A Peek At Our Week!

Sunday, November 27, 2022 No comments

 I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'm looking forward to welcoming my Room 115 friends back tomorrow!

Important Dates:

December 9th:
Early Release
12:25pm Dismissal

December 26th-January 2nd
Holiday Break
No School

Announcements:

Class Picture Re-Takes
Due to the poor quality of the class pictures this year, retakes have been scheduled for this Tuesday, November 29th. 

Gifts for Kids
A friendly reminder that our class is sponsoring a child for the holidays through the Gifts for Kids program. If you would like to contribute a gift, please send me an email or quick note to let me know that your child has permission to pick a tag from the class poster. Thank you!

Warm Clothing Accessories Drive
Mrs. Galvin's third grade class will be collecting warm clothing accessories during the holiday season. Please click here for more information.

Curriculum Update

Our short week before Thanksgiving was a great time to complete many fall and Thanksgiving themed activities! I hope you enjoy a few of the highlights below.








The students above have fun as they play a pattern block turkey game!





The children also got some extra practice with their counting and number writing skills as they completed a Thanksgiving themed Write the Room activity.

It was also an exciting time in our specials as the students were introduced to instruments in music and paint in art!






Thanks so much for taking a peek at our week! Please check back soon to watch us learn, grow, and play in the wonderful world that is K!


Sunday, November 20, 2022 No comments

 It was another fun and busy week in Room 115! Please enjoy a few updates below.

Important Dates:

November 23rd:
Early Release Day
12:25pm Dismissal

November 24th and 25th:
Thanksgiving Break
No School

Curriculum Update:

Fundations
Last week in Fundations the children learned about the letters h, k and l. We also practiced reading the sight words "had" and "did". Our color of the week was white!

Reader's Workshop
Last week in Reader's Workshop we discussed and explored old storybook favorites like The Three Billy Goats Gruff! We learned that when we hear a story over and over we can start to recite/read that story ourselves!

Writer's Workshop
In Writer's Workshop we continued to work on our "All About" books which focus on Boyden School. We learned that writers talk about and share their writing with others, and identify things they are proud of, as well as things that were tricky for them when creating their pieces.








The writers above share their "work in progress" pieces with a partner.

Math
Last week in math the class began to explore geometry concepts, specifically how to compose and decompose shapes. Using pattern blocks we discovered that three triangles make a trapezoid, and two trapezoids make a hexagon!

Happy Birthday Teddy Bears!
Celebrating the 120th birthday of the teddy bear was a highlight of our week! In addition to completing many teddy themed activities, we also enjoying reading the books Bear Counts and Corduroy.






                         The students above use unifix cubes to measure the height of their teddy bears.






Thanks so much for taking a peek at our week! I hope everyone has a happy, healthy Thanksgiving! 🦃

A Peek At Our Week!

Sunday, November 13, 2022 No comments

 I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed Saturday's beautiful weather! It was another busy week in Room 115. Please enjoy a few updates below!

Important Dates:

November 23rd:
Early Release Day
12:25pm Dismissal

November 24th and 25th:
Thanksgiving Break
No School

Announcements:

Turkey Projects
A friendly reminder that your child's turkey in disguise project is due tomorrow (Monday). I am looking forward to seeing all of their creative designs!

Happy Birthday Teddy Bears!
On Wednesday, November 16th the kindergarten classes will celebrate the 120th birthday of the teddy bear! The children are invited to wear their comfy pjs and bring a teddy bear (or other furry friend) to school on this day to celebrate. We will also be participating in many fun teddy-themed activities in class. It is sure to be a beary fun day! 

Quiet Time Towels
Your child's quiet time towel was sent home on Thursday for washing. Please return your child's clean towel to school tomorrow for Quiet Time. Thank you!

Curriculum Update:

Fundations
Last week in Fundations the children learned about the letters p and j. We also practiced reading the sight words "at" and "up". Our color of the week was pink!




Math
Last week in math we continued to explore numbers 0-10. Our week began by learning about tally marks and how they can be helpful for organizing our numbers and counting by fives. The class had a great time representing numbers 5-10 by using popsicle sticks as tally marks!






The class also enjoyed completing their first Write the Room activity! Write the Room is a fun way to get the students up and moving, and can be done for any subject area. The students below had to count and write the number of tally marks on their recording sheet for last week's Write the Room.





Reader's Workshop
In Reader's Workshop we continued to build our early reading skills last week. The class practiced rereading familiar nonfiction texts and worked hard to notice new details in the pictures that they may not have seen before. At the end of the week we practiced noticing words in the texts that we have become experts on.

Writer's Workshop
Last week in Writer's Workshop we started our very first multi-page books! While each child is creating their own Show and Tell text, we are all writing about the same topic, Boyden School! The topic of each child's first page was all about our classroom. They are now working on subsequent pages about different places in our building including the cafeteria, media/stem lab, playground, and gym!

Social Studies
In Social Studies we learned about Veterans Day and the heros in the armed forces who keep us safe from the land, air, and sea. We also discussed what it means to be patriotic and how we show our patriotism each day as we say The Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you to all of our veterans both past and present!

Boyden Buzz Podcast
I am excited to share that our class will be featured on a November episode of the Boyden Buzz podcast! Last week Mrs. Carol and some her of fifth grade technology helpers stopped by our classroom to start recording each child as they shared something that they are thankful for. Be on the lookout for the completed episode which should be posted in the next week or so!



Thanks so much for taking a peek at our week! Please check back soon to watch us learn, grow, and play in the wonderful world that is K!

A Peek At Our Week!

Sunday, November 6, 2022 No comments

 I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and was able to enjoy the AMAZING weather! It was another busy week in Room 115. Please enjoy a few of the highlights below!

Important Dates:

November 11th:
Veterans Day
No School

November 23rd:
Early Release Day
12:25pm Dismissal

November 24th and 25th:
Thanksgiving Break
No School

Announcements:

Parent/Teacher Conferences
Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me over the past two weeks for Parent/Teacher Conferences. I enjoyed getting to speak with so many families about the transition to K, and all of the wonderful things your children have accomplished during our first few months together! Although formal confereces are not available again until the spring, please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions or concerns you have about your child's progress. Thank you!

Quiet Time Towels
Your child's quiet time towel was sent home on Friday for washing. Please return your child's clean towel to school tomorrow for Quiet Time. Thank you!

Curriculum Update:

Pumpkin Fun!
Monday was a spectacular time for science and math as we participated in some pumpkin fun! We began our exploration by learning about the parts of a pumpkin and the pumpkin life cycle. All of this learning culminated in an exciting activity that involved opening and exploring a real pumpkin!



After opening an orange pumpkin we decided to open a small white gourd/pumpkin to observe the similarities and differences. The biggest differences were that the small pumpkin's seeds were MUCH smaller and the pumpkin itself was a lot smellier! 😂










Seed counting was another exciting (and gooey!) part of our pumpkin exploration. We were shocked to learn that our pumpkin had 498 seeds! That's A LOT of seeds!



Fundations
Last week in Fundations the children learned about the letters e and r. We also practiced reading the sight words "if" and "on". Our color of the week was black!



The students above can be seen completing a sight word practice paper using spacemen! These spacemen are tools which help us to make sure that we are leaving plenty of space between our words when we write.

Math
Last week in math we continued to explore the numbers 0-10 using five and ten frames. The students were also introduced to the terms "greater than" and "less than" and played a fun new game to help them compare numbers using these terms. 



We also made a new learning tool in math called a number rack! Our number racks consist of a pipecleaner with five red and five white beads. We used these beads to show different ways to make numbers 5-10.









Our number rack makers were busy at work!

Reader's Workshop
Last week in Reader's Workshop we continued our We Are Readers unit and learned that good readers reread familiar books to learn new information and notice new things in the pictures. The students below can be seen teaching their partner about a familiar nonfiction book that they had reread multiple times and felt like an expert on!








Writer's Workshop
We continued to draw our show and tell items last week and worked hard to include more detail in our pictures including where our show and tell item would be found (i.e. adding a setting). At the end of the week we transitiond from writing about special objects and to writing about special places. The week ahead will be an exciting one as the children will begin to write their first multi page book about a special place!

School Safety
Our emphasis on school safety continued last week as the class learned about being safe coming to and from school, especially on a bus. We learned about the difference exit points on the bus as well as some tips and reminders about appropriate/safe behavior when riding. Although many students do not ride the bus everyday, this information was important for all students to learn as we will all ride the school bus at some point this year when we take a class field trip.


Thanks so much for taking a peek at our week! Please check back soon to watch us learn, grow, and play in the wonderful world that is K!