REEF Video

Here is a video REEF wanted me to share with you. REEF supports River Eves with technology. They have purchased Activboards and ipads in the past. We are very thankful to have this organization. Please take a moment to watch the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH2SN2Qg2UA


Thanks,

Mrs. Daugherty

Intruder Drill

Just an fyi, on Friday we had a planned intruder drill. It is policy to practice all drills (tornado, fire, intruder) during the school year. Students did great. I close the locked door, turn off the lights, and cover the windows. Students go to the back of the room out of view and sit quietly. They did very well!

Mrs. Daugherty

November Update

 

We had a mystery reader (Ms. Janisse) come read to the class! They love having mystery readers share different books. If you're interested in being a mystery reader second semester let me know! I will be creating a new schedule. I'm flexible with the time of the day. It is usually about ten minutes where you read a story of your choice to the class. Thanks to those who have already volunteered.

 

Thanks to everyone who returned the learning survey that was sent home. We had the best return rate in kindergarten! I appreciate your help with this. I understand it was not the best for kindergartners to fill out. I have a meeting this week with the person who assigned this task to teachers, and I will let her know of our feedback. Not surprisingly, most students were tactile (hands-on) or visual learners. I always incorporate different learning styles into the lessons. However, based on the learning surveys I grouped students into tactile or visual learners. (We had no auditory learners in our class.) In the tactile group students compared numerals and used popsicle sticks to make the greater than/less than/equal signs. In the visual group, students focused on looking at items and discussing what looked greater/less. Then, they picked the correct inequality sign.

 

In math, we continue to work on counting to 100 by ones and tens. Students have learned to count on from a given number, sequence numbers, and label sets. Now we are focusing on comparing numbers. Students have been identifying groups that are more and less. That came pretty easily to students so we have moved on to using greater than or less than signs. We watched Allie the Alligator on youtube.com to start of our lesson. Next week, we will be starting to learn about decomposing teen numbers. Students will learn to break down 18 into 1 group of ten and 8 ones. We will have at least two weeks to work on this concept.

 

In writing, students have been writing facts or informational writing. Students enjoyed choosing their own topics and learning how to edit. We will continue to work on editing throughout the school year. To learn about the writing process we watched this copycat song. Next week, we will move on to how to writing. We have books from the library to investigate examples of how to writing. We will write some how to's together, and students will also be able to write some of their own in December.

 

At the beginning of the month in Social Studies students learned about veteran's. We researched the different branches of the military as a class and talked about how important it is to thank the men and women who help keep our country safe. Last week students started learning about Thanksgiving. We discuss how the first Thanksgiving is similar and different to Thanksgiving today. Next week, we will dicuss what we are thankful for and practice for our Thanksgiving Performance Friday at 8:30am.  We hope to see you there! Students will be singing turkey songs and then after we will have a mini feast with our guests. It will be about one hour and located in the cafeteria. To sign up to bring something to the feast click here.

Upcoming Events this week:

Monday

• - library lesson

* Ms. Hytka will be coming around to let students check out books. I know the schedule has been confusing. I recommend having your child keep their library book in their bookbag. I also try to put it in the newsletter. Soon, students will be checking out books independently and can go any day.

Wednesday

•  Author visit from Ms. Julie Ferris. She wrote The Masters: A-Z. We will read the book before she visits and discuss what an abc book is. If you are interested in purchasing the book, you may send in money by Wednesday. A green paper went home in your child's folder. We are also asking that children wear green or dress like a golfer on this day.
• Wednesday is also sight word folder day!

Thursday

• Grandparent's Lunch: Our lunch time is 11:02-11:32. Please meet us and say good bye at the lunchroom. Also, id's will need to be presented when you sign in.
• Signed papers will be going home. Please flip through, sign, and return on Friday.
• GKIDS reports will be going home. GKIDS is the kindergarten assessment that we looked at during conferences. We update it throughout the year. There will be a coversheet explaining more. Please sign the envelope it came home in and return the envelope only. You may keep the report. Feel free to ask me any questions/concerns that you have when looking at it.

Friday

• 8:30-9:30 Thanksgiving Performance
• Signed white envelope and signed papers due.
• November homework folder with completed work and reading log due.

We have an entire week of Thanksgiving this year. I hope everyone has a wonderful break and enjoys time with their loved ones!
<3 Mrs. Daugherty

Book Character Parade

Students enjoyed dressing up as their favorite book characters and parading around the school. It was a great opportunity to reinforce what a character is, and students loved to see each other's costumes. Thanks to the parents who volunteered to help students change and came to cheer us on during the parade!

Our line before the parade:

 

 

 

Our beautiful class!

If you have any pictures from the parade, feel free to send them to me at daughertya@fultonschools.org and I'll add them to the site!



Fall Festival

To celebrate fall, we had a day of fall inspired centers. Our wonderful room parents planned it and had great support from other parents. Thank you to all of those who helped by volunteering at the festival or sending in materials. Below are the four centers students rotated through.

1) Candy Corn Bingo
A number was read aloud and students looked for a match on their bingo cards. All students eventually got bingo and a prize. They had fun and reviewed their numbers!

2) The second center allowed students to have a fun snack mix. They graphed each item in the snack mix and then ate it.

 It was also the day to "shade out drugs" during red ribbon weeks. :)

 

3) At the third centers, students listened to a pumpkin story. After the story, students played a game where they hid a pumpkin and one student guessed where it was.

 

 

4) The fourth center incorporated fine motor skills, science, and technology. Students watched a quick youtube video on how an acorn grows into a tree. Then, they created a necklace with beads and an acorn.

 

It was a blast! Hope they showed off their necklaces when they got home. Thanks again for all of your help!

Mrs. Daugherty

 



Week 11

Report cards went home on Friday. Please sign on the line next to the highlighter. Students should return the envelopes on Monday. You may keep your child's report card. In addition to your child's report card, contact information was also included in the envelope. Please look it over and return it as well. If the information is correct, please write correct or no changes and return it. It is extremely important that the school always has accurate contact information. Thanks for your help!

What we did this week:
Reading- Students brainstormed words that start with the letter S. They also worked on sounding and stretching words. When students worked with me in small groups, I was completing the unit 1 reading assessment. Students were assessed on their ability to identify letters, words, beginning sounds, and rhyming words. I will continue the assessment next week.

Writing- Students also had a formal assessment in writing this week. They completed a narrative piece which told a story about a time they were happy or sad. We brainstormed, wrote a rough draft, edited, and wrote a final draft. Students are expected to stretch words and their pictures should match their words. We worked on adding details like who you were with, what you were doing, and where you were, as well as including a beginning, middle, and end. This are concepts that were introduced, but we will work on all year. When I grade the writings, I will look for students beginning to use capitalization, puncutation, and spaces. Students' writing makes great improvements throughout the kindergarten year. I hope you have already noticed some growth at home. I started recording students reading their final piece on Friday. I will finish recording students next week and post the videos on the blog.

Math
Last week, students counted objects in bags and wrote the appropriate number. Students played a game on Friday where they spun a spinner with numbers or number words and had to color in the matching number of spaces on their boards. The goal for last week was for students to match the numerals to that number of objects. We sung Dr. Jean's numeral song to review how to write the numbers 0-10. I also checked in with students one on one on their counting ability.  Our goal is for students to count and label objects 0-20 and count to 100 to meet the kindergarten standards. Please practice counting with your child at home. Students typically get stuck in the teens, 29, or 39. Also work on counting by tens to one hundred.

Social Studies- We discussed Christopher Columbus more this week. Students saw on a map where Columbus wanted to go and where he actually did go. We dicussed character traits of Columbus as well. On Monday, we will discuss items he brought from Europe to the Americas and wrap up our unit.

Science Lab- Students went to the science lab on Friday. They did an experiment with motion. Students investigated cars on various ramps. This lesson will help students as we being our motion unit next week.

Coming up:
- Field trip on Wednesday. I have 2 volunteers (Thanks Brent and Lluvia!) If anybody else is interested, let me know. You are welcome to attend.

Other
- Please return your child's book character parade paper. I plan on making my first trip to the library this week to pick up needed books.
- Please remember to work on your child's All About Me paper that was sent home last week. It is due Oct. 25th. If you need another one please let me know. I am going to plan a lesson incorporated each child's learning style results. Thanks!

- I came across this article and thought I'd share it. It is about things you can do as you read with your child. Click here to read it. The most imporant thing is to read with your child and enjoy that time together.

Enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. Daugherty

Science Day

Science day started with the egg drop. Katherine and Madison K. both made egg vessels that we watched fall from the school's roof. Great job girls! Mr. Gauthia dressed up as a chicken to drop the eggs. :-)

(The videos of the drops aren't loading, but it was an exciting morning. I hope your kids told you about it!)

The rest of the day students rotated to different kindergarten classrooms and learned about the 5 senses (see, hear, smell, taste, touch.) The activities with each sense is below:

 

Sight- Students tossed a ball and counted how many times they caught it. Then, their eyes were covered with an eye patch and they completed the same activity. They compared the number of time they caught the ball with one eye to two eyes.

 

Hearing- Students learned about sound waves and made an instrument.

 

Smell- Students smelled yummy and yucky smells.

 

Taste- Students learned about their tastebuds. They tried foods that we sweet, sour, and bitter.

 

Touch- Students learned about braille and texture.

 

Students enjoyed a popcorn treat where they saw and heard it pop, felt it, and tasted it.

Donuts with Dad

Thanks to everyone who was able to join us for Donuts for Dad. We had lots of special guests and fun activities.  Students wrote about their dads and decorated ties earlier in the week. Students also drew a picture of their dads and dictated a clue about their dad.

When guests came, they were asked to match the clue describing them with their picture. During donuts with dad students rotated through four centers. The centers were eating donuts, playing dominoes, playing pin the tie on the dad, and writing in shaving cream. Check out the pictures below. I wish I had gotten more! It was wonderful to see the kids interact with our special guests. I hope everyone enjoyed it!

Looking Ahead

October Dates:
10/17 Sky Zone 3-7pm
10/23 Field Trip to Teaching Museum North
10/25 REES Fall Festival 4:30-7pm
10/31 Book Character Parade 8am
10/28-11/1 Red Ribbon Week

This week we will....

Math
Review counting by ones and tens. Continue to practice counting and labeling objects. The week after we will work on counting on from a number. For example, count from 6. 6, 7, 8. Students will also learn to sequence numbers. Please practice counting 0-100 by ones and tens with your child at home.

Writing
We will complete our narrative writing assessment. Students brainstormed about times they were happy and sad. They chose a topic and wrote a rough draft. This week we will edit and complete the final draft. Next week, we will start learning about informational writing.

Social Studies
Students will learn more about Christopher Columbus this week. We will discuss the things Columbus brought with him to the Americas. We watched a clip on Christopher Columbus from brainpopjr that tells the truth in a child friendly way about Columbus. Students are taught he is an explorer who didn't find America first, but did tell Europe about the Americas. At first, he made a mistake and thought he was in India.

Reading
We will be studying the letter s and identifying it at the beginning and ending of words. We will read stories that contain S words. We will also be completing our 9 week reading assessments. I will assess students on their letter sound and identification knowledge. We have also been learning about syllables and rhyming words. You can review these concepts at home. When the assessment is completed, you will see a copy in your child's signed papers.

Signed papers will go home on Wednesday along with a paper about the Book Character Parade. Please fill out the Book Character Parade sheet and return it in your child's folder as soon as possible. It is a fun event, and we want to make sure everyone has a book to go with their costume!

* We can have 2 volunteers come on our field trip on the 23rd. You would not ride the bus; instead, we would meet you at the Teaching Museum. If you are interested, please let me know and I can get you more information.

Looking Back

Hello! I'm sorry for the delays in posting.

Looking back.....

We started centers in reading. Students visit two centers a day and rotate through ten centers during the week. Some centers include: listening, big books, activboard, computer, abc, writing, write the room, pocket chart, and creation.

In math, we completed our shapes unit. Students should be able to identify 2D and 3D shapes. Here are links to songs we used to help learn the shape names and think of real life examples. 3D shapes song and 2D shapes song. Students also learned to compose shapes (ex: 2 triangles make a rhombus) and compare shapes. Lastly, students identified shapes as 2D/flat or 3D/solid.

In science, we studied physical properties. We created texture hands to discuss textures such as rough, bumpy, soft and smooth. We also learned that things are made up of different compositions. As a class, we sorted materials by plastic, wood, cloth, and rubber.

The class went though the entire writing process during A week. Students brainstormed about fall, and then we picked to write about apples. Rough drafts were written in students' journals. Next, we discussed describing words, and students wrote adjectives on apple dicuts. Students' edited their sentences by adding these describing words and finally published their apple sentence.

The next week we focused on writing about a trip each student had taken. It could be a trip to the beach, a restaurant, the zoo, etc. Students enjoyed writing about themselves and sharing their stories. Each day we practiced adding more information to make a more interesting story. Students wrote where they went, what they did there, and who they went with.

Career Day

We had a fantastic career day on Monday! We had many guests who came to visit our classroom. Some jobs included an occupational therapist, a firefighter, a paralegal, a makeup artist, a filmmaker, a wireless networker, an IT specialist, and a physical trainer. Just to name a few! Thank you for everyone who was able to volunteer! Take some time to talk to your kids about what you do. We have discussed why people work (to earn money) and the purpose of money (to buy our needs and wants.) Students also learned that each job provides a good or a service. Jobs that provide goods are professions such as a baker or chef. They make things. Jobs that provide a service help people or doing something such as a doctor or barber. Our community helper unit goes through September 13th. Below are some career day pictures. Sorry I couldn't capture everyone!

 < Mr. Stevens talking about finding actors for a movie.

 < Mr. Rogers using Edouardo as a volunteer for stop, drop, and roll. He also let students touch his hat and listen to what it sounds like when a firefighter is breathing through his tank.

Each student got to lift (with assistance) the weight and learned some self defense moves (for when they aren't at school :) )

 

Fund Run

Hello! The time for the fundrun had come. Our team name is Daugherty's Dashers. We have a poster outside of our door to let everyone know our team name. We will also take it with us to the fun run on September 18th. Family and friends are invited to the fun run to cheer on our students. It is on the upper field or in the gym if it rains.

You can find out more about the organization at funruntime.com. Your student brought home an information sheet in his/her folder on Monday with a secret code used for online access. You can also write down pledges on the form. Students do receive prizes when they get pledges. Our classroom will receive 10% of the raised amount. It is the only fundraiser our school does. We had a pep rally on Monday to introduce the fun run to students.

Each day a fun run team member stops by the classroom to tell students the character word of the day. Today was teamwork and students pretended to row a boat together. They discussed how each person was needed to make the boat move.  Unfortunately that image is having trouble showing up. Check back for updates about the Boosterthon! So far we have 3 pledges. Thank you so much for your support! If your child didn't receive his/her prize today for a pledge it will come tomorrow. They told me it may be a day behind.

Thanks,
Mrs. Daugherty

It's September!

Time is flying by! The students are doing a great job learning the routines and working together as a team. Students have begun reading groups. As an independent activity, students were asked to put the abc flashcards in order. I modeled how to use the alphabet on the wall for assistance.

 



In math, we have been studying shapes. Students should be able to identify 2D shapes ( square, circle, triangle, rectangle, and hexagon) and 3D shapes (cone, sphere, cube, cylinder.) Last week, we focused on forming new shapes. In the picture, Carter is putting two triangles together to form a rhombus. This week we are focusing on comparign 2d and 3d shapes. We will use the vocabulary flat and solid as well as faces and corners to describe shapes. Students have found shapes around the classroom and are working on identifying real life 3d objects. For example, a soccer ball if s a sphere. We have about ten more days in this unit. Looking for shapes at home or as you're out and about is a great way to review these skills!

In writing, students have been working on their Alphabet Journals. Each day we discuss about 2 letters. I model how to form the letter correctly on the lines, and we brainstorm things that start with those letters. Students then go to their seats to trace and write the letters. They draw a picture that begins with that letter and try their best to write the word or sentence to accompany the picture. Expect these to come home in your child's backpack at the beginning of next week. Handwriting is a skill we will be working on all year.

 We also had a visit from our school counselor Ms. Patton. She will be visiting our classroom once a month to do a 30-45minute lesson with the class. Her first lesson was about I-Messages. The students are taught to say "I feel (insert feeling) when you______" We practiced with examples like I feel sad when you don't play with me or I feel happy when my mommy makes me cookies. Students are taught to use their words to express their feelings.

Thanks for checking out the blog! Check back regularly for updates!
~Mrs. Daugherty

First Week

We made it through our first week of school! I've loved getting to know each student so far. We have a great year ahead of us! Here are a few pictures from the first week.

 
 Above: Exploring materials and free centers.

 

 Recess on the lower field on Wednesday. This seems to be the kids favorite playground so far. We were the only class down there at the time, and there is lots of room for running.

Here are the ingredients used in our success trail mix. We made it for snack on the first day of school. Then, a week later we reviewed the ingredients (effort, honesty, kindness, curiosity, teamwork, excitement to learn, fairness, and pride in your work). We discussed each of these traits/fancy words and talked about how we could use them in our classroom. Students received another bag of the trail mix on the 19th to share with somebody at home. I hope the treat made it home safely! (Inspired by travelingtogether.wordpress.com which was linked to pinterest.)