Oh my!  It has been a very, very busy week in our classroom.  Monday morning we started our day with a lesson on dental health.  The children learned all about taking good care of their teeth.  Tuesday morning, storyteller, Donald Davis came to our school and told the children about his adventures as a kindergarten child.  We also made chocolate chip muffins to help Quanisha celebrate her birthday.  Wednesday, we had our Valentine party.  Thursday we held our funeral services for Goldie.   

Morning Meeting

Tracking the weather is another important part of our Morning Meeting.  Using the Smart Board, the children add to our monthly weather graph.  As we talk about this graph, we discuss concepts like more/less, we make predictions, talk about the seasons and the types of clothing that we wear during each season.

 These are the Daily Data questions that we answered this week.

*Can you tie your shoes?

*When you are hungry, what do you like to eat?

*Do you read a story before going to sleep?

Shared Journal

We are still working on telling the beginning, middle and end to our stories.  This is done as our friends share, as we draw our pictures and when we write our words in our journals.  The result of this hard work is that the children’s thoughts, pictures and writing are becoming more and more complex.  I have said this before, but it is so amazing to see their confidence, thought processes and communication abilities grow!  

Theme

We have continued researching our elephant facts.  This week, through our research, we learned about the 2 types of elephants and where they live.  We talked about the characteristics of each type of elephant and what they ate.  We also learned that elephants eat different food in the wild than they do in captivity.  After our research groups presented their findings to the class, we added our new facts to a web.  We have found that webbing our facts helps us keep track of all the things we are learning! 

Shared Reading

Miss Smith took over the duties of Shared Reading this week and decided to begin an author study of Pat Hutchins.  In addition to introducing the children to her wonderful books, she also shared information on this author/illustrator with the class. 

Here are some of the books that we read this week:

*You’ll Soon Grow Into Them, Titch:  With this book, we worked on the /ch/ diagraph.  The children brainstormed and made a list of words that began with the /ch/ sound.  Then, as the story was read, they pointed out ch-words in the story.

*Don’t Forget the Bacon:  With this book, we practiced reading words that had an e marker.  (silent e)  The children played a game on the Smart Board where they practiced reading words with e markers.

*My Best Friend:  With this book, we worked on reading sight words.  Many of the sight words that were in this book were added to our word wall!

*The Doorbell Rang

*Mrs. Toggle’s Class Picture Day

*Valentine’s Day Mess

*Mouse in Love

*Oliver

*Squeak’s Good Idea

*I Can’t Sleep

*Ella the Elegant Elephant

and many more!

 Centers

During center time, we worked in small groups to research elephant facts.  We also put the finishing touches on Goldie’s funeral arrangements. 

Important Dates and Notes:

Thank you to all the parents that sent in food items for our Valentine’s Day party and for Goldie’s funeral!!!

We need Klenex and Bandaids for our classroom.  If you can help us out with them, I would appreciate it!

 I have made several updates to our class web page.  Please check it out!

·        President’s Day/No School – Monday, February 19

·        Celebration – Friday, February 23 @ 1:15

Here are some pictures of our class from Goldie’s funeral.