Sharpening the Saw

Surprise! The students were able to take a 15 minute brain break to "Sharpen Their Saws" with the letter H! We hula hooped, played hopscotch, hopped with jump ropes, and played hot potato.

Lately in K

Our first post of the new school year is here! We are having so much fun making new friends and learning new things. We are off to a bit of a late start, but we have been busy getting settled in our new classrooms. Be looking out for another post this week introducing our classes to the blog world and getting to know a little bit about each teacher :)

In our first 11 days of kindergarten, we have been working super hard on: learning new sight words "the", "here", and "see", Letters "Aa" and "Ee", and color words "red" and "green". In math, we have had tons of fun exploring shapes and where they are in the environment. This week has been focused on postional words and learning how to describe an objects location.

Here are a few quick pictures captured from this week!

Having fun with magic playdoh! If your playdoh turned colors, then you are going to have a great year!



Writing the Room!

Exploring ways to sort real world shapes

Many varied and unusual ways to create pictures from shapes!

Taking advantage of the beautiful day and used chalk to practice writing our names!

Such a fun morning!

At first it was a circle. Now it is a flower. The students were so creative! 

Thank you for stopping by,
The Sutton K Team!

Hooray! Hooray! It's the 100th Day!!!!!

Congratulations to all our K friends for making it to their 100th day of school!!!!!! Seriously?! 100 days already?!! To celebrate all the hard work put in by the kiddos, the K team decided to treat them with an afternoon of 100 fun.

Stations were set up around the cafeteria and the students were able to pick and choose as they pleased. Each station required some knowledge of the number 100. In one station, the students had to stamp 100 pennies to make a dollar! In another, they had to jump rope or hula hoop for 100 seconds (if they could, that is!). There was a station with basketballs, race cars, sorting mats, dominoes, and much more! But the station that caught my eye was the banner. Our students worked together to write over 100 words without the help of a teacher!!! 100 words! Amazing! We are so proud of them!

We took tons of pictures to capture all the fun that was had today. Anyone ready for a nap? :)

Mitten Mania

I think Mother Nature knew our classroom's were going to be focusing on winter and winter wear this week because she decided to drop the temperature drastically! Thanks... I guess. Our focus this past week was on reading, writing, and making Short I CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words. To make it a little more engaging, we also put an emphasis on an all time classic, "The Mitten" by Jan Brett. The kiddos had a blast playing comprehension games, using dry erase boards to create Short I words (real and nonsense words), and reading different stories about mittens.

A class favorite was graphing whether you typically wear gloves or mittens in cold weather. The students ALWAYS love relating school work to their own personal life! After graphing our data, we analyzed it. Each class had a different spin on analyzing and graphing the data: take a look!

Happy New Year!

We made it! Our first full week back from Winter Break is complete. The transition back into school mode can be difficult, but we are all off to a great start! I have a feeling 2013 is going to be the best year yet... What do you think?! Here's to having a fantastic new year full of growing, loving, and learning!

Christmas Overload!

Is it just me, or has this year FLOWN BY?! It's hard to believe that we are already on Winter Break. I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say, I miss those little rascals already. Our entire week was full of holiday spirit! From 8:00-3:00, we did all things Christmas. Anyone a little burnt out? ;) If you walked in our halls, I'm sure the displays made your smile widen from ear to ear.

My favorite activity of the week was "Santa's Stuck". We read the story, then the students came up with different ways they would save Santa from being stuck inside their chimney! The ideas are hilarious!

Here are some other festive activities your child completed this week!

*** While preparing my students for our class Christmas Party, news broke of the school shooting in Connecticut. It made me cherish the time I had with my students even more than I already do. I hugged them all a little tighter as they walked out of the classroom to go home that day. At this time, we'd like to take a second to honor and remember those lost in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. To the school and community of Newtown, you are not alone. Our hearts mourn for you and our positive thoughts are with you, now and forever. ***

We hope everyone has a wonderful break and spends loads of quality time with the ones they love! 

Happy Holidays!!! See you in 2013 :)

XOXO, Sutton Kindergarten Team

You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch!

You can't celebrate the Christmas season without recognizing the king of mischief, Mr. Grinch! Of course, we don't celebrate the fact that he was cunning and mean... rather, we celebrate how he was able to strengthen his heart and make it grow 3 sizes bigger on Christmas Day by giving back to the Who's. How could we have our students give back to one another and make their own hearts grow? Our grade level team decided to bring that lesson into our classroom by making a class Grinch and decorating our Grinch with hearts full of random acts of kindness! The holiday season is all about love and making others feel loved. Check out how kind our little friends are (we are continuing giving hearts for acts of kindness up until the last day of break!)

We incorporated the Grinch into our entire day- from reading to math! Tons of grinchy fun was had by all. Our classes brainstormed ways to make the Grinch grin, solved Grinch math problems, read different stories, had a special Grinch punch for snack, and even were able to watch the movie that afternoon! Last, but not least.... THE GRINCH EVEN CAME TO VISIT US!!!!! What a great day to be in kindergarten! 

This writing piece simply warms my heart!
"To make the Grinch grin, I would give him a family."

We still have many more Christmas ideas up our sleeves, so stayed tuned!