop there!  We had some fun with the coconut, then we had some fun with the tree!

I don't think that's the whole alphabet up the coconut tree, but they were getting pretty close!

 

 

We even made some pretty cute little pirates!

 

Shiver me letters!  That we had some serious alphabet fun!!

Pirate Just Dance

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! We're Reading in Ms. Rachel's Room!

Last week was a full and busy week in Kindergarten!

We met Professor Do-Dad who gave us an upbeat and exciting introduction to Science and STEAM.  (Be on the look out for another post about STEAM later in the week.)

We went to the Media Center for the first time! 

We launched our Writing Workshop.

We began learning about how to write, use, and represent numbers.

And...we introduced most of our Literacy Centers! 

Then, some of us napped...

and some of us didn't. 

But that's ok--sometimes Kindergarten is just too exciting to sleep!!

And, I can't wait to do it all again this week!  Be on the look out for more information about STEAM and Guided Reading groups this week!

Check out our new videos of the week!  

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Boom Chicka Boom

Elmo Rap

Alphabet Song

PBIS/Behavior Management

We are really getting into the swing of things here in Kindergarten, and I just wanted to take a little time to share some information about our PBIS/behavior management program.

Here is "the stick."

                

We will be using this color coded clip system to monitor our behaviors in the classroom. Your clip can move both up and down.  If you make mistakes like David did in David Goes to School, your clip may move down to either yellow or red.  If you work hard like David to "fix it" you can always move your clip back up to green.  You can also move your clip up to orange or blue for exhibiting expected behaviors consistently. 

You can also earn horseshoes for following directions quickly and working hard in the classroom!

Right now, we are focusing on treating other people the way we would like to be treated (being respectful), listening quietly and following directions the very first time (being respectful and motivated), keeping our hands, feet, and objects to ourselves (being respectful and safe), and working hard and trying our best at everything we do (being motivated).

The Gingerbread Man was Loose in the School!!

This week we read about a mouse that went to school, dinosaurs that went school, and finally a Gingerbread Man that got loose in the school!  

In this story the kids in Room 43 made a new gingerbread friend to share their classroom, so of course we had to make some cookies too!

We talked and drew about all the cool places our gingerbread men might go, but unlike the kids in the story, we finally decided to eat ours!

It was a short, but busy week full of fun and newness.  In the end, I think there were more smiles than tears, and I am ready for all the good times to come this year.

So, until we are all back together on Monday, here are a few quick links to bring a little bit of our classroom to you at home !

If You're A Kid

Dinosaur Stomp

Shake Your Sillies Out

Here's what we thought was cool at school this week!

How Does Your Dinosaur Go To School?

Today started with a ROAR as we read one of my favorite back to school books--How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?. Next, we made our own dinosaur puppets to show what dinosaurs (and kids too) should and should not do at school.

You can click here to listen to the story one more time.  Use your puppet to show what the dinosaurs should and should not do at school.

  

What is your little dinosaur looking forward to doing at school tomorrow?

Welcome to Kindergarten 2016-2017!!

Welcome to the crew!!

Ms. Kim and I are SUPER excited to start a new school year with you and your family, and we can't wait to see you bright and early on Wednesday!  

Don't forget to use your Ready Confetti, and let me read you a story before we meet back here for your very first day of Kindergarten!  

Watch Video Here!