Winter Break Challenge

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Here is the link for the Winter Break Challenge I sent home before vacation in case, with the craziness of the holidays, your K2ers paper was misplaced.

https://drive.google.com/a/leominsterschools.org/file/d/0B3UH19NLPcOwbGxvUmV0RXA0NVU/view?usp=sharing

Happy Holidays!

Wishing you peace, love and joy this holiday season from my family to yours!

Toy Land

Today the K2ers and their Book Buddies from 3E got together to see all the toys that we were able to purchase with the generous donations of everyone at Johnny Appleseed.  We then sorted them by age level, boxed them up and gave them to Mrs. Molinari to be delivered to the UMass pediatric floor tomorrow. Here they are pictured with the toys.

There were so many toys we couldn't get them all in the picture!

Festive Clothing Day ~ Wednesday, December 21st!

Sadly, a JA staff member lost their home and belongings to a house fire last week.  Wednesday, December 21st, your child is invited to come to school wearing Winter Festive Clothing and bring in  a $1.00 donation.  Winter Festive Clothing may include holiday sweaters, headbands, hats, etc.


Some families have asked me if there is anything else they can do to help. To make any other donations the following funds have been set up:

Philip & Nancy Young and Family

 c/o DCU,

1123 Central St

Leominster, MA 01453

Or go to

https://www.gofundme.com/philip-nancy-young-and-family

Thank you in advance for your support.

Week in Review ~ December 12th - 16th

With a snow day, the Elf Shoppe, collecting money for our toy drive, and the general excitement radiating off of five and six year olds due to the upcoming holidays it was one CRAZY week in K2!

In ELA we started Unit 4 which is titled Around the Neighborgood. Our essential question was what do people use to do their job? Our vocabulary words were equipment, uniform, utensils,expect, remained. We read the stories "Whose Shoes?", "Little Juan and the Cooking Pot," and "Workers and Their Tools." We focused in on the letter Oo and the short and long vowel sound it makes and the sight word you was also introduced. In learning centers we practiced sight words learned so far, wrote about tools that different jobs need to do their job and sorted pictures by their medial sound.

In Math we finished Topic 5 and will be taking the assessment on Monday. The remainder of the week we will be reviewing what has been taught so far. We will start fresh with Topic 6 in the new year.

At the end of this coming week each K2er will be coming home with a Winter Break Challenge sheet that has some different activities to do to keep their brain strong over vacation. Anyone that completes the challenge and returns the sheet to me on Tuesday, January 3rd will receive something special.

As a reminder we have extra gym on Monday so please send your K2er with sneakers and Pajama day is Friday.

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We Did It!

I am so proud of my K2ers and our Book Buddies in 3E! They took an idea to help children in the hospital during the holidays, made notices, delivered them to classrooms, talked to classrooms about why we were collecting money, went to classrooms each morning to get any money donated, and then counted the money. It was such a great learning experience from start to finish. I am so excited to say that not only did we meet the $500.00 goal but exceeded the $1000.00 goal! We will be able to spread cheer to so many children in the hospital this holiday season. Thank you SO much for your help with this service project!

Great Job K2 and 3E!

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Don't forget...

Friday is the last day to send in donations for our toy drive to help brighten the spirits of children in the hospital for the holidays. As of Thursday afternoon we raised $713.00 to use to purchase toys. Students at JA have met the $500.00 goal to earn pajama day on December 23rd.  We only need a little less than $300.00 for teachers to earn pajama day that day as well.  Please send in any spare change or dollar bills...every little bit helps!

Week in Review ~ December 5th - 9th

Happy Snow Day! I had a crazy {hockey-filled} weekend so a snow day is the perfect way to catch up on our class blog.

Last week in ELA our essential questions was "What places do you go during the week?" We discussed how some K2ers go to the grocery store, the barber shop, gymnastics, the doctors, and the mall during the week.  Our vocabulary words were local, routine, neighborhood, volunteer, and intelligent. We listened to the stories Please Take Me For a Walk, Field Trips, and A Neighborhood. We focused in on the letter Cc and the two sounds it makes; /k/ and /s/. The sight word go was also introduced. The K2ers are doing a great job knowing the sight words at home fluently so keep practicing. In learning centers we practiced writing the letter Cc, sorted pictures by if they started with the hard sound of Cc (/k/) or the soft sound of Cc (/s/), wrote in our journals about something we do during the week, and practiced out sight words.  We are also busy, busy, busy reading stories!

In Math we started Topic 5 where are are Classifying and Counting Data. We are classifying all types of groups such as animals that fly and animals that do NOT fly.  We will finish up this topic this week or early next week due to today's snow day.

This past week we also started meeting with Mrs. Weldon's 3E friends for Book Buddies. We will meet with them from now until the end of the school year periodically. This week our 3E friends read some poetry to their Book Buddy.

Our 3E friends are also helping us with the collection of money to help the children in the hospital during the holiday season. This is the 2nd year that Thiago and his parents are doing this. Here is a picture of Thiago from last year delivering the toys to UMass Hospital.  

As a reminder, all donations can be brought in this week and are due by Friday, December 16th. We are asking for $1.00 from each child at JA and toys will be bought with the money collected.  If we raise $500.00 then the students at JA can have pajama day on December 23rd. If we raise $1000.00 then the teachers can wear pajamas, too!  

With winter weather now here, please remember to dress your child in appropriate clothes for outdoor recess. We try to go out as much as possible if it is not too cold. Be sure to send them with a coat, hat, gloves/mittens, and boots. 

Enjoy the rest of this snow day...I am off to get my wrapping started! 

Counting, Sorting and Comparing with Fuzz Bugs

Today in Math we worked on classifying different things. We discussed how classifying something means putting it into groups because of something they have in common. We classified animals by wings and NOT wings, green and NOT green, 4 legs and NOT 4 legs, !and fur and NOT fur. After the lesson I showed them a fun game on abcya.com called Fuzz Bugs. They LOVED the game so I told them I would put the link onto the blog. Counting, Sorting and Comparing with Fuzz Bugs

  ** You may want to have your K2er wear headphones to play because those Fuzz Bugs can start to drive you crazy! **

Week in Review ~ November 28th - December 2nd

How is it possibly December, already? The busier we are in the K2, the faster the weeks keep going! This week in ELA we talked about different sounds we hear.  We listed sounds we hear outside, at school and at home.  We also talked about how sounds you hear in one place are sounds you may not hear in another place.  Our vocabulary words were listen, volume, exclaimed, chat and familiar. We read the stories Clang! Clang! Beep! Beep! Listen to the City, The Turtle and the Flute and Sounds Are Everywhere. Nn was the letter we focused in on this week and we decided if we heard the /n/ sound at the beginning or the end of a word.  We also introduced the sight word and. Here is the song that we learned to remember the word.

In learning centers we practiced writing the letter Nn, listened to where we heard the /n/ sound in a word, wrote about our favorite sound, sorted sight words, and searched the room for words with the letter Nn. We were busy, busy, busy!

In Math we finished up Topic 4 where we compared groups to 10 and numbers to 10. We also worked on naming the number that comes right before a number and right after a number. This is something you can easily practice at home with your K2er. Just say a number from 1-9 and ask them what numbes comes before it and what number comes after it. We also played the card game "compare" which is just like the card game "war." The K2ers LOVED this game and I told them how it is an easy game to play at home. If you aren't familiar with the game just split a deck of cards in half. Each player flips over their top card and compare the number. Whoever has the greater number keeps both cards. Play continues until one player has all the cards from the deck.

Next week we will be starting "Book Buddies" with a 3rd Grade class. They will be coming to our room Tuesday morning to read some poetry with us. Each child in their class will be paired up with a child from our class. We have a lot of fun things planned with our Book Buddies so I can't wait to get started. I hope everyone has a good weekend!

iPads for K2!

Dear K2 Families, I want to make sure my students in K2 have the materials they need to succeed, so I created a request for our classroom at DonorsChoose.org: iPads for K2! My project only has 30 days to go to raise the needed funds to provide the K2ers with two iPads for classroom use to assist them with various ELA and Math skills.   I truly appreciate all that you contribute already to our classroom but I thought I would share my Donors Choose request in case you may work for businesses that would possibly like to contribute. Also, if you know anyone who may want to help our classroom, please pass this along! Thank You, Mrs. Joslyn

Thank You!

Thank you for taking the time out of a very busy week to come and meet with me about your K2er. I am very proud of all that they each have accomplished so far in the short 52 days of kindergarten and I appreciate all YOU do at home to help them grow as a learner!

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Book Fair

 

As a reminder tomorrow is K2's turn to visit the Scholastic Book Fair. Our class will be going from 11:15 - 11:55. You are welcome to meet your child in the library during that time to shop with them.

 

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Week in Review ~ November 7th - 10th

For it being a short week of school this week, we still were able to get a lot accomplished. In ELA we talked about bugs that we know about it. We read the stories "I Love Bugs," "From Caterpillar to Butterfly," and "Bugs All Around." We discussed the life cycle of the butterfly and compared it to other life cycles. Our vocabulary words were curious, observe, attaches, process, and slender. We reviewed the letters Mm, Aa, Ss, Pp, and Tt and their sound and we also reviewed all of the sight words introduced so far. Please continue to practice these words at home. Next week we will be starting Unit 3 with the overall theme of Going Places.
In Math we finished up our lessons for Topic 3 so we will be doing the Topic Assessment on Monday then we will be moving into Topic 4 where we will compare numbers from 0 - 10.
On Thursday we had a nursing student from Fitchburg State University in to talk to the K2ers about proper handwashing and how to prevent the spreading of germs. Miss Alana showed the following clip from Sid the Science Kid that shows how quickly a germ can spread.

She also talked them about proper handwashing. Ask your K2er what song they should sing two times through before they rinse the soap off. Also, she handed out packages of Kleenex to everyone. Thank you Miss Alana for coming in.

As a reminder parent/teacher conferences are coming up on Monday, November 21st and Tuesday, November 22nd. Reminders of your day and time will be coming home on Monday. If for some reason you can no longer make your assigned time, please let me know so that we can find a time to reschedule.

One last reminder, all "Turkeys in Disguise" projects are due back on Friday, November 18th if you haven't returned it yet.








Enjoy the long weekend!

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Bus Safety

Today we went outside to listen to Tammy from First Student talk to us about Bus Safety. She talked about how to safely get on and off the bus, how to sit while on the bus, and how to safely cross the street in front of the bus.

 

 

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Week in Review ~ October 31st - November 4th

Can you believe it is November already? I think the weeks keep going by so quickly because of how busy we are in K2!
In ELA this week we talked about what shapes are all around us. Our vocabulary words were materials, nature, decoration, games, and world. We read the stories "Shapes All Around," "Kites in Flight," "Find the Shapes," and "The Shape of Things." We focused in on the letter Tt and introduced the sight word like. Also, we reviewed what is a noun and what is a verb. In learning centers we wrote in our journals about what shapes we see in the classroom, built our sight words with letter tiles, listened for the sound of Tt, and sorted pictures by noun or verb. We also made our own version of the book "The Shape of Things" which we will start sending home each day with a new K2er to share with their family. Please be sure to send it back to school the following day when it is your child's turn so that it can be sent home with our next K2 friend.

In small groups we worked on first sound fluency, practiced sight word fluency and read the stories "We See a Map" and "We Like Tam!" Each K2er went home with a paper story titled "We Like." More and more of these paper stories will be coming home. When your K2er reads these stories they can be added to their Books & Beyond recording sheets. I will also be photocopying the stories we are reading in small groups to send home so the K2ers can practice reading more and more.

In Math we are close to finishing up Topic 3. Each day our math lesson starts with a Solve & Share problem. The goal of this part of the lesson is to show the students that there is often more than one way to solve a math problem. They are told the problem and then they solve it a way they can. As I walk around I am looking for different ways that the problem has been solved and then three K2ers are picked to share out their answer with the class up at the board. They are always excited to be able to share their thinking with their classmates.

This week we worked on counting, reading, and writing the number 10 and we also worked on showing 10 in different ways by breaking it into two parts such as 1 and 9, 2 and 8, 3 and 7, etc... We also practiced writing the numbers 5-10 by playing a favorite game called "Roll & Record."

We will be finishing up Topic 3 this week but with no school on Tuesday for students (Teacher Professional Development Day) and no school on Friday (Veterans' Day) we will most likely be finishing up our Topic Assessment the following week.

As a reminder we are having a Thanksgiving Food Drive at Johnny Appleseed School. Kindergarten students are asked to bring in soup and crackers. If you are able to donate to this, it is very much appreciated.

 Be sure to check out our "Student of the Month" Tab to see who earned student of the month for October in K2!

Enjoy your weekend!

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Voting Day at JA

 

Johnny Appleseed School had a mock election today. We went down to the gym to cast our votes in the 2016 Presidential election. The K2ers were given a ballot and then went off to a voting booth. After making their choice they went and put their ballot into the ballot box. All voters were given a "I voted" sticker and an American flag when they were finished.

The results were:

Hillary Clinton - 374

Donald Trump - 174

Gary Johnson - 36

Jill Stein - 13

 

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Pumpkin Investigation

We had so much fun investigating our pumpkin today! We started off by making predictions about how many cubes tall we thought our pumpkin was, what the circumference of our pumpkin was using links, and how many lines the pumpkin had. Then we guessed if the pumpkin would sink or float. Some of the K2ers came up with some great reasons why they thought it would either sink or float. Some of their reasons why it would sink was because it is heavy, there are seeds inside, it has "guts" inside, and because the water in the bucket is cold. Some reasons why some thought it would float was because the water will hold it up and because it is too light to sink. Here are some pictures from our Pumpkin Investigation and a quick video of when we put the pumpkin into the bucket of water.

 

After we were finished filling our Pumpkin Investigation chart in we then filled in a "can", "have", "are" chart to wrap up the lesson. Each K2er then had to record at least one answer in each column on their own sheet to bring home.

 

Lastly, at Free Choice time, we opened up the pumpkin and described what we saw inside, cleaned out the pumpkin and sorted the seeds. Each K2er went home with a small baggie of seeds to investigate some more with. (They were not cooked, so they know they are not to eat!) I heard lots of them say they were going to plant them so a pumpkin will grow for next year.

 

 

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Week in Review ~ October 24th - 28th

How do tools help us explore is what we talked about this week in ELA. We first brainstormed what are some tools we use. At first, the K2ers named only carpenter tools like a hammer, wrench, screwdriver and saw but then as we talked about the definition of our vocabulary word tools (things that help people do work or help people learn) they started to name lots of different tools like pencils, magnifying glasses, rulers, scales, glue sticks, etc... Our other vocabulary words were fetch, discover, rumble, and defeated. We focused in on the letter Pp and read the stories "The Handiest Things in the World", "Timimoto" and "Discover with Tools." We also introduced what a verb is and talked about how it is an action word or something you can do. Our new sight word this week was the word a. Each week, when a new sight word is introduced, we listen to a song to help us remember the word. Here is a video of the K2ers with our new song for the word a...

 

In learning centers we wrote about things we see in the classroom and what tools we use. We also sorted picture cards by if it was a noun or a verb. The K2ers enjoyed this center because they got to use the board during center time to do the activity. We were also reviewing beginning sounds and clipping the pictures that began with sound that the letter on the top of the card makes.

 

In Math we continued on with Topic 3. We read, wrote and counted 6 and 7 and 8 and 9. We introduced number poems to help them remember how to write the numbers. Practicing writing numbers at home will help your K2er make their numbers better. Give your child a piece of paper and just say a number (0 - 9 have been introduced so far) and have them practice writing that number. 8 seems to be causing the most difficulty so here is the poem we use to help them remember the formation: make an S but do not wait, go back up and that's an 8.

 

On Monday we will doing some Pumpkin Investigations during math so be sure to check back to the blog to see all the cool pumpkin investigations we did.

Have a nice weekend!

 

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Wizard of Oz Fair

There's no place like JA...especially when it comes to a school-wide read aloud Fair! The K2ers had such a fun time at the fair playing games, making crafts and enjoying a snack. Then we got to enjoy a Mad Science show with Professor Presto and his assistant, Professor Prism.

Here is a video with pictures from our visit to the fair and a special performance of "Somewhere over the rainbow" sung by members of the JA chorus.

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Special Delivery

Thiago and his mom delivered Halloween cards made by the K2ers, over 150 goodie bags, and the huge emoji pillow to the UMASS pediatric floor yesterday afternoon. Great job, K2ers...I'm sure your kindness will be making some children VERY happy!

 

 

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Week in Review ~ October 17th - 21st

In ELA this week our essential question was How can your senses help you learn? Our vocabulary words were feast, senses, kneads, finished and explore. We listened to the stories "Senses at the Seashore" and "A Feast of our Senses." Our new sight word was see and we focused in on the letter Ss. We also brainstormed different ways we use each of our five senses when we are at school and sorted pictures by what sense it was.

In Math we finished up Topic 2 where we compared numbers 0-5. The K2ers did a great job with greater than, less than and equal to and have a true understanding of what they mean.

Here is a cute video I showed them that introduces the use of the greater than, less than and equal to symbols: >, <, =.



In Topic 3 we will be reading, writing and counting numbers 6-10.

I am so proud of my students! We won the magazine drive mascot because of all the sales brought in and they quickly voted to send it to the UMASS pediatric floor along with the goodie bags they packed and the Halloween cards they made. Way to go, K2ers...you are always spreading kindness!

Have a great weekend!

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