I Can't!

As we dig deeper into the kindergarten curriculum (and the snow!) the challenges increase.  More is asked and expected of students.  Gradually we increase the amount of work and decrease the amount of "play time".   The foundation and skills we have worked on are being tested and applied.

It is not uncommon for children to become frustrated.  Occasionally we hear the phrase, "I can't".  You might hear it at home too.  Do not fret.  We tell your child not to fret either.  Rephrase it..........consider saying, "I can't yet!"

It is okay to be frustrated.  It is learning to practice and persevere that is important.  We assure students that they will learn the skill that is challenging them and that with their continued effort and support at home and school they will be successful.

Pretty soon they will be saying........."This is easy!"

Brrrr..........it is cold outside, and FUN!

We will be going outside for recess as much as possible.  Today was a terrific recess day. Children are encouraged to wear footwear appropriate for outside play.  They can change into sneakers when they arrive at school in the morning.  Warm hats and mittens are always important.

Please also make sure there is a water bottle in their backpack...........many are quite thirsty when we come in from recess.

New math game!

Shhh.......it is not only a game....it helps us practice our addition facts!

Friends in room 101 had an exciting time when we introduced a new math game this afternoon.  They will bring it home with the hopes of playing with family members.  Lots of play will lead to fluency.   Watch and play lot of games............they will go from slowly counting to solve the problems to quickly just knowing the answers!  Please also practice with the addition math facts cards at home.  We would like students not only to know the answers but to solve the equations quickly.

Last day of sharing today

15 students fit sitting up on Ryan's afghan!

Today was that last day for sharing our special blankets/quilts/afghans.  We all enjoyed sharing our treasured items, playing 20 questions and measuring them.  How fun that on the last day all students fit to measure the area!

Working on the cover of the news!

Brian created the cover of this week's news.  He drew and wrote about Superfish!

Despite an unusual week thanks to blizzard Juno, lots we accomplished.  We will be working on our news on Friday morning!

Super fish!

Quiet Coyote

When listening to a science center presentation we always do our best to pay attention.  Quiet Coyote is a hand gesture we do to help us.

Hmm............what is on our arms...............not feathers like a bird......

An octopus is a cephalopod.

All kindergarten students were given the opportunity to touch an octopus after the demonstration.  Most did not really like the slimy and slippery feeling.

We went to the Superfish Show!

What does Mr. Musselman have in his hands and on his head?

Superfish Show!

Aspecial thank you to Mr. Musselman for a Super Superfish Show!  

We loved learning not only about fish but also other creatures that we will see at the aquarium.  We talked about tide pool animals and discussed invertebrates such as mollusks and sea stars.  (A sea star is not a fish so we try no to call it a starfish!)  Mr. Musselman taught us about penguins because we may see birds at the aquarium too!  We impressed Mr. Musselman with our fish knowledge and then he shared even more information about fish, like how they rise and sink by filling their bladder.

Patriots Football Sprit Day Friday

We will have a Patriot’s Day on Friday.   Please feel free to wear red, white and blue to school to help cheer on the Patriots.  

The Science Center has some suggestions on things you can do while home in the snow!

stuck inside without much to do?

snow problem!

Burlington Science Center has two great science-packed suggestions to make the most of your snow day.

SNOW SCIENCE FUN #1: LIVE CHICK HATCHING!

The chicks were supposed to hatch on Tuesday and Wednesday in the first and fourth grade classrooms at the Francis Wyman and Pine Glen schools.  Due to the storm, we decided to set up a live webcam at the Science Center in one of the incubators.  Watch them from the comfort of your home by tuning in to our live chick incubator feed on the Burlington Science Center blog!  

**Note to parents: Sometimes, during the chick hatching process, unforeseen circumstances can occur.

The Science Center may choose to stop the live feed at any time.  Thanks for your understanding.

SNOW SCIENCE FUN #2: HOW MUCH WATER IN A FOOT OF SNOW?

How many inches of water does it take to make a foot of snow? The answer might surprise you!

Make a prediction, then watch Mr. Musselman’s “Blizzard Science” video posted on the Burlington Science Center blog and perform the experiment for yourself!

You can use our step-by-step directions or design a similar experiment for yourself. Whatever your results, be sure to write them down so you can compare them with Mr. Musselman or a friend!

Find both these experiments at

          www.bsciencecenter.wordpress.com

Supplies Needed

During the month of February we will open a Post Office for students to practice writing notes.  Donation of stationary and envelopes are most appreciated.  If you have old note card or stationary at home we would love to accept them.  No need to go purchase new stationary please!

In addition, we use envelopes to wrap up prizes for our classroom incentives.  extra envelopes in all sizes are appreciated.

We have been using lots of chalk and are nearly out.  During recess when the playground equipment is not accessible due to snow or ice conditions we use either the grass areas or the parking lot.  Students enjoy using the chalk, but it does disappear quickly.  We would love have more if you would like to send some in.

Flashcard words

The next set of flashcard words went home with students earlier this week.  Please check their communication folders and help them practice at home.

The kindergarten high frequency words have also been updated here on the blog.  Visit the tool bar at the top to use the interactive tool.

In addition you might have noticed a new label at the top.  We will be sending home addition math facts flashcards soon.

Nothing beats a good book!

The highlight of the day is read-aloud time!  Yesterday we had time to read a couple of Mrs. Parnell's favorites.  Be sure to ask your son or daughter about Danny and the Dory Story.

Afternoon math

Introducing the plus sign as we combine groups and create math addition sentences and equations!

one shark and one whale 

Right to work!

In our "offices" creating cvc words.

Welcome back!  We jumped right back into our work this Tuesday morning after the long weekend.  Students were asked to get into their offices and were building cvc words with the magnetic letter boards.  This helps us practice many skills.  We are reinforcing the letter/sound connection, isolating individual sounds in each word (beginning, medial and ending), organizing letters in alphabetical order, and making sure we differentiate the various vowel sounds.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

We learned about Martin Luther King, Jr.  We learned that he had a dream. We offered our own kindergarten thoughts and discussed and wrote about our dreams for the world:

-I have a dream we can go outside and we are treated nice.

-I have a  dream that everybody treats each other same.

-I have a dream for the world that everybody is treated the same.

-I have a dream , I hope you have a dream that the world does not fight.

-I have a dream for everybody to have the same water fountain.

-I have a dream love and peace is around the world.

-I have a dream that nobody gets hurt.

-I have a dream that white people have white water fountains and brown people have white water fountains.

-I have a dream that everyone would go school.

-I have a dream that everybody is equal.

-I have a dream that people can do whatever they want.

There will be no school on Monday, January 19 in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. We hope you enjoy your day and take a few minutes to appreciate the rights and opportunities made available to all Americans.

Meet Samantha

Meet Samantha

This afternoon we were introduced to the American Girl, Samantha in the chapter book, Meet Samantha! We will be learning about childhood experiences in the Victoria Era of the early 1900's as we read this story. 

Chapter 1 introduced us to some characters:  Samantha, Jessie and the annoying neighbor, Eddie......is is a big tease!  

Things were very different then.   

Adding Groups

This week in math we have been combining groups.  We did a few extra math sentences as we talked about what we will be seeing at the aquarium.  Mrs. Parnell said we might see 4 mussels and 2 sea urchins in the touch tank.   

4 and 2 is 6.

We might see 3 rays and 3 small sharks.  3 and 3 is 6.

Adding groups of objects is fun!

To do our counting we used bunches of cubes.  Each student  had 10 cubes.  Before we finished up our lessons we did some bigger combination problems.  We counted how many cubes there were at each table.  One table had 70 and one table had 80.  Big numbers, but easy to count when your counting bunches of 10!

Patriots and Pajama Day!

Friday is sure to be a fun cozy day.

The Student Council is doing a fundraiser and would like to invite everyone to wear their pajamas to school on Friday.

Those who do are asked to donate $1.00.  We will be raising money to donate Pillow Pets to the children who are patients at Mass General Hospital for Children.  

If you would like to have your child write letters or make get well cards to send along with the Pillow Pets that would be great!  Materials to make cards will be available in the classroom as well for students who have time.  

In addition, we will celebrate the Patriots recent win and upcoming game.  Students are encouraged and welcome to wear Patriots Football clothing or colors.  Perhaps there are some red/blue pjs or even better Patriot's PJ's! 

All activities are fun extras and not requirements.  

New words to hunt for in our news!

Mrs. Parnell gave us two new words to hunt for in our news.  Today we included the words my and it.  My is circled with brown and it is with dark green.  Moms and Dads can help us finish our news work at home when we read it together.

CVC tapping and sweeping

LOG

This week we started the new year by introducing CVC words!  We are tapping and sweeping with our fingers.  We are building with magnet letter boards and practicing at the easel, on our news and our morning message.

You may want to help us tap out CVC words at home.  CVC words are words made with a consonant, vowel, consonant.  Examples include log, pig, hat, sun.

Cold weather recess fun!

Journals

Mrs. Parnell and Mrs. Hoyt upped the ante for journal writing with the start of 2015!  Students are encouraged to add more details to their writing and illustrations.  Some are are being encouraged to write multiple sentences.

Loving literacy!

This week be begin practicing the captial letters.

We also began working on our personal dictionaries!

Mrs. Parnell did some letter work with us today on ending sounds.

We also worked on our magnetic letter boards!

First blanket share!

Cozy Blanket
"I like to sleep with my blanket"

The area of the blanket is 5 kindergartners lying down!

Drinks for Students

Despite the very cool temperatures Mrs. Parnell and Mrs. Hoyt recommend students have a water bottle to leave in their cubbies in school.  The building can be dry at times with the heat running. We go outside for recess or to the gym and we are often pretty thirsty.

Blanket, quilt or afghan?

The area of Mrs. Parnell's quilt is 9 kindergarteners sitting up!

As we discussed the concept of area we agreed that we would use 3 types of measurements for the blankets, quilts and afghans  the students would be brining in.  We plan to measure how many students standing up, how many students sitting up or how many students lying down as our fun tool of measurement!

Before a student share's his or her special treasure from home we will play 20 questions.  Today we practiced with one of  Mrs. Parnell's daughter's quilts.  We did a great job at paying attention and there were no repeat questions!  After we revealed the quilt we measured it's length and width with rods.  We learned that we must be careful in order to measure accurately.

Some of us posed for a photo with the quilt.

Mighty math!

More or Less

We returned to school and worked pretty hard today.  Some of our fun math experiences include working on the 100 chart, playing a game called more or less, learning about even and odd numbers and updating our calendar for a new month and a new year.  Of course the calendar change meant we had to dance Marcarena Months!

Before dancing Macarena Months we lined up to see if everyone had partners........were we an odd or even number.

Happy New Year Room 101!

Happy New Year Room 101!

Mrs. Parnell and Mrs. Hoyt are looking forward to seeing everyone and hope all have had an enjoyable and restful vacation.

Our resolutions include plans to hit the ground running in 2015 and continue working hard educating your children!  We will be jumping into capital letters, creating our own dictionaries, studying creatures that live in the ocean, counting to 100 and learning more about one another in our study of blankets, quilts and afghans!  Whew, January sure will be busy!

Please be sure to double check the schedule and help your child send in their special blanket/quilt/afghan on the appropriate day.  Help them by discussing its attributes (what it looks like), where/when they got it, what makes it special to them and what they like to do with it (read a book, sleep, watch a movie).