Today we had the opportunity to go to the 1st floor multipurpose room to do some tangram stations.  On Friday, we learned about the Chinese puzzle: tangrams.  Tangrams are made up of 7 pieces that fit into a square.  In the multipurpose room, students got the chance to solve tangram puzzles on the SmartBoard as well as the SmartTable.  They also worked with the plastic manipulative tangrams and cut out paper tangrams to make into their on unique shape.  Going home with them today is another copy of the paper tangrams to cut out and make designs at home.  Have fun with these puzzles!

We began our week with a wonderful art lesson titled, "Two Cats and a Dog".  The students drew two cats: one fancy and one plain, and then drew a dog.  They learned the skill of overlapping to arrange their animals onto their papers.  Look for photos once they are decorating our hallways!  Many kindergartners were excited to show their family members how to draw cats and dogs at home tonight!

We recognized and learned about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today.  We began our lesson by talking about differences.  Every one of us in our classroom (and Mrs. Wokasch's classroom who joined us) look a little bit different.  I showed the students four different chicken eggs that all looked different.  The students drew what the eggs looked like.  Then, we predicted what would be inside.  Some thought that the freckled egg would also be freckled on the inside.  We cracked them open and realized that they were all the same on the inside.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. felt the same way.  People may look different on the outside, but on the inside, we're all people who deserve to be treated equally.  After the egg lesson we drew pictures of ourselves with a friend.

We continue to work on our -at words this week.  In addition, we learned a new Wally Word: 'to' today.  We wrote sentences on the SmartBoard that included action words (or verbs - as the big kids call them).  Some of our sentences included, "I like to swim.  I like to play soccer.  I like to snowboard.  I like to cook.   I like to skate."  Tomorrow we will be writing our own action sentences in our journals.

Today we also worked on counting and doing simple addition with dice.  If you can two dice at home, give it a try.  Have your child roll two dice.  If they are able, they could solve the addition problem (example 5+2=7).  Otherwise, they could count the dots on the two dice to get the same answer.

This afternoon, we used the document camera to project the journal entries that students wrote yesterday using at least one -at word.  The students were able to stand up in front of class and read their sentence.  They called on a friend to come circle the -at words in their sentence.  They really enjoyed seeing their sentence up on the SmartBoard!

Today we used the document camera to project the journal entries that students wrote yesterday using at least one -at word.  The students were able to stand up in front of class and read their sentence.  They called on a friend to come circle the -at words in their sentence.  They really enjoyed seeing their sentence up on the SmartBoard!

Today, we worked on reading and writing words in the -at family.  The students did a really nice job learning this concept.  We wrote in our journals using a word from the -at family.  Tomorrow we will use the document camera to share our sentences with the class!  We're off to a great start for the week!

Nurse Mary came into our classroom today to talk to us a little bit about staying healthy and washing our hands.  She passed around a special ball that had pretend germs on it.  After we touched the ball, we washed our hands.  After washing our hands, Nurse Mary had us put our hands under a special light.  If we still had germs on our hands, they glowed.  There were some really dirty hands still (even though they looked clean under normal lights).  Then, Nurse Mary showed us how to wash our hands using soap and warm water.  We should sing the ABC's, Happy Birthday, or some other song the whole time we are washing - including the tops of our hands and between their fingers.  Have your child demonstrate to your family the good way to wash away germs.  Check out the book, Germs Are Not for Sharing by Elizabeth Verdick.