Turtleback Zoo Field Trip 2013

Kindergarten Class Trip to the Turtle Back Zoo

 

For our field trip this year we returned to the Turtle Back Zoo in Essex County, NJ.  The sun came out this year and we all had a FABULOUS time on our class trip!  I would like to say a special thanks to the wonderful parents who volunteered their time to supervise the children.  As you can see below, we all had a great time running around, seeing the animals, pretending to be prairie dogs, and playing!  We also learned a lot about animals and their natural habitats!

Male Peackock

Getting ready to feel the sting rays

Snow Leopard

Sea Lion

Red Panda

Condor

Cougar

Jaguar

Big Pig!

Emma pets sheep.

Jenna & Ariel pet the sheep.

 

Emma, Jenna, & Ariel

Joe checking out the jaguar.

Max checking out the jaguar.

Charlie, Miles, & Christopher

 

Erik, Erin, & Kayla

 

Katie & Layla

Dylan, Tommy, Alfi, & Ethan

Lauren, Brent, & Addison with the bison.

Kayleigh, Joe, Satyam, Dalton, Max, Jaden, & Maguire

Grace, Nick D., Alexis, Christina, Hana, Amira, Lexi, Tina, & Damian

A big group!

Then more came!  This is almost everyone. :)

Don't Let Pigeon Drive The Bus Reader's Theater

Our classroom is a balanced literacy classroom, with plenty of engaging opportunities for students to read with and to other students.  We recently reread on of our favorite books: Mo Willem's Don't let Pigeon Drive the Bus!  It was exciting to see things like speech bubbles and exclamation points used so effectively, since we have been working on using those features in our Writer's Workshop.  We really got a feel for the emotions of the characters and interpreted them through a Reader's Theater based upon the book. Below are videos of our final performances: enjoy!

AM

Addison, Ariel, & Erik

Charlie, Max, & Emma

Erin, Kayleigh, & Miles

Addison, Brent, & Katie

Jenna, Lauren, & Jaden

Joe, Maguire, & Layla

Satyam, Chris, & Kayla

PM

Alexis, Tommy, & Nick D.

Alfi, Giovanni, Hana, & Tina

Amira, Dylan, & Damian

Carlton, Dalton, & Mikayla

Ethan, Lexi, & Christina

Grace, Nicholaas H., Colin

Kindergarten Partner Reading

Through the Reader's Workshop, we have been building up to and practicing partner reading all year! 

More recently, we began learning how to write "How To" books in Writer's Workshop.  To practice, we decided to teach "How To Partner Read," since we are such experts.  Our poster is especially fabulous, since it has pictures of us!

 How To Partner Read

1. Get your Book Bag

2. Sit on the floor EEKK Style (Elbow, Elbow, Knee, Knee) with your partner

  3.Read your book to your partner

  4. Talk about the book

  5. Then it's your partner's turn

These Kindergarten partner reading experts know that it is not enough to just figure out the words in the book.  We also have to understand the book and talk about it.  We have practiced a lot of different ways to talk about your book with your partner.

The links below are videos of students engaged in partner reading.  Listen in as students work on their decoding, fluency, and comprehension with their partners. Afterwards we always self-assess by "checking in," (which is uses language and a structure from the Daily 5).

Mrs. Curry's AM Class Can Partner Read- Video 

 Mrs. Curry's PM Class Can Partner Read- Video

Since we are always self assessing, students watched themselves in the videos from these links.  Afterwards we talked about our strengths and weaknesses.  The answers the students generated are on the chart below.  The most impressive part is that these are  STUDENT GENERATED ANSWERS!  (I definitely did my happy teacher dance after all this great thinking!!!) It is posted on our "Reading is Thinking!" bulletin board so that we can look at it and remember the things we need to be working on.

Happy 100th Day of School!

This year our 100th Day Celebration came a little late because of all the school we missed during Hurricane Sandy.  But that didn't stop us from celebrating now!

 All year long we have been adding a straw each day to our "Counting School Days" pocket chart.  This helped teach concepts of adding more and place value.  It was exciting each time we had to make a group of 10 straws... but it was REALLY exciting when we combined out 10 groups of 10 into a giant group of 100!!! 

 

In preparation for our 100th Day of school, students decorated t-shirts with 100 things of their choice to wear in a parade around the school.  We also made crowns to wear.  We decorated headbands with 10 items inside each of the 10 boxes, and then we colored a big sign that said we are "100 Days Smarter!"

 

  

After the parade, we played with our 100 Mats- adding 10 items inside each of the 10 circles.

 

 

Also, this week in Math Workshop we have been working with the number 100.  We have been working on filling in missing numbers in a 100s chart.  We have been putting together 100s Board puzzles.  In our Partner Station, we have been working more with our 100s Mats.  We have even played Chutes & Ladders, because it looks just like a 100s chart!

 We had so much fun!  Happy 100th Day of School!