I Can Ask Questions

We've been busy learning that good readers ask questions while they read.  We first had to learn what a question is!  We spent some time thinking about what words we would use to ask a question. Kindergarteners are very good at asking questions, but it's usually when they are not thinking about it.  Interestingly it is when you want them to ask a question when they start telling you all sorts of stories and connections instead of a question.

Here is a chart we made to help us remember what words questions typically start with:

In addition to talking about question words, we discussed why readers ask questions.  We put that on our chart as well.

We practiced asking questions for both fiction and non-fiction texts.  We read many fictional texts, but one that stands out is Charlie Anderson.  Ask your child to retell that story to you at home.  It was such a surprising book, and asking questions really helped us make the story more clear--just like readers!

We read many non-fiction texts, too, but one topic that stood out is penguins.  With a non-fiction text, we started off thinking about what we already knew and what we wanted to know--which generated a lot of questions!  Our next job was to read about penguins and see if we could find the answers to our questions.  Below is a picture part of our findings.  The green notes were things we already knew before reading and were confirmed by our reading.  The yellow notes were questions we had before we read anything and we added questions on yellow notes as they came up during our reading.  The red notes are for new learning.  Some of our new learning answered some of our questions.  We tried to match up the yellow question with the red answer.

We learned that sometimes readers have questions that the author didn't answer.  Time for more research!

When reading at home with your child, feel free to share questions about a story or topic you have and see if you can find the answers in the text!

Our Ruth Lilly Field Trip

Our "field trip" was so much fun and we learned a lot!

First we learned about body parts.  Students were able to place organs on our model as the presenter discussed each one.

As we talked about each organ, we learned some comparisons to help us understand each organ's job and how it helps us keep our body working properly.  A heart works like a pump, the lungs are like balloons, the stomach is like a blender, etc.  The students understood that the brain is like a boss.

Next we learned about our skeleton and muscles.  Ask your child how many bones we have (206) or how many muscles we have (over 600).  We learned that exercising helps take care of our bones and muscles.  We played a fun game where we rolled a die with numbers and rolled a die with exercises on it.  For example, we might have to do five jumping jacks or 10 seconds of running in place. Check us out doing our exercises:

I think that would be a fun activity to do at home.  The students were so excited to exercise this way!

Then we learned about keeping our bodies healthy with foods.  Ask your child about any time foods and sometime foods.

We learned about brushing teeth and flossing, too.  We learned a little chant to help us remember where to brush our teeth:  Up like a rocket, down like rain, round and round like a choo-choo train.
Another thing we discusses was germs. We learned that not all germs are bad.

Before our field trip was over, we discussed other ways to keep our body healthy and safe.  We talked about bicycle safety, water safety, and other ways to stay safe.  Ask your child to tell you a few ways to stay safe!

Ask your child about his or her favorite part of the field trip!

Target: I Can Tell, Draw, and Write about One Topic

Today's writing target was to stick to the topic.  As a class, we talked about all of the different topics we knew a lot about, and we quickly wrote five sentences about ice cream!  Then it was the students turn to tell a partner about what he or she knew a lot about.  Next students drew and wrote their pieces.  Some students shared what they did today in our latest class movie.  Please check it out at the link below:

Target:  I Can Tell, Draw, and Write About One Topic

Sorry!  I still cannot figure out how to embed the videos.  :)

What Can You Do with Valentine Hearts?

What can you do with valentine hearts?

You can estimate how many are in a box.

You can count how many are in the box and see how close your estimate is.  Don't forget to put your hearts in groups of ten to make counting easier!

You can sort the hearts.  Maybe you can sort by color.  Maybe you can sort by the words on the hearts.  Can you think of another way to sort the hearts?  Use tally marks to show how many are in each group.  Graph what you find.

What else can you do with valentine hearts?

How to Read a Book

All year we've been working on learning how readers read a book.  We made a class movie to show you what we've learned about reading a book.  Check it out by clicking the link below:

http://voice.adobe.com/v/Q75KBBY6Lkv


Our class was so proud to make this video.  It was started awhile ago, and we all forgot about it until this week.  We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Learning About Fiction

One of our literacy focuses this week was to learn about the characteristics of fiction.  First we read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.

We learned that fiction stories have a character in a setting that does something.  Ask your child about who the main character in The Snowy Day is and where the story took place (the setting). Look at our thinking map for retelling what Peter did on his snowy day.

Next we read Sneezy the Snowman by Maureen Wright.  We loved this story!  It was so fun to read when the students could help me read it.

With Sneezy, we remember that stories have a character in a setting that does something, but we also learned that often fictional stories have problems.  Ask your child about what Sneezy's problem was. We learned that stories have solutions, too.  Sneezy tried lots of things to solve his problem. Ask your child which of Sneezy's attempts at solving his problem was his/her favorite.  Then ask them about which solution actually worked!

We talked about how stories have to have a beginning, middle, and an end with fiction, too.  Here is a quick picture of how we sequenced the Sneezy story.

Then we read Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming.

We continued our discussion on characteristics of fiction with this book, too.  We noticed that a lot of what was happening in the book sounded true like in non-fiction, but with the characters talking to each other, doing things, we realized that it is a fiction book, too.  Here is our thinking map for the characters in the story Time to Sleep.

The next time you and your child read a fiction text, think about who the characters are, where they are at, and what are they doing.  Is there a problem?  If so, how did the character solve it?  Encourage your child to retell the story from the beginning to the middle to the end.

All About Math Workshop

Have you ever wondered what my math class is like?  Here is a small peek into what we do most days in math.

First, we start off with calendar activities.  There is so much we do with the calendar that I think I'll save that for another post.  After the calendar activities, we do a whole group lesson.  We might learn a new concept, extend our learning from a previous lesson, or  learn how to play a new game.

Then we move into math in a small group, math with a partner, or math by myself.  I'm guessing that this is everyone's favorite part.  Every day students work on a learning target with a teacher in a small group.  The small group lesson might be an extension of the whole group lesson.  The lesson might be a review of a previously taught lesson, or it might be a new lesson that is better suited to small group learning.

In addition to working with a teacher in small group, students can either choose to work with a partner (math with a partner) or independently (math by myself).  Students then choose activities from a choice board to work on.  These activities help students explore and solidify math concepts.

Check out math workshop: