* Greater Than Less Than

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Play online here:

http://www.thegreatmartinicompany.com/Kids-Math/compare-number.html

These kids are so smart! They got this concept right away!

* I Can Read

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* Number Sense & Counting

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Counting
It all starts with COUNTING. Let children count all kinds of stuff they see during their play. Use simple counting games, such as:

Have a deck of regular playing cards minus the picture cards. Each person draws a card. The one with a higher number wins all the cards played in that round. This can teach both number recognition and counting, because the child can count those little pictures (hearts, spades, clubs, or diamonds) on the card.

A variation of the one above: deal two cards to each person. The person with a higher TOTAL wins all the cards played in that round. Children will learn basic addition!

Use any board game. Have the markers advance as many steps as a die or dice show. The child will need to count the dots on the die or dice, and then count steps to move his marker.

Lay a bunch of dominoes face down on the table. A child picks one, you pick one. The person with a higher "dot-count" gets both dominoes.

Lay a bunch of dominoes face UP on the table. A child picks one and places it on the table to start the "train". The next person picks one so that its end matches one end of a domino already laid.
Play with marbles or blocks or similar objects. You take some objects, and ask the child to take for himself as many as you have AND ONE more. Then it's the child's turn to take some, and you need to take the same amount plus one more. Reverse the game later to do ONE LESS.

* You Brush Your Teeth

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* The Wheels on the Bus

Riding the bus is always more than half the fun! We had a great bus driver. He did all the actions to the song "The Wheels on the Bus." He called "Move on back" in his mic, made the wipers swish swish, honked the horn, and bounced up and down. It was a great ride!

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* Our Very Mixed Up Field Trip!

Thank you Union Bldg Bowling Ally for letting us come!
Thank you volunteers for coming and helping!
Thank you Mrs. Probert for paying for our games!
Thank you our Teacher Friend for making arrangements for us!
Thank you boys and girls for learning step by step.

Read the story below the Smile Box Slide Show... to learn about our
Very Mixed Up Day!

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It was a crazy day!

Last August Mrs. Probert scheduled a field trip with the University Art Department. We were going to learn how to make a print stone and make many prints from it! The day of the trip, we were all ready to go. Permission slips signed. Parent volunteers were ready in the classroom. The bus was parked out front... Then, just before we were to leave, Mrs. Probert heard the phone ring. It was the University. They canceled our field trip. The teacher could not come and teach the art project.

What will we do?

We talked to the Principal. He asked us to think of a new place to go.

First we thought it would be fun to go sky diving! Yup! Sky diving.... we would have to get an airplane, parachutes.... new permission slips. But, wait... one of the boys in our class is afraid of heights... so we decided NOT to go sky diving. That made our teacher smile.

We were beginning to think we would just go to the park and play together. Then our teacher's friend (who teaches kindergarten) had a great idea to call the university bowling alley. We crossed our fingers, hoping they would be able to have us bowl there!

Yes! They said we could come. They would only charge us for the games we bowled ($1.50/game) and not charge us for shoes. That made our teacher smile, because she was paying for all of us. (Our other field trip was free).

We were sooooo excited! What size of shoe does everyone wear? Lots of little shoes to get... Lots of shoes to untie and tie! Have you ever bowled? Many of us had not! So, we had a lot to learn. We had to learn to take turns and to watch our score. We really didn't care about our score, we just had fun bowling together!

A big thank you to one of our volunteer dad's who came and helped when our lane was stalled! (This happened alot because we threw our ball too soon sometimes!)

Thanks for a happy ending!

* Duck Pond

We had a few minutes before the bus would arrive to take us back to school so we decided to walk down to the duck pond and see the ducks!

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* Puppeteer Assembly

We enjoyed several short plays with the help of some students from the audience. We also enjoyed the puppet play "The Dinosaur Egg." We learned that it is important to learn to read and write so we can write stories. Without a story, there is no puppet show! We are happy we are learning letters, sounds and words. Someday we might be a puppeteer!

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* A Very Lucky Day!

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* Making 10

We used 2 sided counters and ten frame mats to learn about "What can make ten?" Today was our Math Specialist's Birthday and we did a good job listening and learning. We learned there are many ways to make 10.

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* Character Education: Self Discipline

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Each month we are taught many great character education lessons from our friends Marvin and Jessie and our teachers. This month we are learning about Self Discipline. The kindergarten kids helped with the play this month! They did a great job!
Self Discipline:
1. Form Good Habits
2. Work Hard
3. Just Do It!
4. Stand up for your values.
Help your student understand these important ideas by talking about each one and helping him/her become self disciplined more and more each day.

* Big Learning Board

One of our favorite teaching and learning tools in our classroom is our InterWrite Interactive Learning Board. We call it the "Big Learning Board!"

This board brings power to our learning. We can bring the world into our classroom in a really BIG way. The big board is like a supersize on the wall computer.

This photo is a simple way of telling us it is time to put our coat and backpack on and ready ourselves to go home. This gives our teacher power to use her time and voice to help us in other ways besides telling us what to do. This helps us learn to be observant in our learning environment as we must notice for ourselves what needs to be done and think and process for ourselves what we are being asked to do.

This is just one simple way we use this board to communicate and to learn.
This board is powerful. We are just learning how to use the board, and we know there are very big learning days ahead!

* Literacy Night 2009

Thanks for supporting our Literacy Night. Hours and hours of planning went into this special night! The volunteer teachers put in a 13 hour day... but it was worth it! It was great to see you and your family. We missed those who were unable to come.

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* Literacy Night! DON'T MISS IT!

We are getting ready for the big night!

***LITERACY NIGHT***

6:00-7:30 Tuesday March 3, 2009

Bring the whole family!

Meet Dr. Seuss Characters...

Refreshments

Games

FREE Book for everyone!

Book Making

Reader's Theatre

Story Telling

Battleship

Puppets

Music

Face Painting (In our Classroom!)

and MORE!

See you there!

* Kindergarten Birthday Traditions!

I used the school's digital to take these pics and video. This weekend I purchased a new personal camera (mine never showed up!)... so we are back in business... You may want to hit the mute button. There is a lot of noise in Kindergarten! Most days I go home and lock myself in my room for an hour just to get my ears cooled off! LOL. Every Birthday is SPECIAL!