October is here room 5 families! And that means parent-teacher conferences, fall holiday (?), and of course, Halloween! Check out what we have been exploring in room 5. Here are our co-created class agreements! We spent several weeks talking about what we would like our class to look like, feel like, and sound like. Collectively we came up with these six agreements which we all agreed to try and practice. Students then illustrated examples of each agreement. We always get asked, "Why not just tell them to do these things?" We could tell them what to do each time. And if we did then we would end up having to do it every day, all day, the whole year! By cocreating norms, the students understand what is important to them and to the class. They are more likely to remember what they want to feel like in different scenarios and also be more empathetic towards others. It takes time to cultivate perspective taking and a sense of community. Every minute spent on building a student led community is well worth it. Parent can ask, "What do you want your classroom to feel like? Sound like?" "What are some ways you can practice these agreements?" "What can you do if you make a mistake?" Room 5 students took part in math lesson demo on counting. In this lesson, Dr. Deborah helped us think about the ways we can count. Students had the opportunity to count their own jar filled with a quantity that is just right for them. Afterwards we looked at three different ways of counting and discussed the strength of each strategy. This way of of teaching and engaging students in number sense helps students build confidence in math as well as that verbal skills and explain their process and to be able to listen and learn from other strategies. In kindergarten, we focus on building strong number sense through counting, quantity recognition, and being able to understand and explain your own mathematical process. These attributes build a solid foundation for math and many future applications of math. Parents at home can support counting and number recognition by having students help count everyday objects (e.g., number of socks in the laundry, number of ingredients, at our house it's wine corks) and then ask the following questions: "How many _________ are there in this group of ____________?" "How do you know?" "Count again and what number do you get?" "What did you do when you were counting?" You can even show them how you counted and ask them "What did you notice about the way I counted?" "What made it helpful?" "What would you try from my strategy next time you count?" And remember parents, mathematicians count twice for precision! Here we are exploring the nature play area at school and having a great time learning about each other. The nature play area at school is made up of sticks, wood, mud, bricks, tires, tree stumps, bins, and lots of roly poly friends. It's a place for students to be creative with every day objects and practice the problem solving skills, language tools, and friendship building skills that we teach into in the classroom. Parents can ask, "What's your favorite thing to do in the nature play area?" "If you wanted a turn with the tire, what could you do?" "How do you stay safe when you play in the nature play area?" During reader's workshop we are learning about the different ways in which readers navigate the world. This we we learned that readers walk through the world in a special way. They don't just see things. They read things. They read names, signs, directions, and songs too! They do this by looking at words and thinking, "What might that say?". Parents can ask when reading a book together with their child, "What do you think this word might be?" "How does the picture help us figure that out?" "Does that make sense with the picture?" Parents can also use items around the house as a way to practice reading. The labels on food items such as cans and cereal boxes are a great way to introduce how reading helps us in everyday activities.
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Hi room 5 families! We can't believe that we have already finished four weeks of kindergarten. The students have transitioned really well into full days. The students are learning more about each other every day and so are the teachers. As we continue to build our classroom community, friendships, and routines, we are also learning ways to positively interact with each other through play and messages. Our social emotional lessons come in the form of group work, self reflection, read alouds, and role playing. Read on to see what we have been up to in room 5. We read the book How to Fill Someone’s Bucket and talked about what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like. Below are some of our ideas. Kinders work all year long on kindness and advocating for themselves and each other. Parents can ask,” What does it mean to fill someone’s bucket?” “What does it mean to dip into someone’s bucket?” "What does your bucket need to feel full?" Here were are thinking about the different ways a line can be turned into a different shape. We read the book, "When a line bends, a shape beings". In the story a line bends to become many different shapes that make up everyday objects. This helps kinder students to see shapes in objects that they are interested in drawing. This in turn helps to support the developmental process of shape representation in their drawings. When drawing at home and a child gets stuck on not being able to draw something particular parents can ask, "Let's think about that from a different view. What shapes do you think make up _______?" "Let's try using a ___________ shape to start the picture and see what else pops up in our minds." Here we are in library with Ms. Lisa. She is teaching us about checking out library books and how to use a space saver so that we can return books after browsing. As the year progresses with our reading instruction I will ask that students focus on choosing at least one just-right-book and a book of choice to take home from the school library. Until then, parents can ask, "How do you look for books in the library?" "Where do you return a book that you are not interested in checking out?" "What day does room 5 have library with Ms. Lisa?" In math we are working on number and quantity recognition. These two skills are a large part of being a kindergarten mathematician. Below I am showing students different quantities represented on a ten frame and asking them "How many dots do you see?" It is amazing how many ways the students come up with how they know the frame has a certain number. At home parents can do the same with playing cards. It can also be done by having students help count items needed for dinner or at the grocery store. The act of counting and recognizing that a number means a specific quantity really helps students to grasp the concept of numbers. Below we are getting to know our 5th grade buddies through games. Our 5th grade buddies are also helping us learn about using words to problem solve as well as when to wait to use our words. We read the book, "My Mouth is a Volcano" and talked about how we all have important words to share but that we also need to take turns sharing our words, We also talked about how there are better times to share our words. Parents can ask, "What does it mean your mouth is a volcano?" "What do can you do if you feel like you're mouth is about to erupt?" We've been thinking and sharing a lot about what can make our school year awesome. This will help us think of our hopes and dreams for the school year. To get us thinking about the type of classroom community we want to have we first started by looking inwards and what we each can bring to the classroom. We read the book, "Leo the Late Bloomer" about a tiger who is on its own journey to growing up and along the way finds what he is really good at. We then thought about what we are experts at to share with the class. Below is our art work. Parents can ask, "What kind of classroom do you want to be in?" "How can Ms. Salamanca and Ms. Addy help you this year?" "What can you add to your classroom community?"
Hi room 5 families! We can't believe week two of kindergarten is done. We had an exciting week of meeting our 5th grade buddies, ice cream socials, and building our class community. Below are some highlights from our week. Parents can encourage discussion about school activities and events by asking, "What was your highlight from _____________? " "Why?" "Did you have any lows?" "What could have changed it from a low to a highlight?" This week we read the books, It's Not a Box and It's Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis. Students then thought of different items that they could turn a box or a stick into. This is actually a math lesson in disguise! We had so much thinking about shapes and how they make up everyday objects. This activity integrated math and art by asking students to use their spatial skills, creativity, and perspective taking to find shapes in everyday objects and then turn it into a drawing. Parents can support their student at home by helping them notice shapes in everyday objects. When drawing at home, parents can help students notice shapes in their drawings or show them how shapes can make up different parts of their drawing. This last tip usually helps with the "I don't know how to draw that" comment. Parents can ask, "What shapes do you notice in a ______?" "I see a _______. Let's start drawing that shape and adding to it." We met our 5th grade buddies from Ms. Flower's class! We are excited to have a big buddy. Below we are sharing a book with our new friend. Having buddies gives kindergarteners a different opportunity to practice the many social emotional skills that we learn in kindergarten with an older peer. The 5th graders also in turn have the opportunity to be a role model to a kindergarten and share with them the amazing experiences that they have had being at Explorer. And everyone knows having a kindergarten buddy ROCKS! Parents can ask, "What is your buddy's name? (w'e're still working on this one)" "What do you hope to do when you have buddy time?" We met Ms. Lisa, our librarian, for the first time! Throughout the day Explorer students enjoyed a read aloud by surprise guests made up of High Tech High community members such as directors and teachers. We also had ice cream to kick off our reading journey with Ms. Lisa. We will start library with Ms. Lisa next Monday afternoon. Here we are in art class with Ms. Tasi. We are learning how to use different materials in art class such as clay, scissors, and glue. Parents can ask, "Which way do scissors point when cutting? Up or down?" "What is the glue poem?"
Hi room 5 families! It has been an incredible week filled with making new friends, learning about new routines, and exploring our school. Below are highlights from our first week of kindergarten together as well as ways for parents to support discussion with their child. Enjoy! Run, run, run as fast as you can. We caught the gingerbread man who was loose in our school! On the way we learned about important places on our campus. Below are pictures of us on our search for the sneaky gingerbread man. Parents can ask: "Where do you go if you're not feeling well?" "What color hallways is the art room in?" "What color hallway is the dance room in?" We met Coach Cribbs who teaches us about dance and exercise. Here we are meeting in the dance studio. On our first day we learned how to use different types of equipment during recess. Parents can ask: "How do you use the slide at school?" "How do you use the hopscotch at school?" "Why is it important to use it a certain way?" Here we are on the first day of school! We also graphed how we felt on the first day. Parents can ask: "What were you feeling on the first day of school? Why?" "What do you notice about the first day feelings graph?" We read the book The Color of Us and talked about the many ways we are all unique and lovely. Afterwards we learned how to use watercolor to paint and painted self-portraits. We also read the book, I'm Gonna Like Me, and talked about what makes us feel our best. We also talked about how something that makes us feel confident might be different from what makes a friend feel confident and that it is okay. We then turned it into art by using watercolors, pencil, and sharpie. To start our ongoing class discussion about kindness, we read the book Chrysanthemum. Each time the students noticed that the characters in the story were not being kind to the little mouse Chrysanthemum, we added a crumple to a picture of the main character. This helped students to visually see that our words and action affect others. We also talked about ways to uncrumple Chrysanthemum. Each time a student suggested something kind or helpful to the character we uncrumpled the picture of Chrysanthemum. Even with a lot of kindness we could still see wrinkles in the picture. That helped students see that even though apologies were said and kind things were offered, being unkind to someone can really change them. Parents can ask: "What are some ways we can uncrumple a friend at school?" "If you felt like someone is crumpling you, what can you do? What can you say?" We also met Ms. Tasi, our art teacher. On the first day of art we created journals to keep all of our new techniques that we will be learning in art class.
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Room 5Our class blog will be place for families to see what we have been exploring in the classroom. It will also contain helpful ways for families to support their child at home through discussion. The teachers will email you to let you know when the blog has been updated. Archives
March 2020
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