Working Hard in Room 3!

This is a kindergarten teacher's favorite time of year.  Not only because spring is in the air and warmer temperatures mean a little extra recess time, but also because kindergarteners make SO much progress!   We literally see growth from day to day in all areas.  I'm looking forward to sharing some great things with you next week during our parent/teacher conferences. 


You may have heard about our friends "The Tricky Teens."  They visited us every day for about a week.   There was a dilemma, however, and we were quite concerned about it.  It seemed that 10 was having a party and all of her Tricky Teen friends were invited....except 15!  For some reason, he didn't get an invitation.  He was very sad and we were just beside ourselves with worry.   All of the other teen numbers tried to help but to no avail.  For a week 15 waited and waited hoping to get an invitation.  Finally, 10 showed up. Low and behold, it was all a big misunderstanding.  She DID have an invitation for her friend 15 and, in fact, she invited all of us too!   We all had a great time at 10's party, especially 15! 

Last week, we were able to visit Chamberlin's "Invention Convention."  Some of our friends in grades 3 through 5 came up with some very creative inventions.   We talked about some of their ideas and came up with a few of our own! 

Anja explained her invention to us.  It's an umbrella with a transparent rain shield for those wet and windy days!

This week, we were visited by some students from the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.  They taught us to watch out for things that might LOOK tasty but could really be dangerous.  We learned that some medicines or even household cleaners can look like treats.  We learned to say "It may look yummy, it may smell good, but before I taste it, I will ask if I should." 

Champ was the special guest at our school assembly this week!  He and his friend from the Vermont Lake Monsters let us know that it will be Chamberlin School Night at the ball park on June 21.   Information about tickets was sent home in your child's folder today. 

IMPORTANT DATES

April 4-7 Scholastic Book Fair in the library

April 6 - Special Vote for our School Budget

April 6 - 7 Half Days (11:30 dismissal) Parent/Teacher Conferences

May 12 - MOTHER'S DAY BREAKFAST 8:00 - 9:30

Quote of the Week: 

Today one of the kids asked what I was doing after school.  I explained that I have a hair appointment and asked what I should do with my hair.  Here are the answers...

"Get it straight.  It has too many curls and waves."

"Black!  Yes.  Turn it black."

"No...PINK!!"

"Make it short. VERY short. And spiky."

"NO...keep it the same.  It's just right." ♥









A Snowy (short) Week in Room 3!

It occurred to me that most, if not all, of the kids in room 3 have NEVER seen this much snow in their lifetime!  It certainly has been a long time since we had a storm like that one!  While the two snow days slowed us down a bit, we still had a busy week. 


We were so excited to do some coding and programming with the Bee Bots.  Students worked in pairs to create a path for their Bee Bot to move from one point to another.  Once the code was established, the Bee Bots were programmed to follow the path.  It was great to see the kids working so well together to make decisions and solve problems.   After a few successes, teams were given a challenge.  Obstacles were placed on the grid, making it necessary to create an alternative path.

We are looking forward to new challenges with the Bee Bots over the next several weeks. 

The leprechauns were up to no good in room 3.  We came back from recess to find a mess in our classroom AND this tiny little door...

As we were cleaning up the mess, we noticed this...

Well, needless to say, we took that as challenge.  The kids got to work planning a trap.   We decided that we would need to trick the leprechaun into believing that we had some real gold in our classroom.  We used all of our big yellow Legos for that.   We propped up a box with a BIG rock duct-taped to the back.   The kids made arrows with notes to lead the leprechaun straight to the trap.  Then we went to music and P.E.  





Well, it worked like a charm!  When we got back from P.E., the box was knocked down and look what we found underneath...

Golden-wrapped CANDY!   We counted them out and found there were enough for everyone to have TWO!!

I wonder if we'll ever see our yellow Legos again....

IMPORTANT DATES

*  Tuesday, March 28 - K-2 Spring Concert 6:30 p.m. in the gym

*  Friday, March 31 - No School - Teacher In-Service

* April 6 and 7 - Early Dismissal - Parent/Teacher Conferences 

* Friday, May 12 - MOTHER'S DAY BREAKFAST!!!  

QUOTES of the WEEK: 

"I think it was that LEPRECHAUN who messed up my BEDROOM!!"  

"That leprechaun needs to go back to China where he came from."  

 

Welcome Back!

Even though it was a short week, the days after a vacation always seem to be VERY productive.  We hit the ground running with new work in both literacy and math. 


This week, we learned the importance of being able to "retell" a story that we've read.  We should start at the beginning, tell what happened in order, and include all of the details that we remember.  In order to practice this skill, we now have some little stuffed friends to help.  After all, it's a little strange to retell a story to YOURSELF!  Our retell buddies come out during Readers' Workshop time.  They are very good listeners and they give us plenty of opportunity to practice this important skill. 

So glad I hung onto my son's old Beanie Baby collection!  (Shhhhh...)

In math this week, we started working with numbers that are "ten and some more."  The teen numbers tend to be very tricky for kindergarteners, primarily because their names do not have a pattern like numbers in the other decades.   We are working on counting and writing teen numbers as well as making different combinations to ten.  Next week, some VERY special visitors will be in room 3 to help us learn more about teen numbers. 

On Wednesday, we started our morning with some movement!  Sarah Cover from Urban Dance Company (and Curtis, Quincy, and Viv's mom...) did some movement activities with ALL of the kindergarteners!  We enjoyed it so much that we've asked her to come back!  We will have some movement time with Sarah for the next five or six weeks.  Thanks Sarah!

QUOTE of the WEEK: 

"I can dance.  I don't even have to tell my body what to do. 

It just DOES it."