Well, WOW! Welcome back from Christmas break! It took my students and I a few days to adjust, but now we are back on track and happy to be back at school! Monday was rough for my kindies and I! The kids were half asleep and I felt rusty!
After being away from my students for two weeks, they seemed SO SMART this week! Anyone else have that???!? We have come a long way this year, and I am so proud of them!
We actually spent our week finishing up (gasp!) Christmas activities in our literacy and math stations. We run a two-week rotation, and the way the weeks worked out, week 1 fell right before break, and we wrapped up those activities with our second week this week.
I am ready to begin all things Winter! Snowflakes and snowmen and penguins and mittens! We WILL have a bright, cheery Winter after all here in gloomy Michigan! (Actually, I can't complain. It's been a REALLY mild, sunny Winter so far. To be honest, I'm ready for some snow!)
We use the Scott Foresman Reading Street curriculum for language arts in my district, and this week's story was one of my favorites of the year. Do you know Farfallina and Marcel? Such an adorable story about friendship.
We used our discussions about friendship as inspiration for our writing. I LOVE teaching writing and watching the progression of beginning writers. It's one of my favorite parts of teaching Kindergarten!
The topic of friendship is great for Kindergarteners because everyone has a favorite friend they love to talk about. They all have lots of schema built up for this one!!
I loved conferencing with my students one-on-one today and hearing them talk about their writing.
Me and Ryn are at the batting cages.
My favorite friend is Seth and he helps me when I tell him to help me. Ha!
This little guy wasn't confident enough to get words on his paper, but he definitely had a story in his picture! He told me all about the time he and his cousin Jacob played video games while his uncle was on the computer nearby. There was a lot of thought that went into this drawing that I wouldn't have known had I not conferenced with him.
The next two samples are from girls that have become absolutely, positively, the best of friends! They wrote about each other and it made me smile.
My friend is Colie because she makes me giggle!
The front and back were full on this one! :)
Abby Colie Abby Colie Abby Colie Abby Colie.....times infinity :).
(The writing pages I use come from this Growing Kinders pack.)
What are your students writing about???
Adorable writing! I *love* teaching writing, too! So interesting to get inside their little brains and expand their thinking!
ReplyDeleteNicole
Rowdy in Room 300
I haven't read that book. But I have been meaning to ask you if there is a book you use for Valentines Day. In first grade we always did a bunch of friendship books and we had a book that was about friendship from our reading series that we would use that week. But since I don't have a series in Kindergarten, I need your recommendations. Would this book be good? :)
ReplyDeleteIt's so fun to see their writing develop! They change so much from the beginning of the year in Kindergarten to when they start with me in first grade. LOVE it!!!
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