Preparations for Conferences

This short week we spent a lot of time preparing for conferences. We added some pieces of work to our portfolios, we shared our portfolios with each other as well as Mrs. Gore's class, and we cleaned our classroom to make it beautiful for our families. It is really amazing looking at their portfolios and seeing how far they have come. 

As a special surprise to the students Mrs. Atkin and I set up a time so that the students could skype to see Mrs. Atkin and meet Stella! They were all so excited to meet Stella and to tell Mrs. Atkin what we have been learning.

Even though we spent a lot of time preparing for conferences we still managed to get some more poetry done! The students are really loving writing their own poems. Thanks for stopping by this week! Enjoy your spring break!

Miss Jessica Hannigan

Introducing Stella Marjorie Atkin

Hi everyone!  Although I have been missing kindergarten, I have been very busy here at home.  I wanted to send a quick note to introduce the newest member of the Atkin family.  March 10 (my due date) we welcomed our beautiful daughter Stella Marjorie.  She was born at 4:46am, 7lbs. 4oz., 19.5in. The birth was very fast and went well.  Stella and I are both healthy and feeling great.  We just can't get enough of her and her funny faces.  She has so much personality even at just 14 days of age. 

 I hope you will all get to meet her someday.  

My plan is to bring her to our end of the year video/awards.  

Enjoy Spring Break!

Mrs. Julie Atkin 

Spirit Week, Poetry, and Visiting Mrs. Gore's Class

We had a very busy week, it was spirit week, we started poetry, and we visited Mrs. Gore's class. The students had a blast showing off their hats and outfits. 

Mrs. Gore and Miss Fischer's friends have been learning about space. They invited our class to go and listen to their presentations about the Sun, Moon, and Stars. We had a wonderful time and learned a lot about space. 

 The Sun group wrote a book. 

 Their star group made a cheer.

 The Earth group also made a book.

 The Moon group made an interactive presentation.

This week we started poetry, we thought we would get a head start on national poetry month which is in April. We started off reading all types of poems and then focused on listing poems. As a class we wrote a listing poem and then the students we able to go try some on their own. So far they seem to be really enjoying poetry.

 Thanks for stopping by this week. Check back next week and see what exciting things we are learning about! Have a fantastic week!

Miss Jessica Hannigan

"Small Moments" and more

 This week we have been finishing up our "small moment" books. The books that they have been working on are all about choosing one small part of their day or a trip they took somewhere and writing about that specific moment. As a class we wrote about my trip to the Newport Aquarium. The "small moment" we wrote about was when I got to pet the sharks. The students are really getting excited to share these books with their families at conferences next week. (Sorry there aren't any pictures of their writing we have been working really hard and I forgot to grab the camera.) 

Thanks to the nice weather we were finally able to go outside and have some outdoor discovery time.

These friends made a fire pit.

 Soccer and "who can kick the ball farthest" have been quite popular games. 

During "I Wonder" time the students have been into constructing tall buildings and creating boats. While other friends have been in the library researching African animals. Some students have even been working of putting the puzzle of the world together. 

Thanks for stopping by this week! This coming week we will begin our poetry study!

Have a great week!

Miss Jessica Hannigan

Science Fair and New Workstations

This week was bittersweet. We are so excited for Mrs. Atkin and her husband as we await the arrival of their baby girl but we will miss her very much! We are excited to welcome Miss Kesselring to our classroom! She has been getting to know the students the past few days and is really excited to be with us during Mrs. Atkin's maternity leave.   

This busy week consisted of discussing our new study, exploring new workstations, and visiting the science fair. As suspected some of the students were very interested in studying reptiles but a lot of students suggested animals such as rhinos, elephants, sea urchins, and sharks. We spent some time talking and thought that a study on Africa would be a good compromise. Africa has all sorts of reptiles, safari animals, and is touched by oceans. This will be a huge study and we have even talked about studying the people of Africa and how they live. 

Some students have started to look at books about African animals.

 Some of the math and literacy workstations that the students have started exploring are subtraction, measurement, matching teen numbers, addition, graphing 3-D shapes, retelling, letter sound puzzles, iPad sight words, and building with sight words.

 3-D graphing.

 Retelling "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"

 Playing card addition

 Sight Word Building

 Matching Teen Numbers

Letter Sound Puzzles

 Worm Measurement

  iPad Sight Word

Clothespin Subtraction

The students were able to preview the Science Fair on Thursday before the families were invited to attend that evening. The students had a BLAST exploring all of the activities at the Science Fair. Pictured below are a few of the activities the students chose to explore.

Thanks for stopping by. Check back next week to see what we are up to!
Have a wonderful week!
Miss Jessica Hannigan