September and October Update

It's been a busy two months in kindergarten!  So busy, in fact, that I didn't get to a blog update in September.  Let's catch up!

Captain Kindness and her first grade friends brought us kindness capes and taught us about what it looks, like, sounds like, and feels like to be kind.  We've been having a great time wearing the kindness capes and recognizing each other for being kind!

We've also been continuing to build our daily routines.  These include phonics time, centers, writing workshop, and more!

AM students working on whiteboards during phonics

We're mastering working together during team tasks!

Sharing our writing in the author's chair

Practicing math concepts through games

The tastiest kind of informational writing!

We met our fifth grade buddies and have bonded with them twice so far.  We drew pictures of each other, made friendship bracelets, and enjoyed reading together.  We can't wait to see our buddies again later this week!

We also took our first field trip!  We had an awesome time riding on the bus, exploring the Folsom Zoo, and playing at the nearby park.

We started our new community helpers unit.  We've been learning about all types of community helpers, and some have even come to the classroom to visit us and tell us about their jobs!

Mr. Chris taught us about being a teacher and helped us experiment with dry ice and sublimating bubbles.

Two Sacramento police officers came to school and even let us explore their police cars.

Sophia's mom taught us all about what it takes to work as a nurse.

Kaden's dad talked to us about being an architect and helped us draw floorplans of the classroom.

Several firefighters from Station 43 came to visit and demonstrate the water hoses.

CJ's mom talked to us about being a pharmaceutical rep.

We've learned so much in class so far this year.  Check back soon to see what else we've learned!

August Update

It's been a busy first month in kindergarten!  Here's a quick overview of what happened in August:

We started our first GLAD unit all about farms.  So far, we've learned about cows, pigs, and horses.  We even dressed up like cows!

We've been using our farm unit to learn how to do all our GLAD components.  We learned how to label our own pictorials using the class pictorial.  brainstorm parts of speech that have to do with a particular noun for our sentence patterning chart, and complete an engineering challenge.

In social-emotional learning, we talked a lot about being independent problem-solvers.  This included talking about what to do when someone does something you don't like and the differences between tattling and reporting.

We also spent a lot of time learning classroom routines and procedures.  We learned how to do centers (including how to log on to the computers independently), how to work together in pairs, and how to make "fast finisher" choices after completing an activity.

We also started writing workshop.  So far we've learned how to add characters and settings to our writing.

We also had some special events this month.  We got to experience the solar eclipse with all of Star Academy (students, teachers, and parents!).  We also got to meet out fifth grade buddies for the first time.  They're going to be such amazing role models for us this year!

August was an awesome start to our school year!