Happy Halloween

Many thanks to all of you for coming to watch our Halloween parade and for joining us at our party.  We had a lot of fun!  Special thanks to Mrs. DiBartolomeo, Mrs. Maher, and Mrs. Carson for organizing our party.

Math Workshop

During Math Workshop, the children participate in a mini-lesson from our Math in Focus curriculum.  Then there are four math stations that reinforce the math concept we are working on.  The children spend time at two stations a day, visiting each of the stations over the course of two days.  The Math Workshop session ends with a Sharing time where we talk about something we have learned, and the children may be asked to solve a problem based on the new skill they have been using at the math stations.  We have been working on the numbers 0 - 10, recognizing the numbers in different forms (numerals, dot patterns, fingers, ten frame patterns), writing the numerals correctly, counting, and understanding the concept of more than and less than.  The children enjoy the hands-on learning involved with our busy Math Workshop time.  Thank you to the parents who have volunteered to help us with our Math stations.  

Walk-a-thon

                                      What fun! 
Thank you to our Playground Committee for organizing our annual Walk-a-thon!                       

Kindergarten Reading

The children have been working hard to build up their stamina in Reading to Self.  They have also learned how to Read to Someone.  Many of the expectations are the same, including get started right away.  Stay in one place and read quietly the whole time.  Make sure the book is in the middle so you and your partner both can see.  Ask your child about "EEKK" position.  They are doing a wonderful job and will soon learn about about Listen to Reading using RAZ kids on the iPads.  More information will be sent home so that your child may listen to reading at home as well.

K-Rob BMX School Assembly Program

World Record Holder and 10 time X Games Medalist, K-Rob came to Steward School and talked to the children about setting goals, perseverance and being a positive person.  All while impressing us with his amazing bicycle stunts.

Our own classmate, James, was chosen to help K-Rob make a basket!

Everyone was surprised when K-Rob rode in to the gym!

Two points!  Teamwork!

First Day of Kindergarten 2016 - 2017

Welcome to Kindergarten!  We had a wonderful first day together!

How To Books

Our very popular book display of procedural texts (how to books) published by Room 304!

If you are interested in learning about how to do something, please check out this list of published books written by Mrs. Craven's Kindergarten!

How to Make a Stool by Noah

How to Feed my Fish by Caleb

How to Break a Board by Stella

How to Dive by Quinn L.

How to Go to the Doctor's Office by Callie

How to Catch a Fish by Alexander

How to Teach my Sister to Swim by Ava

How to Feed a Cat by Nevin

How to Catch a Chicken by Uma

How to Get Dressed for Skiing by Erin

How to Do a Karate Move by Aidan

How to Plant a Tree by Abigail

How to Make a Lego Ship by Oliver

How to Make a Hot Air Balloon by Quinn W.

How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies by Ruby

How to Buy a Cap by Tyler

How to Earn an Animal's Trust by Sophie

The children first brainstormed topics they felt they could teach someone else.  Thank you for helping them at home.  We sketched the steps we would take to teach someone about our topic, planning the transition words we would use.  The children had a list of procedural words for reference.  This list included words such as first, next, then, after that, last, and finally.  Then we put each step on a separate page, wrote complete sentences, added detail, and worked hard to publish our books.  

This was another experience following the writing process through to publication.  First, the children brainstormed their topic.  Next, they worked on a rough draft.  After that, they made revisions and added detail.  Then, they edited their work making sure they had capitals and periods in the correct places, spaces between their words, lower case letters, and trick words spelled correctly.  Finally we designed covers for our published books.  

Now we are on to informational writing.  You can look forward to our published books on sea animals in the coming weeks.  What amazing writers!  

Living and Non-Living Nature Walk

In Science we are studying Living and Non-living things.  We enjoyed a science lesson and nature walk with Mr. Prazar.  We collected living and non-living things and talked about what characteristics make something a living thing.  Living things move and grow.  They need food and water to survive.

Opinion Writing

We recently finished our unit on opinion writing by putting together a collection of our favorites.  I enjoyed sharing these books with you during our conferences and hope that you enjoyed reading them again with your child.  

During this unit, the children first worked on understanding the difference between fact and opinion by sorting a variety of statements.  Then we talked about giving a reason for our opinion and using the word "because".  Another mini-lesson focused on different ways to start an opinion piece, for example with the words "My favorite..."  "I like..."   During our favorites writing, the children needed to think of a favorite to write about as well as at least two reasons why they had that opinion.  We also tried to include a closing statement.  The children had between two and six "favorites" in their books.

Common Core Standard W.K.1. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book (e.g., My favorite book is…).

We particularly enjoyed designing our covers and sharing our books with friends.

Sink and Float

What types of shapes can float?

How can you make a boat out of clay?  Out of tin foil?

How many counters can you add before your boat sinks?

We learned that if you make your boat thin and keep the sides up, it floats better.  You have to be very careful to balance the weight you add to your boat.  We also learned how important it is to work slowly and keep trying!

We read Mr. Gumpy's Outing by John Burningham and Who Sank the Boat? by Pamela Allen to inspire our scientific exploration!

                                                                     

We explored many different objects to see what would sink and what would float.

After we experimented, we recorded our findings.

We still wonder...why does a sweet potato float and a regular baking potato sink?.....

 

Brain Pop Jr. Sink and Float

Watch and learn!

                                

Bubbles Workshop

The children really enjoyed our Bubbles Workshop.  We are learning about properties of materials and matter.  When we explored bubbles we learned that bubbles are made of liquids and gas - air combined with water, soap, and glycerin.  We got lots of good ideas about how to make bubbles!

Folktales

We have been enjoying folktales in our classroom.  We read several versions of The Gingerbread Man, The Mitten, and The Little Red Hen, to name a few.

What is a folktale?

We had fun comparing the different versions and talking about how they were the same and different.  Folktales also give us many opportunities to practice retelling, an important part of developing comprehension skills in reading.

Venn Diagram comparing two different versions of  The Mitten.

The children put the story in order and practiced retelling on their own.

The children then made up their own version of The Mitten .  They thought of three different animals to put in their mitten.  They drew pictures and labeled them on the back and glued them onto popsicle sticks.

 

To enjoy a reading of The Mitten click here.

The Mitten

The children also enjoyed retelling The Little Red Hen.

Math Workshop

We are implementing the workshop model in Math this year.  As a Kindergarten team we use the lessons from Math in Focus and supplement them with engaging hands-on activities chosen to provide students with additional practice of the math concepts addressed in our curriculum.  There are four stations that provide the students with valuable practice of math concepts that align with the common core standards.

We are currently working on developing an understanding of place value and numbers to 100.  We have enjoyed skip counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's.

The help of volunteers is greatly appreciated during our Math Workshop times.  Please let me know if you would like to help at any time - Monday 1:00 - 1:45, Tuesday 12:30 - 1:15, Wednesday 1:45 - 2:30, Thursday 12:30 - 1:15, and Friday 12:30 - 1:15.

Happy New Year!

December was a very busy month for us.  We are happy to be back at school and getting into a nice routine.  We have many exciting things we are working on in our curriculum that you will be hearing about in the coming weeks.  

A look back at our December activities . . .

Pajama Day was a lot of fun!

Thank you for coming to our winter concert.  We enjoyed having you listen to us sing.

We enjoyed a special snack as we rode on the Polar Express.

We enjoyed the interesting cultural enrichment programs brought to us by TESPTO.  Thank you for your support of TESPTO.