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On hiatus….I’ll be back as soon as possible!
Thursday
Instead of a story today, I recited Lydia Maria Childs’ classic poem, Over the River and Through the Wood, and began to teach the Super Ks to sing it. It has a lot of vocabulary (historic) as well as some very-easy-to-confuse lyrics. It will take a couple more sessions before we all have a handle on it.
Our helper today was Evan, who did a very nice job. Our countdown to 100 activity was a riddle: What has 46 legs, but cannot walk? After many creepy-crawly guesses, I let on that my pants had two legs, and we had just learned about those rhyming words that came in twos- what were they called, those sets of two? “Twins?!” I mimed eating a pear, and several kids came up with the word pair. Hmmm, glasses come in pairs, ears come in pairs, scissors come in pairs (that took a little figuring out!) , shoes come in pairs, and pants come in pairs. So, how many pairs of pants would it take to make 46 legs? There was only one way to find out! We’ve been learning to count by twos, so we put those skills to work. I asked how many people in pants it would take to make 46 pant legs. Kathryn thought maybe 10. So we lined up ten pants-wearing Super Ks, and counted by twos- 20, not enough. We kept adding people (we had some kids missing today, so we had to borrow a couple of parents to join the line, too) until we got to the right number of pairs of pants- 23!
The kids had a chance to view the PowerPoint presentation of their detailed drawing stories. After each page, we asked for someone to give a picture detail that really helped us to know what the story was, even without the words. Next, the illlustrator got to add a few words if s/he wanted to do so. It took a long time to go throiugh everything, but I think the Super Ks are understanding more and more about what it takes to tell a story- GOOD WORK, Kiddos!
The rest of the morning was spent in a catching-up mode, where we worked on a couple of unfinished projects.
Good day, today, Super Ks! Thanks for coming back to the room; I’m glad the Interrupting Ks are gone!
STUFF
*Please remember to let me know TODAY if your child will be gone next week, especially if it starts on Monday, so I can send home their placemats tomorrow so you’ll have it for Turkey Day.
*Last day for Irving Cares Food Drive is tomorrow! We had a LOT of items brought in today- thank you!!!!!!
*NEW!!!! I added some word tracers to the High Frequency Word page today. They are in pdf format so you should all be able to view and print them. Check it out!
Wednesday
No post today- everyone got two emails from me!
Tuesday
Today’s story: A Plump and Perky Turkey, how the residents of Squawk Valley tried to trick a turkey into becoming Thanksgiving dinner.
Our helper was Kendra. She did an excellent job with the Alphabet Song. Some of us discovered that the musical parts of our brains are very strong; even when we try to stop singing on K, the L just sings its little way out!
Our countdown activity was a reading lesson and math lesson combined. We were to make 22 pairs of rhyming words for the 44th day of school. We first had to know what a pair was. Then we had to be very sure we understood what rhyming words are, and are NOT. We divided the straw bundles and ones into two groups. Each group had 22 straws. When we finished our list of rhyming words, we counted them by twos. Many of the children were able to think of rhyming words on their own. Others did well after I gave them a first word and some clues. Here are our 44th Day of School Rhyming Word Pairs!
see/me hocus/pocus man/fan turtle/Myrtle Ella/Bella Rylee/Kylee light/kite knee/P bell/L rat/cat hat/mat Coke/poke bee/ski flight/night hike/Mike chair/hair door/more rhyme/time Cael/mail whirl/girl whale/nail run/fun
During our work time today we did a review of our two new HFW, She/she and He/he. We put our pencils to work and began to write. Each child traced Here is and wrote a girl’s name (no spelling help, but they could look around the room to find it.) The next sentence began with tracing She is and then the writer’s choice of description(no spelling help). A picture was added. The same procedure followed for a boy’s name. The second sentence would now read He is and then the writer’s choice of description(no spelling help). A few of our Super Ks will need a bit more time tomorrow to finish up this project, but I’m very pleased with the results!
Next was recess, sharing by Ethan, and packing up to go home. Kids will work very hard to be the “Super Ks” tomorrow, not the “Interrupting Ks”, or the “Finish Mrs. Boling’s Sentences Ks” or even the “I’d Like to Chat with My Neighbor Now Ks.”
Tomorrow is Wacky Wednesday, so remember those Library Books!!!
Monday
Wow! It seems like a month since I last saw your kids! We were all a little “off” today , including me; tomorrow should be back to normal wonderfulness.
We finished reading The Pilgrims’ First Thanksgiving, and moved on to a cute story called The Most Thankful Thing, by Lisa McCourt. A girl and her mother go through Mom’s scrapbook to find what might be the one thing Mom is most thankful for. It wasn’t playing soccer, wasn’t being editor of the school yearbook, wasn’t her first job, wasn’t even getting married; if you want to know, you’ll have to ask your Super K to tell you the answer!
Olivia was our helper today. She managed to trick several people into going past O to sing P- we’re a bit rusty, I guess. We added straws to make 4 tens and 3 ones. We also examined what happens if you try to write the numeral exactly the way we say that: 4 tens = 10101010 and 3 ones=111 so the numeral would be 10,101,010,111 which we decided is WAY bigger than 43! This gave us another chance to review place value to two places.
We celebrated Sofie’s birthday today, a little late. The kids were thankful for the yummy cookies Sofie brought for snack!
We learned two new words today- He/he and She/she. Since we already knew we it wasn’t too difficult to rhyme the new words. But then, we threw the into the mix. Most of the time we say it the non-rhyming way, but we can say it to rhyme if we choose. We circled these words in our new books, A Trunk, then practiced reading together.
Our final activity of the day was a spectacular, leaf-spangled placemat for Thanksgiving dinner. Each child wrote something s/he is thankful for onto a paper leaf, cut it out and glued it onto a large background. Next, we added beautiful pressed leaves. When the glue is very dry, they will be laminated so cranberries and gravy won’t stain the work of art, and it can be used for many years. We worked so diligently that recess time came and went, and we had snack while finishing up the gluing.
STUFF
* Thank you to those who replied to my test message on gmail. If you haven’t already done so, look for the message from rboling405 and hit reply. All Super K mailings will be done from gmail from now on , so I want to be sure it is working for everyone.
*Very soon, you will be able to sign up to have blog postings or reminders sent to you automatically every time I post something new!!! It may take a couple of days, but it’s coming……
*I talked to many of you at conferences about handwriting forms. I’m in the midst of creating personalized name sheets to send electronically to each family. Then, you can print as many as you want. There will be a first name only, and a first-last name sheet available. Be looking for “Name tracers” in your mailbox soon.
*Word tracers will also be posted on the High Frequency Word page, along with some other items. When? Hmmm, good question! Soon, I hope.
Thank you for coming to conferences last week- I thoroughly enjoyed myself! I love sharing the accomplishments that show us just how very capable these children are.
Sunday Updates!
Two new pages were added (Look to the RIGHT ) :
1. High Frequency Words (Sight Words)-each new word will be listed as we learn it, as well as activities for working with them at home.
2. KidWork!!! - the first entry is a slide show of our very first writing assignment- telling a story through a detailed drawing. I did include the text the kids told our grown-ups that day, just in case you have trouble “reading” the pictures!
Tuesday
*Morning Job: Dot-to-dot- corn We learned that “o-r” says “or”.
Kids wrote a sentence (The corn is………) on the back of papers when finished coloring. How mean can their teacher be? A dot-to-dot with coloring, and I make them write a sentence, too!
*Morning Meeting-Since we have gone through the whole helper list, we started a new round with a reshuffled deck of name cards. Instead of clapping their names for syllables and identifying the letter names, the helper this round leads us in a rousing version of The Alphabet Song (the Kindergarten way!) with a twist: The helper must stop on his/her first letter, and the singers must not sing past that letter. Sometimes our tricky helpers will try to make the singers keep going. Today, Rylee pointed to S, but the singers stopped on R!
We put in the missing dates on the calendar,discovering that our pattern this month is turkeys in an ABCD repeating pattern. We added straws to make 4 tens and 2 ones, 42. The Count-down activity was a riot- we were to help a rooster count to 42, so we crowed forty-two times. Wow, that was a lot of Rrr-rr-rr-rr-rrrrrrrrrrrr!
Next, we reviewed what we had learned from the book we started yesterday, The Pilgrims’ First Thanksgiving. The kids, collectively, remembered quite a few details. We continued on with the story, taking the Pilgrims through the winter.
Of particular interest to the Super Ks was the role of children in the Pilgrim society. They were hard workers who were given few privileges. Children stood at the table to eat, were required to wear hats while eating, and were not allowed to speak unless an adult spoke to them first! Jobs included stoking the fire, making mattresses and pillows, digging clams out of the sand, making candles, making soap, gathering food, gathering grasses to bundle for roof-making, and turning the spit to roast the meat, which was an all-day job. We decided that if we had to turn a spit from the time school started until the time school ended, our arms would be very tired and sore! Someone said, “Why don’t they take turns?” We decided that they probably did switch off on the long jobs.
Another item of interest was that the children didn’t go to school, but might or might not learn to read from one of the adults. Even more interesting to the kids was that not every adult knew how to read or write, in fact very few of them did! Hard to imagine a world like that when you are a part of modern society! This took us to the first summer, leading up to the all important feasting….which we’ll read on Monday!
I hope that you saw your personalized copy of the notice about no school! It took me a bit of time to convince some of the kids that one doesn’t write “Dear Mom, ” and close with “Love, Mom” Moms (and Dads) know that you are loved!
STUFF
LEAVES, LEAVES, LEAVES! If you pressed them, we want them! We’ll be starting our project on Monday.
EMAIL PROBLEMS If you have had problems with your email reaching my Bethel adress,, or mine reaching you, have no fear! I have no idea what is causing the problem, but I will switch all Super K news to my gmail account this weekend. Be looking for news from rboling405 You can continue to send mail to Bethel address if that works for you, or use rboling405@gmail.com. I want everyone to get their messages and news!!!!!
SIGHT WORDS Check out the new Page devoted to High-Frequency (Sight) Words. I’ll list them as we learn them, and will add activities you can work on at home.
I have so enjoyed talking with all of the parents on Monday and Tuesday, and am looking forward to talking with those who will come in on Wednesday. Thanks for sharing those kiddos with me- I love them.
Monday
The question of the day: What is Thanksgiving all about? Stay tuned…..
Since 5 and 6 year olds have very few experiences with Thanksgiving, I always like to get clear about why we have this national holiday. Some ideas from the kids:
Because you get to sit around a big table and eat alot.
You invite your friends or someone to your house and you eat lots of food.
You get ready by hanging up the chickens around the house.
We started to find out the why of Thanksgiving with a wonderful book. The Pilgrims’ First Thanksgiving, by Ann McGovern, is an oldie (1973) but goodie. The factual information about the Pilgrims and their lives in the New World is quite good and includes the extreme hardships they faced and the help the Pilgrims received from the people who already lived there, the Native Americans. As I read, we stopped often to discuss questions that arose. Here are some things we talked about.
*What is a pilgrim? (Someone who goes on a long journey)
*Why did they leave their homes? (Religious freedom- this led to a discussion about beliefs, how different families have different beliefs and customs, and that ALL of those customs and beliefs are just right for those families.)
*No school for Kindergarten on Wed., Thurs. or Friday.
*Bring canned/packaged food or personal items for the Irving Cares box.
*Don’t forget your conference! Check the schedule at this link: SCHEDULE
*LEAVES!!! We’ll be using the pressed leaves on Monday, so if you saved some, send them on in! Thanks.
Where Has She Been?
I’ve been here, really! I have been fighting a bug that wanted to become bronchitis, so I’ve been leaving school at my “real” ending time, and took a lot of naps for a couple of weeks. Feeling good now, and I’m back to the blog.
Conferences are this week. Take a look at the schedule in case you have forgotten your time. It is Ok to bring Super Ks along, if you’d like. Be sure to write down your questions and goals; if I talk too much, just wave your list at me and I’ll give you your turn!
I’m looking forward to seeing you this week.
Thursday
Today’s story was “Woo! The Not-So-Scary Ghost” The kids listened for the /oo/ sound, and looked for the letters that made the sound. Oh, that tricky language of ours! Sometimes “oo” makes the sound, but not always. Sometimes “o” does, too! And then there’s Andrew, who also has an /oo/ in his name!
Our last two Super Ks who haven’t been Helper yet were both absent today, so I mixed up the cards and we started over. Kylynn was our Helper. She also has a birthday tomorrow, so we sang her a song and tossed the birthday pencils.
We reviewed the list of things we knew about apples and the list of questions we had (from 9-27). Then we got into our table groups with a grown-up, and talked about all of the things we know now about apples and apple trees. I will compile those lists to see how much we learned!
Next, it was time to take a look at the apples we have been watching for rot. We didn’t grow any mold, and the cut-side-up apples were not as squooshy and rotten as I had anticipated. Have you ever seen one of those dried-apple old lady dolls? That’s what had happened to our apples, for the most part. The flesh on the cut side had dried out, rather than rotting, and the edges of the skin had shrunk as well. As a matter of fact, the entire apple half had shrunk! We learned that the part that was gone was water, which had evaporated into the air. The edges of those apples were very spongy, which was fun to see. The cut-side-down apples were larger, moister, and harder than the cut-side-up ones, but were still a rather unappetizing brownish color, and had some soft spots.
Now, on to write about our observations. We each wrote a sentence about an apple half from Plate #1 (cut-side-down) and one from Plate #2. I heard a lot of “smooshy” and mushy” and yucky” from around the room. Kids were encouraged to figure out letters that make the sounds they heard in those words. At my table, we had m-o-h-s-e and s-m-s-h-y, h-r-d and s-o-f-t, and even a l-i-t-t-l-e b-r-a-w-n and r-e-l-e b-r-a-w-n.
We were so hard at work, and everyone was so at-task, that we worked right through recess! I apologized for being so mean, and Hannah said, “Actually, it was fun!” Thanks, Hannah! It was worth the work, because we then had Kylynn’s birthday treats…thank you Kylynn and family!
Don’t forget, NO SCHOOL TOMORROW and, GO DUCKS!!!!!!