Penguins visit Jumpstart...

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become real."  ~ Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

 

This is my first blog entry that doesn’t address my life in the kindergarten world, or as a mom!  The trend here is…children.  I love the excitement you see on their faces when they learn something new, or create something that they want to tell you all about.  Their imaginations are endless and take us on adventures that prime time cannot compare to.

 I dreamed of being a teacher beginning at the age of 7.    This was the year I had a fabulous teacher (one of many I was fortunate enough to have.)  I loved to read at a young age.  Part of the reason is because it was a challenge in the classroom.  I went to school during the time when SRA was used in the classroom.  Maybe some of you remember the different levels and colors.  We read the stories, answered the questions, and if we did well on the “test” for that book we moved on!  I had a bit of a competitive nature, so I was going to conquer reading those levels first!!  Though I am sure I was not successful, it provided me with drive and determination.  My other dream was to be an author of children’s books.    My mom still thinks I should pursue this avenue; however, I would rather be with the kids, reading the great books to them, rather than writing books for them.

So, I am a full-time mom of two teenagers, a wife, and a full-time special education kindergarten teacher!  On my days off, in between running my teens around and spending time with my friends, I enjoy going to the Jumpstart program run by the YMCA (and held at the former Center Street School) and spending time with the preschool age kiddos!  This is in part due to the lack of responsibility I have there~I get to read my favorite stories, do some of my favorite crafts, and teach using fun resources!  I also taught at CS school for several years before the district consolidation, and enjoy spending time in the place I loved teaching in for years.  Also, Miss Stacey is a good friend of mine, and we had the opportunity to teach together a bit last year, and I enjoy our teaching teamwork!

I had spent some time in the room with Stacey, met the kiddos, and couldn’t wait to enjoy more time with them.  My first theme I decided to cover was Penguins!  One of my favorite kindergarten themes, so I decided I would love to do it twice!  Enjoy the pictures of the children as we read the book Antarctica by Helen Cower.  We then had fun writing word problems to go with our penguin craft and we used water bottles to make our own Penguins!  I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did!

A New Year brings New Opportunities and Possibilities

We keep on moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things because we are curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.  ~Walt Disney Quotes

 

We have spent the last three days settling back into our routines and I loved hearing about what the students did over their break.  I am really excited and looking forward to this month.  We will be spending the month learning about Polar animals.  Mrs. Saggese will be focusing on the North Pole, and I will be focusing on the South Pole (actually all of Antarctica.)   Peter Penguin, my “friend” from Antarctica came to visit and he shared his scrapbook with the class about where he lives.  We have located Antarctica on the globe, and have colored our own map.  We have discussed the equator and even learned a song about the seven continents. 

 

We've got the whole globe in our hands.
We've got the whole globe in our hands.
We've got the whole globe in our hands.
We've got the whole globe in our hands.
We've got North and South America
In our hands.
We've got Europe, Asia, Africa
In our hands.
We've got Australia and Antarctica
In our hands.
We've got the whole globe in our hands.

 

We use music a lot in the classroom and the students love it.  You can go to youtube.com and see many of the Dr. Jean Feldman songs we like to use.  Some that are related to what we have done, or what we are doing are:

The Compound Word Boogie

Word Families

Who let the Letters Out

I can Write my Numbers

The Five Senses Song

Macarena Months

The Five Senses

(She has many more educational songs as well as just plain fun songs!)

 

We watched a short video of footage from Antarctica and the kiddos sat completely amazed by it for five minutes. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwADGPfjerI

So, as Peter takes us back to Antarctica with him to give us a tour we will see many animals, and a lot of water and ice.  We brainstormed a list of thoughts we have about Antarctica and when we are done studying the continent, we will see how we did with our “thought bubbles.”  As we travel we will learn many interesting facts and we will be creating our own scrapbook when we return.  We will also embark on our first ever research project.  Each student will be working to complete a research project on one of the many animals we will meet from the North and South Pole over the next few weeks.  We hope to have these completed by the end by February so we can share what we have learned with other friends, and family members.  We will be using laptops, iPads, printed materials and books to find our information.  Interesting fact number one:  Did you know that Antarctica is a desert? 

 

Here is a picture of Peter Penguin…and his scrapbook.  Show it to your children and ask them the significance of each of the items in his scrapbook.  Stay tuned for photos of many of the great projects we will be working on.  (Of course my blog will focus mostly on the South Pole and Antarctica, however, I will be sure to take some pictures of the great things the kiddos are doing with Mrs. Saggese as well.)

 

Besides our adventures to the North and South Poles, we will be investigating many other topics in school.  In math we are continuing to learn how to add numbers together and how to solve when there is a missing number.  For example:  There were eight penguins in the water.  More penguins joined them and now there are ten penguins.  How many penguins joined them?  We have to identify the important information, set up the problem, and draw a picture to help us solve it.  Math is no longer about just memorizing the facts (though that will be important in the coming years) but is more about understanding the process and using it in different ways!  There are many great websites that offer free games to reinforce the skills we have learned in math.  One of these sights is: http://www.ixl.com/math/kindergarten  We have covered numbers through 10, patterns, comparing objects and numbers, sorting, ordering and organizing, and now addition.  (I believe this sight has a monthly fee but it will allow you to check it out prior to purchasing.) 

http://www.softskills.com also has many fun math games for kids that are free.  Please let me know if you have any other great math websites to share!!

 

In ELA this month we will continue working on blending words and learning meeting new Alphafriends.  The letters and sounds for this month will include /n/, /f/, and /b/.  Our words to know list keeps growing and many of us can already read more than the ten words on the list.  This month we will be learning the words: come, me, with, my, you, what, are, and now.  We will also talk about comparing and contrasting, drawing conclusions, and sequence of events.  This month is also the month for our Benchmark DIBELS assessments and the end of marking period 2.  For more information about this assessment you can go to www.dibels.com. 

 

These are some websites to help with our Alphafriends.  We have learned about Andy Apple, Callie Cat, Mimi Mouse, Pippa Pig, Sammy Seal, and Tiggy Tiger. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_cX4j_9fUU

https://teacher.ocps.net/janet.cahill/page7.html