Apple Fun!

On Friday, we tasted red, green, and yellow apples!

First we made our predictions of which apples we would like best based on our prior experiences. We made a bar graph to see which color we thought we liked best:

Green: 6 Red: 5 Yellow: 7 We predicted more of us would like yellow best!

Then we tasted all the apples:

(a yellow one)

(a green one)

(a red one)

(can you tell which one?)

Finally, we made an "apple-pie graph" to see if our predictions were correct! Can you tell which apple most of us liked best?

September Family Reading Awards

Today we held our Family Reading Awards Assembly for September. Each family is asked to read at least 30 books each month. Each student who achieves this goal receives a certificate, and their name is put into a jar for a drawing to win a Nicklin t-shirt.

Congratulations to these students who met their goal for September!
Collin Sn. read 36 books!
Karli read 30 books!
Kadin read 63 books!
Halley read 42 books!
Cole read 33 books!
Braden read 32 books!
Dustin read 31 books!
Kaydence read 46 books!
Evelyn read 35 books!
Marissa read 38 books!
Jayden read 36 books!

If your child's name is not on this list, please make sure to read 30 or more books (you can read the same book more than once) to your child before Oct. 31. You must write the name of each book on the Family Reading log which is in your child's Parent Pack for it to count. Many parents tell me "I read them, I just didn't write them down." Obviously, I cannot verify this, so we require a list to be kept in the folder. If you lose this paper, you may use a blank piece of paper. Also, if the Family Reading log is not turned in at the end of the month, a zero will be marked for your child for that month.

The Family Reading Program is part of the requirements for our Title I funding, and is mandatory for all parents. We appreciate your help and participation!

Week of Oct. 4

This week in Language Arts, we will review the letters, sounds, and popcorn words we have learned so far: Mm (Mimi Mouse / march), Aa (Andy Apple / angry), I, can, we, and the. In Handwriting, we will be learning the correct way to write capital E and capital D. I will also begin assessing your child's letter name, letter sound, and popcorn word skills, among others in preparation for grade cards.

In Math, we will wrap up our unit with our stuffed animals by acting out story problems (addition and subtraction) with them. We will also create a class book of story problems at the end of the week.

In Science, we continue to observe and learn about the plants in our room. Last week, we saw what happened when we forgot to water one of our plants. It looked really sad!

In Social Studies, we will talk about why we must have and follow rules.

Have a great week!

More Stuffed Animal Math

We continued learning some math concepts with the stuffed animals in Mrs. K.'s classroom last week. We practiced describing the animals using our feely box and only our sense of touch...




We put them in order by size ...




We compared their weights ...




We even weighed them with cubes!

This week we will use them to create our own story problems. We are sure having fun with our stuffed animals!

Week of Sept. 27

Our focus this week is on the colors!

In Language Arts, our letter this week is Aa. We were visited by Andy Apple, who told us the sound of short /a/. Our new popcorn word for this week is the. We will be reading and doing lots of activities focused around the very popular children's book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You Hear?, by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle.

You can watch Bill Martin himself read this fun book here: YouTube: Bill Martin reads Brown Bear.

In Math, we are using Mrs. K.'s stuffed animals for sorting, patterning, measuring weights, and comparing.

In Science, we will watch what happens when we put a stalk of celery in colored water, and discuss why we get our results!

We will also practice what we've learned during our Daily 5 and Centers times. We are learning how to "build our stamina" for reading, writing, and listening to a story up to 20 minutes - we are at 14 already! We learned that practicing this will help us to be better readers!

Have a great week!

Thursday Night is Parent Night!

After all the students left yesterday afternoon, I found a Parent Night notice left on the floor. Since I'm not sure who didn't take their notice home, I thought I would put up a reminder here.

THIS Thursday, Sept. 30, we are having a Parent Night. This is a time for you to come and find out about our activities and procedures and have any questions you may have answered.

We hope to see you there!

Kids Say the Darndest Things ...

They are replacing the boiler for our school, which is right next to our room. They have been doing a lot of loud work (sawing and welding) right outside our classroom, so yesterday I took the students outside for class for a while. Here are some of the wonderful quotes I overheard while we were outside!

GH, upon seeing a leaf blow down the alley: "There goes the best leaf ever!"

KF: "Mrs. K., books are fun!"

Week of Sept. 20

I apologize for the late update for this week - we are getting deep into the throes of learning, and with that comes a lot of work and things to keep up with!

This week is what we at Nicklin lovingly call "Careful Corners." Throughout this week, we will have activities and assemblies centered around safety. Yesterday, we met some firemen, saw what they look like when they are in full gear (so we're not scared), practiced escaping from a burning house, and toured the fire truck. We also watched a couple of videos about fire safety.

Today, we listened to our school nurse, Mrs. Liette, talk about poisons and handwashing. She showed us that sometimes things that are bad for us look like things that are ok, such as candy and juice. We learned never to pick something up if we don't know what it is! We also learned the appropriate way to wash our hands, by getting in between our fingers and under our fingernails, and singing the ABC song to make sure we wash long enough.

Tomorrow we will be visited by someone from the Humane Society to teach us about animal safety, and we will also review being safe on the playground. Thursday, a policeman will visit us to talk about stranger danger and the importance of having your child learn their address and phone number.

Friday we will learn about being safe on and near a school bus.

Aside from all of this fun stuff going on, we are still learning in Language Arts! We have begun learning about the letters and their sounds. Our letter for this week is Mm. Mimi Mouse made a stop in our classroom today to tell us the sound of Mm, and she brought some Mm activities for our SmartBoard. Also, we can now read three words: I, can, and we. We look for these words in all of our reading!

Next week, we will be learning about the letter Aa, the "popcorn word" the, and we will be doing more math activities with stuffed animals (I will provide the animals this time), and more science activities with our plants.

Have a great week!

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Chicka Chicka, BOOM BOOM!

I had a spur-of-the-moment idea today. I already had planned to have the students act out (role-play) Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, but on a whim, I decided to video it. A couple of boys were sitting off the screen to the left, so I apologize if your child cannot be seen. I promise, they were there and participating!

Kids Say the Darndest Things!

Every morning I put out the big blocks for the children to play and explore with while others are eating breakfast. This is what I overheard today:

S: "This is the queen."

H: "No, I'm the queen, silly!"

The other item I got out this morning for free exploration was our linking cubes. Every year it seems, the students love making "trains" out of them, and seeing who can make the longest/tallest. Today, they accomplished something that hasn't been done in a few years, and the excitement could almost be felt. Can you tell what they did?

Yep, they stretched that thing all the way from one end of the room to the other - length-wise! My, but they were proud of themselves! I just love it when the "little" things tickle them pink!

Week of Sept. 13-17

This week in Language Arts, we will have many activities focused around the very popular and very fun book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin, Jr. & John Archambault.

It's a hilarious account of what happens when too many letters of the alphabet try to climb a tree at once on a dare! Your child will love reading this with you if you order it from Scholastic! Paper orders are due Friday; online orders are due the 24th.

In Math, we will have fun with our stuffed animals. We will sort them several different ways, categorize them, and even measure them!

In Science, we are still studying plants. Last week Mrs. K. brought in several plants for us to observe; this week, we will learn about what is involved in taking care of them!

Next week is our Careful Corners week. We will be learning about many ways to stay safe - fire, nurse/medicines, strangers/police, dogs, and bus.

Have a great week!

First Week Under Our Belts!

Well, we have our first full week down in the books. We learned all about the rules in our classroom and around the school, practiced "reading" every day, and made lots of new friends! We read about a young raccoon who didn't want to go to school, but his mother gave him a special gift that made him feel better. Be sure to ask your child what that gift was! Our very first "popcorn word" was I. We can read it anytime we see it now! We also began experimenting with several different math manipulatives, including blocks and colored bears. We wrote in our journals, and learned how to draw as many details as possible in our pictures.

This week, in Language Arts, we will be reading Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten, as well as other "kindergarten" and "beginning of school" books. Our new popcorn word is can.

In Math, we will continue exploring with our manipulatives, brainstorming ways to use them. We will also continue making our own color posters for our walls, and counting to 10.

In Science, we will begin learning about plants. Mrs. K. will bring in several plants for us to observe and take care of.

Finally, we will begin learning procedures for learning centers. We will practice matching letters, counting bugs, exercising our fine motor muscles, putting together puzzles, and using lines and curves to create letters.

We hope you have a great week!

Welcome Class of 2023!

A great big welcome to the Class of 2023! I am excited to meet you and get to know Braden, Brieanna, Cole, Collin S. (1), Collin S. (2), Dalton, Dustin, Ethan, Evelyn, Gabriel, Halley, Jayden, Kadin, Karli, Kaydence, Marissa, Rylei, Sammy, and Trista!

Mrs. K. Hangs Up Her Class

Some silly antics were going on in Mrs. K.'s Class today ... check it out ...

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Gummy Bear Math

Yesterday, we used Gummy Bears for our math lesson. We sorted them by color, counted them, and used them to add and of course subtract - that was the best part! The students asked if we could do it again today, which made me happy!

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Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Look Who's in the Green Room!

At the beginning of this year, we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault. We made a book to help us learn our names, and, well, just because it's fun! We hope you like our version of this wonderful book!

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We raised caterpillars into butterflies. When we got the caterpillars, they were very tiny. They grew and grew, and soon they spun a chrysalis, which hung from the top of the container. Mrs. K. put them into our special butterfly house, and we waited a few more days. All of a sudden, one day we had butterflies! We fed them sugar water on flowers for a while, then we let them go today. It was fun to see them fly so high in the air!

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Puppet Day!

This week has been our "Artist in Residency" week. Mel, from Madcap Puppets in Cincinnati, has been with us all week, teaching us how to use puppets, and to think up creative stories for them. On Tuesday evening, parents and students were invited to come to school for our final family literacy night and create their very own puppet. Those who couldn't make it then created theirs today. Here are some of our creations:

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"I like to rit on the smrtblord!" says Bennie.

Transition Day

Today we visited our first grade schools and classrooms. Since everyone goes to different schools, and some come to kindergarten in the morning and some in the afternoon, this is quite an undertaking for us! About half of our class traveled in the morning, while the other half stayed at Nicklin with Mrs. Davis or Ms. Wehrman. Then in the afternoon, we switched. Be sure to ask your child about their visit to first grade today!

While we were there, we got to have a snack of a cookie and juice in the cafeteria, take a tour of the building, and do some activities with a first grade teacher. We were on our best behavior, and enjoyed being first-graders for the day!