100th Day

Look whooooooo's 100 Days Smarter.

 We had a wonderful 100th day of school on Friday with

many fun "100" activities in math, writing, art, and cooking.

We made 100th day hats... that turned into glasses by the end of the day. : )

The children LOVED stamping to 100.

They were SO, SO creative when asked, 

"What can you make from the number 100?"

We also drew what we think we'll look like when we are 100, what we'd buy with 100 dollars, and made this snack:

Happy 100th Day, Kindergarten Friends!

Penguin Experts

My kindergarten friends have really enjoyed studying Penguins.

 I am so thrilled with the amount of information that they have learned about these unique birds. 

They are true penguin experts!

I love hearing my 5 and 6 year old friends using terms like brood pouch, waddle, barbs, and regurgitate- or discussing their favorite species of penguin. 
(Emporer, Little Blue, Rockhopper, and Macaroni have been the "top picks")

Here are some of the fun things that we did during our Penguin unit:

 We drew penguins ... using help from this site.
These make me SMILE!

We made an anchor chart about penguins that included our schema and new knowledge.

We made a penguin tree map and these ADORABLE penguins from:

We read many, many great non-fiction penguin books to gather information... and then we wrote our own facts. 

We drew penguins in our science notebooks and labeled their body parts. 

Check out my penguin experts sharing their facts here:

Another free digital slideshow by Smilebox

Penguin Days!

My kindergarten friends have really enjoyed studying penguins!

(penguin tree map)


I was thrilled to learn that:

The Cincinnati Zoo

(1/2 price admission until 2/29)

and 

Newport Aquarium 

($2 child admission until 2/29)

are hosting Penguin Days right now. 

Consider checking out these fun events with your family.

Here are a couple of penguin clips from the Cincinnati Zoo that we've watched at school:

*Check back soon for another penguin post... my penguin experts will be sharing their new learning with you!*

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Kindergarten Friends,

Can you spot your Martin Luther King, Jr. portrait?

I love them all so much!

Please share what we learned about Martin Luther King with your family!

P.S. Can't wait to read all of these new winter books with you! 

Love,

Alliteration Celebration!!!

My kindergarten friends have been working super hard in Writer's Workshop! 

We just finished up our Alliteration unit. 

It was SO MUCH FUN!!!

 At the end of each writing unit I try to have a special celebration. 

For our alliteration celebration...


We read:

and

 

Each child brought an item (snack or small trinket) that started with the same sound as their name.
 (This idea came from this great blog post.)

 Kate brought Kisses and Kleenex! 

Frankie brought Fruit Roll-Ups!

 

Simon brought Star Fruit!

(...more in the Smilebox below)

We published a favorite alliteration to share with our friends. 

We chose letters and decorated our tables with pictures and words that began with that sound.

Each child read their alliteration for the audience. 

: )

We enjoyed several of their snacks at the party.

But had SO MANY things.... that each child got a HUGE bag of goodies to bring home! 


 They *loved* this, of course!

(rings, lizards, stickers, gummy bears....)

***
Check out the highlights of our alliteration party here:

This free digital slideshow personalized with Smilebox

***

Parents,

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SENDING IN ITEMS. 

The party was an awesome success, thanks to you!

Kindergarten Friends,

I am SO, SO proud of all of you!

Keep up the awesome work. 

I am glad you {love} writer's workshop as much as I do!

Love,

           

Our Alliterations

We just finished up our Alliteration unit.

3 words: 

SO MUCH FUN!!!

The children loved writing these...

 and it was great practice with our beginning sounds. 

Check out all of our alliterations here:

Personalize your own picture slideshow

Check back tomorrow to see how much fun we had at our Alliteration Party!!!

If You're a Kid...

My kindergarten friends LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this song. They *beg* me to play it each day and to add it to the blog so that they can share it with their family. 

It is super fun and perfect for listening and following directions. 

WARNING: It will get stuck in your head. 

Don't forget to hit "full screen".


I {love} Harry Kindergarten!! 

Our New Year's Resolutions

I loved welcoming my students back from Winter Break. They all had so many fun stories to share. 

Today we discussed our new year's traditions and we wrote our resolutions.

I can see their little personalities in the paper they chose for their hats! : ) 

(I was inspired by this post from Mrs. Morrow's Kindergarten)