Kindergarten With Mrs. Morris

March comes in like a lion...

2011-03-26T13:56:00.000-04:00

Yes, spring has finally arrived and we are busy at work and thinking about all things spring! Each day we're keeping up with the weather and marking down "Lion" or "Lamb" days, and so far the lamb days are winning! We also made lion and lamb faces to decorate our bulletin board in our classroom.

March also brings the Birthday of Dr. Seuss, and we enjoyed celebrating with a Dr. Seuss book-a-thon reading all our favorites. We also made Cat in the Hat hats to wear for our special Green Eggs and Ham breakfast!

In keeping with the spirit of green things, St. Patrick's day was celebrated by making Leprechaun hats with a shamrock with green construction paper. We also talked about times in our lives that we felt "lucky" and the children each wrote a little piece entitled My Lucky Day.

We celebrate Reading Month in March, and the school-wide theme is Circus. The Kindergarten classes each read a book with the circus theme and then created a bulletin board which illustrated the book. We read Circus: A Pop-Up Adventure by Meg Davenport and then created fancy elephants similar to the illustrations in the book.

The tent was HUGE! Inside it smelled like popcorn, cotton candy and ELEPHANTS!

~From Circus!

As part of our March Reading Month, we had a wonderful visit from therapy dogs who happen to love to have children read to them--imagine that! With three different dogs in our room, the children had a chance to get close to these dogs and were all anxious to share a favorite book. I don't know who enjoyed it more, the kids or the dogs! It prompted us to sing a favorite song.

There's a dog in the school, oh no!

What are we going to do?

As long as there are dogs in the school

They'll have to learn the alphabet too!

(This is the part where we bark out the alphabet song!)

100 Days and Beyond!

2011-02-27T08:57:00.000-05:00

February means Groundhog's Day, Valentine's Day, President's Day, Black History Month, and also
marks the month we hit our 100th day of school. How far we've come in those days! We have finished our pre-decodable readers, which have been full of the sight words we've been learning, and have moved on to decodable readers, in which the children will utilize their phonics skills to a greater extent. The children can not only put into practice their knowledge of letter sounds in their reading, but in their writing as well and can now add words to their picture stories. All year we have been learning the mechanics of writing. We know that all sentences need a capital letter to start and an end mark (.?!) at the end. We also know that sentences are composed of individual words with spaces between (we use our finger to 'finger space' our words when writing).

This month we learned about presidents--especially two whose birthdays we celebrate; Lincoln and Washington. There are many good age-appropriate biographies on these famous historical characters, and the children enjoyed books such as Abe Lincoln's Hat by Martha Brenner, Abe Lincoln Remembers, by Ann Turner, and A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln, and A Picture Book of George Washington both by David A. Adler. In honor of George Washington, we made three cornered hats to wear and learned the old song My Hat It Has Three Corners.

My hat, it has three corners,
Three corners has my hat
And had it not three corners,
It would not be my hat!

And take a look at the fantastic project we did in recognition of Abraham Lincoln! The children painstakingly drew lines with a ruler on the outline of Abe, and then colored a pattern with red and blue. This was the result!

January is Cold!

2011-01-22T12:46:00.000-05:00

With Christmas far behind us, we are immersed in the real cold of a typical Michigan winter. Never fear, though, Mrs. Morris's class is staying warm inside and keeping busy with activities that reflect the cold weather outside. We have read stories with winter themes, such as Ezra Jack Keats, The Snowy Day, I Am Snow by Jean Marzollo, and The Snow Child, retold by Freya Littledale. Snowmen (or snowchildren) are recurring themes in many of these stories, and our students created their own Snowpeople using cotton balls and adding their own finishing touches.

January is also the time we learn about the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and how he helped change unfair laws in our country. There are many good children's biographies about this great figure in American History. Two of the students' favorites are Happy Birthday Martin Luther King by Jean Marzollo, and A Picture Book of Martin Luther King Jr. by David A. Adler. We also learned an old folk song from Post-Civil War times called Oh Freedom, which was sung on the morning of Martin Luther King Jr. famous "I have a dream" speech in Washington D.C. The students put their artistic skills to the test by drawing fantastic portraits of Martin Luther King Jr. We certainly have some very talented artists in this class, as you can see here!

January is also the time we begin learning the Fifty Nifty United States song by Ray Charles. No doubt you have been already hearing your child singing this song at home! We're learning how to locate each state on the map as we learn a new one each day--in alphabetical order! This is the version we're learning. Feel free to sing along with your child!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_HeLofy7IE

For November...

2010-11-28T09:44:00.000-05:00

In keeping with the season, the last couple weeks were spent learning about the pilgrims and their journey across the ocean to make a new home in a strange land, as well as the role the Native Americans played in their transition. We read may books on this topic, such as The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern, and learned songs (on subjects that include turkeys, Pilgrims, and Native Americans) that we all enjoyed singing again and again! We also spent a morning doing some fun turkey activities such as graphing flannel turkey feathers, making an edible turkey out of an Oreo, and fashioning a turkey hat to wear home. What fun we had!

In other things, we've been working on some new sight words and practicing them in our Take-Home Readers and writing them in our journals. Words to add to your sight word list are: yes, no, this, brown, five, six. I have also been sending home a phonics word list each week so that your child can practice using the sounds we've studied to form words. I'm sure you are impressed with your child's progress in reading!

For math, we've been working on beginning addition, counting (the goal is 130!), and ordering numbers 0-20. I sent home numbers 0-10 for students to practice putting in order. We are also working on recognizing coins (names of coins and their value) and have started counting pennies. The children are learning a song about the penny that they enjoy singing--you will have to ask them for the tune!

Abe Lincoln had a big long beard,
He wore a big tall hat,
He was our 16th president,
Now what do you think of that?

If you want to see his face,
This is what you do,
Just find a penny, pick it up,
His face will look at you!

Next week we begin thinking about the Christmas holidays. It's difficult to believe the season is already upon us!

What's Been Going On...

2010-11-06T12:50:00.000-04:00

Time to do some catching up! In the last couple of weeks, we have learned two new color words, those opposites, black and white, and two new songs to help us remember how to spell them:
Black (sung to the tune of Put Your Little Foot)

B-L-A-C-K, B-L-A-C-K, B-L-A-C-K spells black!

George Washington's hat is black,

And some cats are black,

So if you really, really like black,

All you need to say is...

B-L-A-C-K, B-L-A-C-K, B-L-A-C-K spells black!

B-L-A-C-K, B-L-A-C-K, B-L-A-C-K spells black!

White (sung to the tune of Little Brown Jug)

W-H-I-T-E that spells white, sing with me,
Milk is white and so is glue,
Ghosts are white and they say BOO!
W-H-I-T-E that spells white, sing with me,
The clouds above, the snow below,
Santa's beard, HO HO HO!

Our letter focus for the last three weeks have been Pp, Aa, and Nn. We had fun learning songs called Penelope's Picnic, Apple Annie, and Nellie the Nurse. Each Friday we conclude our letter focus with a step-by-step drawing of one of the characters in the song we've learned that week. For Pp we drew Penelope Pig, and for Aa it was Alligator. Hanging in the room at the moment is your child's latest drawing of Nellie Nurse! Next week we start the letter Mm with a song called Marvin the Monkey.
Your child can now use his/her phonics skills to read (decode) many words, and the first decodable word word list went home last Thursday.

Sight words to add to your flashcard list are he, she, big, small, have, and for next week our new words are, no, it, this. The pre-decodable reader sent home in the Reading Folder each week will help your child practice these words. Please keep these books at home (and send the folder back to school) each week so you're child can have access to them during the week.

Last week...

2010-10-16T11:28:00.000-04:00

We enjoyed a wonderful outing at Klackle's Orchard on Monday. The kids went on a wagon ride out to the apple orchard and got to pick a bag of apples. Then on to the pumpkin patch where each could choose the perfect pumpkin. After that lunch topped off by homemade doughnuts and cider milled right there at the farm. By the time we had played in the giant sandbox, ridden tricycles around a track, and played in a miniature old west village, we were ready to get back on the bus and head for home laden with apples and pumpkins to share with our families!

This week also brought a new letter focus--the letter 'Tt'. We learned a new song about Tommy Tiger, and traced and cut out "T's" on construction paper, and then decorated them with tissue paper. On Friday we learned how to draw a picture of a truck.

Our new color word was 'orange' and we learned a new song to help us spell that color. Sing to the tune of Ten Little Indians:

O-R-A-N-G-E orange,
O-R-A-N-G-E orange,
O-R-A-N-G-E orange,
Orange like the juice you like to drink!
O-R-A-N-G-E orange,
O-R-A-N-G-E orange,
O-R-A-N-G-E orange,
Orange like the fruit you like to eat!

Our new sight words for the week were and & we. We practiced reading these words and review the others we have learned with a pre-decodable reader called We See. The children are all doing a good job learning to 'track' their words as they read, which just means they point to each word as they read it.

Last Week...

2010-10-10T08:59:00.003-04:00

We finished up our four basic shapes with the rectangle. Now your child should be able to identify circle, square, triangle, and rectangle. If they can do this successfully, they will be awarded a red math ribbon on stage during our end of the month awards ceremony! Here's the song for rectangle (sung like the others to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell).

A rectangle's like a door,
A rectangle's like a door,
Two sides short
and two sides long,
A rectangle's like a door!

Green was our color of the week. We learned how to spell the word and also what two colors mixed together make green. Do you know? Yellow and Blue! We read a story called Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni, and acted out the story with our own Little Blue and Little Yellow made out of play dough!

Here are the words to the Green song (sung to BINGO):

There is a color we all know can you guess what it is?
G-R-E-E-N, G-R-E-E-N, G-R-E-E-N
And green is what that spells!

The grass and leaves outside are green as green as they can be,
G-R-E-E-N, G-R-E-E-N, G-R-E-E-N
And green is what that spells!

Letter Hh was our focus last week. We learned a song called Hippo Hop, and drew a picture of Harvey Hippo on Friday. These are displayed in the classroom this week.

Wednesday we had a visit from the Big Rapids Fire Department. The firefighters showed the children how they put on all of their gear, including the air tank! They gave the children some good basic fire safety rules and then let us all go outside to see the big fire engine. All of the children had a chance to sit in the driver's seat! If you visit the classroom, you will find some really fantastic fire truck drawings on the bulletin board outside the room that we made by tracing one rectangle, one square, and two circles.

Monday, don't forget, is our field trip to Klackel's Orchard!

Last week in Kindergarten...

2010-10-02T19:12:00.000-04:00

Last week we introduced the color word yellow with a new song sung to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It."

Y-E-L-L-O-W spells yellow,
Y-E-L-L-O-W spells yellow,
Yellow is a pretty color and because you're a nice fellow
I will tell you 'bout some things that are yellow.
Bananas, lemons, and the sun are yellow,
Bananas, lemons, and the sun are yellow,
Yes all of these are yellow
And I hope you will remember,
Y-E-L-L-O-W spells yellow!

We also added a triangle song to our repertoire of shapes and traced various sizes of triangles to make designs and colored them yellow. Here's our triangle song (sung to The Farmer in the Dell):

A triangle has three sides,
A triangle has three sides,
Up the hill and down and back,
A triangle has three sides.

It's important when singing the shape songs to trace the shape in the air using your sky writer (which is your pointer finger, of course!).

Our letter focus was Gg and we made paper gumball machines and drew a picture of Gus the Goat to reinforce the letter sound. Next week we'll be learning about Hh! We are really working on writing these letters properly as we learn them. We have a song we like to sing about where to start your letters when you put your pencil on the paper to remind the children of proper letter formation. Ask your child, "Where do you start your letters?" and hopefully the answer you'll get will be, "At the top!"

Last week four new sight words were introduced: a, an, here, is. We practiced these words with our new pre-decodable reader, Lunch. Our word from last week, the was also reviewed. Next week we will be adding two more words: I, see.

Each week we are also introducing number words. So far we have learned one and two, and next week (quick! take a guess!) three.

Last Week...

2010-09-27T20:11:00.000-04:00

Last week we read our first pre-decodable reader to practice our new sight word the. The children learned how to "track," which means to point to the words while they are reading. We are also learning to use the pictures for clues when we come to an unfamiliar word.

Our color word for last week was blue and we learned a new song to help us remember how to spell it. Sing it to the tune of Frère Jacques or Are You Sleeping Brother John.

B-L-U-E, B-L-U-E
That spells blue, that spells blue,
Blueberries are blue,
And big blue eyes are too,
Blue, blue, blue
Blue, blue, blue

Our letter focus was "Oo" and we practiced saying the short 'o' sound by sining a song called "Octopus Stew." On Friday we ate Octopus Stew with Octopus Sauce, which the children discovered was actually hot dogs with 'legs' cut into them, and ketchup! Mmmmmm!

This week we will be learning some new sight words, a, an, is, here, and will take home a new pre-decodable reader on Wednesday to practice these words and review the. As we add sight words, it would be helpful make flashcards with 3x5 cards that you can review each day. You can also add our color words and number words. Last week we learned the number word one, and this week we're working on two, and the color word for the week is yellow.

Our Focus Last Week...

2010-09-18T10:30:00.000-04:00

Letter 'Ll" This week we focused on the letter 'Ll' and came up with a list of things that began with the sound of 'L'. We learned a song about Larry Lion, and did our first in a series of step-by-step drawings for our letter of the week. Come to the classroom and see our 'Larry Lion' drawings. You'll be impressed!
RED
We also focused on the color word 'Red'. We learned a song that you can sing at home too (sing to the tune of 'Three Blind Mice')!

R-E-D, R-E-D,
Red is the word,
Red is the word,
Apples and strawberries both are red,
Tomatoes and cherries are also red,
R-E-D, R-E-D
Circle
We also learned a song about Circles sung to the tune of 'The Farmer in the Dell'.

A circle goes around,
A circle goes around,
A great big wheel it never stops,
A circle goes around.

The children used their higher order thinking skills to change a circle into something. We had lions, suns, a tractor, a cat, and many more! Come see these drawings now posted on the bulletin board in front of the classroom.

Have fun singing these songs with your child. Next week letter 'Oo', the color word 'Blue', the number word 'One', and our first pre-decodable reader to practice our new sight word, 'the'!

Daily Schedule

2010-09-09T19:17:00.000-04:00

8:00-8:25 Lunch count/attendance/breakfast
8:25-9:00 Calendar Activities: days of the week, geography question of the day and map activities, telling time, high frequency word review, letter songs, Pledge of Allegiance.

9:00-9:40 Language Arts--Open Court Reading
(Fridays-Library at 9:00-9:20)

9:40-10:00 Recess

10:00-10:55 Language Arts--Open Court Reading (cont) and Saxon Phonics.

10:55-11:20 Lunch
11:20-11:35 Recess

11:35-12:00 Saxon Math

12:00-1:30 Rotating work centers (workshops): Independent and group work. Children rotate through 4 ‘workshops’ (Math, Language Arts, Science/Social Studies, Art) in the room. Workshop activities are listed in weekly Lesson Plans.

1:30-2:00 Specials (gym, music, or art)

2:00-2:15 Snack

2:15-2:30 Math manipulatives

2:30-2:55 Recess

2:55-3:05 Prepare to dismiss/Dismissal (3:05)
Students get yellow folders, put in backpacks, and prepare to be dismissed out the back door.

What's New?

2010-08-19T22:11:00.004-04:00

Click above to see some highlights from last year!