Our Chicken Story

Our school PTA adopted 6 Rhode Island Red Hens and my students are crazy about them!!! It has been too cold to visit them out in the Peace Garden but here is a picture of some of them c/o the PTA.

We have been talking about chickens in the classroom, too! I'm working on figuring out how to attach a video so that we can share our classroom performance of the chicken song we learned (to follow...) Here are some of the works we have done in Room 101.

Presentation on the Life Cycle of a Chicken

Parts of a Chicken Lesson

Parts of a Chicken Lesson

Read Alouds and Reading Journal

Hello!

Here are some of the interactive read alouds that we have been working on and discussing at school. We are practicing questioning the text, setting, character traits, as well as getting evidence from the text. We had a lesson about being great readers that questions books we read before, during, and after the reading. I modeled this lesson to the students. They were also able to try it out by sharing their questions as a whole group, peer talk and writing it down in their Reader's Journal (Kinders). The kindergarteners practice these skills during independent reading as well. They are able to write about their reading.

The students are also enjoying our discussions on some of the vocabulary words we encountered within the reading. They are trying to use the words in the classroom when they are having conversations with their peers. The kindergarteners kept gapping after we defined the word "gaped" from the book, The Recess Queen by Alexis O'Neill. This book gave us several rich conversations about the characters Mean Jean and Katie Sue. We talk about how Mean Jean acted in the story and how she changed her attitude when Katie Sue decided to be nice to her even though Jean was being bossy and a bully. We not only practiced different reading strategies; but we also talked about being respectful and nice to our peers.

My Pre-K students enjoyed the chant ("nice words") Katie Sue used in the story. Maybe they'll chant along with you if you knew the words. Here's one of the chants below:

"I like ice cream,

I like tea,

I want Jean to jump with me."

The Map of Our Heart

"I don't have anything to write about, Mrs. Guerrero!!" My kindergarteners are experiencing writer's block. Our solution? We made maps of our hearts. We talked about maps and how we could map out what is in our hearts. I modeled how to do this by mapping my own heart. I told them that our hearts include people, experiences, interests and thoughts. These can serve as inspirations for their writing. This way, they can "look inside their hearts" when they don't know what to write about. We will revisit and make a new map every quarter because our hearts grow bigger. This is what they came up with.

Outdoor Recess

I feel like winter is around the corner. Don't go just yet, outdoor recess!!!

Recess is cool!

Another Way to Extend Montessori Math (Golden Beads)

My husband bought me a Garmin Vivofit for my birthday last October. My students asked me what it is for. I told them that it helps me keep healthy and fit. One thing it does is that it counts the number of steps I make everyday.  My kindergartners kept asking me how many steps have I already taken. I might say the number, "8642" or "5291." It happens several times during the day so I decided to include it into our math lessons. I told them that every time they ask me how many steps I've taken, they will have to build and compose that number using the Golden Bead Materials. Ha, Ha, Ha! =)

Montessori Math Is Beautiful

I love how concrete Montessori math is. It is very manipulative and sensorial. It is developmentally appropriate to teach the decimal places to the 3-6 year olds in my class. Watch my students master the decimal places in the 1st quarter of this school year...

Introduction Tray

The 9-layout

The 45-layout

Composition of Numbers

Static Addition (to the 1000's!!!)

Exchange Game (Getting ready for Dynamic Addition)

Story Sequence (Beginning-Middle-End)

Learning story sequence begins with pattern making, sequencing pictures and writing about it. In our Montessori classroom, the students use the moveable alphabet before they write their final draft of the story. My 3-6 year olds are already writing their own stories!

Pumpkins!!!

Room 101 has been busy learning about pumpkins!