First Day Fun

We had a great first day!  Much of our day was spent learning how to go to lunch, knowing where the bathrooms are, and learning about our procedures.  I bet we all sleep well tonight!  While I wasn't able to capture every part of our day, here are some pictures of our first day:

 It was a great day!

The ABCs of Mrs. Trammell

Part of kindergarten is learning about the alphabet, so I thought you could learn about me using the alphabet.  Here are some thing about me:

A:  Art and Architecture  I love to look at houses and buildings and pay attention to their design. 

B:  Bikes  What is better than leisurely riding your bike in the evening?

C:  Cat  I have one cat.  Her name is Alice.  She is 19 years old, which is really old for a cat!

D:  Decorating  One of my hobbies is to decorate my home.  

E:  Education  I love to learn, and I think that is one reason I enjoy my job. I hope you love to learn, too!

F:  Flower  My favorite flower is a peony, but I enjoy so many others!  Hydrangeas, poppies, and roses are just a few of the other flowers I enjoy.

G: Going Out to Eat  The Trammells like to eat out.  Our favorite places are Mexican restaurants, Italian restaurants, hamburger places and pizza places.  

H: Hometown  After spending my first seven years in Chicago, I lived in Warsaw, IN until college. Mr. Trammell is from South Bend.  Our families still live in Northern Indiana.

I: Indiana University  I went to college at Indiana University in Bloomington for my degree in Elementary Education.  Go Big Red!  I love to visit IU any chance I get.  I went to Ball State for my master's degree in Elementary Education. 

J: Jokes  I love to hear a good joke!

K: Kindness  If you ask my children what I value the most, it is kindness.  Kindness makes everyone feel good and it costs nothing!

L: Licorice  Red licorice is my all-time favorite candy!  Especially red Australian licorice.  Yum!

M: Mr. Trammell  My husband, Ryan, and I have been married for 15 years.  He is my best friend and he inspires me to be a better person.  

N: Name  My first name means butterfly.  

O: Other Favorites  I wrote about my favorite flower and foods, but I have other favorites, too!  I love reading historical fiction or biographies, I love the colors green, pink, and red, but really I like color in general, and I like Star Wars.

P: Pete  Pete is my second son.  He is in 4th grade.  We like to play board games and bake cookies together.  

Q: Queso  One of my favorite snacks is chips and queso.  I like popcorn, too!

R: Reeve  Reeve is my daughter and youngest child.  As I write this, she is five months old.  We have a lot of fun babbling to each other, playing peek-a-boo, and looking in mirrors.

S: Spring  Although I enjoy all of the seasons, spring is my favorite.  I love to see the world "wake up" with so many colors, and I always like new beginnings.  

T: Tate  Tate is my oldest son.  He is in 6th grade.  Tate shares my love of history and reading.  

U: Unwind  I find being on the water or at the beach pretty relaxing!

V: Vacations  Next to people, there is nothing I like better than traveling!  It's my goal to visit all 50 states.  So far I have been to 31 states. I've been to 17 countries.  Also, I've been to I hope to get to all of the National Parks.  

W: Walks  I like to take long walks either alone or with my family.  I can look at houses and landscaping, have good conversations, or just relax at the end of the day.

X: eXtra Fondness for Kindergarten:  I like all of the grades, but kindergarten is one of my favorites!

Y: Yard Work  Ok, I really don't enjoy yard work as much as I enjoy the final result.  I like to figure out where to put plants, shrubs, and trees, and I like to mow the lawn.  Sometimes I get my best ideas while mowing!

Z: Zero  I can't think of anything else to share, so there is zero left to tell you!

What's Up with Writing

We have started our writing workshop, and I am thrilled about our progress so far!  The best part is I think the students are more excited than I am.  They love writing time, and anyone can tell during our writing time that they are so eager to learn!

First we learned what writers do:

Then we learned that writers know that "when we are done we have just begun!"  We can . . .

We worked on adding details to our writing by really thinking about the details of our story.  We worked hard to add details to our writing.  Together we wrote a piece about our playground.

We're learning how to listen to the sounds of the words we are saying and write the letter that makes the sound.  First we practiced with labels, and then we wrote words and sentences.

Sometimes it is hard to think of something to write about.  Right now, we're focusing on writing about things we know a lot about, but writers can write about anything!

It was so fun to write pieces with  more than one page!  I'm impressed with how much these writers are able to share on one topic! We shared with our writing partners ideas on what else we can add to our writing.

Some of us even got to put covers on our pieces to make sure they looked like a published book!

We've learned a lot about how writers get started, persevere, and practice their craft.  In the future we'll dive deeper into narrative writing, informational writing, and opinion writing.

Unit 1 Vocabulary

Our big question for the past two weeks:  What happens at school?  We were able to learn and discuss some important words that go along with school.  Our words for the unit are learn, share, friend, read, building, class, room, and schedule.

What do we want to learn?

What can we share?  What can't we share?

How can we be a friend?

Finally, we love to read.  Check out our video:

Working with Pattern Blocks

Always a favorite activity--it's pattern blocks!  There are so many ways to learn about math with pattern blocks.  Last week we had two days to explore, create, and learn with them.  Take a look!

First we made patterns with the pattern blocks.  We're going to continue working on patterns this week, too.

Then we sorted the pattern blocks.  Most of the students sorted by color or shape, but we were able to get to sorting by number of sides and more.

I introduced symmetry during our exploration time.  Check out what some of use did:

It was fun to just play, explore, and create with the pattern blocks as well.  

Sorry I wasn't able to capture everyone's creations on camera.  They all did a nice job.  We'll be using pattern blocks all year, so stay tuned to see what else we can do!