Math Number Hunt

We went on a hunt for numbers in our environment.  The kids had a GREAT time using construction paper "spy glasses" to look for numbers.  We took pictures of each number we found to make a class book.

Zoom, Zoom, We're off to the Moon!

Our school theme this year is a "Global Connections" theme. Each grade level has an adopted cause and will be collaborating with students in another country via Skype and other technologies to work on our cause. Our school is decorated with space items as part of our theme. We thought, what better way to kick off our school year than by doing our first collaborative project by using recyclables to make rocket ships? We  introduced researching by looking up rockets on the internet with our smart board. We checked out books from our library for reference. Four small groups worked together to make 4 very unique rockets.  Each group proudly made a sign for their rocket. We concluded our project by drawing / writing about our rockets. The children had a GREAT time and worked so hard! I think we have a room full of little "inventors" and "scientists"! I can not wait to see what future collaborative projects hold after this great start!

Everybody Read!

We have had an exciting start to our brand new school year.  Already, our kids are on their way to becoming great readers!  We have learned that there are 3 ways to read a book.  We have learned how to look at books and are well on our way to becoming amazing "book detectives".  Check out these great kinder-readers!

Welcome to Kindergarten!

"Kindergartener, kindergartener come on in.  Learn about the world with brand new friends!"

We are so excited to have a chance to work with your child this year.   My name is Karissa Cockrell and my assistant's name is Miriam Henzler.  We are so fortunate to have a student intern with us for the fall semester named Miss Acuff.  We are looking forward to an exciting year full of possibilities and fun!

Kindergarten Literacy (in progress)...

We make our own class alphabet every year with words generated by the students.  We post this alphabet in our room and then use it to make a class book for the following year's class to see. 

One of our first writing experiences this year as a whole group.  During  our "All About Me" unit we labeled a person using phonetic spelling.

We do several cooking activities throughout the year.  On this particular day we made a "Friendship Fruit Salad".  We used phonetic spelling to list the ingredients as we added them.  The children drew pictures to illustrate our recipe chart.  We hung it in the housekeeping area for students to reference when they pretended to "cook".

Another class alphabet.  Though we wrote several words, we only illustrated and posted one on our final chart.

Writing about snowman adventures using a combination of phonetic spelling and sight words / early January.  

"I would invite my friends over to catch my snowman and I would have my snowman."

Making predictions:  The children came up with and wrote the title of the chart.  Each child got a post-it note during to record their prediction on.

After working on word patterns the previous week with clothespin word clips, this child made up her own word patterns during literacy centers.

These girls used some flannel word pieces to make sentences that they read to each other during morning literacy center time.

A retelling of The Gingerbread Girl done on the smart board as a group and then printed for a class book.  We used a combination of letter sounds and sight words to write this story.  Teacher simply acted as a recorder to type the letters / phrases that the students dictated into Smart Notebook.

Some of our class books~

Our January Collaborative Project.  The children had to work together in small groups to make a life sized penguin.  Each child had to sign up for a "job" as part of the penguin project.  When the project was complete, we used the same smart board writing method to record the steps in completing the project.  We posted our writing above our penguin display.

At the beginning of the year the children work on their cutting and color matching skills to make a "Color Poster".  We display half of these in our room for our color chart and we use the other half to make a class book with basic sight words.

What's Inside the Egg?

The children were so excited to learn that we had duck eggs in the incubator! We set up an "Incubation Station" over in our dramatic play area for the two week period needed to hatch. We have had a GREAT time teasing Miss Carroll as well as taking care of the eggs. Be sure to take a look of our "Candled egg"...