Ol' Linda...

Old Linda is right. We are not sure exactly how old she is, but from our research, we believe she could possibly be in her 30s. Now, I am quickly approaching this number, so in HUMAN years, she's is quite young. However, in turtle time, they live to be around 50, so she is pretty old. She was found in Mayo, where my husband grew up. I told him that I bet he played with Linda once upon a time! Not too likely, but it could have been her since we did learn that they do not travel far from home, no more than 200 meters to be exact.

The bottom of her shell is dark, we think its just dirty, but you can see the picture on the left is of a 7 year old turtle. The one on the right is one that is in it's thirties or forties. The lines are more defined there. Linda's look more like the one on the right.

We promised to show you pictures of her new habitat.... Welcome Home (temporarily) Linda!

What's with the construction paper tent? --- I'm glad you asked! :) Turtles like to have hiding places. We learned this when she turned her red water bowl over on herself. She hangs out there most of the day. We know that she likes to eat lettuce, so she has fresh organic lettuce to munch on. Some of the students brought her rocks and wood chips in from recess to make her habitat look more natural. We have also been on the search for worms at recess. Linda needs her protein.

Linda was also a part of our Living/Nonliving Wonder Square lesson on Thursday. She loved the opportunity to get out and walk around a bit.

 

The boys and girls observed what was inside the square and noted the living and nonliving things. One of our living things left the scene...

Linda was ooonnn.........theeee.....mooooove.... during our I Wonder lesson.

By the way, have we told you that Linda only has one eye?

We wonder what could have happened to her?!?!

 

 

 

Check back with us soon...
Dr. Patterson has asked what the difference is between and turtle and a tortoise.
And one of our own scientists asked "How do turtles hear?"

We will find the answers to these questions this week!

Why I Love Week 6...

Six must be the magic number in kindergarten. To them, they celebrate turning 6 during this year. For me, it means that procedures have been taught, we are in the "groove", and can start fully implementing work stations and my most favorite time of the day, Guided Reading! Teaching kindergarten is awesome for many reasons. But, my number 1 reason is

TEACHING CHILDREN TO READ.

This is the Guided Reading table. We start the lesson off with working with letters and sight words. Then we work with books. The students read books on their instructional level. I listen and help out when needed. They are encourage to use their reading strategies. This week we focused on "Lips the Fish" to help us sound out unknown words in a text. Lastly, we will wrap up the lesson with a sentence puzzle from the text or a writing activity.

We are also working in Math stations now. A hands-on approach is always the best for our young mathematicians. In this picture, Brady, Grant, and Jayden are building on to number patterns by adding 1 cube to show how numbers increase by one.

 

 

Another reason why I LOVE week 6, I'm no longer the hardest working person in the classroom. I  am the facilitator of the lessons, but the students are now in charge of their own learning.

Rilee Grace and Alliyah are playing the Tens Frames Flash Game. They draw dots on the tens frame to represent a number, flash the card, and the students tell what they saw. They do not have time to count 1-1.

I was amazed to hear their responses, "I know it is 7 because there are 5 on the top and two on the bottom." - Ian

"And 5+2= 7!" Payton

Wow, I'm a HAPPY and PROUD Teacher!!!

 

Enjoy your Sunday! This post makes me look forward to Monday morning!

 

Community Helpers PSA

After 3 exciting weeks of learning about Community Helpers, we are ending with a Public Service Announcement. Our boys and girls have researched and interviewed real community helpers from the Boiling Springs area.
Last week we introduced and practiced opinion writing by reading mentor texts and writing about things that are relevant to us (favorite food, book, game, etc.). This week, our young authors wrote about the community helper that was most important to them. They used their writing to create a Public Service Announcement to share their opinion on the most important community helper in our society.
Listen to these great responses...

You rescued a what?

So.... Mrs. Roper walked into school this morning carrying a box. But, not just ANY box. It had a mysterious item in it. The students had to solve the riddle to find out what...

I live outside near wooded areas and water.

I move very slowly.

I hide in my shell when I am shy or scared.

What am I?

 

A TURTLE!!!

During Daily 5 in the Work on Writing station, our authors wrote about the turtle. They wrote everything from what we need to put in it's aquarium to where they think it lived before she was rescued. 

 

We had to do a little research. We can't just keep a turtle and not know what it needs in order to survive!

And we were thrilled to know just how much Room 202 Kiddos already know about nature, habitats, and survival!!! Wow, we were impressed!

We did find out that our friend is an Eastern Box Turtle.  Male and Females have different shell shapes, eye colors, and colorings on their legs. To the best of our knowledge, we believe we have a female. After voting, the students named her Linda (coincidentally Grant's mom's name!) haha, sorry Mrs. McAbee; Mrs. Roper and I had nothing to do with this!

 

Eastern Box Turtles can be found in wooded areas. They like to hide in moist leaves.

They like to eat worms, slugs, crickets, grasshoppers, lettuce, carrots, and apples to name a few.

Mr. Daniel, my husband, asked "How can a turtle eat grasshoppers? I would like to see Linda catch one!" hahaha We will have to do some research on this for him.

In the meantime, Linda is being well taken care of. Some of our precious boys caught worms for her at recess today.

Tomorrow, we are going to work on building a habitat for her. When I asked, "What is a habitat?"

This was my first response...

 

Check back soon! We will have pictures of Linda's new home!!!

 

And don't worry... we are following a "Look but don't touch" policy for Linda. We are looking out for the safety of our Room 202 Kiddos and of course, Ms. Linda.

 

Poetry Work

Last week, the boys and girls read "Halfway Down" by A.A. Milne
This was the BEST shared reading time we have had. They read the poem several times and noted how "sad" it was. The students used inference skills to describe why he stops in the middle of the stairs. I was amazed by how they took this poem and ran with it!!! Teachers stress over the rigor of Common Core; however, sadly, we are not giving our kids enough credit! The curiosity, wonder, and inquiry are there, we just have to provide the opportunities!
Here's the link for the poem performed by the Muppets: http://safeshare.tv/w/DOLegBOmKd

Here are a few responses on why he stops in the middle of the stairs...

 

Congrats to...

Callie and Abby have read 100 steps in 100 B.C.

Brooks, April, and Brady have read 100 steps!

 

We are so proud of our great readers in Room 202!!!

Readers Aaargh Leaders!!!!

Yesterday, we celebrated National Talk Like A Pirate day! We had a very special leader from our community visit us and read a Pirate book. We welcomed Mrs. Bruce, Colten's mom. She was in her Pirate gear and mastered the Pirate talk!

 

Way to read...

 

Jaden, Grant, Lily, Alliyah, Caleigh, Colten, and Ian reach 100 Steps! Way to READ!

Congratulations to...

Lindsey and Parker! They have read 100 step in 100 Book Challenge! WAY TO READ!

 

Read to Someone

This week, we started our second focus area of Daily 5, "Read to Someone". We have worked on "Read to Self" for several weeks. Read to Self is essentially our 100 Book Challenge Program. During Read to Self, our young readers read books on their level independently. Read to Someone is where two students read together. This is a very enjoyable time for our boys and girls as they have the opportunity to read to someone and share thoughts on their favorite books.
Here's a few pictures of our "Elbow to Elbow, Knee to Knee" time!

 

Parker helped me model "Elbow to Elbow, Knee to Knee (EEKK)"

Note: We do not normally sit on tables, this was a special exception so that everyone could see. :)



 

Here are our other friends practicing EEKK during Reading to Someone time!



Welcome Fire Fighters

Today, we had two very special guests, we welcomed Chief Miller and well-renowned "Moose". They taught us about how and why they keep the community safe. It's not all about fighting fires, their job is focused more on preventing them. Therefore, they jump at any opportunity to speak to young children in our area about fire safety and prevention. We are thankful to have a fire department that is focused on keeping our community safe.

 

Here is our "Know and Wonder" chart.

Look at these great "wonders"!

Welcome Officer Belue!

We have been learning all about Community Helpers. Last week, we learned about one community helper each day during Social Studies. The students completed a "What I know and What I wonder" chart on each job.
Who better to find out what we "wonder" than the community helper themselves! Our first visitor was Officer Belue. He is the resource officer at Rainbow Lake Middle School. We are so thankful that he took time from his very busy schedule to spend time with our kindergarteners. He answered our "wonder" questions and many more!

 

Writing a Literary Nonfiction ABC book... on the 4th week of school!

We did it! We wrote a literary non-fiction ABC book on the 4th week of school! Yes, kindergarten pulled off the unimaginable! With much thanks to our fabulous young authors.
Here's how we did it...
We learned about various community jobs that help people and keep us safe during our Social Studies block.
Meanwhile, in writer's workshop, our young authors explored a variety of nonfiction ABC books.

We used ABC of Jobs as our mentor text

 

After reading, we discussed jobs that started with each letter of the alphabet and explored other nonfiction ABC books.

 

After exploring the books, our young authors practiced an ABC page using the word they know best, their name!

Finally, after a week of reviewing literary nonfiction texts, completing noticing charts, and revisiting our mentor text, ABC of Jobs, each child completed a page. Our book is now in the "publishing department"...aka awaiting a free moment for this teacher to bind it!

I will post a picture of the final product as soon as it is finished.

 

Thank you for your interest in what's happening in our Writer's Workshop. This happens to be my most favorite part of our day. It is amazing to see the children express their thoughts through pictures and words. They have such pride in the work they do, and so do I!

 

Math is YUMMY!

Room 202 kids had to use their snacks in a math lesson before eating yesterday! Kindergarten can be tough!  :)

We focused on how numbers and quantities increase.

 

Math is FUN!

"I like math because it is fun."

"I like math because I like counting numbers."

 

We are having fun counting links using tens frames!

 

Authors as Mentors- Eric Litwin

Eric Litwin is the author of the famous Pete the Cat series. Our students LOVE to read his books.
Today we read Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons: Check it out! 

http://safeshare.tv/w/dpyZTIGSsu

 

After reading, our young authors wrote their own stories about Pete the Cat.

Pete went to the Beach in Brady's and Caleigh's stories.

Pete goes to work in Colten's story.