Science Fun...

The afternoon class had an amazing opportunity on Friday to learn science first hand! Ethan's grandmother, Karen, teaches Science to 2nd-3rd graders in their Science Lab. Karen was gracious enough to use one of her half day personal days to come and visit with our class. SHe brought all kinds of animals and taught the children about reptiles. The look on the children's faces were priceless. It was wonderful to see the excitement in the children about learning science. Ethan and Karen even put together a science experiment for the children to take home with them to practice observations. I cannot wait until Monday to ask the children about the observations they made. I cannot thank Karen enough for taking time out of her schedule to come and spend the afternoon with us and her grandson! Check out some of our photos of the fantastic learning, which occurred!

Science Fun in the Afternoon!

Our Learning Channel...

I wanted to announce we have a channel to view our videos. I love using the Flip Video as a means to tape the children learning and explaining their learning. We then as a class watch them and talk about what is happening. This allows the children a chance to see themselves in action and reflect about certain activities. We now have a channel on...You Tube...I do not always put the videos I take on the blog; however, they will be located on our channel. If you would like you can always check out some of the great learning occurring in Room 116!

http://www.youtube.com/user/mrstahlkindergarten

2 Dice and Some Adding...

Today we worked on rolling two dice and counting the numbers together. I thought it would be a lot of fun to tape a few students completing the activity. We watched the video in class and talked about what happened. The children noticed how each of the pairs sat next to each other and how they were helping each other counting and writing. I was amazed how the children double checked their work and how they were really thinking about the math they were doing. It was fantastic listening to the children talk about the activity afterward. I wish I had taped that part too!

Enjoy...

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We Are Beginning to Add...

This week we are beginning to explore how numbers can be joined together and create a new number. We are in the early stages of addition. We are not writing out number sentences yet, but we are playing various games where we are taking two numbers and counting them together. We have played a game "Top-It." This game is like "War" where you turn over two cards and count the numbers together and who ever has the highest amount wins (you can always change the game and play who has the lowest amount wins). We also played a game where you roll two dice and record the number you get. This is a fun game where children work on number writing, adding numbers together, and analyzing the data. The children are doing a fantastic job in the early stages of math. Two students in the afternoon were able to discover why the recording sheet did not list the number one. They came to the conclusion since you were playing the game with 2 dice, you can not roll and record the number one. If you had two ones you would have to record the number 2. It was awesome thinking!

Short Vowel Fun...

We have been working hard on learning our sounds of all the letters. We have learned many songs to help us. Last week and this week we have been working with a song by Miles and Tanny McGregor. Mr. McGregor is a retired art teacher from Holly Hill Elementary and Mrs. McGregor is one of our curriculum supervisors at the board of education office. Mrs. McGregor also taugh 3rd Grade at Holly Hill. We used their "Short Vowel Song" to review the sounds of the vowels. We also paired it with the sign of each letter in Sign Language. We also added a few other moves to have the song be for not just the singers in the class, but kids who like to move. I hope you enjoy (AM class will have a different video posted next week)...

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We're Off Sledding...

This week we have been reading winter stories relating to snow and snowmen. At the beginning of the week we read "Snowballs" by Lois Ehlert. The story is about a snow family. Next, we made snowmen, snow girls, snow dads, snow moms, etc. We discussed labeling and how this helps people understand our pictures. Therefore, we labeled our snow person. We will continue our discussion of winter by reading "When It Starts to Snow." This book is about a child who goes around and asks various animals what they do when it snows. We will use this concept with our writing about what we do when it snows. This is where your pictures you have sent in will help! If you have not sent in your pictures, please do so when you have them. You can email them to me if you wish and I will take care of getting them printed!

Check out our fun snow people...

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New Year...

Happy New Year...I hope everyone has a fantastic 2011!