Mrs. Baltos' Kindergarten

We have learned all of the letters in the alphabet!  On Friday, Nov. 30th, we will be celebrating our learning by making the letters out of objects.  Your child has already selected a letter and information was sent home in red folders.  If you are unsure which letter your child has, please let me know!  baltosst@spsd.org. Below are some completed alphabets from previous years.  Please send in items for your child's letter.  For example, jelly beans for the letter J.  I can't wait to see what what child brings to school for our celebration!

We have been learning SO much this month!  Make sure to scroll for all of the pictures since there are a lot! We learned about the pumpkin lifecycle and finished the pumpkin unit with some pumpkin math.  Students guessed how many cubes it would take to measure to the top of the pumpkin and how many seeds were inside.  Then we got to count the seeds inside!  There were about 457! We have also been working on reading books, practicing the "popcorn" words, and handwriting.  We learned a new math game: Top it!  Students compare numbers on a card. After attending an amazing conference last week, I learned about the importance of a simple activity: Eye tracking.  I will be sharing more at parent teacher conferences, but basically this helps students improve their eyes not only to be better readers, better writers, and mathematicians.  And it can help them one day be better drivers! :) It was so c...

This month we will be focusing on Pumpkins.  We have started this learning a little bit. We are also continuing to learn all of the letters and letter sounds.  I hope to have finished this by the beginning on November so that we can really focus on reading and sight words.  We are also practicing counting syllables in words.  We will be learning rhyming soon! In writing, we have been writing true stories.  We are also practicing using the sight words (popcorn words) in our writing.  Below is a list of words that we have been working on and should know.  In math, we have been counting to 100 everyday!  We are also working on writing numbers, counting objects, and the concepts of more, less, and equal. Popcorn Words we have learned: I        a          the          see         go          is        ...

Today students were learning to persevere.  We tried to throw pom-poms into a bin. We started off with the bin very close and moved it farther away after each time we made it.  Sometimes we made it in the bin and some times we did not.  We learned that it is OK if we miss.  We try again!  As Pete the Cat says, "Do we cry? Goodness, No! We keep on going!"  It is ok to feel sad, frustrated, disappointed, and mad, but we need to pick up the pom-pom and give another throw.  We will be talking about this concept a lot this year.  We also refer to this as "Growth Mindset."  We are learners who are growing every day! (Sorry for the blurry photos...we were very busy trying to throw the pom-poms!)

This week, we read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? By Bill Martin, Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle.  We read the story many times as a class and then we created Brown Bear puppets.  (Puppets went home in red folders this week).  The students LOVED using their puppets to retell the story!

Last week, we had Ms. Sarah, from SNAP-Ed, come to school.  This is a great program that promotes heathy exercise, trying new foods, and trying heathy foods.  One of the best activities is when students take a "no thank you bite" of a new food.  Many students learned that they actually LIKE the new food!  An October bingo sheet was sent home and I hope that you try some of the foods and activities with your family!  Please send them back by November and your child will receive a small prize from Ms. Sarah! Here are some pictures!

We have had a VERY busy week!  We have been learning about apples, the parts of an apple, the lifecycle of an apple tree, and what people do with apples.  Today we got to make applesauce!   Students learned that we needed a recipe, which can be found in a cookbook.  (We used a cookbook that Mrs. Baltos has since she was in Kindergarten!).  We knew that we needed ingredients and that we had to follow the directions to make the applesauce.  We cut and peeled the apples, added sugar, cinnemon, and water to a pot and then cooked them.  The apples smelled SO good cooking all day long.  At the end of the day, we got to enjoy fresh, WARM, applesauce!  The students really enjoyed eating it the best and the WHOLE crockpot full of apples was gone by the end!  See pictures below! We also got to meet our book buddies.  I am so excited that we have paired with Mrs. Caron's Fifth Grade.  Once, every two weeks, we will be meeting with our F...