Celebrating our Learning

All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

"Celebrations of learning are created for an audience beyond the classroom. Preparing work to be shared with the public—the authentic audience— motivates students and creates a purpose for them to care about the quality of their work." phlearning.org

This week we got to celebrate all that we have learned in Kindergarten by teaching our families at our evening Celebration of Learning.  

Our kindergarteners got to be the teachers and help their parents learn all about Fox Creek Kindergarten.

I loved seeing the family members lean in, bend down and actively listen to their "Kindergarten Expert" teach them.

Students were confident and well prepared to share all of their learning.

Families were taught the importance of play, rest, wonder and reading.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

We had such a fun time at our all school parade and class party.

Students enjoyed some green light snacks and a red light treat!

We also had the opportunity to make slime.

We really enjoyed wearing our costumes and celebrating with our crew.

 The mummy game gave us a chance to collaborate and grapple with a challenge!

Go Play Outside

Get outside!    

Need more inspiration to get outside, check out Generation Wild

We live in a state full of beauty and nature!  I love when I get to leave the walls of our classroom and head outside.  Kids thrive in areas where they are trusted to explore, figure things out and collaborate.

No formal playground equipment was needed for crew members to try something hard, work with someone new and trust themselves. 

Students did the work of scientist by observing out in nature.  Students did the work of crew members by asking each other for help, watching friends try something they wanted to know how to do and work together to solve problems.

I am continually inspired by the curiosity, wonder and courage of my crew full of 4, 5 and 6 year olds.  The 2 hours outside went way to fast!  I hope you and yours get outside!

Reading in Kindergarten

We are readers!  I believe that all kids should view themselves as readers from day 1.  

What better way to reach this goal than to have children in books.  We begin the year with familiar song books.  We sing lots of song books together every day.

From there, readers give it a go independently by singing and reading the pictures on their own.

I love to see kids engaged with books and doing the work of readers.  Students soon cling to their favorites and listen in on their friends.

We end Reader's Workshop by inviting each student to share the book he/she read using the sentence starter "I am the kind of reader who....".  What better way to become a reader!

We ended our week in the library, where our special guest, Mr. Brian brought his guitar and taught all three classes of kindergarten the Fox Creek Song.

First Day of Kindergarten

It was a great first day!  Students began the hard work of learning each other's names and exploring our kindergarten classroom.

We collaborated in small groups to explore blocks. It was fun to see what kids chose to build and the conversations that began to include planning.  Here in kindergarten, we believe play is the important, hard work!

Students creativity came out as they drew pictures and began sharing ideas with each other.

I am so excited for our year together!

Ready Set Let's Go!

Welcome to Kindergarten!  We are beyond thrilled to have you on our team this school year.  Each day our adventure will include opportunities to explore, think, solve problems, build friendship skills and play.  Here is our kindergarten team this year:

Ms. Sara, Ms. Kelsey and Ms. Kristin.

Our classroom is reading for a class full of readers, writers, mathematicians, scientists, play experts and compassionate friends.

As you see, all I need now is a new crew of curious, kind friends to help me fill this room with all of their thinking and ideas.

I look forward to a year of adventure, inquiry, curiosity, love and learning!  See you soon!

Reflecting on Our Year Together

The year has come to an end and I am in awe of the growth my crew made!  The students have collaborated as a crew and built amazing friendships, learned problem solving skills and enjoyed playing together.

We grew as mathematicians who counted accurately, sorted by attributes and learned to add/subtract using manipulatives, number lines and patterns.

Students improved as writers who stayed focused on an idea, wrote multiple sentences using spaces, capitals at the the beginning and ending punctuation.

 Students are becoming strong readers by selecting just right books, using multiple strategies to solve unknown words and thinking about their reading by retelling, asking questions, inferring and making connections.  One of our favorite past times in reading was partner reading.

By far, my favorite part of kindergarten was our adventure time spent outside.  The curiosity and joy the outdoors brought to our crew was amazing.

Thank you for your partnership this year!  I loved watching each student grown and building relationships with each of your families.  Have a great summer!

Fox Trot

Fox Creek had its annual Fox Trot, fun run!  This year we ran and raised money for our new gymnasium floor and additional physical education equipment.

The students ran hard and enjoyed a yummy popsicle following our perseverance!

Hands On Learning

Kids learn best when they can have hands on learning!  

Through our expedition, Amazing Birds, students have had the opportunity to do the work of an ornithologist.  

Each Wednesday, we have the experts from HRCA Backcountry come lead us in exploration of bird's body parts.

 We learned how birds use their beaks to survive!

 Kids loved having hands on opportunities to see how a bird's beak allows it to eat food and make nests.

Students collaborated in groups to sip nectar, scoop fish, crack seeds and eat tiny bugs (rice).

 We also love when we can go out into the field to observe birds.  We traveled to Cheese Ranch to observe a woodpecker and many ducks!

We love the opportunity to take our learning outside and do the work of a real scientist.