Winter, Winter, Where are You?

This week we continued our winter theme with lots of weather work!  

We made a winter book, but I forgot (once again) to take pictures.  The kids were so good this week and we got 83% or more on all our DIBELS tests.  I am so proud of how far they have come this year!

We are still working on drawing the different fractions.

You can't see on this one, but my kids REALLY like the slash mark.  We are working really hard on putting the slash mark on groups that equal five, not on all 8 tallies.

Some kids made patterns by colors and others made patterns by the types of clothing.

This friend drew our friend Hunter. :)

Great illustration!

I wasn't focused on the spelling, just coloring and writing the sounds they heard.  They did a really great job though!  As you can see, this student didn't follow the directions and color the pictures the correct color.

 I made a few new skip counting games.  The kids in their seats worked to put the numbered kids in order.  The kids LOVED this!

  We counted by 10s....

 and 5's!

Counting by 5's.  We illustrated using one had each and went back and counted by ones to check ourselves!  So smart!

We are dreaming of...Wacky Weather!

Yes...last week we learned all about weather and Martin Luther King!   And what wacky weather we've been having here in Alabama!  I love my cold winters and I have yet to see one with these 60 degree days!  

Last week we learned all about weather and talked about the appropriate types of clothing to wear in different situations.  Our centers and morning work were also based on weather.  

I color coded these Dollar Tree snowflakes with colored dots.  One of the snowflakes was bigger than the 10 blocks (oops), but most of my kids added 3 squares to make it work!

We are still working on sentence rules as you can see. :)  They love figuring out what the sentence is!

Along with our centers, we made a weather book with pages about sunny, rainy, snowy, and hot weather.  I forgot to take pictures, sorry!  It ended up being so cute though!

On Friday, we did a lot of Martin Luther King, Jr. activities and the kids REALLY got it!  I love teaching them about someone who was a real life peacemaker.

Before we started the lesson, I asked if anyone knew who he was and one of my little girls said, "He got all the brown people and white people to be together.  He was a peacemaker."  I LOVE the way little kids make things so simple. :)

Before we started our lesson, I had a brown and white egg.  We predicted if they were the same or different inside then cracked them open and realized they were the same, like us...we may look different on the outside, but on the inside we are all the same.  We have feelings and dreams. 

During this activity I gave this side of the class cheerios and didn't give the other side any at all.  The discussion went a little like this.

kids: "Miss Chamblee... you forgot about us!"

me: "No, I didn't."

kids: "Why don't we get any?"

me: "Because I don't want to give you any (I hated saying that, but I was about to make my point.).  How does that make you feel?"

kids: "Sad!" "Bad!" "That's not fair!"  

me: "Why is that not fair?"

kids: "Because they have something we don't!"

me: "How do you think the people MLK was trying to help felt?   They couldn't use the same bathrooms or go to the same restaurants and schools as other people."

kids:........silence (They were thinking this over in their 5 year old brains)......."That's really mean!"  "That's not being a peacemaker."

Of course after we talked a little more about why it's important to treat everyone equally, I gave everyone cheerios while the kids talked amongst themselves about how mean people can be.  I love these big conversations with my little k-friends!

 Love these!

And what perfect timing to bring in the -ing sound?! 

Happy New Years!

Happy New Year’s from Miss J. Chamblee’s class!  I hope everyone enjoyed the break!  I can already see the Christmas magic working in our classroom!   We have worked so hard this week and been great peacemakers!  We are learning all about winter this month!  Here are a few activities we have done so far.

Matching sounds to letters

Count the dots.  Find the hat and scarf to match.

Count the shapes and write the number.  I got this idea (and some of the following activities) from Julie Lee.  Check out her blog and TPT store!

In order to be successful at this activity, students have to know sentence rules: the first letter is capitalized and the last should have a period after it.  Then they have to actually read the sentence and illustrate it to demonstrate their comprehension.  The student did it correctly; I put the snowflakes in the wrong order. lol

This is a snowflake fact book we made this week.

I got this glyph idea from either overallsuccess.net (I think).  The kids absolutely LOVE it.

The kids decided what needed to be labeled and we worked together to label our snowmen.

REMINDER!  We begin DIBELS testing next week, so please, practice at home.  Practice naming letter, identifying initial sounds, segmenting (breaking) words into sounds, and letter sounds.

Also, a family member of a dear friend just discovered she has cancer in her brain.  The doctors have said that the only treatment is chemo.  However, I know otherwise.  Our God is a powerful God and He answers prayers.  Please, say a pray for Savonya Williams and her family.  

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend.

ROLL TIDE!!!

Feeling Charitable?

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas break!  I know I did!  It was much needed!  We went back to school Tuesday and I can already see the Christmas Magic working its way through my class! YAY!  I can't believe we are half way to 1st grade!

I noticed that I have a few new followers.  Thanks so much for your interest in our classroom happenings.I will make a class update very soon!  

I am posting today in hopes that you will check out the following link and share it with friends.  


http://www.giveforward.com/kure4kamryn?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fb_wall&utm_campaign=user_vanity_page


Here is a little blurb from the website:


" Please join in helping find a "Kure 4 Kamryn."

Kamryn Jolie Brumbeloe was born on July 21, 2011, to Will and Kayla Brumbeloe. At Kamryn’s two month doctor visit, she was diagnosed with an enlarged spleen and liver. She was sent to the Children’s Hospital Emergency Room that day. Many different tests were run on Kamryn, and on November 29th, she was given a horrific diagnosis. Kamryn has Niemann Pick Type C Disease. NPC is an extremely rare recessive genetic lysosomal disease; there are currently only approximately 500 known cases worldwide. There currently is not a cure for NPC. However, there is still hope. Kamryn has been diagnosed at a young age, and there are new, remarkable treatments out there. Hopefully, the majority of the treatments will be covered by insurance, but unfortunately, related expenses such as travel, temporary housing, and other living expenses are not covered by insurance and are adding up quickly. Kamryn and her family need your help. Please join in helping find a “Kure 4 Kamryn.”"

I don't know this family personally, but the mother is from my hometown.  I thought I would do what I could to spread their story.  Though I am not a parent yet, I can't imagine what this family is going through.  I am sure any help you or anyone else could give this family would be greatly appreciated!  You can click on the link to donate and/or read more about Kamryn.

I hope everyone is having a blessed week!  Keep checking in for a class update!

All ABOARD the Polar Express!

WOW!! What a FUN and eventful week!

Mrs. Holcomb's class joined us on the Polar Express this Thursday (check out her blog-Kindergarten Khronicles...she's awesome!)!  What a great day!  We "rode" the Polar Express, drank hot chocolate (with lots of spillage :/ ), and had a special treat.  SOOO much fun!

I sat my room up like this last year.  The kids loved it so much I did it again.  The tickets were a hit.  I told them they had to keep up with them the whole time, just like on a real train.  They were soooo concerned about those tickets, they did such a great job keeping up with them.

And THEN... after lunch, Elfis got into some mischief...

Notice the Peacemaker sign behind him.. I think he needs to read it. :)

Our cute class tree

To make the Grinch smile, I would...

I got this idea from Pam Greening at Overall Success...

I also got this idea from Pam Greening at OverallSuccess.net!  I LOVE her ideas!