Back At It

The kiddos are not the only ones getting back into the swing of things!  After saying "good-bye" to everyone I sat down to upload pictures and realized...I didn't take any today!!!  Yikes!  I took a few pics around the room, but no student pics today. 

This morning we started our next story, Plaidypus Lost. 

Prior to reading the story we made some "I wonder..." statements.  Kids said things like:
"I wonder what those stripes are on the platypus."
"I wonder who made the platypus."
"I wonder where Plaidypus gets lost."
All these statements got us thinking about reading before we even opened the book.  Our minds were engaged during the reading as we searched for answers to our "I wonder.." statements.  Try doing this at home with a new picture book.  The library book your child brought home today would be a great place to start!

Here are the amazing words we heard in our story:

In our classroom we have a Reading Focus Wall.  Here is a picture of the wall along with close-ups of each skill.

New Take Home Books went home today in velcroed plastic sleeves.  This should help with books falling out of our FISH folders. 

We had new table spots and carpet squares today!  This was super exciting.

Ok...tomorrow-it's back to some action photos!

Have a great evening!

Love,
Mrs. Huettl

Kindergarten Tree Planting

Wow!  Was today a fun and exciting day in Kindergarten!!!  This morning we planted our kindergarten tree.  We each were responsible for putting in a shovel of soil and a cup of water!  Check out out slideshow:

After the tree was planted we went to three different tree centers, one in each kindergarten room.  In Mrs. Huettl's room we made a parts of a tree accordion book.  These were so much fun!

When we went to Mrs. Redding's room we made a tree with falling leaves art project.  These turned out great! 

In Mrs. Dill's classroom we did leaf and bark rubbings to add to our science journals!

This afternoon we started to learn about the ipad app, Screen Chomp.  We practiced drawing detailed pictures with our fingers using the tools provided.  Eventually we will be learning to voice record our stories and then posting them to the blog! 

Daniel and Elijah were our class winners for this week's Readathon drawing!  Congratulations!

Check out the tower Lucy built today!

Have a wonderful long weekend.  Do lots of reading and bring in the orange reading slip on Monday!!!

Love,
Mrs. Huettl

The Alphabet is Complete

Today we finished the remainder of our Mystery Letters.  We wrapped up our activities with the letter K,k-decorated with various keys, and the letter Z,z-decorated with zebra stripes.  I will post pictures of our entire alphabet tomorrow.

Mr. Tinjum came in today and taught us about reading people's faces to understand how they are feeling.  We practiced by adding faces to these people depending on their situation.

Today was our 30th day of school!  Zero the Hero brought us gummy lifesavers!  Some were sweet and some were sour. 

An exciting day tomorrow-Kindergarten Tree Planting and Centers!!!

See you all in the morning!

Love,
Mrs. Huettl

Mystery Letter Day

Today was full of Mystery Letters!  We had three of them!!!  We started with the letter V,v.  We added vines to our letters.

Then we went on to the letter Y,y.  We decorated our letters with yellow yarn.  Some of them were still pretty wet, so they are still at school drying.

Our final Mystery Letter of the day was the letter X,x.  We put x-rays on our letters.  We also decided to put x's like in xoxo, but we couldn't agree on whether the x's were kisses or hugs...

We also met in small guided reading groups today.  Two groups met with Mrs. Huettl and one group met with Miss Hogan.  This small group instruction is essential in teaching your child to read.  I'm so excited that we have built up our stamina to make it happen!!!  Here is a picture of Cooper using the witch finger to track his reading.

In your child's FISH folder, they are taking home their first "Take Home Book."  There is a Reading Log, which has been partially filled out by your child.  There is also a parent letter on a golden colored piece of paper to fill you in on the expectations.  Keep this book in your child's folder when not reading it at home.  The book should travel to home and school each day with your child.  There are times when your child will be reading this book at school as well.  Each Monday, your child's "Take Home Book" will be switched out for a new one.  Contact me with any questions you may have.

Today during choice time we had lots of great building taking place.  We made awesome towers and cages for animals.  it was fun to work together and be proud of our creations.

If you did not bring your orange reading slip to school today, bring it tomorrow!  If we all bring in a reading slip, we will meet our classroom goal and earn a prize!!!

Enjoy your evening.

Love,
Mrs. Huettl

Fire Department and Technology

Good Evening!

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and this beautiful sunshine!

This past Friday I was only in the classroom for the first half of our day due to an out of town family wedding.  So much happened in our half day together.  For starters, it was our friend Willa's birthday!

The Mendota Heights Fire Department came to school and talked to us about fire safety.  We watched a little video about fire safety, and we watched Mrs. Huettl dress up in all the firemen gear!  It was heavy...and hot!

Afterwards, we had the opportunity to go outside and look at the fire truck!

Our class picture...we keep having sunny days for our class pictures. :)

During the second half of our morning, we each got an ipod touch and went on a number hunt throughout the upstairs hallway at school.  We got a lot of pictures of numbers!  We found big numbers, and little numbers. We found numbers on walls, lockers, signs, shirts, boxes...everywhere!  It was so much fun and a great use of our technology!

Remember to bring your orange reading slip to school tomorrow and your library book!

Love,
Mrs. Huettl

Five Fingers

Good Afternoon.

This morning we actually did our math lesson during our Morning Meeting.  We played a game called, Finger Flash.  Everyone hid their hands behind their back and then when I called out a number they had to show me that many fingers as fast as they can!  The objective in this game is to develop automaticity with counting finger.  If I say, "five," we want kiddos to know that means all the fingers on one hand, rather than counting out each individual finger.  We also learned another great lesson.  There are more than one way to make a number.  Here is a picture of some friends showing three different ways to make the number 7 with their hands! 

We have built our stamina up to 9 minutes!  Yahoo!  Mrs. Huettl even met with a guided reading group today for the first time.  This is a huge milestone.  We can now start individualizing reading instruction through small group guided reading lessons.  I already have next week's books and lessons ready to go!

This week we have been talking a lot about syllables.  This morning we made syllable soup.  We cold put anything we wanted into the soup, but we had to tell how many syllables it had.  We are now in the middle of making a class book about our syllable soup.  You will get a sneak peek tomorrow, and the book will be available for viewing during our conferences in November.

Our Mystery Letter today was the letter W,w.  We used watercolor paints for the first time to create a wavy, watery, W.  Now that we introduced watercolors, our easel is also open during choice time!

Happy 6th Birthday Noah!!!

Have a great evening!  See you tomorrow!

Love,
Mrs. Huettl