Chicka Chicka ... Boom BOOM!

Whew! What a couple of weeks! I had a very busy weekend last weekend, so I did not get a chance to post then, and last week has been Careful Corners, which I have been in charge of, so no time to post again. Every evening I intend to go home, have dinner, and then post our happenings. But then family life gets in the way, as it should! So I am staying late at school tonight, determined to get everything caught up!

The week of Sept. 5, we read one of my favorite books, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. This is a wonderful book about some naughty little letters who climb up in a tree. Be sure to ask your child what happened to them!

After reading the book, I showed the students a bucket of sand, in which I had hidden magnetic letters. The students took turns finding a letter and matching it to the corresponding lowercase letter on the easel.

 All done!

The next day, we got a chance to experience a real coconut! I have to confess, even I had not tasted coconut milk until my missions trip this summer. And I had never opened a coconut until this day!

First, we passed the coconut around to everyone and used our senses of sight, touch, and smell to observe it before we opened it.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the coconut-cracking, since I was doing the cracking! But we found out that coconut milk is clear, not white, as we thought. After tasting it, we discovered that it is sweeter than cow's milk. Some of us liked it, and some didn't - and that's ok!

Then we observed shaved coconut with our magnifying glasses. Since we only have 6 magnifying glasses, we had to take turns.

The next day, we sorted different colors of band-aids by color - this was too easy for most of us! I think next year I'll have to add lots of different shapes and sizes as well.

Finally, we made simple Chicka Boom Glyphs. A glyph is a picture that represents data. Our glyph key is the following:

Pink background = I am a girl

Orange background = I am a boy

4 leaves = I liked Chicka Chicka Boom Boom best

5 leaves = I liked Chicka 123 best

# of coconuts = 3 of siblings I have

These glyphs were pretty simple for the beginning of the year. As we go, we will make more involved ones to share with you.

*** I intended for our names to start at the top of the tree and go down, but I did not do a very good job of modeling, so some ended up jumbled up. If your child's letters are jumbled or out of order, you may want to have them practice writing their name (with one capital / rest lowercase, please!) at home, just to make sure they are aware of the order of the letters.

Please enjoy "reading:" our glyphs!

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Here are the bears we made on Friday. Every one is absolutely adorable, and every student was completely engaged in this project and did their best - I am so proud of everyone!

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First Week Under Our Belts!

This week we read one of my favorite books, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? I would highly encourage you to check this out at the public library and read it with your child - they may even be able to "read" it along with you now!

On Monday, I introduced the big book and talked about the cover, author, illustrator, and characters. We also did the Gummy Bear Math activity I talked about in my previous post.

On Tuesday, we reviewed the parts of the book, and I let the kids read along with me. In math, we used character cards to sort the animals by the number of legs each has.

We also created name mosaics. I printed the students' names in a large, plain font. They tore construction paper into small pieces (great fine motor activity!) and glued them onto the letters of their name in rainbow order (the first letter was red, the second orange, etc.). Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of these. We will b hanging these around the room.

On Wednesday, we read my library-size book, and compared the similarities and differences between the two versions. We found that the big book has two extra animals - a gray mouse and a pink elephant, that the smaller book doesn't have! We also found that the smaller book replaces the teacher from the big book with a mother. Very interesting! We charted our findings on a Venn Diagram, with similarities in the center, and differences in the outer circles.

We also used the character cards for a counting activity. I passed out all the cards to the students, without telling them what we were going to do. Then I asked everyone with a Brown Bear to come and put it in the chart. We counted it, and wrote a "1" on the card next to it. Then I had everyone with a Red Bird come and put it in the chart, and we counted them. I continued in order until the chart was filled. The students enjoyed waiting for their animal(s) to be called.

For our name activity on Wednesday, the students traced their names in rainbow order again, then cut each letter apart. I had them glue the letters back in order onto a sheet of construction paper according to the number of letters in their name. Then we graphed them:

We have a lot of 6-letter names!

On Thursday, I again used the characters cards in the pocket chart. I used them to support story problems that I asked the students, such as "Brown Bear was walking down the path, when he saw 2 red birds. How many animals were on the path?" 2+1=3.

I also printed up name cards with their pictures on them for us to use in recognizing our names - I'm proud to say that everyone in my class can recognize their own name this year! (This doesn't always happen, unfortunately...)

On Friday, we watched a video of Bill Martin, Jr. reading the book:

I created sentence strips that say "The {animal} is" and cards with the color words on them. We matched the color word to the correct animal sentence, and then read them together. I will try to get a picture of this on Tuesday.

We also did a color sorting activity for the smartboard. The students had to sort the pictures onto the correct color.

In between all of this fun, there were MANY bathroom breaks, recesses, and drinking fountain breaks ... oh, and Daily 5 Read to Self - we're up to 5 minutes already!

Next week is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom - another of my favorites!

Have a great Holiday Weekend - stay cool!

Transportation "Glitches"

Dear Parents,

We have been having a few issues with transportation, so I wanted to clear up any misconceptions about our policies.

If your child will be transported by any form other than what we have on record, you MUST send me a note that morning (or before, if necessary/possible). I understand that my wonderful students are pretty responsible this year and probably can remember if you say you are picking them up from school that day, but others are not able to remember this, and so consequently I cannot go on what your child tells me - I MUST have a note - remember, your child is only 5 or 6! I hope you can understand that I would like to make it as easy as possible for you to get your child, but I must take the child's safety to heart and put them in their normal bus line unless I have it in writing that you are changing for the day. I have several students who are not allowed visitation rights with a noncustodial parent, and I would be devastated to make the mistake of allowing one of my students to go home with the wrong person. Please understand this - your child's safety is part of my job. That's why I require something in writing when you change transportation for your child. Thank you.

Happy Birthday, Evan!

Happy Birthday, Evan (& Cael)!

 

Love, Mrs. K.

Off to a good start!

The class of 2024 got off to a good start on Thursday. We are learning about our classroom rules and procedures, and we have already discovered that we are ALL good readers!

Today we started a week of activities surrounding the favorite book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? I love reviewing colors and introducing the kids to characteristics of print. Of course we talked about the cover, title, author, and illustrator, and today we read the book for enjoyment. The rest of the week we will read for a purpose - looking for "popcorn" words, comparing different versions of the story, and acting out the story. We will also tie in math and science wherever possible. We did a math sorting and graphing activity today using gummy bears.

First we sorted them by color:

Then we graphed our gummy bears:

After we talked about our graphs, we got to eat our gummy bears! Mmmmmm...

Happy Birthday, Kaydence!

Happy Birthday, Kaydence! Love, Mrs. K.

Welcome Class of 2024!

A BIG welcome to the class of 2024! Parents, please make sure I have your email address so you can receive a notice when our classroom blog is updated! My goal is weekly, but some weeks warrant an extra post, and sometimes I get a little behind.

Please enjoy checking out the room, and make sure to stop and see me, and let me know of any concerns you might have. I am here to support you and your child as they begin their journey on the road of education!

Love, Mrs. Krouskop-Smith (Mrs. K.)

Happy Birthday, Dustin!

Happy Birthday, Dustin! Love, Mrs. K.

Test

Testing to see if my blog is linked to twitter (@nicklinlcmrsk) and facebook (Nicklin Learning Center - Mrs. K.).

Happy Birthday, Brieanna!

Happy Birthday, Brieanna! (& Haley, too!) Love, Mrs. K.

Happy Birthday, Marissa!

Happy Birthday, Marissa (& Mahala, too!) Love, Mrs. K.

Happy Birthday, Collin!

Happy Birthday, Collin! Love, Mrs. K.

Happy Birthday, Trista!

Happy Birthday, Trista! Love, Mrs. K.

Happy Birthday, Evelyn!

Happy Birthday, Evelyn! Love, Mrs. K.

Is it that time already?

Well, once again, the end of the year has snuck up on us! I have truly enjoyed teaching your little ones. Each and every one is a precious gift from God, and I pray for success and happiness as they grow.

I have created a slideshow of many of the pictures I took this year - this is the memento I give to each class. Your child has a dvd copy in his or her bookbag to keep, as well. It can be played like a normal dvd. I hope you will sit down with your child, watch the dvd, and talk about all the good times we had this year, and how much fun they will have at their new school as well.

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Happy Birthday, Ethan!

Happy Birthday, Ethan! (& Aaron & Isaac!) Love, Mrs. K.

Lengthened School Day

Thursday, April 21st begins our lengthened school days due to the two extra snow days. For all-day students, this means that the school day will begin at the normal time of 9:00, and end 1/2 hour later, at 3:35. If your child is picked up in the car line, the students will be brought out at 3:35. If your child rides a bus, please add 30 minutes to the bus drop-off time. Also, please give us several minutes either way until the bus routes and times are confirmed. This means you may want to be at the bus stop 5-10 minutes early until you know for sure what time the bus will arrive.


This extended day will be in effect from tomorrow, April 21, through May 23 for Nicklin (longer for students of Springcreek). After May 23, we will return to our normal schedule.

We appreciate your cooperation.

Happy Birthday, Collin!

Happy Birthday, Collin! Love, Mrs. K.

Catching Up

OK, it's been a while since I've updated you on our work, mostly because we have so much going on! Most of the students' reading abilities are really taking off. They love reading classroom books to me! Every student has a basket here at school filled with books at their reading level. We also received several "paper" readers each week, which focus on popcorn words and word families. As the students read these to me successfully, I will be marking them with a pink star, and sending them home. Please allow your child to read these books to you and record them on their Family Reading Log! This is great practice for them to continue over the summer and be ready for 1st grade.

One of my hobbies is playing with the orchestra for local high school and community musicals. This spring I had the awesome opportunity to play "in the pit" for Fairlawn High School's production of "The Phantom of the Opera." On opening day, I didn't want to rush around after school changing my clothes and getting something to eat, so I just wore my all-black outfit to school. Of course, the students were very curious as to why I had only black on, so we talked about playing a musical instrument, and I showed them the difference between a violin and a viola (which is what I play). Then I showed them this picture of me with the Conductor and the three lead actors in "Phantom" - Phantom, Raoul, and Christine. They loved it!

Happy Birthday, Jayden!

Happy Birthday, Jayden! Love, Mrs. K.

New video uploaded ...

View our Dr. Seuss Birthday celebration post here.

This week we are reviewing the letters we've learned the last two weeks:

Edna Elephant

Benny Bear

Larry Lion

We are also reviewing the popcorn words this, do, and, and what. Looking at the back of your child's Parent Pack folder, your child should know all of the letters and popcorn words from the beginning through the ones posted here. Please review these with your child regularly so you are aware of their progress.

In Math, we are learning about 3-D Solid Shapes (cone, cylinder, cube, sphere) after finishing up an introduction to measuring.

In Science, we are continuing our study of animal habitats, and next week we will culminate our studies by creating an animal for our habitats bulletin boards, and writing the facts we know about our favorite animal.

In Social Studies, we are talking about Wants vs. Needs. This is a difficult one for some children!

Have a great week!

Happy Birthday, Karli!

Happy Birthday, Karli! Love, Mrs. K.

Dr. Seuss' Birthday

We are blessed to have Jim Oda, Public Librarian, in our community. Here is how he helped us celebrate Dr. Seuss' Birthday:

More Literacy Choice Time

In this video are Jayden, Marissa, Kadin, Sammy, and Ethan:

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In this video are: Halley, Collin, Dalton, Karli, Kaydence, and Evelyn:

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A Peek Into Our Day

I wanted to give you a small peek into our day. Our mornings are filled with our content learning: Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, and everything else! What we don't get done in the morning we finish after lunch. The rest of the day is spent with the students involved in literacy activities. These activities include daily choice time, and "centers". During Daily Choice Time, each student chooses two of the following activities to complete each day, with the goal of completing each activity at least twice during the week. The activities include Read to Self / Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Writing, or Reading with Miss Sharon. Here is a peek at the students involved in choice time. Enjoy!

In this video are Brieanna, Marissa, Collin, Dalton, Dustin, Gabe, Cole, Ethan, Sammy, Bradin, Collin, Kadin, and Kaydence:

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100 Day

Today was our 100th Day of School!

The students each brought in a collection of 100 items that would fit in a baggie. Those who didn't bring anything were given items from our manipulatives. Each student counted out their collection in groups of 10 on a mat, and displayed it at their seat for everyone to view.

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We then took a tour of the school to see what students from other classes brought. While we toured, we sang a couple of 100 Day songs from our Unified Arts Teacher, Mrs. Morgan. Then we all gathered in the gym for our 100 Day cheer and wrap-up. It was great fun!

Rosie's Walk

Today in Math we practiced our knowledge of position words by reading and seeing a video of the book Rosie's Walk, by Pat Hutchins. The text is easy enough for most kindergarten students to read, and the fox's antics make this an enjoyable experience. But we couldn't stop there, of course - we had to act it out! Each student wrote the name of his or her character and drew it's picture to make a sign; then we filmed our production! We had to film it twice so everyone could have a turn, so a few got to star in both films. We hope you enjoy our little jaunt across the farmyard ...

Video 1: (Ethan, Marissa, Gabe, Kadin, Trista, Collin, Braden, Kaydence, Collin, Sammy)

Video 2: (Dalton, Brieanna, Ethan, Evelyn, Kadin, Karli, Halley, Sammy, Cole, Gabe)

Happy Birthday, Dalton!

Happy Birthday, Dalton! Love, Mrs. K.

Martin Luther King Day Celebration at YWCA Piqua

The YWCA Piqua invites your staff and students to join in a community Martin Luther King Celebration on Monday, January 17, from 1-2 p.m.  The program will feature community members and students giving reflections on the life of the man with a dream through the eyes of his wife, Coretta Scott King. The program is free and open to the public.

Welcome Back! & December Family Reading

Welcome back, everyone! I pray that 2011 will be a year of happiness and peace for every one of my students and their families, as well as for all the staff of Nicklin.

This is the third time I have started to create this post, and each time I remember the photos I have from our disguised turkeys and all the Christmas Holiday events here at school. Well, the card containing all those pictures is at home, so I've scrubbed each attempt at updating my blog, saying I would do it when I get home. Well, you know how that goes - family and home obligations take precedence, and my blog gets pushed to the back burner. So today, I decided I'm just going to go ahead and post, and I'll put the pictures up for you another time!

Today we had our Family Reading Awards Assembly for December. We lowered the goal for December to 15 books to help you out, due to the shortened month and all the busyness of the season. The following students read at least 15 books at home - way to go!

Jayden
Marissa
Evelyn
Brieanna
Dustin
Braden
Cole
Halley
Kadin
Karli
Collin Sn.
Ethan

Our t-shirt winner for this month was Cole. Congratulations to each of these students on a job well done! If your child's name is not on this list, please make sure to complete the Family Reading Log for January, which is in your child's Parent Pack Folder. The goal for each month from now on is 30 books - that's one book per day - you could make this part of your child's bedtime routine. I guarantee they'll remember the time you spend reading with them forever!

This week in Language Arts, we are focusing on the letter Oo. We met Ozzie Octopus:

Our new popcorn word for this week is is. I have been very impressed with how quickly the students are picking up new popcorn words! Many of you are practicing the whole list from the back of the Parent Pack Folder often - keep up the great work!

In Math, we are practicing putting numbers in order (1-20), following directions using position words (over, above, under, below, beside, left, right, in front of, behind, on), and graphing.

In Science, we will begin our Animal Habitat Research Projects soon. This will involve studying several different habitats and discussing the animals that live there. We will also be discussing what features of each animal help them to survive.

Looking forward to next week, there is no school on Friday, January 14 due to teacher meetings.

I promise, I'll get those pictures up soon! Have an awesome week!

Love, Mrs. K.