Ss is for Silly Scarecrow!!

This week the Kinders focused on the letter Ss.  We identified the letter and sound at the beginning and end of words. 

We read a story called The Silly Scarecrow. To go along with the story we made our own silly scarecrows out of the letter Ss! 

One of our handwriting activities we did this week was a monster writing!  We read a story about Little Bear's first night in his new room.  He got scared a few times but to find out that our mind plays tricks on us.  I don't want to spoil the book! :) It's a good one!

They had to each think of what was under there bed.  We had things such as: stinky sock, mummy, skeleton, tractor and a piece of cheese! 

In Social Studies this week - one of our new vocab words was: model.  We learned that a model isn't the actually item.  It is a copy of something.  We played with a model jungle, town and farm! 

One of our sight words this week was: purple.  We read the story Harold and the Purple Crayon.  After reading the story we went through and identified the purple items he drew.  They each had to think of one thing that was purple and draw it on their purple circle.   We placed our circles together to make something else that is purple.... grapes! 

Another Halloween story we read for Handwriting this week was Go Away Big Green Monster! This book focused on facing our fears.  They had to pretend that they caught their own little monster in a jar.  They created it, then they had to list two words that described their monster and give their monster a name. 

Letter Ss picture sort in our journals. 

The last story we read this week for Handwriting was about a turkey.  He wanted some candy for Halloween but had no idea what his costume should be.  After reading their story they had to come up with a costume for their turkey and finish their sentence.  They turned out awesome! 

Aa is for Alligator!

The Kinders worked with the letter Aa this week.  We read a story about a boy named Zack who got an alligator as a gift from his uncle.  After the story we made alligators!

We then wrote the letter Aa on the top and wrote that big long word: alligator  - at the bottom. 

Working on some sight word work for our journals.  

Sight word fun - painting the word: have - using Q-tips. 

The Kinders were part of a BIG event this week!  They helped to set a WORLD record! Jackie Steffen from the UNL Extension Office stopped our classroom to read a book called "Quackers."  Kids all over the nation are reading this book to set a WORLD record on how many times this book gets read to classrooms all over the nation.  The event is called Read for the Record. 

This week in Science we learned about soil, rocks and pumpkins!  We learned that we use the soil to grow our pumpkins.  We also learned the life cycle of pumpkins, what we can use them for and also that pumpkins are not just orange.  Pumpkins can be: red, tan, white, green, yellow, orange and BLUE! 

Some journal work with the letter Aa. 

Finding the word:  is   - in our sight word poem. 

Stop, Drop and Roll!

This week was a short week for us - only three days of school!  With the short week - we still stayed busy.  

This week we did a review week in our reading/phonics.  We have been learning about nouns.  We read a story about a dog named Biscuit.  After we read the story we went back and identified nouns that were in the book.  We had to make sure that they went into the correct noun grop.  

This week also reviewed real and make believe.  We read the story Corduroy.   We identified that he is a make believe bear.   I had some pictures cut out and the Kinder had to decide if they are real or make believe and glue them onto our chart.  

This week was also fire safety week.  We spent the week talking about who fire fighters are, what they do for us, learning to stop, drop and roll and also learning what is safe and not safe for us to use/play with. 

Here is our fire fighters chart we filled out based on what we know already about fire fighters.  

After reading filling out our chart and reading our story, we talked about how we never want to run away from a fire fighter - even though they may look scary.  Fire fighters are our friends!  They are here to help.  We looked at real pictures of a fire fighter on our board.  We all agreed that they do look scary but we never run away from them. 

Here they are coloring their friendly fire fighters. 

This week in Social Studies we talked about homes.  I asked them what they know about homes - what they do for us, what they are like and why we have them.  We filled out our homes chart. 

After reading our story, we talked about our own homes.  I asked them the color of their homes, if they were big or little and if they had bathrooms, bedrooms and etc. in their homes. 

We came to conclude that all homes are different from each other and that each home is special.  

They had to write the word: special  - to finish our sentence.

My home is  ________.  (special) 

After that they got to color their house. 

The start of our Frankensteins! 

We did a little bit of sequencing as well.  We read the story The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything! 

After reading the story we did the actions of the items while we sequenced our story.  

I also asked them what they are afraid of.  I reminded them that everyone is afraid of something and it's ok to be afraid.  

The kinders also learned that Mrs. Bartling is afraid of something - the dark!   One kinder commented - "But Mrs. Bartling- you are old and a mom.  You can't be afraid of the dark!"  :)

It doesn't matter how old you are - you can still be afraid of something! 

Center work - writing color words. 

Our Frankensteins!

In Social Studies we also talked about different types of rooms in houses.  We learned that not everyone has those rooms in their houses.  Some Kinders had three bathrooms and some one only one!  

After reading our story we sorted some pictures.  They had to identify which room that picture would go in.  I had some pictures that could go in two rooms - but they got to choose which one they wanted to put it in (such as blankets, pillows, lamps). 

Our Fall trees up!

Working on our mummies.  They were super sticky to put together but the end result was awesome!

Our Halloween door decor! 

Our fire fighter craft.  On their hat they had to write their name on the line.  Their hats said:  Firefighter _____ (their name)