Our Trip to the Apple Orchard!!

On Wednesday September 28, the Winside Kindergarten and First grade classes boarded a school bus and headed north to Yankton to visit Garrity's Apple Orchard.  We could not have picked a better day.  The boys and girls packed lunches and a lot of enthusiasm for our trip.  The bus ride was a pleasant one as they busied themselves with their writing notebooks and a few book from our own class library. 

Cheers filled the bus as we arrived at Garrity's!! Mrs. Hebda welcomed us as their first visitors of the season.  The boys and girl's first stop was the goat pen where they were able to feed the many goats.  What a treat!  Then it was off to the hay tunnels. What fun they had climb and running!  Next, Mr. Hebda greeted us and we were off to the tractor and wagon to begin our tour.  Unfortunately, the hard freeze they experienced for two nights in April didn't allow for their apple crop to prosper so we didn't get to tour the apple orchard but they had  plan B ready for us --- a corn maze!!! The kiddos, teachers and paras scrambled through the maze and found their way out.  The last to emerge were --- Mrs. Straight and Ms. Loetcher (who both by the way can never find their cars in a parking lot!!!)  Our kiddos went right into action coming to our aid as they called out "Ms Loetcher - Mrs. Straight, just follow our voices!!"  Luckily no rescue helicopters had to be dispatched - we FINALLY made it out unscathed!  Next, it was off to the pumpkin patch.  Each child was able to go out a choose their own pumpkins. 

Our tour ended in the apple warehouse.  We toured the "big refrigerator" where they store their many varieties of apples.  We even got to see them sort the apples.  As we left the tour, we sampled some yummy apples.  Each child left with a goodie bag from the Hepda's along with their pumpkins. 

Tummies growling, we were off to picnic in Memorial Park.  After our tasty lunches, the boys and girls played and laughed in the wonderful playground.  At 1:00, it was time to call it a day as we climbed aboard the bus.  We soon realized how hot and thirsty we all were so it was off to the gas station to buy some cold water for the thirsty crew.  Thinking the boys and girls would be exhausted from our outdoor adventure, we figured this would be a quiet bus ride home.  The excitement still pumping though their veins, conversations and writing a drawing in their books consumed their time.  What a wonderful day!! 

Special thank you to our bus driver, Brian and our administration that allows us time to take our boys and girls on these wonderful learning adventures.

Enjoy the pictures!!!! 

Let's get this show on the road!

At the goat pen

Feeding the goats

Running through the hay bales

Riding in the wagon

Mr. Hebda or is it Johnny Appleseed telling us all about the corn maze

In the corn maze

Selecting the perfect

pumpkin

In the "big" refrigerator

Watching the apple sorter

Lunch in the park

Where did everyone go?????

Playing in the park

A lesson on static electricity!

Friends Forever



Insect Art

Here are a few of our projects we did in our room to let the insect theme come alive!

Our lovely ladybug windsocks

Our life cycle wheel illustrating the life cycle of a butterfly.

Our beautiful butterflies made from tissue paper squares

We painted white sacks stuffed with newspaper to make our buzzing bees



Work Buddies

Other teachers may call it Center Time but we call it - Work Buddies - it is the time of day my kiddos look forward to the most each day. For 30 minutes each day each child is paired up with a buddy to work at a station set up in our classroom while I conduct small reading groups at my reading table.  The buddies spend 15 minutes at each station.  Each station has a specific objective or skill for the students to work on.  These skills coincide with what we are working on in the classroom.  The objectives at some stations may be developing social skills, being creative, rhyming, practicing sight words, listening to literature, writing lists, creating sentences, retelling stories, sequencing information, matching capital and lowercase letters .......

The number of stations set up in the classroom depends upon how many students I have.  There are 6 stations set up at this time.  After 15 minutes, I ring our chimes and the boys and girls know that is the signal to clean up "neatly and completely".  When they have cleaned up their station, they check our work buddies chart to see which station they rotate to next.  Each day I change the cards in our charts so they can enjoy 2 new stations the next day.  At the end of the month I change the contents of the station or add a new station.

 The boys and girls have quickly picked up on the routine and next week I can begin running our reading groups as they self monitor themselves.  I am so very proud of my Work Buddies!

Boys and girls use magnetic letters and white boards to practice their popcorn words at the ABC/Word Work Station .

Boys and girls match capital and lower case letters at the Pocket Chart Station.

These two buddies listen to a story using our wireless headphones.  Next quarter we will add a response sheet to the Listening Station.

Students get to be creative at the Art Station.  Boys and girls can use stencils, glue, fancy cutting scissors, markers, crayons, pencils colors and gel pens.  I will add other art mediums as our year progresses.

At our Writing Station, students use word lists, picture dictionaries, and picture cards to create lists.  Later in the year the  boys and girls will write sentences and stories.

These two buddies need to work together to complete this floor puzzle.  The boys and girls have a variety of puzzles to choose from at our Puzzle Station.

Things Are Getting A Little Buggy Around Here

I hope everyone had a relaxing and very enjoyable Labor Day weekend - the official end of summer and the beginning of nice cool autumn weather - I hope.

My boys and girls greeted me this morning with bright eyes and big smiles ready to get back into the swing of things.  I welcomed each little toothy grin with a hearty "Good morning!" and came eye to jar with grasshoppers, tomato bugs and promises of butterflies, lady bugs, dragon flies and ants to follow - and -  I was thrilled!!!!!!!  The boys and girls are just beginning a unit on insects for this month and there is nothing more exciting than the real thing - live and up close.

During our afternoons, we get out our magnifying glasses and try to locate the insect's three body parts: head, thorax and abdomen (yes, the kiddos are learning the names of each).  They have even learned a little song to help them remember the characteristics of an insect.  Check out the tab under "Songs" and you can learn the song too!  The boys and girls also look for and count the six legs and locate the antennae.  They are always so amazed when they can see the eyes and other features.  It has been so much fun watching my kiddos chase grasshoppers at recess and exclaim with pride, "Look Mrs. Straight!  I found an insect!" 

Not only are we learning the characteristics of an insect but we are discovering what they eat, how they protect themselves from enemies, how they move, and  their life cycles.  We have started a big classroom chart to record what we are learning about the different insects.  We will also incorporate a few art projects along the way.

It will be a great learning experience for the Kindergarten class as we all go just a little buggy this month!

Math Mania!

This year we started our new Math Series.  It is from the same publishing company as our Reading series.  I can tell you I absolutely love it!  The lessons are definitely geared toward different types of learners.  Some children learn best by handling and moving objects.  Other children learn best by only listening to information - they do not need a visual or anything to touch.  The best way to learn is using all senses or as many of them as you can.  Our Math series allows me to do just that.  We start out each lesson with Circle Time.  This is when I introduce our concept for the day.  Let me use today as an example.  Today's concept was "less than".  We began our activity with some counters - colored plastic circles and red bean shaped counters.  Each child had ten of each.  We used our "Kindergarten Math Words"  like sort, groups, same, different and discovered our two groups had the same number.  I then went around and took away two beans from each child.  They could observe, touch, and count their objects and determine they were not the same number anymore.  This is when I introduced our new math word "less than". We did several more examples engaging in conversation with each other using our math vocabulary.  Next, we practiced our new skill on paper but we did it together using our vocabulary once again.  This is when we get out our clipboards and sit on the floor in a rainbow shape while we work together on this paper.  Next, I check for understanding as I hand out a second paper.  This is our independent practice.  We use our offices to help us stay focused.  It is at this time, I can determine if a child needs a little extra practice on a particular skill.   Finally, it is homework time as we go over and discuss our math homework paper that goes home each day. That is a day in the life of a Kindergareten Math lesson.  My Kindergarten kiddos are such little troopers and are doing an excellent job becoming Math Maniacs!

  

It's Zero the Hero Day!

The kindergarten classroom had a very special visitor today - it was Zero the Hero!  Each day as a part of our opening exercises we count the days we have been in school.  Today was our tenth day together.  Since our day ended with a zero, Zero the Hero paid us a visit.  He will continue to see us on each day that ends with zero.  It is another great way to reinforce our counting skills.  As an added bonus, Zero the Hero always brings us a treat that is in the shape of a zero.  Today we enjoyed some very tasty Vanilla Wafers. Yummy!  Hurry up day twenty!

New Bee-ginnings

WOW! Things have been a buzzin' in the Kindergarten classroom!  The boys and girls have been busy little bees learning all about being in school.  I must say I am really impressed and oh so proud of my Kindergarten kiddos!
 
For our first full week of school, we began working in our reading series.  Our reading time is actually broken down into four separate learning times during our day.  First, we have Shared Reading time.  It is during this time I share all kinds of literature.  We learn about different genres such as poetry, informational text, fantasy and reality.  We learn about characters, settings, main ideas and sequencing.  We also work on our comprehension skills.  After PE we settle back down to ABC/Word Work time.  This is where I teach phonics to the kiddos ( letters, sounds and blending to read words), we learn and practice our sight words, and practice our rhyming skills.  Next, it is Work Buddies time.  The boys and girls break down into pairs and go to their stations while I run reading groups.  This gives me an excellent opportunity to work with kiddos in small groups on their phonics and reading skills.  Whew!  All of this takes place in the morning.  The last section of our reading time happens in the afternoon.  It is our grammar and writing segment.  It is during this time we learn about how letters make words when we write and putting words together can make sentences.  We learn about capitalization and punctuation.  We learn that we need a great idea first before we can write. We also will learn how to organize our thoughts and write sentences.  For our grammar time, we will discover nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns.

All I can say is that after one week successfully finished, the boys and girls in my Kindergarten class did an awesome job adjusting to our busy reading time!  I couldn't ask for a better group of busy little bees! Oh what a busy little hive our Kindergarten room will be!  I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!