Welcome Kindergarteners of 2013/2014!

Welcome to the 2013/2014 school year! I cannot wait to begin another year of kindergarten! Here you will find our classroom blog. In this blog you will find updates, resources, information and pictures of everything that is happening in our  Kindergarten classroom!

It was so great to meet everyone at our open house last week :) We have a lot of fun things planned for this year and I am excited to get the year started!

 Here are just a few of the exciting things we will be doing in our Kindergarten curriculum this year!

Letters Alive: Our alphabet and sight word curriculum was brand new last year! The letters and letter sounds are introduced animals that come alive in 3D for the students to see and hear! A letter a week is introduced with an animal, word family cards and sight words!

Daily Five: The students work on reading and writing in stations that they pick! Their choices include read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, work on writing and word work. The students love the responsibility of picking their station and will be working on skills that are essential to reading!

Discovery: In discovery we have a chance to learn all about science and social studies! We create many hands on projects, take field trips, bring in guest speakers and explore many different topics throughout the year!

CGI Math: Children learn math through story problems that incorporate many different math concepts. The students share their thoughts with their peers and use a variety of different materials and strategies to solve a problem. The collaboration with their classmates helps them to understand the concepts and reason for solving math problems. 

Bucket Fillers: This year in our kindergarten classroom we are learning to be bucket fillers! Bucket fillers are people who show they care by helping others and filling their "buckets". We learn many ways to treat others with respect and kindness through this program :) Here is a great website to find more out about bucket filling: http://www.bucketfillers101.com/index.php

We are very fortunate to have 1 to 1 Ipads/Ipods in our classroom! The students will use the Ipads/Ipods to explore and learn throughout the year! We had many opportunities to incorporate the Ipads/Ipods into our kindergarten curriculum last year and I am excited to find many more opportunities this year! 

It is going to be a fantastic year! I cannot wait to see everyone again tomorrow and Tuesday for the first day of kindergarten! Be on the lookout for more pictures and updates coming soon :)

Happy Mother's Day!!

Hard to believe that there is only two weeks left of school! I have many pictures and highlights to share with you from kindergarten over the past month!

We wanted to wish all of our moms a happy mother's day! We made this video to tell you how much we appreciate everything you do for us! They had so much fun making the video and drawing the portrait of their mom :)





I also wanted to add some of the highlights from our last month in kindergarten!!

Here are some pictures from our rainforest unit that we have been learning about during discovery time!

We had a blast learning about Earth Day!! We learned all about why it is important to keep our Earth clean and recycle. We even had a chance to pick up some of the trash around our school. 

Lately after lunch the kindergarteners come in and say, "Mrs. Friederich can we PLEASE have some extra reading time today!" How could I ever say no to that!! It has been so much fun seeing how much they have grown to love reading over the year! They are becoming such great readers!

We have been learning about being bucket fillers all year long. As the end of the year is approaching fast I decided to have a end of the year bucket filling countdown. Every day that we are being good bucket fillers we will get a flip flop with a fun activity for the next day. They have been working extra hard to be bucket fillers! Here are a few of the activities that we earned last week in the bucket filling countdown! 

Write using pens instead of pencils!

 Enjoy Capri Sun with our snack for the day!

The kindergarteners did such a great job at their concert! Here are some class pictures I took from concert day! Also, the whole concert is uploaded on the homepage of our school website if you want to share it with family or friends! 

Fairytales, New Centers and Updates!

We have been keeping very busy in kindergarten! I have a couple of updates for you and some great pictures as well :) Just a reminder that there will be no school for the kindergarteners this Friday because of kindergarten round up. Hard to believe first grade is just around the corner! I have also sent home some of our sight word flashcards in the Friday folders! I will be sending more home in the next couple of weeks! The kids are doing an awesome job with their sight words and are starting to become great readers! I can tell that they are enjoying reading and it is fun to watch them continue to grow through the year! I also sent home the March show and share calendar in last weeks Friday folder!


The kids had a blast with our fairy tale unit! Here are some pictures of our fairy tale unit and Valentine's Day party:

Retelling the Three Billy Goats Gruff!

 Painting our Castles!

Valentine's Day Party!

One of the highlights of this month has been our new centers! The kindergarteners are really enjoying this time at the end of the day to socialize and learn with their peers! Here are some of the new centers we have added!

Build: The students build or create something using blocks! So far we have had some neat projects! Some of our projects include a zoo, car garage and a castle!

Be a Teacher: At this center the students take turns pretending to be a teacher! I can already see some great teachers in our future!

 Technology: The students can use the iPads/iPods or the Smartboard to play educational games!

Be an Author: The students can create books, stories, lists or letters to take home or share in our classroom library!

This week we will be finishing up our space unit! We have spend the week being astronauts and learning all about space!