100,000 Visitors!!!

We are thrilled and excited to note that as of today, we hit the 100,000 mark on our blog! That is a really BIG number! We are constantly amazed that so many people have taken an interest in what we do in class.

Thanks for visiting and we hope you will continue to check out what we do in Kindergarten!

Reading Support Links...

Hello Kindergarten Friends...While you are home relaxing and getting ready to enjoy Thanksgiving parades and turkey; I have been busy with the first grade teachers finding fun links for you to enjoy at home or at school. These READING SUPPORT LINKS are intended to help you become stronger readers and writers. There are games, songs, videos and even downloads for your MP3 players or iPods. I also added the link to the sidebar here so you can always find it easily. Have fun and don't eat too much turkey! See you soon!

Counting Teen Numbers...

We have been working on learning to recognize and write the TEEN numbers. Sometimes we get mixed up and forget that all of the teen numbers start with a "1". Sometimes we write the number backwards, for instance for "thirteen" instead of writing 13, we write 31. We are working on counting groups of objects and recognizing and writing the numerals correctly.
This video may help us remember to read & write them correctly:

Halloween 2010...

We had our Halloween Parties today. WHAT FUN! We got to parade around the school in our costumes, then we came back to the room for a party. The parents had great crafts, games and snacks for us. We even got to take treats home with us. THANKS to all the parents for helping us have a fun time! Take a look at the videos from our day:
AM Parade:

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

AM Class Costumes:

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

PM Costumes:

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Firefighters Visit....

The Carol Stream Firefighters came to visit us yesterday and today. On Monday, they brought in some of their equipment including the famous JAWS OF LIFE!!! We were so excited. Bria got to dress up like a firefighter and Jamie got to show us how to stop drop and roll! Unfortunately, on Tuesday, bad weather caused the firefighters to be called to duty. We had one lone firefighter. He did a nice job, but we didn't get to see the kid-sized uniform or the JAWS OF LIFE! He invited kids to visit the firehouse and they can see the jaws of life there. In the meantime, you can see them in the video!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We Know Fire Safety...

We have been learning about ways to keep safe from fire. We know what to do if our clothes catch fire, if we are in a room filled with smoke, what to do if we find matches, and more. Many of our classmates still need to find an outside meeting place at home, and we hope that will happen soon. For more Fire Safety information, visit our FIRE SAFETY page on our class website. This video covers many of the things we talked about in class, watch it with your family and remember to BE SAFE!

Apple Treats...

We had fun sorting, graphing, and counting our apples. But the most fun of all came when we got to EAT the apples. We made "Apple Smiles" and " Slow-Cooked Apples".

Take a look at the fun we had making our apple smiles and eating our apple treats:

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

What an HONOR....

Today we got news that our Kindergarten Blog has been chosen as a TOP KINDERGARTEN BLOG in the Midwest Region!
Wow! What a thrill and honor! We are pleased and proud to place this badge in a permanent spot on the sidebar of our blog! Thanks to the folks at Teacher Salary Info for taking note of what we share here!

Teacher Salary Info

Another Kind of Apple Graph...

We had a chance to make our own individual graphs. We got an envelope with paper apples in red, yellow & green. Each envelope had different amounts of each color. We counted then put the paper apples on our graphing papers. We colored our graphs to match what we had in our envelopes. It is fun to talk about and compare our results.

Check out the Math Standards for why we need to know about graphing:

Data Analysis & Probability

Apple Week....

This is "APPLE WEEK" in Kindergarten. We brought in all kinds of apples to begin the week. Mrs. Blakely has a HUGE floor graph and we used it to graph the different types of apples we had. We graphed by colors and labeled the columns RED, GREEN, YELLOW, & MIXED. Take a look at our results:

What do you notice about the graphs?

Does this mean more kids LIKE red apples?

AM graph:

Columns top to bottom: green, red, yellow, mixed

PM graph:

Columns top to bottom: mixed, yellow, red, green

Visit this site for great photos of many different kinds of apples: Apple Journal

We had smoothies....

We have been working hard to have strong bodies and strong minds. We start each day with a bit of a workout. Some days we jog with a buddy around the schoolyard. The first few times we tried, many kids were exhausted half-way around. Now everyone makes it around with no problem. One day we challenged ourselves to go around two times!! WOW! That was a good workout. Mrs. Blakely surprised us and made smoothies for us after our run. She used mango juice, frozen strawberries, vanilla yogurt and a bit of powdered vanilla protein. All the stuff got blended together in a blender. Most of us thought the smoothies were yummy!
What is your favorite kind of smoothie?

Tub Time in Kindergarten...

Many times a Kindergartner comes home and provides limited insights to what goes on in class. We hope you will watch our video and see what we do during TUB TIME!
A big (and FUN) part of our day is TUB TIME! During Tub Time we work on our math skills. Right now we work on may different skills such as sorting, counting, graphing, and more. At Tub Time we can build with blocks. We play with Uni-fix Cubes. We can trace templates of shapes. We look at treasures (key, buttons, shells, bottle caps, etc.). There can be 5 kids at each tub. There are 9 tubs to choose from. We go to a new tub whenever we want. We don't have to wait for the lights to go out or for Mrs. Blakely to tell us to change tubs. We just have to clean up where we are working and then go to a different tub. We have geo-bands and Geoboards. We play with dominoes, pattern blocks and tiles too. Take a look at the kids working hard and having fun at TUB TIME: (note: the PM class helped write this post) ;-)

The Letter Sound Song...

We are learning to put sounds together for reading and writing. We sing this song in class and refer to it often when we are working:

Animal ABC...

Take a look at this video about all kinds of animals and the letters that begin their names:

An Alphabet Video...

This is a video I made a while back to help young learners recognize letters of the alphabet in the environment. Be sure to help your young child look for letters when you are out and about!

More Graphing...

After reading books about children with long names, we decided to graph the number of letters in our names. First we spelled out our names on the graphing strips, then colored them with our favorite colors. Our teacher made a graph with columns for 3,4,5,6,7,8, and 9+ letters in our names. Take a look at the graphing results. See if you can answer the following questions about the graph: (note: the first strip in each column is there just to show the quantity, it's blank so don't include it in your counting)

Look at each class separately:

• Which column had the most?





• Which had the fewest?





• Were there any columns that were the same/equal?





• Were there any columns that didn't have ANY?
  
  

Next compare the AM Graph with the PM Graph:

• Are there any columns that have the same/equal number of names?





• Was the column with the most the same for both classes?





• Was the column with the fewest the same for both classes?





• Was the column that didn't have ANY the same?

What else do you notice about the graphs?

AM Graph:

PM Graph:

Playing Name Games...

All this week we have been reading stories, playing games and singing songs that highlight our names. We read two fun books, Chrysanthemum and Tikki Tikki Tembo. We thought it was fun to read Chrysanthemum with 13 letters in her name, only to read Tikki Tikki Tembo who has 50 letters in his name! Take a look at what a few friends in the morning class chose to do during Center Time:

Nice job boys!!

Boy & Girl Graph...

We have many friends in class. Some of us are friends from before Kindergarten; and others we are just getting to know! We made a graph of the girls and boys in our class. Take a look at the photo and use it to answer the following questions:

• In the A.M. Class, are there more boys or girls? How many more?
• In the P.M. Class, are there more girls or boys? How many more?
• Comparing the A.M. girls with the P.M. girls, which class has more girls? How many more?
• Do the same for the A.M. boys & the P.M. boys.
• Which class has the most students?
• How many students in all?
• What else do you notice about the graph?

Left side=A.M.

Right side= P.M.

(boys are on left side of each graph)

Back To School Picnic....

It was so nice to see so many families come out for the Back To School Picnic. There were lots of old friends and new ones too. There was a DJ who had an assistant who was in Kindergarten with Mrs. Blakely a long time ago! We danced and had a hula-hoop contest. Kids played on the playground and grown-ups had time to visit each other. Take a look at some of the fun we had:

It seems the quality of the video is better with the smaller veiwer (not fit to screen). I will see if I can get better quality. (sorry!)

Kindergarten '10-'11

Hello from the '10-'11 Kindergartners! Today was our first day of class. We said goodbye to our parents at the door, and began learning about our routines. We are making our first books in class too. We were just learning about CENTER TIME when our day had to end.We look forward to more learning tomorrow.

Parents, Grandparents and other friends & family, you can sign up to get email updates or become a follower of our blog and be up to date on the latest happenings inKindergarten! Take a look at us on our first day!!

AM Class:

PM Class

Don't forget to check back regularly to see what we're up to in class!

Alphabet Video...

Take a look at this fun video about the letters of the alphabet:

Back 2 School Shopping...

In just a few short weeks, we'll be heading back to school. There's good news for families gearing up to do their back to school shopping. This year the state of Illinois is removing the state tax on select back-to-school items (note local taxes still apply). Many of the basic school supplies qualify as well as back to school clothing items. This "TAX HOLIDAY" begins Friday, August 6th and continues through August 15th. For more information and a detailed list of items read the article in the DAILY HERALD.

Happy Shopping!

Happy 4th of July '10...

Wishing you a safe and HAPPY 4th!

We Know About An Octopus...

We are finishing up the school year, but we still have plenty to share. After seeing movies, reading books and even getting to touch a real octopus, we were ready to write about an octopus. Take a look at what some of our classmates wrote:

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Learning About SHARKS!....

One of our favorite animals to learn about is the SHARK!! We looked at several books and watched this video: (the narrator's voice sounds VERY familiar!) ;-)

Octopus Video Requests....

As we continue learning about Sea Animals, we have watched several quick videos. The PM class requested to have these octopus videos on our blog. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do:

Thanks to the folks at National Geographic for making these available!

Clay in Art Class...

We got a GREAT surprise when we went to art class. We got to work with clay!! Everyone was so excited. We got to flatten our clay circles and traced paper butterfly templates to make our projects. We mounted them on a base. Mr. Wills will fire them in the kiln and we'll get to finish them. Here's how we got started: Be sure to check back in a few weeks to see our final designs.

Thank You Lowe's...

Our AM Class
Our PM Class

We spend a lot of time talking about ways to "Go Green". We know that one way to help is by reducing the number of plastic bags we use when shopping. Our local Lowe's store donated reuseable bags to our Kindergarten classes to help get us started on the path to "green".

THANKS Lowe's for your continued support!

CFL Lights...

We learned that one thing we can do to help us go green is to change out regular light bulbs and replace them with CFL bulbs. As a homework assignment, we made tallies of the types of light fixtures we have in our homes. We also identified the light that gets the most use. Our plan is to replace the bulb in that fixture (if possible) with a new CFL bulb. Even one bulb can make a difference and hopefully our families will consider changing more bulbs in their homes. The bulbs were donated to our school from Lowe's in Carol Stream. If you're not sure you want to switch your old light bulbs out for CFL bulbs, maybe this video will help convince you to use them:



To read more about CFL Lights visit: Light Your Way to Energy Savings!

A Fun Way to Reuse a Box...

We have been talking about EARTH DAY all week long. One of the things we all will try to do is REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE as much as we can. Our teacher shared this video by Stephen Sotor with us and it made us think of fun things we could do with an empty box! Watch and see if it inspires you to think "outside the box" too:
Thanks Stephen for this fun video! We love it!

Going Green in Kindergarten...

As we continue learning about the ocean, we are taking time this week to learn about some of the many ways we can do our part to "go Green". We talked about ways to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. This video helped inspire us to do more. We found it amazing to see all the things that could be made from recycled materials. What do you think YOU could do to Go Green?

More Sea Life...

We have been very busy learning about different types of sea animals. So far we have learned about a variety fish, starfish and crabs.We have made art projects related to some of the animals. Our mural is coming along very nicely. Take a peek at how it looks so far:
This is in our classroom:This is in the hallway:
PS...We also know that mermaids are not real, but it's fun to pretend! :-)

Sea Life: Underwater Volcanoes...

In Kindergarten we are learning that there's a lot more in the sea other than animals. We learned there are volcanoes under water! It's hard to believe, but take a look at these videos that show a volcano erupting.

A New Species of Fish...Psychedelic Fish

Have you ever heard of the PSYCHEDELIC FISH? Don't worry, we hadn't heard of it before either. It's a new species of fish discovered in the last few years. Take a look at this video from National Geographic to learn more about this interesting fish with an unusual way of moving through the water:

Sea Life Unit...Fish

We have been very busy with our new unit on Sea Life. So far we have been learning all about FISH! We learned many interesting facts about fish. We used that information to help us design fish for our classroom mural. As we learn about different animals that live in the sea, we will also create the animal from papers to add to our mural. Check back soon for pictures. In the meantime you might enjoy playing this fish game we found online: How Many Fish?

Fun With Paint....

As part of our Easy Tech lessons, we are learning how to use graphics programs for drawing with the computer. Our computers at school have Microsoft Paint. We are using this program to create drawings to support our learning. You too can use a paint program to draw. If you have the Paint program on your computer, this video may help.


Or you can go to this Crayola site to draw and print pictures as well: Crayola Coloring.

We love using Easy Tech and are happy the Spring Trail PTO helped pay for it. THANKS!
Check our blog soon to see some of our fine computer drawings!

Lola From the Rescue....

A few days ago, the Kindergarteners got to meet my new puppy. I adopted her from the Almost Home Foundation (we've been helping them with supplies and money all year long). The mother was rescued from a high kill shelter and gave birth to several puppies in a foster home. The Almost Home Foundation brings pets who are fostered to our local Pets Mart stores in hopes of finding homes for them. One special puppy stole my heart right away! She is a Labrador Retriever-Mix, so I don't know how big she'll really get.

I had a hard time coming up with just the right name for her. Then Jacob (in the AM Class) thought of the perfect name, Lola!

Isn't she adorable?

Lola came to visit the kids at school. She was on her very best behavior and even showed off her very first trick.... "SIT" ;-)

Lola gets along well with my other dog, Coal. He'll turn 12 years old on March 17th. Lola a good companion for Coal. He loves to play tug-of-war with her.

Take a look at the afternoon class meeting her for the first time.

Groundhog Day Predictions 2010...

We discussed Groundhog's Day and what it might mean if the Groundhog sees his shadow and what it means if he doesn't. We're all pretty tired of this cold weather and would like nothing more than to see warm weather creeping around the corner. But we all realize it's not up to us!

We are anxious to see the results tomorrow! Take a peek at how our classes predicted tomorrow's outcome! As you can see, more of us think he will NOT see his shadow and we'll have an early spring. Let's hope those friends are right!!

Edible SnowPeople...

We had fun using marshmallows, candy pieces and toothpicks to make edible snowpeople! It was kind of sticky, but we didn't care! Take a look at our yummy handmade treats!

SnowPeople...

We finished our SnowPeople and we know for sure...There are NO People, like SnowPeople! ;-)

Our instructions were that every SnowPerson had to have a hat (or hair), eyes, nose, mouth, buttons (or other clothing), and arms. Everyone did a nice job of following directions!
Take a look at what great, creative work we did....

Making SnowPeople...

We were inspired by the video "The Snowman" by Raymond Briggs. In the video, a young boy made a wonderful snowman.


We used tons of scraps of paper that we've saved all year to help us get very creative with our designs for making snowpeople. Take a look at how hard we worked to create some really nice snowpeople.

Check back soon to see our finished snowpeople!