Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Fun

To conclude the school-wide reading of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl, we we're treated to a day of fun and games! Our morning started with a Bubble Mania show with Casey Carle, the bubble man. The K2ers thought it was the best thing ever...and I have to say he did do some really neat things with bubbles. He made a rocket ship, an ice cream cone and even put a 2nd grader in a bubble.

 

After the bubble show we headed outside for lots of fun activities. There were different games to play, snacks to eat, and there was even a gigantic bouncy slide that everyone got a chance to slide down. Even Superintendent Jolicoeur stopped by to check out all the fun that was being had at JA...he even enjoyed a ride down the slide.

Once back in the classroom we watched the movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." I gave a special assignment to the K2ers prior to watching the movie and asked them to pay close attention to how the book and the movie were alike and how they were different. After the movie we filled in a Venn Diagram with their thoughts...WOW did they do a great job coming up with likenesses and differences between the two. I was VERY impressed!

We also voted on who liked the book better (8 votes) and who liked the movie better (10 votes).

We really had such a fun day...thank you to Mrs. Buhts and the rest of the school-wide read aloud team that made it an absolutely perfect day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Another Willy Wonka Factory Creation

As our school-wide read aloud of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is drawing to a close this week, another great creation of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory was sent to me. Here it is...

Your child still has time to use their imagination to create a chocolate factory at home and then be sure to send it along to me to show the class.

 

 

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Bus Safety

Today we had a visit from Bus Safety Officer Danny who spoke to the K2ers about bus safety rules. Some of the bus safety rules were:

*Stay seated until the doors open

*Kindergarteners sit up front

*Cross in front of the yellow arm at the front of bus

*Stay seated

*No eating/drinking on the bus

*Pens, papers, crayons, pencils, etc remain in bag so that you are ready to get off the bus when it is time

*Aisle needs to remain clear

Ask your child to tell you one of the safety rules they learned!

 

 

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Week in Review ~ October 19th - 23rd

This week was another busy and fast week in K2! I can't believe that we are almost to the 40th day of kindergarten already.

In ELA we talked about how tools help us explore. We named all different types of tools and the tools that different workers use to make their jobs easier. We even brainstormed some tools we use at school such as pencils, crayons, erasers, and scissors to make it easier to do different things. Our vocabulary words were tools, discover, defeated, fetch, and rumble. We listened to the Informational Text stories The Handiest Things in the World, and Discover With Tools and we also listened to the Tale Timimoto. Ask your child how Timimoto fended off the night giant and what "tool" he used.

We worked on the letter Pp and listened for where in a word we heard the /p/ sound. We started to build and read words that had the letters m, a, s, and p such as map, sap, Sam and Pam.

We also introduced the sight word "a". We have now introduced six words. We are now reading sentences using the sight words and this week I introduced the class to a fun activity where they listen to a sentence and put the words in order.

Please continue to practice the sight words at home. If you need another set of sight word flash cards please send a note in your child's message tube and I will be happy to send a set home.

In Math we continued working in Topic 3 titled "Numbers 6 - 10" where we are working on counting, reading and writing numbers 6 - 10. Almost every day we start our Math lesson with a "Solve & Share" activity. The problem is read to the children and they try and solve it. As I circulate the room I am looking to see what strategies the K2ers are using to solve the problem. As they finish they go sit at the board to go over the problem. I then ask different K2ers to come up and show how they solved the problem. This is such a great way to show how many times there is not just ONE way to solve the problem. The students who come up and share then need to explain to the class what they did to solve the problem. They already have such amazing "math conversations"...it is so great to listen to them.

 

We have read through chapter 24 of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We have been busy discussing why some of the children have had certain things happen to them when they were touring the factory. So far they have said that Augustus Gloop, Violet Beauregard, and Veruca Salt do not listen and do not follow rules. Ask your child what happened to each of those children while they were at the factory. They are REALLY into the story...it has been fun reading it with them. We will be finishing up the School-Wide read aloud on Thursday and then on Friday we will be attending the Charlie Fair during the school day.

 

As a reminder, Parent/ Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, November 23rd and Tuesday, November 24th. Reminders of your day and time will be sent home the week of November 15th. If you can no longer make your scheduled time, please let me know as soon as possible so we can reschedule it.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

 

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Fire Safety visit

We were lucky enough to have a visit from a Leominster Firefighter today to discuss Fire Safety. One thing that he talked about was what to do if your clothes catch on fire...stop, drop, cover (your face), and roll!

The K2ers enjoyed the visit!

 

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Another Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory Creation!

Great Job!

 

Keep the chocolate factory creations coming...the kids LOVE to see them!

 

 

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Calling all Willy Wonka Candy Factory Makers!

One of our K2ers created Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory at home using his Duplo Lego blocks and was VERY excited to tell the class about it. His mom was kind enough to email a picture of it to me so I could show the class.

After I received the picture it had me thinking so, as a class, we brainstormed different things at home you could use to create Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. If any other K2ers would like to use something at home to "create" Willy Wonka's factory and would like to share the final creation with the class then please take a picture and email it to me so I can show the class.

Happy Creating!!

 

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Please Read a Note from Nurse Jen

Please remember that all Kindergarten students need updated physicals on file in the nurses office. I am still missing some immunizations and have sent that paperwork home. Please send that information into me as soon as possible in prevent your child from being excluded from school. • Massachusetts state law (105 CMR 200.00 – 200.920) requires a physical exam upon entry to school and updates in 4-year increments. • Massachusetts state law (105 CMR 220.000) requires up to date immunizations for school attendance. • Massachusetts state law (105 AMR 460 050 & .060) requires lead testing for all preschool and kindergarten children. Also Please remember to keep your child home if he/she: • Has a fever over 100 degrees f or higher. • Has a persistent cough or cold. • Has had vomiting or diarrhea within the past 12 hours. • Has an unidentified skin rash. • Has “pink eye” with itching and drainage. • Has a contagious illness i.e. strep throat, chicken pox. • Has active head lice or body lice. In order for your child to receive any medication while at school I will need a medication order from the doctor, signed parental consent, and the medication (which must be brought in by a responsible adult). This is a state wide policy and is strictly enforced here at JA. With the upcoming cold temperatures, it is important to remember to dress your child appropriately for cold weather. Hats, mittens, and roomy waterproof boots with socks are essential to protect your child’s fingers and toes against extreme cold. This is especially important for those children who either wait for a bus or walk to school. It is also a good time to remind your child to use his or her own hat and to avoid sharing such headgear, to minimize the possibility of head lice transmission. Please make sure that your child has an extra change of clothes with them in their classroom or backpack. As always, should you have any questions please do not hesitate to call me at 978-534-7765 Nurse Jen http://janursejen.blogspot.com/

Week in Review ~ October 5th - 9th

K2 continues to be a busy place! In ELA. This week we talked about how baby animals move. We listened to the stories Pouch! , The Tortoise and the Hare , and How Baby Animals Move. We worked on the short a vowel sound and the sight word "we" was introduced. We currently have introduced 4 sight words so far: I, can, the, we. Please continue to practice these words at home with your child and possibly look through stories to try and find them. We also continued to work on Nouns. In learning centers the K2ers wrote in their journals about their favorite animal, sorted pictures by person, place or thing, practiced the sight word we, sorted pictures into Fantasy and Real categories and reviewed the sounds /m/ and /a/.

In math we continued with topic 2 about comparing numbers 0 to 5. We discussed the terms greater than, less than and equal to. We also played a fun game of Roll & Cover where students roll a dice and put their colored counter down. Once all numbers are covered we then lined up our counters to see what color was greater than, what color was less than or if they were equal. The kids really enjoyed playing Roll & Cover.

This week at Johnny Appleseed we started the fall school-wide read aloud of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Each day, every classroom at JA, reads the same chapter(s) from the same book. It really gets the students excited and I know my K2ers are so excited when it is time to listen to each day's chapter(s). We made a prediction prior to reading Chapter 7 "Charlie's Birthday" about whether Charlie would find a golden ticket in his birthday candy bar from his family. 13 K2ers said yes, they thought Charlie would find a golden ticket and 5 said no, they thought Charlie would NOT find a golden ticket. Be sure to ask your child if Charlie found a golden ticket in his birthday candy bar.

As a reminder there is no school on Monday for Columbus Day...I hope you enjoy the day!

 

 

 

 

 

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Week in Review ~ September 28th -October 2nd

This week in ELA our essential question was "How can we get along with new friends?" We read the poem Make New Friends and named old friends we had from before kindergarten and then named new friends we have made at kindergarten. We focused on the letter Mm this week and reviewed the sound. We also listened for where we heard the /m/ sound in a word...at the beginning of the word, as in map, or at the end of the word, as in gem. We also spent some time going over the formation for both the uppercase and lowercase Mm. The sight word the was introduced and we also reviewed our previous sight words can & I. A great way to help your child with the sight words is to have them look in a book for the ones introduced while you are reading to them. Also, when they do find the word have them read it to you. This week we also introduced what a Noun is. We sorted pictures during center time as to whether they were a person, place, or thing.we also brainstormed and listed different nouns around JA. During learning center time we practiced the letter Mm, sorted pictures with the /m/ sound, used letter stamps to spell sight words and wrote in journals about what we like to do with our friends.

Also during centers I introduced a favorite learning center to many students..."I Spy." For this center the students put on special "I Spy" glasses and look around the room to find picture/word cards. This week they were on the hunt for cards with a picture and word that began with "M." This group of K2ers loved the "I Spy" center just as much as other classes. Here they are in action...

This week in Math we started Topic 2 titled Compare Numbers 0 to 5. We talked about groups of objects that equal and how that means they have the same amount and we talked about the terms greater than and less than. We learned that the number of girls in K2 is greater than the number of boys in K2. To extend our learning of these terms we used a dice and cubes. Player 1 rolled the dice and lined up that many cubes. Then player 2 rolled the dice and lined up their cubes under player 1's. Next they had to discuss who had the greater amount, the lesser amount or if they equaled. We will continue with Topic 2 next week.

This week we had our annual Magazine Drive assembly. Packets went home with every child on Tuesday. If your child has magazine sales to pass in, please send them into school in their message tube.

As a reminder next Friday, October 9th, is a Professional Development Day for teachers so there will be no school for students.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

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Who would like to help K2 from the comfort of their own home?

This year our daily math sheets are in a workbook and need to be ripped out for the K2ers to do each day's lesson. As you can imagine, that is not the easiest task for a 5 or 6 year old without ripping the pages in half! If you would like to help out, please send a note in your child's message tube and I will send between 4-5 workbooks with your child, as well as directions on how to sort them and send them back.

 

Thank you!!

 

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