We have had amazing learning experiences in Room 143! We launched our project on "Trash" with an interesting dilemma--We walked in from recess and found our classroom full of trash! Trash was on our carpet, on our tables, and in our kitchen area! And what was even more challenging was that the children were advised not to move ANY of it. They had to complete their Exploration Centers with trash all around them (**Don't worry, Moms and Dads--I made sure that the trash was old plastic containers or water bottles. No tissues or anything real germy!). After an unsuccessful attempt at working, we gathered together to reflect on our experience. I asked the class, "How did it feel trying to work in all that trash?"
Here are some of their responses: "I felt frustrated!" "It was hard because I had no room to work!" "It was GROSS!" We then wrote about our experience in Writer's Workshop. Since we all agreed that it was difficult to do our jobs in an environment filled with trash, I shared a photograph that I had come across. It was a photograph of a sea turtle swimming amongst plastic bags in the ocean. We talked about the image and many children had strong emotions--as you know, we all have a soft spot for turtles (Matilda, our class pet, is a Russian Tortoise). We then brainstormed ways we could reduce our trash on land so that it did not end up in the ocean. Our project was in full swing! You can see more of the children's reaction to trash in our Pictures and Project Section. The class will branch off into specific Project Groups based on his/her interest. I will be leading the Recycling Group. In my Project Group, we will learn what materials are recyclable. We will also learn what everyday changes we can make to reduce our waste! We will read literature about recycling, keep field notes, create our own totes to reduce our use of plastic bags, and ultimately create a Public Service Announcement to be shown at High Tech Elementary. Ms. Danielle's group will be working alongside our group. After learning what IS recyclable, Ms. Danielle's group is going to find a creative way to use what IS NOT recyclable! This group will create beautiful trash art to be exhibited at HTe! Ms. Cate's group will also learn how to reduce our waste by learning all about composting! This is an exciting beginning of the "Green Movement" at HTe--all spearheaded by our school's first Kindergarten class! We continued our Project Work with a successful field trip to the Birch Aquarium. We linked our experience at the Tide Pools with a deeper lesson into Tide Pool Animal Adaptations. Our "Tide Pool Treasures" Teacher was incredible and the children left with a greater understanding of the animals who inhabit San Diego Tide Pools. Our Kinders did a great job remembering their "Manners in Public Places" and one staff member even commented that we were the BEST behaved class at the aquarium! Lastly, we had an awesome 100th Day of School Celebration! We engaged in many counting activities with the favorite being our 100 cereal piece necklace! The celebration was a fun way to reinforce many math concepts: counting, sorting, patterns, and place value! I had a great week with your awesome children and I know they felt the same way! To another fabulous week, Mrs. Rosemarie
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We had a wonderful week in Room 143! Firstly, a very big THANK YOU to all the families and friends who were able to attend our Publishing Party. The children had worked so hard on their pieces and were so excited to share their published books. The treats and coffee were a perfect way to end our party. Thank you to Mr. Alves (Brian's Dad), Ms. Gurrola (Briana's Mom), Ms. Terry (Sadie's Mom), and Mr. Anaya (Alec's Dad) for providing our delicious food! If you have any pictures of our Publishing Party, please post them on our Shutterfly sharing site
For this round of Writer's Workshop, we focused on the following:
As we begin our next big project, "Trash," we will continue to write daily, but will focus more on expository or non-fiction writing. Unlike personal narrative writing, we will write to inform and persuade. We will continue to write personal narratives in our Writing Center and will formally revisit this genre after Exhibition. For our next round of Writer's Workshop, we will begin our "Authors as Mentors" unit. We will focus on the art of writing through an Author Study. We will learn about dialogue through Marc Brown's Arthur series, Fancy Word Choice through the Fancy Nancy Series, and much much more. By the end of the year, our Kinders will write with more detail and voice! We will share our growth as writers with Publishing Party 2.0!! We have concluded our Geometry unit and have displayed our Kinder City Skyline in our classroom. The skyline looks amazing and I encourage all of you to come by our room to check it out! We will begin our units on data collection and numbers 10-30 ( which will be embedded in our Trash project) next week. Lastly, we had a lovely Cooking Center lead by Ms. Laura (Katia's mom). The children made Valentine Berry Parfaits with strawberries, vanilla yogurt, and angel cake. The parfaits looked delicious and the children really enjoyed creating their afternoon snack. To reiterate the message on our "C is for Cooking" flyer, your gracious donations make this experience possible for our class. Thank you again for your continued donations! To another great week, Mrs. Rosemarie We have had a great week of learning in Room 143! Our Family Trip to the Tide Pools was a roaring success! It was such a gorgeous day--perfect for examining hermit crabs, sea anemones, and sea stars. What a wonderful way to launch our next project! Our next project will be community service based and will examine how our actions affect the ocean. We will use our knowledge to lead the "Green Movement" at High Tech Elementary--starting first with our trash problem at school. We plan to brainstorm solutions, lead school wide clean ups, and ultimately bring awareness (and promote action) within the HTe community by sharing our own student-created Public Service Announcements (PSA). Thank you to the families who were able to make it to this excursion! If you have any pictures, please post them on our Shutterfly sharing site.
Our Kinders have been writing away in Writer's Workshop. They are developing their confidence in writing and are relying more and more on their knowledge of letter sounds to help them spell. It is such an exciting time! I am hearing less of, "Mrs. Rosemarie, how do you spell..." and more of, "Mrs. Rosemarie! I'm finished! Can I read you my writing?" For this round of Writer's Workshop, our focus has been developing their confidence in writing as well as their letter sound correspondence. As part of the party, I will share a developmental continuum for both writing and spelling. My hope is that the charts will give you a better understanding of your child's developmental stage in literacy. They are working hard on revising their stories and can't wait to share their books! Our Publishing Party is scheduled for Thursday, February 9. 2012 at 1:30 p.m.. Coffee and sweets will be provided courtesy of some of our amazing parents!! We have concluded our Geometry unit with a study of city skylines. We read the story, Abuela, by Arthur Dorros, which takes place in New York City. We looked at different skylines from around the world and discussed the various shapes we saw. We talked about the field of Architecture and the tools that Architects used to create building designs. We then used rulers to design our own skylines. One of our Kinders had a great idea of putting all of our skylines together to create one giant skyline! He ran the idea by the class and the decision was unanimous! We were going to design our own Kinder City! Please check out Skyline project in our "Pictures of the Week" section. Thank you again for your ongoing support! I feel so lucky to be working with such wonderful families! In Gratitude, Mrs. Rosemarie |
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September 2017
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