It's a Wrap on Our Blankets!

We have completed our blanket, quilt and afghan unit. The students really enjoyed this unit! They loved sharing their special blankets, quilts and afghans. During this unit the students practiced their oral language by asking complete questions about their special items. They practiced math skills when figuring out the length, width and area of their special items and when we used our knowledge of geometry to cut squares into triangles to create the pinwheel pattern on our paper quilts. The students had to work in cooperative groups to help each other make these paper quits. The finished products are beautiful. Please see pictures below! 

Ella and her blanket.

Ella chose to have her classmates lie down to find out the area.

Ethan and his blanket.

Ethan asked Natalia to help him measure his blanket.

Annabella and her afghan.

Annabella chose to have the students stand on her afghan to figure out the area.

Will and his blanket.

Will asked Owen to help him measure his blanket.

Steven brought in his quilt.

Steven had his friend lie on his quits to figure out the area.

Mrs. Parnell taught a mini-lesson on how to make the paper quilt. This is an example of procedural poster. She had the students actually perform each step so they would be ready to make the quilts the next morning. We referred to this poster each of the three weeks before having the students create their own paper quilts. This proceed was very successful and the quilts came out beautiful.

making the quilts

Mila and her quilt.

Natalia and her quilt.

Will and his quilt.

Owen and his quilt.

Our quilts are being displayed in the hallway outside our classroom. Many visitors have stopped by to see our beautiful work and learn more about the students in our classroom.

The students love looking at the quilts. They will be sent home some time next month for families to treasure!

Be Safe!

Safety is of the utmost importance for teachers and students. Since the beginning of the year we have talked and learned about being safe in the classroom, in the cafeteria and on the playground.  

We have practiced bus safety and what to do in 

case of a fire.

Today we read a booklet that will be sent home to all 

Pine Glen families.  How I Can Stay Safe at School!  

guides us through what to do in an emergency.  After 

reading we practice how do line up and react to directions

 the teachers give us in case of an emergency.

A school-wide drill is planned for tomorrow, January 20.  

Students are aware that we are practicing and that 

teachers keep them safe.

Further information about our drill and safety can be found 

on Mr. Lyon's blog.

Blanket Update

The students in Room 101 have been working hard on their blanket, quilt and afghan news. They are enjoying playing the 20 questions game, measuring the items and creating paper quilts! We are working hard but having a lot of fun in the process!

Natalia and Emma were measuring the length and width of Natalia's baby blanket.

Natalia chose for the students to stand on her blanket to measure the area of the blanket. 9 Kindergartners fit on the blanket- but there was standing room only! 

Harrison chose to figure out the area of his blanket by having classmates lie on his blanket. 6 Kindergartners lying down fit on Harrison's blanket.

Owen brought in our first afghan. His grandmother made it! It was beautiful.

Owen and Evan measured the length and width of the afghan.

Owen also chose to have the student lie on his afghan to figure out the area. 6 Kindergartners lying down was the area of Owen's blanket too!

Evan brought in his special frog blanket.

Evan chose to have the students lie on his blanket too. Only 3 kindergartners lying down fit on the blanket.

Mila had her classmates sit on her blanket to figure out the area. 12 students sitting on the blanket was the area!

Rocco brought in his quilt. We made comparisons between his quilt and the paper quilts that we are making. The students saw that within the quilt square on Rocco's quilt are 6 rectangles. On the paper quilt squares we are making there are many triangles!

Rocco chose to have students lie on his quilt. There was a bit more room on the quilt, but the students decided another student lying down would not fit.

Rocco and Ethan worked together to figure out the length and width of Rocco's quilt. 

On Friday's during the month of January the students are working in cooperative groups creating paper quilts for each other. Watching the collaboration and group effort on these creations is so nice to see. We have made 9 quilts so far, so we are more than half done now. We will post the completed projects soon, so please stay tuned!

The Mitten

On Wednesday, January 11th we reviewed the story The Mitten by Jan Brett. We went through the order of the animals as they entered Nikki's mitten. We talked about how the animals were living things. The students were able to prove how they knew this! We found out that 7 of the 8 animals in the mitten were mammals and one was a bird. 

Later in the afternoon, Ms. P. from the science center came and did the hedgehog show. Ms. P. reviewed all the animals in the book and highlighted the hedgehog. At the end of the show we were able to meet Pearl the hedgehog.

 

We received some sad news over the weekend. Ms. P. emailed to tell us that Pearl had passed away. We knew that Pearl wasn't well when we saw her, but we were hoping that she would recover. Ms. P. told us that hedgehogs have very short lifespans. We were lucky to have met her!

We made it to 40% on ST Math!

Great Work Room 101! We received our 40% complete postcard from JiJi. We worked really hard last week on ST Math so we are hoping to receive our 50% postcard this week!

Keeping Warm in Kindergarten!

During the month of January we will be keeping warm in Room 101. This month students have each been assigned a day in the month to bring in a special blanket, quilt or afghan. A trash bag will be sent home a day or two before it is the student's turn to bring in their special item. Please put your child's special item in this bag. We asked the students not to talk about their special item so we can have more fun with this project!

Mrs. Parnell and Mrs. Kearney started the month off and shared yesterday and today. To start the sharing we play a game of 20 questions to see if the class can figure out what is inside the bag and what features the special item may have. The students will be practicing our oral language skills by formulating their question and asking it in a complete sentence! The students need to listen to each others questions to try not to "waste" any question by asking something that has already been asked. Yesterday we had 2 wasted questions but today they did not waste any questions! That is a great accomplishment for only the second day of this game! After the 20 questions have been asked the special item is revealed and we compare and see how many things were guessed!

Then we are on to the math part of this special blanket project. The students will take turns measuring the special item using the base 10 rods. We have instructed how to measure accurately with these rods so our calculations are correct. The students will be measuring the length and width of the blankets, quilts and afghans and then we will be using nonstandard measurements to find out the area of the special items. Depending on how big the item that is brought in is the students will decide how the kindergartners will use their bodies to calculate the area. The choices are having the kindergartners stand on the blanket, sit on the blanket or lay on the blanket!

Mrs. Parnell brought Lindsay's baby quilt to kindergarten.

The area of the quilt was 6 kindergartners sitting up.

Mrs. Kearney brought Olivia's blanket into school.

Mrs. Kearney had help measuring Olivia's blanket.

The area of the blanket was 7 kindergartners lying down.


We are looking forward to seeing what our students bring in to share with us.  Here is the blanket Calendar for January.
Please mark your child's day on your calendar.
Thank you for your help!