BOOK BUDDIES!

Yesterday and today were JAM PACKED! On Wednesday, Joshton’s mom came and taught us about our last two art pieces that we will see tomorrow at the MIA. After, we had Daily 5 reading time then headed to the library to check out new books then returned to the class to finish up our reading block. After lunch we continued practicing the “count up strategy” for 2 digit subtraction. Hopefully the Parent Cheat Sheets helped out at home. J After math, Carol from the Wentworth Library came to promote the  Waggin’ Tails program that the library offers. Students have the opportunity to check out books and read with a dog! Dates for this program are listed outside of our classroom. Soon after Carol left, our brand new kindergarten book buddies came!!! The kids LOVED reading with their new friends and did a great job setting good examples, answering questions, and overall reading to their buddy (ies). We will meet with our book buddies every Wednesday for the last 20 minutes of the day. They can’t wait until next week.

Today, Ms. Casmer came and taught the students about problem solving. Students created “stop lights” that remind them to stop and calm down, think about their choices, and finally make a good choice of how to solve the problem instead of making it bigger.

During Daily 5, students continued to use their checklists that tell me what centers they get to each day. We also did a fun adjective activity! Students drew a picture of themselves with their name below. We then walked around the room and wrote adjectives that describe the person on each paper. The students did a great job and said that they felt special after reading the adjectives that others wrote on their paper. Since our story of the week is The Quilt Story we are going to create a Class Adjective Quilt in the hallway.

In math, we continued to practice 2-digit addition before going to the 1^st grade music program. The students were a wonderful and respectful audience.

Tomorrow we will be going to the MIA in the morning. We will return in time for lunch and some math before we head to the gym for our "I LOVE TO READ MONTH KICK-OFF" Assembly. At the assembly, teachers will read and act out a story. Mrs. Kantola, Ms. Stoffel, and I will present an I Love to Read Challenge to the students along with a special reward if the students meet the goal of reading 2,500 books in the month of February. I love to read month will include a lot of fun events, so watch for updates in our weekly newsletter!

FINALLY, we celebrated Lucas’ birthday today! Tomorrow we will celebrate Alex’s! I can’t believe that I have watched most of this group grow from being nervous and enrgetic  kindergarteners to proud and focused 8 year olds! WOW! J