Mother's Day, Zoo Unit, and Science Week!

Hello! It's hard to believe school is almost over! I am so proud of my young students and how much they have learned in Kindergarten! I am almost finished administering  DRAs (Developmental Reading Assessments) and I am happy to announce a significant growth in reading levels! It makes my heart happy to see the kiddos reading so well! Thanks for helping your child and please continue to read with your child during the summer. I am also thankful for our support staff who have worked with a few of my students. It has definitely made a difference in their progress! I hope all mothers had a nice Mother's Day! The kiddos had so much fun creating cards for you! Here are some photos:

Last week we started a unit on Zoo Animals. Since I was administering the DRAs, we didn't have time to complete all the activities. So, this week they had time to finish their projects. We focused on giraffes and zebras and the kiddos learned lots of new facts like the following: Giraffes sleep standing up with one eye open! I'm sure if you ask your child, they will tell you lots of new things they learned about these two animals! They also learned how to compare and contrast by using a Venn Diagram. Source

Here are a few of the books I read aloud:

 

This week is our "Science Fun Week". Due to the rainy weather, we have not been able to paint with bubbles. But hopefully next week we will have nicer weather! However, the kiddos were able to make butter. They were amazed when their liquid cream turned into a "solid" by shaking it up in a small jar. Afterwards everyone enjoyed eating our butter on warm biscuits!

 

 

Today we decorated t-shirts! We used colored sharpies, plastic cups, and rubbing alcohol! They turned out so cute. The kiddos will be able to bring them home on Thursday (5/15/14) and are encouraged to wear them on our field trip on Friday. I will post pictures soon! Also I want to share some pictures of our hatched eggs (from my former post in April) when the kiddos were learning about oviparous animals. All the kindergarten students were so thrilled when the eggs started hatching!

Here are some dates to remember: Friday, May 16th is our field trip! Monday, May 19th is Kindergarten Graduation at 7:00 in the High School gym. Please have your child there by 6:45. The children have practiced a few songs with Ms. Samuel and are super excited about their graduation ceremony. I'll see you all there! :)

 

~ Mrs. Eilenstine

 

 





Reading Fun, Eggs, Art Extravaganza, and Life Cycles!

Since my last post, the kiddos have learned SO much! The guided reading groups are going well and the students have really shown progress. Today I was so encouraged while working with a group of 5 students when they understood a concept and were so proud of themselves! I love teaching!!! They were so cute and excited when they realized they had a better understanding of reading! I was also happy to see them reading their books to their classmates after our small group lesson. When I am teaching small groups, the other students participate in the "Daily 5" (Source) 1) Read to Self, 2) Read to Someone, 3)Word Work, 4) Work on Writing, 5) Listen to Reading. Usually this reading structure works really well. Here are a couple of pictures of students reading:

 The Leap Frog Tag Readers are wonderful! (Listen to Reading)

The kiddos like sitting in the "Reading Jungle"!

 

Thanks to everyone who sent plastic eggs and candy for our Kindergarten Easter Egg Hunt! The kiddos had a blast! The Easter Bunny also gave us a visit! Here are a few photos:

 

 

Our school's art teacher, Mrs. Adamson, did a tremendous job setting up the "Art Gone Wild Extravaganza" this past Thursday evening. Each student at our school had artwork showcased in a very creative way! This morning all the students had an opportunity to walk through the gym and see all the colorful artwork. It was amazing!

 

 

Last week our unit of study was Oviparous Animals (animals that hatch from eggs). All the kindergarten students have been observing eggs in an incubator in Mrs. Witt's room the past few weeks with the help from Mrs. Potteiger (high school science teacher). Mrs. Potteiger explained information about the development of the animals in the eggs and used the candling process to show them how they are developing. This week the kiddos could see movement and were so excited. The eggs should begin to hatch on Tuesday, April 29th.

 

 

This week's unit was "Life Cycles of Frogs and Butterflies". The students enjoyed poems, books, SMARTboard activities, and colored readers about the life cycles. Today they made headbands showing the life cycle of a butterfly.

 

 

Next week's unit of study will be "All About Farms and Farm Animals". I'll keep you posted on all their activities! :)

 

~ Mrs. Eilenstine











Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's hard to believe we had temperatures in the mid 60s yesterday and today it's snowing! I hope you are safe and warm today. Last week we finished a "Dr. Seuss" theme. This week our theme will be St. Patrick's Day and rainbows. The kiddos will learn poems about Shamrocks and Leprechauns during our Shared Reading times and the following books will be read aloud:

 

 

I think the kiddos will enjoy the activities, books, and a craft I have planned for this week. They will have a writing activity based on catching a Leprechaun too! :) Here are a few links with activities, crafts, and coloring sheets for children: http://www.education.com/worksheets/st-patricks-day/  and

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/patrick/10kindergarten.htm. Of course, you may also find lots of ideas on Pinterest!

 

This week I will give assessments for the 3rd quarter report cards. As I mentioned in the newsletters, the children will be tested over everything that was not "mastered" for the first two quarters. Testing for 3rd quarter will be over ending sounds and addition. Please continue reading daily and reviewing sight words. Working on numbers 0-20 is also important (counting, recognizing numbers, writing numbers, adding, etc...).  For your convenience, the Common Core State Standards (Missouri Learning Standards) are provided on the right side of this blog. Please let me know if you have any questions.

 

Last week we had a few days of warm temperatures. We all enjoyed outside recess! Here's a photo of some of the kiddos having fun on the monkey bars!

 

 

Hopefully all this snow will melt and we will be able to have school tomorrow!  :)

 

 

~ Mrs. Eilenstine 

 

 



Dr. Seuss Week and Read-In

The kiddos had a fun time learning about Dr. Seuss and his silly, wonderful books! Even though we were out of school on Monday and Tuesday due to the snow, there was still time to enjoy lots of activities related to Dr. Seuss. Wednesday, our superintendent, Mrs. Vest, read Green Eggs and Ham to all of the kindergarten classes. Afterwards the cafeteria staff served green eggs and ham! To their surprise, most of the children really liked them too!

On Thursday, our class celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday which was on March 2nd. The kiddos made hats like the ones from The Cat in the Hat book and enjoyed hearing the book read aloud on a CD. For shared reading, the kiddos learned to read a shorter version of Cat in the Hat from an anchor chart. During word work time, they practiced "-at" words and rhyming. We also had yummy Cat in the Hat cupcakes for snack time!

The kiddos made "Thing 1 or Thing 2" from their hand prints. They turned out super cute! They also completed a writing prompt, "What would you do if Thing 1 or Thing 2 came to your house?" I think most of you would be surprised at their answers! :) I will send them home next week.

*Source: http://littlekinderwarriors.blogspot.com/2013_03_01_archive.html and http://seusstastic.blogspot.com/2012/02/seusstastic-seuss-week-freebies-ideas.html

 

 

Friday morning was our Dr. Seuss Read-In (Kindergarten and 1st Grade). Parents were invited to read with their children, have donuts & juice, and do a small craft. Also, I laid out each child's guiding reading books so they could read them to their parents. Unfortunately I was absent but hear it went really well. If you were able to come, I hope you had a good time! Next week I will continue with the Dr. Seuss theme and will continue to teach word families. Here's a link for your child to enjoy more activities related to books by Dr. Seuss: http://www.seussville.com/. Have fun!

 

Our weather forecast looks good so hopefully we will have a full week! Please remember that March 14th, Friday, is a snow make-up day. Have a great weekend!

 

~ Mrs. Eilenstine