100th Day!

We had a great time celebrating our 100th day of school today! We started our day by seeing what we would look like as 100 year olds. :) They thought they looked hilarious!  We also had 100 second moments throughout our day.  When they heard the "bell" ring, they froze and we did an activity for 100 seconds.  (chicken dance, hopping, clapping, statue, etc..) They realized that 100 seconds is longer than it sounds. We did math activities and had a 100th day trail mix for snack.  

Counting out 100 Froot Loops for our necklaces.

Freeze like a statue for 100 seconds.

We are 100 days smarter!

Our class of 100 year old students. :)

Snack time!

100 seconds of being a chicken. 

                         Hopping for 100 seconds! 

Building with 100 cups.....

We Are Scientists!

We started our new science program this week!  We started by asking the question...What is a scientist? 
We brainstormed our ideas and put them on a chart. We read a book called "What is a Scientist?" and then wrote down new learning from the book. We realized that we are all scientists! The kids wrote words from the chart to go with the statement.... I am a scientist because...... Too cute for words!!

Determining Importance

Our reading comprehension strategy for this month is to determine importance when reading or listening to an informational book.  This means we are deciding if a fact is important to our learning, or if it is just interesting to know.  When we write about a topic we want to use the most important facts. 
We did an anchor lesson using "my" purse.  We decided what was most important, kind of important, not important.  We had some great discussions about the items and their importance. 

MLK Portraits

The kids made portraits of Martin Luther King Jr. and picked one important detail to write, about his life. 

MLK Jr. "Egg" Lesson

We read some good informational books about Martin Luther King Jr. today.  I wanted the kids to know why we have the day off on Monday.  I love how upset kindergarteners get when they hear that not everyone was treated equally. 
"That's not fair!" is expressed very strongly. :) 
One of my favorite lessons to teach each year is the brown egg/white egg lesson. The kids got into groups and were given a brown egg and a white egg.  They filled out a "T" chart and wrote down ways to describe each egg. We got back together as a whole group and discussed how the eggs were the same and how they were different.  We discovered that the only difference was the color of the shell.  The eggs were opened (where the kids couldn't see) and we looked at the inside.  I asked the kids to tell us which yolk was from the brown egg and which was from the white egg. They look exactly the same on the inside!
The kids learned that although our "shells" may look different we are all the same on the inside. 

Using our senses to describe the eggs.

Using a "T" chart to write describing words about each egg.

They look exactly the same on the inside!

Retelling Stories....

We have been learning about retelling stories by talking about the characters, setting, problem and solution in a story.  We have also learned about the beginning, middle and end of a story. We made retell/beginning, middle, end ropes to help us remember the order. We practiced retelling The Three Billy Goats Gruff and The Three Little Pigs. 

Retell Ropes

Retelling "The 3 Little Pigs" with a partner.

We Love Playing Math Games!

Dice Game

Top-it 

Monster Squeeze! 

Math Computer Games