This week the K-Kids had a blast celebrating the 100^th day of school and we dove in to our new unit- American Symbols.

100s Day Celebration!

The K-Kids dressed the part of a 100-year-old person by wearing bow ties, suspenders, glasses, and even grey hair! It was fun to see their creativity shine. Also, they collected or created a piece with 100 things. This ranged from a birthday cake with 100 candles, a porcupine with 100 quills and 100 ninja stickers. They enjoyed sharing their projects and they are currently displayed in the 100s Day Museum.

Where would we end up 100 steps from the classroom? The children shared and then wrote their predications. Their answers ranged from the gym, the roof, Mrs. Orzoff’s office and many more. In partners they traced each other’s footprints. Next, as a class, we tested our predictions to see where 100 steps would take us!

Fruit loop necklaces

Social Studies – American Symbols

This week we focused on the American Flag, The Statue of Liberty and The Bald Eagle.  We watched a few videos to highlight the importance of these American symbols. Ask your child to share a fun fact about each one!  Each student created a USA book and made an American Flag.  These are displayed in the classroom for you to take a look.

Math

Many of the 100s day projects and centers focused around a variety of math concepts.  We discussed place value, counting by 5s and 10s, and are gaining a better grasp on number sense to 100. 

Language Arts

We began a new rotation of literacy stations this week.  The activities included building sentences, stamping sight words, and a go fish game where the children had to identify blends.  The listening station story was, Dear Tyrannosaurus Rex by Lisa McClatchy, and the children had to independently identify details from the story using picture clues. At the writing center, the children had a choice between labeling their picture, creating a story or writing a letter all using the February vocabulary cards.

The K-Kids had a blast traveling to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.  They were eager to find their favorite ocean animal and explore the many ocean exhibits.

 

They stopped to learn more about the Black Tip Shark and the Reef Shark. The children were full of questions as they watched these beautiful creatures swim by.

 The children could not be more excited to be front row and center for the dolphin show.  We were feet away from the sea lion and Magellanic penguins.  The kiddos learned about echolocation and how dolphins communicate with one another.  Also, that their streamline bodies help them jump up to 15 feet out of the water! Wow!

 

 The Starfish Exhibit- The kiddos dipped their hands in the cool water to feel their textured skin and tube feet that help these animals feel, feed and move.

Valentine’s love monsters

The children passed out Valentines’ Cards and notes to their friends. I was impressed to see that they were almost more excited to hand out something to their friend then to see the surprises in their bags.

Sight Word BINGO

The K-Kids practicing their letter formation (top to bottom- sky to grass) and spelling new words in shaving cream!

Poetry Circles- The children are working on their fluency and sight word recognition.

Next week we will start our new math and literacy stations and learn about American Symbols!

Mark your calendars—The 100th Day celebration is on Wednesday, February 21.  Your child can dress up like they are 100 years old. They may wear their attire to school!

Also, The Pre-K, JK and Kindergarten classes will open our own 100th Day Museum, filled with displays of 100 items.Please work with your child to collect 100 of any item around your house, and display it in a way that we can hang or set on a table in our museum. Be as creative as you wish. Due on Wednesday, February 21!

Thank you!!

We had a fabulous week wrapping up our ocean unit! The K-kiddos have been engaged and excited to learn about the deep sea creatures and the ocean zones.  Our collaborative project consisted of an ocean mural representing the Twilight Zone, Midnight Zone, and the Sunlight Zone. The children were hard workers as they worked together as a team figuring out the different animals for the mural. 


Spirit Week- Crazy Hair Day, Beach Day, Wacky Wednesday,  and Pajama Day

                                                                   Language Arts
Stations- We are continuing to develop our phonemic awareness skills by learning about the r -controlled vowels.  (ex. ar, or , er) and identified them in the middle and end of different words.  The children are progressing nicely through their leveled readers and should be reading with you at home. They are doing a wonderful job and it is exciting to see their progress!

As a class, we created a dolphin anchor chart. The children had to finish the sentence of Dolphins ‘can’, ‘have’ and ‘are’.  They enjoyed thinking of different ways to describe what these wonderful creatures can do.  As a follow up art activity the children created their own dolphins. The art work will be displayed on the outside bulletin board.

                                                                         Math
As we finish up math stations, we continue to work on measuring and estimation skills through a variety of games.

                                                                        Writing
We began Unit 4, Writing for a Reason.  In this unit, the children will continue to develop their ideas and story flow.  At this point in the year, it is important to focus on differentiating between uppercase and lowercase letters and when to use them in writing. I have seen a great improvement with this skill!