Over-Under-Kickball

Writer's Workshop: Students had the option to practice for our 'Written Vocabulary Game' by listing all of the words that they knew, or they chose other various topics.

Art: We completed our February self portraits - doesn't it seem like these months are just flying by?!?

Math: Since we learned about Abraham Lincoln yesterday, we did some math relating to the Penny. We first talked about the penny and it's looks - Abe's face on the front and the Lincoln Monument on the back. I explained the concept of head (Abe's Head) and tails (building). We then reviewed what it is to record something (to write it down) and why we do it (so we can keep track/remember). We flipped the penny a total of 12 times, recorded on a worksheet the result of each flip. Students then had the chance to do their own 12 flips and record, totaling at the end how many heads and tails they had total. Students then sorted themselves into those who had more heads (10 students), more tails (6 students) and equal (1 student). Then we compared within those groups how many of each they had and realized that no two students had the same tosses as another.

Pp Poster: Students drew something that started with Pp. These items were then cut out and affixed to our Pp Poster. Most students chose to draw a pumpkin, but some were creative and did a peanut, police officer, princess, or pig.

Choice: During Choice I took the opportunity to pull groups of four to do their 'Written Vocabulary Game' which is the assessment piece for written vocabulary. Students are given ten minutes to write "as many words as you know". The benchmark for March is ten words. Most students were successful. We urged students to remember simple sight words such as the, I, a, and their own name. Also the word at and the many words that rhyme with it (cat, bat, hat, mat).. Ask your student how they did, most were very proud of their accomplishments.

V.I.P. Book: Alana shared her wonderfully made VIP book and answered some interview questions.
"What animal would you be if you could be any animal?" -a rabbit
"What is your favorite cookie?" -chocolate
"What is your favorite book to read?" -Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

P.E.: Today in P.E. we learned and played Over-Under-Kickball with Miss Ciampa's class. This game involves two teams (rm. 9 vs. rm. 4) to score students on the team up to bat have to run laps around their team, who are in a line. To stop the scoring the team that is in the outfield has to form a line and pass the ball over then under each child in line. The final score of the game was
Ciampa's Class:19
Wagenaar's Class:20 :)

Alexa, Abraham, and Adding

Show and Tell: Alexa shared her doll that she got from Santa for Christmas.


Social Studies: To give an introduction to Abraham Lincoln we read a cute story about him called Abraham Lincoln's Hat. It explained that Lincoln frequently lost of forgot papers, so in order to keep track he stored then in his tall hat. Student were given a chance to color in their portrait of Lincoln and some even chose to draw in a tall hat for Mr. Lincoln.

Lifeskill Assembly: Today's lifeskill assembly recognized June for his Perseverance ("I will finish what I start"). He also was our class's representative for the three-legged race - he made us proud! We were then awarded with an extra 15 minutes of recess for excellent behavior in the month of February.


Math: We were introduced to addition. Together we talked about counting on to add two numbers. We generated the two numbers using a pair of dice. After practicing several addition problems together and explaining strategies for counting on, students went back to their seats and worked as a table team to create and solve their own addition problems.

Activity: We colored our modern American flag, which has 13 stripes and 50 stars. Students were urged to take their time, especially on the blue portion so as to not color in the stars.

G. Washington hats

Show and Tell: Alana shared today her oragami paper that her grandmother brought from Japan for her. She shared several shapes that she created with the help of her brother, Julian. Some of our favorites were the crane, cats, and dogs. She also brought oragami cups that she created to share with the class.


Reader's Workshop: Students practiced Private and Partner reading in their table teams.

Social Studies: We discussed the set-up of the American Flag. The three colors that the flag contains are Red, White, and Blue. The stripes are red and white in an AB pattern. The smaller rectangle in blue and filled with white stars. We discussed that there are currently 50 stars (the number of US states) but that the first flag had only 13 stars (the number of original colonies).

Art: We created three-sided George Washington hats which were adorable. They even had a tuft of white "wig" sticking out in the back.

Computer Lab: We played an Arthur Math game in which students counted items and matched with numerals as well as sorting (at various levels).

George Washington, father of our country

Like all Monday mornings, we chose new jobs and teams.

Writer's Workshop: After taking time to talk about our breaks, students had the chance to write in their Source Books about what they did during the week off.

Social Studies: We had an introduction of George Washington, then the students read leveled readers about George Washington, our first president and Father of our Country. Finally, students had a chance to color a portrait of President Washington.

Library: We listened to a story from Mrs. Williams called Beatrice Doesn't Want To and then checked out our own books.

Art: We finished the last rotation for Chinese New Year today with the kids learning how to paint a Chinese character, which means "Spring is Coming".

Happy Valentine's Day

We started our morning with a Read Aloud of Clifford's First Valentine's Day and a game of Cupid Says (similar to Simon Says).

Math: We used Conversation Hearts to sort, record, and graph. Students sorted their own box of candy hearts by color on a sorting mat. They counted how many of each color they had and recorded it on a sheet. Finally they used both of those sources to compile a graph of their box, showing how many of each color were inside.

Cooking: We made heart sandwiches. We first cut bread out in the shape of a large heart. We then cut a small heart into one of the slices. Spread some Strawberry Jam between the layers and had a very charming heart sandwich.

P.E.: In honor of Valentine's Day we played hug tag. This game requires several "it"s and once you are frozen you become a statue. The only way to unfreeze a statue is by hugging them. The children have to not only avoid being tagged, but work to free their friends who have been caught.

Valentine's Party: After P.E. our WONDERFUL parent volunteers had set up an absolutely excellent Valentine's party which consisted of snacks ranging from zucchini bread, to jello, to applesauce, and even crackers. Students enjoyed the snacks before opening up the Valentine's that they had delivered to one another. We ended the day with a Read Aloud of Froggy's First Kiss

THANKS again to all my great parent helpers. We really appreciate ALL that you do!

Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln!

Musical: The theme was "We Come From Everywhere". Mrs. Varga and Mrs. Villareal's classes performed songs with themes from around the world, students dressed up as Italian immigrants, Surfers, Mail Order Brides, and even the Statue of Liberty.

Reader's Workshop: Today during private reading I began assessments with individual students -- finding their entry level so that we can begin Guided Reading when we get back from break. I was pleasantly surprised with how well students who I tested today performed.

Social Studies: We reviewed national/state symbols and focused in especially on getting more information about the American Flag, Liberty Bell, Mt. Rushmore, State of Liberty and Bald Eagle. We reviewed the vocabulary terms "Symbol: something that represents something" and "Nation: a place where people live".

Penmanship: We introduced the letter Hh. We brainstormed words that start with Hh. Then students rainbow traced the large and small letter Hh.

Computer Lab: In Computer Lab today we went back to working in Jumpstart Kindergarten Advanced.

Ta Ta Htar

We started our morning with some sad news. Htar is moving to San Jose, so will no longer be a part of our class. We will miss her, but had lots of fun memories with her.

Writing Valentines: Students finished writing and decorating their Valentine Letters and placed their completed Valentines in their envelopes. We talked about the parts that every envelope needs to have (address of where it's going/address of who sent it/stamp).

Field Trip: Our class walked to to mailbox on the corner of Teal Dr and Dunford. Students walked with partners there, dropped their Valentines into the mail, and returned to school.

Library: We made it back just in time to return library books and listen to a couple great stories that Mrs. Williams had to share.

Activity: In the afternoon we took an opportunity to share our memories and wishes for Htar as students worked together to make a book that we will send along to her new school.

Writing our Valentines

Writer's Workshop: This morning we learned about letter writing, and the five parts that each letter needs - date, Dear _____, message, From, and their name. Together we did most of those parts and then students decided who they wanted to address their Valentine to and the message that they would write "I love you." or "Happy Valentine's Day!"

Science: We did a follow-up on habitats today, using four habitats: Jungle, Arctic, Water, and Desert. Student used a list of animals and placed them in the appropriate categories.

Art: We painted paper plates today, using a method of separating it using lines of many types and then filling in the spaces that created with watercolor. These were used to create the body for our dragon, in honor of Chinese New Year.

V.I.P.: Both Yuto (last week's VIP) and Eva (this week's VIP) were able to share their "All About Me" books and get interviewed.

Friday Funday: During Choice time today many students chose to help me to draw, trace and paint a head and tail for the dragon. We put up the dragon and it looks very festive and colorful.

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Reader's Workshop: Students did an amazing job of private reading and a nearly flawless transition into partner reading in their table groups. They are working together to sounds out words and locate setting and characters. Encourage them to do these things while reading with you at home.

Lunar New Year Activity: We created Chinese Lanterns to kick-off the first day of Lunar New Year. We also read an AMAZING book about one of the many traditions that are incorporated, Lion Dancing. The photographs were beautiful, and the children really seemed to enjoy learning about some of Chinese culture.

Social Studies: We watched our Social Studies DVD, which was an introduction to National and State Symbols. We talked about symbols of our country - American Flag, eagle, Statue of Liberty, Mt. Rushmore and symbols of our state - California Flag, Redwood tree, bears, and the Golden Gate Bridge. We will talk more about these national symbols this month, and state symbols later in the year.

P.E.: Room 4 and 9 came together once again for a game of Totally It Tag and were introduced to Three Touch Tag. In this game, the first time you are tagged you have to cover that spot with your hand. The next time you are tagged, you cover it with your other hand. The final time you are tagged you turn into a frozen statue. We had a bit of trouble remembering to use a "two finger tag", so we will definitely review that before playing again.

If I had $100, I would buy...

Writer's Workshop: Today students were given the choice of what they would like to do if they were given $100. Responses ranged from "I would buy 100 phones." to "I would buy dresses for the class." Students created illustrations and text that will be bound into a class book.

Science: We talked about habitats that animals can live in: jungles, forests, deserts, ice, water, cities. We then looked at pictures of several animals and tried to fit them into which habitat we think they belong in.

Math: We did a follow-up to yesterday's hundred day activities by making 100 tally marks. Students learned that tally marks are each in a groups of 5, so we needed 20 groups of tally marks.

Music: Today Miss Cassellini and Mrs. McDermott led music doing some great winter songs as well as Kinesthetic dances with motions like "move something up and down".

Fairy Tales: We read aloud Cinderella and Pinocchio

100th Day of School!!

Today was an exciting and exhausting 100th Day of School!!

Movement: For movement we jumped 100 times. We did 20 jumps, 20 hops on each foot, 20 jumping jacks and 20 pretending to jump rope.

Read Aloud: We read both Ten Black Dots and Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten.

Art: Inspired by Ten Black Dots, students were given 100 Garage Sale Labels (those little colored dots) to create an original work of art on a large piece of black construction paper.

Math: We used a place value mat to count 100 (actually ended up counting to 180) marshmallows. We places 10 marshmallows in the 'ones' column and when we had gathered that many they were placed into a cup and moved to the 'tens' column.

Necklace: Students counted out and organized 100 Fruit Loops on a hundreds chart and strung them on dental floss to make a necklace.

Sunglasses: We chose colored paper to cut out the number "100" and attaching to a band to create sunglasses/headbands.

Eva's Shadow

Groundhog Day Investigation: Throughout the day we carried out an investigation about shadows, after talking about how the groundhog saw his shadow. We went outside at 9:00 and traced Eva (our V.I.P.'s) shadow. We went out each hour thereafter until the end of the day, made predictions and talked about why the shadow got smaller and moved.

Science: The penguins that we drew last week were taken down off display in our room and labeled the parts of a penguin (feet, beak, feathers, wings, eye, etc.)

Writer's Workshop: During Writer's Workshop students chose to write about the topic of their choice, using the bubblegum stretching technique.

Library: Today in Library we listened to a non-fiction story called Do Whale's Have Wings?

Social Studies: We read a "Let's Find Out" about germs. Students were reminded that it is important to wash hands before and after eating and not put hands into mouth unnecessarily. We also decided whether certain items were appropriate to share with others. Our general rule was that if it went in your mouth or hair, it shouldn't be shared.

Class Picture Day!

Class Photos: We took our class photo in the morning. If you forgot your order form they will still accept them on Monday.

Healthy Play: Sabina came in and taught the class "On the Way to School Today", a variation on a charades type game where students act out an animal, event, or activity for the class to guess. We also played a game of Double Simon Says.

Buddies: Our buddies came and we worked with them to decorate a mitten. These were then cut out and mounted to be taken home.

Art: Mr. Fong (from D.O.G.S. -Dads Of Great Students) came into our class to help us with an artistic science project. We made 3D penguins using construction paper and lunch-sized bags.

Groundhog Day Project: We created groundhog puppets that move in and out of their "burrow" and can/cannot see their shadow.

Read Aloud: Cookie's Week