Kinder-Whale Tales Dear Kinder-Whale Families, It was so WONDERFUL to have a full week with the Kinder-Whales! Featured above in this week's news is a video of one of the SEAL strategies that we will be using throughout the year as students are introduced to new and exciting units that integrate science and social studies and are aligned to Common Core State Standards. We are so fortunate to be one of the schools selected to be a part of the SEAL program. I have already seen a jump in the students' excitement for learning in just the one week of implementing the SEAL strategies. Please see below for more information about SEAL! Also featured above in this week's news are the adorable pumpkins that were decorated by our dear Kinder-Whales! The students were so excited to take their pumpkins home on Friday! Be sure to ask your child what they decided to name their pumpkin... we heard everything from Glitter to Monster Man and Princess to Kitty! Reading/Language Arts This week's focus was on PUMPKINS! The students began the unit by sharing what they think they know about pumpkins and what they want to know about pumpkins. Week one is on pumpkin parts and the life cycle of a pumpkin. We read a number of books on pumpkins, including Pumpkins, Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin Pie, and one of my new favorite books, Little Boo by Stephen Wunderli. After reading the books, we created some posters together about what we learned (please see below for more details under the SEAL section) and we also came up with body movements to go along with the pumpkin life cycle, from seed to sprout to vine to flower to green pumpkin to orange pumpkin! Then the cycle stars all over again! The Kinder-Whales also had fun coming up with different things that they could do with pumpkins, including making pumpkin pie, carving a jack-o-lantern, painting pumpkins, making pumpkin soup, roasting pumpkin seeds, etc. The Kinder-Whales did a magnificent job with retelling and demonstrating the sequence of the pumpkin life cycle in our pumpkin centers! Next week, we will dive deeper and wrap up our unit on pumpkins with a pumpkin exploration! We are looking forward to cutting open that pumpkin! Read with a Partner! Where is Pumpkin? In addition to our pumpkin life cycle centers, the students also enjoyed making a fun booklet on pumpkins and position words, including under, behind, above, on, and in! They were also challenged with the task of reading the booklet to as many other Kinder-Whales as possible! Letter of the Week: Tt! The Kinder-Whales were able to come up with a lengthy list of words that begin with the letter Tt, including teacher, tiger, teeth, to, too, two, tie, teach, team, time, Tuesday, turn, tickle, tennis, turtle, T-rex, tunnel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, tiny, taco, etc. (their Letter Tt circle map is not pictured here). The Kinder-Whales worked collaboratively (another SEAL strategy!) to come up with as many words that begin with letter Tt as possible. We added to our circle map of Tt words throughout the week. The Kinder-Whales also did a terrific job on their letter Tt centers. SEAL: All About Oral Language! I am thrilled and eager to share with you a few of the exciting SEAL strategies that we have started using in our classroom! Quick overview of SEAL: SEAL stands for Sobrato Early Academic Literacy. One of the important goals of SEAL is to help students develop academic oral language, and to do that, we need to get students TALKING and explaining what they are learning. The Kinder-Whales were introduced to the concept of COLLABORATIVE CONVERSATIONS. They were asked if they had ever heard of the words collaborative conversations before. A few knew the word, conversations, means to talk to someone. At the top of the poster below, we brainstormed what we think are collaborative conversations. The Kinder-Whales have already been doing a similar strategy called Think-Pair-Shares, where they first think about their response, then they pair up with a partner, and they each share their thoughts to each other before reporting out to the class. After gaining more background knowledge, one student volunteered to have a collaborative conversation with me, the teacher, while the rest of the class watched to see what collaborative conversations look like and listened to hear what they sound like. The students noticed many great things, including eye contact and how one person talked at a time. Next, another student volunteered to have a collaborative conversation with me, and this time, we did things that we aren't supposed to do, such as interrupting, walking away from each other, facing opposite directions, etc.--the students had a morning of laughter after seeing that UN-collaborative conversation! In the poster below, each time students did or said something that made them an active participant in a collaborative conversation, we added it to the list. Now whenever I say, "We are going to have a collaborative conversation", the students immediately turn, face their partners, make eye contact, and do a fantastic job of taking turns listening and speaking, and asking each other, "What do you think?". The students have even gotten to the point where they are sharing what their partner said before they share their own thoughts! I am so amazed and proud of them! We will continue to add to this list throughout the year! SEAL: Chants, Posters, and Narrative Inputs, Oh My! Chants! Studies show that when the students are moving, talking, singing, rhyming, reciting, chanting, their brains are making more connections, helping them to retain more information! To get the students talking, the students learned an informative chant on pumpkins. We started the week by reading the chant once, all the way through, without stopping, as the students did their best to follow along. The second time we read the chant, we went a bit slower, and students identified words that were new or unfamiliar. We had collaborative conversations and discussed the meaning of the words and drew little doodles next to the words to help us remember the definitions (please see below for the before and after Pumpkins chant poster). Next, we added body movements to the words to help our brains make that academic vocabulary connection (for instance, students learned that sprouting means growing and they remembered that by putting their arms together and spreading their hands out into a sprout -- please refer to video featured above!). After doing it two-three more times on Thursday, the students were ready to do the chant all on their own by Friday! Draw and Label Posters: The Kinder-Whales are familiar with posters that they can refer to for information. For instance, we had the apple life cycle poster as well as parts of an apple poster back in September. With SEAL, the students are INVOLVED IN THE CREATION of the poster. Rather than just presenting a poster to the student, the teacher creates the poster as the students generate responses and share what they know. To show the parts of a pumpkin, I asked the students what does a pumpkin look like and what does it have? As students started sharing their responses, I would draw it on the large poster. In order for me to draw it, the students had to be very specific in giving me details. For instance, the students shared that a pumpkin is round and orange, has a brown stem on the top, a green vine, a green leaf, etc. When they shared that a pumpkin has seeds, I asked them, where? to help them clarify their responses. Then, as we read books and learned more about pumpkins, we added to the poster that we created together (pulp, flesh, ribs on the inside). Next week, when we explore the inside of a pumpkin, we will use our five senses to add even more to our Draw and Label poster together. "Narrative Input & Dramatic Play: To help students with their reading comprehension, we will be using the SEAL strategies of narrative input and dramatic play. Before, students were asked to retell the beginning, middle, and end of a story, referring back to pages in the book as needed. With SEAL, we are taking it a few steps further. This week, we read Little Boo, a story about a small pumpkin seed that wants to be scary. The pumpkin seed says, "BOO!" to anything and everything that it comes across. As the seed turns into a sprout, then a flower, it continues to try to scare others, as it goes through the pumpkin life cycle throughout changing seasons. In the fall, the seed encounters a leaf and a grub. In the winter, the seed encounters some snowflakes. In the spring, the sprout comes across an old boot, a watering can, a shovel, and some insects. In the summer, the flower doesn't feel scary being a flower. Each time, Little Boo says, "BOO!" but the others aren't afraid. In the fall, the pumpkin says, "BOO!" to a pair of hands as it is being picked. And finally, when it is carved into a jack-o-lantern, Little Boo finally scares others with its "BOO!" To help students with retelling the story, we had seasons place mats and characters on popsicle sticks. As the students went through each season, they acted out what Little Boo did and said. So far, it has been a fun, engaging, and effective way to help the students retell the story to include its characters, the setting, the problem (Little Boo is too little to be scary), the solution (Little Boo just has to wait), and the events at the beginning, middle, and end. Math The Kinder-Whales finished chapter 3 on measurement, specifically with size, length, height and weight. They have been doing a wonderful job with using the following math vocabulary: biggest, bigger, smallest, smaller, tallest, taller, smallest, smaller, heaviest, and heavier. We compared items found in the classroom and used the math vocabulary to come up with true statements. For instance, "Mrs. Lorenzana is taller than the Kinder-Whales" (for now). "This book is longer than the eraser." "The orange pumpkin is heavier than the white pumpkin." We practiced collaborative conversations in math, too! October Calendar: We are almost done with our October calendar! The students have been graphing monthly birthdays, writing and counting the number of days we have been in school (50 days as of Friday, October 23rd!) by 1's, 5's, and 10's, and showing the number of days in school using ten frames. The students have also been practicing how to write the digital date, with a 10 to stand for October (the tenth month), followed by the number of the day, and then the year (10-23-2015). We use the number of the day and show that many using ten frames, tally marks, and dots on dice. The students are also looking at number order and counting up and down from any number. We looked at what number comes before and after the number of the day. The students are also continuing to work on patterning. We have also been graphing the daily weather and looking at weather patterns. As the months go by, we will add more and more pages to our calendars to introduce the Kinder-Whales to new concepts that will be taught along with this year's math program. | Reminders & Updates Next Week:
RECAP Pumpkin Patch at Spangler! Thank you so much to everyone for turning in your pumpkin money! The Kinder-Whales were so excited to see the hay stack and the pumpkins spread out across our playground! It was so much fun watching them roam through our playground to find their perfect pumpkin! It was also interesting to hear why they chose their pumpkin. Some students chose a pumpkin that they could carry, while others looked for the biggest pumpkin or the smoothest pumpkin. Happy Birthday, Shannon! On Monday, October 19th, we celebrated Shannon's birthday by sharing all of the things that we love about Shannon! She is a wonderful friend, a role model student, and a great classroom helper, so it was easy to come up with a lengthy list! Afterwards, each student created a page in Shannon's birthday book, which Shannon read aloud to the class on her own! Thank you to Shannon and her family for bringing in small party favors and thank you for sharing your special day with us! Unity Day On Wednesday, October 21st, all of Milpitas Unified School District participated in Unity Day by wearing orange to raise awareness for anti-bullying. We read a book called The Recess Queen, a story about Mean Jean the Recess Queen. At recess time, no one is allowed to play until Mean Jean plays... Mean Jean pushes, shoves, hammers, and kablammers other students. She always gets her way... until one day, a new student, named Katie Sue, comes to school. At recess, Katie Sue starts playing before Mean Jean plays, which really angers the Recess Queen. She tries to set the record straight, but Katie Sue just keeps on playing. Later she surprises Mean Jean by asking her to play with her. After that day, the Recess Queen no longer pushes, shoves, hammers, or kablammers other students because she is too busy playing! All Mean Jean wanted was a friend, but everyone had been too afraid to ask her to play with her. We had a collaborative conversation about the moral of the story, or what we learned from the story. We also had a lively discussion about what it means to be a bully and what it means to be a friend. We also had collaborative conversations about what we can do when we see someone else who is being bullied. At the end of the day, the students took the pledge to stand up against bullies! Skeletons with 5th Grade Buddies! The Kinder-Whales were super excited to meet up with our fifth grade buddies on Friday, October 23rd! We used Q-tips to make SKELETONS! Please see their amazing skeleton projects below! Student Council Spirit: Disney Day! The Kinder-Whales certainly showed their Spangler School spirit on Disney Day! We had a classroom of Elsas, a Sleeping Beauty, a Cinderella, Mickeys, Minnies, and Lightning McQueens! The rest of the students were only too happy to be a part of Snow White's seven dwarves :)! Spangler Student Store - PTA Thanks to the PTA, the students are able to use their saved up Spangler dollars to buy books, school supplies, and other cool items at the Spangler Student Store, which is open once a month! There were items on sale from $2.00 to $100. Students were encouraged to save up money for next time so that they have more to spend on the bigger items. Please remember, students can earn up to $2.00 for homework that is complete, neat, and turned in on time. The amount that students earn on homework is written on the front cover of the homework packet. Students can also earn Spangler dollars for making good decisions, staying focused on their work, and being a Spangler Spartan Peacebuilder! Starfish of the Week: U'ilani! U'ilani did an OUTSTANDING job as our Starfish of the Week! Whenever she finished her work and with any opportunity that she got, she would always ask me if I needed help with something. She is such a sweet, caring, and thoughtful student. U'ilani shared her favorite book with the class, Is That You, Monster? Not a Bedtime Story. The book is fun and interactive. U'ilani called on a few students to put their hands under the flaps to feel the monster's fur, horns, and toenails. U'ilani's mom wrote a beautiful letter describing all of the things that she loves about her "heavenly beauty" (U'ilani means Heavenly Beauty). The Kinder-Whales loved hearing how her mom loves her when she is happy and she loves her when she is sad--she loves her no matter what and U'ilani makes her smile a thousand times every day! She loves to hear U'ilani sing and she loves hearing stories about the Kinder-Whales! U'ilani's father also wrote an inspiring letter to U'ilani and the class. He shared the story of when U'ilani hiked with her father and went all the way up Mission Peak on her own! That's 2,520 feet up to the top and 5-6 miles hiking round trip, and U'ilani was only four years old (almost five)! When others saw little U'ilani hiking, they encouraged her and were inspired by her. In fact, U'ilani even motivated other family friends who hadn't hiked up Mission Peak to try to make the hike themselves! From this story and from the words of her father, we all learned to "never give up on something, no matter how hard it is and always believe in yourself!" U'ilani's stepmother also wrote a sweet letter to the class. She shared how even though they have been to many places, such as Great America, Disneyland, Hawaii, etc., their favorite time is spent sharing meals as a family, singing songs together, and talking about each other's day. U'ilani used to watch her stepmother put on make up, and now she has a make up box of her own and can put on her own make up! As much as she would like U'ilani to stay little forever, she is reminded by U'ilani that she HAS to grow up. One thing that all three letters shared was how strong, determined, beautiful, thoughtful, smart, motivated, competitive, awesome, kind, loving, happy, and brave U'ilani is, and we certainly see all of these amazing qualities while U'ilani is at school! On Thursday, U'ilani shared a few of her favorite items, including some special colorful stones that she got as a Junior Ranger from the Carlsbad Caverns in California! U'ilani shared a few badges that she earned after being a junior cave scientist and learning about bats. Her special items sparked a lively conversation in the class about how they can be junior rangers, too! During U'ilani's Starfish Talk Show, U'ilani did a wonderful job of presenting her poster and introducing us to all the members of her family. U'ilani also shared that when she grows up she wants to be a police officer or a doctor, which would both be valuable in our community! U'ilani also shared that she loves to do Judo and to play soccer. She also shared that she has been to many different places, but places that she would like to visit most include different beaches. A few of her favorite things to do are rock climbing, visiting water parks, and putting on make up. The class had a blast learning all about U'ilani this week! FANTASTIC job, Heavenly Beauty! NEXT WEEK'S STARFISH: AHMED! Thank You! Thank you so much for all of your continued support and partnership between parents/families and teacher/school! The Kinder-Whales are making so much progress and are doing such an amazing job in our Kindergarten classroom. Thank you especially for your patience and understanding as the Kindergarten teachers attend SEAL training and planning days throughout the year. I am so excited to use all of the SEAL strategies, and I look forward to the difference it will make in our students' use of academic oral language and learning outcomes! We will continue to share how SEAL is being implemented in our classroom. Thank you so much for helping our dear Kinder-Whales with their pumpkin projects--they all look awesome! I can't wait to display them in the classroom! The Kinder-Whales also did a terrific job with their pumpkin presentations. The Kinder-Whales were so proud of their projects and eager to present! During their presentations, students were encouraged to make eye contact, to speak in a clear and loud voice, to speak in complete sentences, and to confidently answer questions from their peers. We will continue to present our future projects to the class to help the students develop their oral language speaking and listening skills! Thank you so much for taking the time to read through the weekly news! As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. For this week's news, please leave a comment on this week's news sharing what your child will dress up as for Halloween! HAVE AN ENJOYABLE WEEKEND! Best wishes, Mrs. Lorenzana |
11 Comments
Austin Knick
10/24/2015 06:14:59 pm
Austin will dress like Star Wars Darth Vader for the Halloween.
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Mrs. Lorenzana
10/24/2015 06:24:07 pm
AWESOME! Can't wait to see and capture pictures of him in his costume!!! As a friendly reminder, he can wear his mask during the parade, but not during class time. Thanks!!!
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Ira McGee
10/24/2015 07:10:59 pm
Brookie will be dressed up as Rapunzel
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Stephanie Guthrie
10/24/2015 07:44:16 pm
Marissa is going as Dorothy from her favorite book, The Wizard of Oz!
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Juda
10/24/2015 09:04:50 pm
Munisa will be dress up as Jasmine from Aladdin cartoon for Halloween.
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Elodie Coriell
10/25/2015 09:15:18 am
Maya will be Sleeping Beauty.
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Monique Johnson
10/25/2015 09:53:25 am
Bruce plans to be iron Man
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Mohamud
10/25/2015 10:08:29 am
Ahmed will be dressed as an avenger
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Sonali
10/25/2015 05:42:53 pm
Aashni will be a Vampire Princess..
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Jennifer Yeoh
10/26/2015 08:00:07 pm
Shannon will be dressed as Tiana from 'The Princess and the frog'.
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Rebecca Brackett
10/29/2015 11:03:38 am
Mia has planned from the beginning to be a mermaid with a tail. The costume had to have a tail, or else there was no point in dressing up as a mermaid! She almost chose a unicorn costume, but resorted back to the mermaid costume quickly. Although, I wish she had went with the unicorn costume, becuase it was pretty funny and cute!
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Mrs. LorenzanaKindergarten Teacher at Spangler Elementary Archives
June 2016
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