Personal Narratives

We have been working SO HARD on our Personal Narratives this week in school! With our remote learning week ahead we really wanted to complete our Personal Narratives before the Thanksgiving Break. This was a lofty goal for kindergartners, but they rose to the challenge and we were impressed with their final products. Their final products are published below and each student posted in their Seesaw account. Please remember the following:

Love and Support your New Writer.

  

Do you remember the joy of watching your child take his or her first steps?  Those first wobbly steps are so magical!  When children first begin to take those first timid steps, it doesn't look much like walking.  A child may stumble and fall hundreds of times, but, cheered on by his adoring caregivers, he or she keeps trying.  We know that the stumbling is part of learning to walk, and we celebrate the effort the child is making.

 

Learning to write isn’t all that different from learning to walk.  When children first begin to make marks on the page, it doesn’t always look like writing.  And yet, when we celebrate all that they are trying to do as writers, children will continue to try.  When they continued to try, they get better at writing - and that is our goal!

 

Throughout the year we will send home samples of your child's writing, so you can see the growth your child is making, and so you can encourage and celebrate all that your child is doing as a writer.  Here are some things you can say to encourage your child along the way:

• Wow! You’ve done so much writing!

• Can you tell me about some of your writing?

• I can tell that you’ve been working hard.

• I love looking at your writing.
  
  

Sometimes beginning writers have trouble remembering what their writing says.  If that happens you might say, “You’re the writer.  What did you want it to say?”  Or ”Let’s look at your picture.  Is there something in the picture that can help you remember what you wanted to say?”

 

Watching your child learns to write can be just as magical as watching your child learn to walk.  So enjoy the moment and celebrate the process!

Elliott's Personal Narrative

Jordan's Personal Narrative

Jake's Personal Narrative

Patrick's Personal Narrative

Ava's Personal Narrative

Mark's Personal Narrative

Myles' Personal Narrative

Amelia's Personal Narrative

Lainey's Personal Narrative

Olivia's Personal Narrative

Giovanni's Personal Narrative

Luke's Personal Narrative

Thanksgiving Songs & Turkey Day with our 4th Grade Partners

We have been learning a few Thanksgiving songs at school and today we sang them to our 4th grade partners. Our singing was a warm up for our students to practice so they could sing to their families on Thanksgiving. As you can see it is hard to hear some of the singing because of our masks. If your family chooses to sing these songs at Thanksgiving please video record and share them with us. We'd love to see them!

I'm A Little Turkey

Timothy Turkey

Albuquerque  Turkey

Thanks A Lot

We had a turkey day with our 4th grade partners. We made coffee filter, tie dye turkeys. We labeled a turkey, colored a turkey by code. We read Where Is the Turkey positional word book and the kindergartner moved the turkey to that position near the barn. We then had snack outside with our partners. It was a FUN morning!

Happy Thanksgiving. We hope all our families have a wonderful holiday celebration. Please be safe!

Fine Motor Work & Getting Ready for Remote Learning

 This week we worked a lot on our fine motor abilities. We painted most mornings this week getting prepared for some winter themed crafts to be sent home before the December break. Based on the video update released this afternoon, from the Assistant Superintendent, Patrick Larkin, I'm glad we started these crafts early! A special thank you to Mrs. Papadonis, one of Pine Glen's secretaries who came down to help us with a multi-day painting project that needs to be done one at a time. Since we are not allowed to have parent volunteers in to help us, we have needed to be creative to find some extra help!

We also spent some time practicing getting onto a Google Meet, setting an alarm and we had our second remote session on Monday afternoon. We were impressed with our students and their ability to navigate the Google Meet. Hopefully things will transition smoothly when the time arises for us to learn remotely.

Library was also a highlight of our week. Ms. Guild came to our classroom and read us a book about Pies, getting us ready to indulge in desserts for Thanksgiving. We then walked down to the outside library and to choose books. We LOVE to read our new library books. 

We had our second sight word test and our third math test of the year today. The kindergartners are AMAZING! So proud of all their efforts at school. All our students are trying so hard at school and learning so much. Room 101 students have filled their popcorn jar for the third time. We will hopefully be voting on our class reward on Monday. Pine Glen as a whole earned enough Hoot Cards for the month of November that extra recess on the playground was earned. We will be out on the playground on Tuesday and Wednesday for 30 minutes with our Room 102 K friends.

Scientists Explore Pushes and Pulls

 

Recently scientists in grades K and 4 worked together to explore forces.  They investigated the question:  "What makes things move." Collaborating in socially distanced teams students visited eight stations to observe, theorize and evaluate ideas on pushes and pulls. Conversations were had and scientific language was used as 4th graders explained to the kindergartners about gravity and varying forces.  Our research was as lot of fun! We investigated the power of wind, how magnets work, why bowling pins fall down, and how to play shuffleboard.  We also observed a model of Newton's cradle, tested stomp rockets and some magnetic ramps and gears. It was an amazing morning! All students were engaged in their learning for the duration of our Funomena stations. Our morning went by so FAST.