The kindergarteners celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday this week. We enjoyed reading and listening to his books and learning about the author & illustrator Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss). Dr. Seuss wrote and illustrated 44 books. If he was still alive, he would be over 100 years old. One of the fun parts of Dr. Seuss’s stories are that they rhyme. Each time we read one of his books, we found all of the different rhyming words. We worked a lot on rhyming this week. We even made our own rhyming book. We also worked on identifying two different kinds of sentences, asking (questions) and telling (statements). Then we each wrote a letter to the Cat in the Hat telling him about ourselves and asking him questions. The highlight of the week was when we read Green Eggs and Ham and then made green eggs and ham. We each got an opportunity to crack open two eggs and then mix up the batter with the hand mixer.
Monday:
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! Our theme this week is Dr. Seuss.
In reading, we were introduced to our new letter sound and letter, Ww. After watching the video, we created a list of words that begin with the /w/. We noticed that some of the words started with a w and some of the words started with a wh. Ms. Torborg told us both ways make the /w/. Then we completed our letter w sorting worksheet. Next we listened to the story, Dr. Seuss. It was a biography about his life with a timeline on the bottom. We also watched a short video clip. We found out Dr. Seuss wrote and illustrated 44 books. If he was still alive, he would be over 100 years old. His real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel. His birthday is March 2nd. He wasn’t a doctor. He just put doctor in front of his name to make him sound more important. Next we were introduced to our two new sight words, look & be. As we read through our new emergent reader, My Hat, we noticed that there were questions and then answers. Finally we listened to the to the story of the Cat in the Hat. Then we made Cat in the Hat hats. The Cat in the Hat wears a very distinctive hat. It is red and white striped. We had to color the hat just like the original, red and white striped. Starting and ending with red.
During Monday Meeting, we prayed the Stations of the Cross. As Mrs. Kramer read through each of the stations, we were able to see a picture of it. Then together we prayed a short prayer.
We started our math lesson by reviewing the primary shapes. Then we used the shape cards to create new shapes ei… Two triangle together create a square, two small triangles create a large triangle, and so on. To complete some of the shapes, we had to use flips, turns, and slides. After that we created pictures using different shape pieces. First, we tried to build a specific object according to a picture. Then we had to some to create our own object/design using the same pieces. We ended math with a new game, Hundreds Game. The goal was to get the hundred block. Our game board looked just like one of our calendar activities with a ones, tens, and hundreds column. Using the Denn’s blocks (ones, tens, and hundred blocks), we tried be the first person to get the hundred block. You start by rolling a dice and taking that many single blocks (cubes). When you have 10 cubes, you can trade in for 1 ten block (a long). When you have 10 ten longs, you can trade it in for a 100 block.
Tuesday:
Our schedule was a little different today. After title and reading stations, we read the story Green Eggs and Ham. Then we made green eggs and ham. We each got an opportunity to crack open two eggs and then mix up the batter with the hand mixer. Ms. Torborg cooked our eggs and ham while we worked on some math work in groups. We had to figure out how many eggs we used if each person cracked two eggs. Then we had to figure out how many eggs were left over if Ms. Torborg brought 24 eggs to use. We also colored the Third Stations of the Cross: Jesus Fall for the First Time. Finally our eggs were done. We all agreed to at least try them just like in the book. Mmmm.... It was delicious. Everyone at least tried a bit of each. Maybe we will have it for lunch one day. We also discuss and colored the Third Station of the Cross: Jesus Falls for the First Time.
In math, we were introduced to 3-D shapes. A 3-dimensional shape is something that has more than 2 sides. A circle, square, triangle, and rectangle are flat. A sphere, cylinder, cube, cone, and rectangular prism have lots of sides. During math, we looked at each of theses shapes and then found something special about each one. We also did a little comparing- between a circle and sphere and cone and triangle.
In religion, we watched Brother Francis: The Mass- A Life Giving Prayer. Brother Francis walked us through each part of the Mass. He talked about what we do and why we do it.
Wednesday:
In reading, we listened to the story, Fox in Socks. We worked together to identify different rhyming words. Then we talked about two different kinds of sentences, telling sentences (statements) or asking sentences (questions). Telling sentences tell the reader something and have a period at the end. Asking sentences ask the reader something and have a question mark at the end. We each told Ms. Torborg a sentence that she wrote down. We had to decide if it was an asking sentence or a telling sentences and what kind of end mark write. Next we got out our emergent reader, My Hat. As we read through it, we noticed that there were asking sentences and telling sentences. The first pages asks a question and then next page answered the question all the way through the book. After that, we completed a sentence worksheet together. Ms. Torborg read the sentence and we had to put the correct punctuation mark at the end. In small group, we reviewed ck at the end of a word. First we played Spin to Win and then we completed a ck worksheet.
In religion, we completed our Olweus lesson. Today we talked about the different between telling and tattling. We also talked about when and why we should tell an adult. Then Ms. Torborg read some different scenarios and we had to decided if it was telling or tattling.
In math, we played a game called “What’s My Rule?” The teacher would call a few kids us front. We had to decide what they all had in common that no one else had. For example, they all had orange on their shirt or they all had tie shoes on or they all had something in their hair. They trick was to find the thing in common that no one else had.
We ended the day by watching some Dr. Seuss videos, The Sneetches and Green Eggs and Ham. We compared and contrasted the book with the video.
Thursday:
We started our day off by listening to the Dr. Seuss book, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. We enjoyed hearing the trouble the Cat in the Hat caused when he visited the two little kids again. We also took turns identifying the different rhyming words we hear. After our story, we reviewed our sentence end marks from yesterday, periods and question marks. Ms. Torborg told us a sentence. We had to identify what kind of sentence it was, asking or telling, and the end mark. Next we practiced our new skills by writing a letter. We started with a letter outline. Our job was to fill in the blanks. First we had to pick a Dr. Seuss character to write to. Then we had to fill in the blanks. Some of the sentences were questions and some were statements. We had to put the correct end mark at the end of each sentence. We ended our reading time with our w song and worksheet.
We started our math lesson with snack. During snack, Ms. Torborg gave us a sphere (a cheese ball), cylinder (marshmallow), cone (bugle), cube (miniature milky way), rectangle prism (vanilla wafer), circle (Ritz cracker), triangle (nacho chip), rectangle (club cracker), and a square (Cheez-it). Before we could eat snack, we had to hold up the shape Ms. Torborg called out. We also had to divide our items into 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional. We noticed right away that 3-dimensional objects are “puffy” or higher and 2-dimensional objects are flat. It was a delicious snack once we finally got to eat.
In religion, we discussed and colored the Fourth Station of the Cross: Jesus Meets His Mother Mary. We also talked about St. Kateri Tekakwitha. She was a Mohawk Indian who wanted to follow Jesus. The people around her didn’t want her to, so she escaped to Canada to live with a Christian Missionary. She is the patron saint of the environment and her feast day is July 14th.
In math, we reviewed our 3-D shapes. Them we worked on comparing 2-D and 3-D shapes. Finally, we completed a worksheet. We had to cut out the shapes at the bottom of the paper and glue them in the correct column either 2-D or 3-D.
Friday:
In Reading, we continued our work on rhyming. Today we read the Dr. Seuss story, Hop on Pop. We had fun identifying some of the rhymes in the story. We know that Dr. Seuss loved to write books that rhyme. In honor of Dr. Seuss, we created our own rhyming books. On each page of our book, there was a picture of a Cat in the Hat hat. On the bottom stripe of the hat was a CVC (consonant vowel consonant) word. Our job was to write a real rhyming word on each of the rest of the stripes of the hat.
In the afternoon, the first graders joined us to work with the BeeBots. This week we used the number mats. After dividing into groups, we were given a starting card and an ending card. First, we had to solve the problem to figure out our starting and ending number. Then we had to write the code. Finally, we could try it out by entering the code in the Bee. Once we were successful two different times, Ms. Torborg or Mrs. Peterson started adding road block to our mat. There were certain spots that were blocked, so we had to find a new route.