Google Expeditions

If you haven't heard of Google Expeditions, then let me tell you it is one of the coolest experiences for a person. Google has teamed up with education to provide students with the opportunity to experience far off places like they are there! Teachers use the app to download an expedition and then connect to the tour on each of the student phones. The student phones are placed securely in a headset that students wear on their head allowing them to see what is pictured on their phone HANDS FREE!

I checkout out a kit for the very first time this week to further our learning on community helpers. We chose an expedition that allowed us to learn about a pilot. It was the coolest experience for my kinders and the excitement in their voice was priceless.

Once students have their headsets on then the teacher controls where they go and can direct them to what they want their students to look at, but also allowing them to look around on their own. On our expedition students were able to see Pilot Pam in the airport checking the status of her flight as well as learn what passengers do before getting onto their plane. Throughout this particular expedition students were also able to see the walkway onto the plane, the outside of the plane, the engine, and the cockpit.

We are fortunate enough to have a few kits purchased through our technology department that are available to teachers to check out and use in their classroom. The set includes a teacher device, 30 student phones, and 30 student headsets.

This is such an appropriate learning tool for any grade level as you can alter what your students experience and what kind of assessment you want your students to have during or following the expedition.

For my kinders I used my 30 minute prep time to prepare each of the student devices sitting them safely on the floor in front of their circle spot. Before the expedition I explained what we were going to do and how to make this a fun and safe experience. I held up a headset and explained how they would put it on. We also talked about how important it is to stay seated on our pockets because this sometimes can make us feel dizzy. When using the headset I explained that we are sitting still and always on our pockets, however if we become dizzy or do not feel good, we can gently take off the headset and place it in our lap until we feel up to it again. When picking up my students from their special they returned to the classroom where they sat on their circle spot (a specific spot that is specific to them). On the floor in front of them was a headset that they were asked to put on and begin exploring. The excitement was evident as soon as those headsets were put on!

As the teacher I go through the tour on my device explaining each part along the way. No worries if you are not experienced about that particular subject, there are explanations of each area that allow you to teach and explain to your students.  

I hope this inspires you to check out Google Expeditions more and experience the thrill for yourself!

ABC/Names

Poem: Down By the Station
Sight Words: see, the

Reading:
Comprehension Strategy: This week we learned about Good Fit books. Good fit books are books that simply are a good book for you. In kindergarten a chapter book who not be a good fit book, because we do not know that many words and there are no pictures to read. We talk about needing to find books that interest us, that we can comprehend, and ones that we know some/most of the words (when we get into reading level books).

To help explain what a good fit book was we used pictures of shoes and short stories to better understand. I read the story and the kiddo with those pair of shoes stood up and made the match. We talked about why we wouldn't wear our slippers to go horse back riding and why we wouldn't wear sandals to build a snowman. Each book that we choose should be right for us, and that will look different as the year goes on. This week after we learned what a good fit book was we then got to choose 2 books that we wanted to add to our book box. We had so much fun reading these new books that we were able to choose!

Accuracy: This week we continued to learn about letters and the sounds they make. We were able to use the ipad app ABC Magic 1 to match pictures with the appropriate beginning sound. When we are ready to introduce ipads for indepedent work this will be one of the first apps kids will work with.

Writing: This week we worked on forming the following letters and completed crafts for each one. We are still working on holding our pencils correctly, so don't forget to sing that song at home to help students remember the correct way to hold their pencil! Take a look at the letters that we worked on!

Monday: Letter Cc, then colored a Cc page to look like chocolate chip cookies while eating chocolate chips!

Tuesday: Letter Dd, then decorated Dd's to put on a yarn necklace.

Wednesday: Letter Ee, then students created Ellie the Elephant with construction paper.

Thursday: Letter Ff and then go to paint the letter Ff with forks!

Friday: Letter Gg and then colored a goldfish while eating some too!

Math: This week we worked on counting. We practiced counting objects using 1:1 correspondence. We practice taking each object and putting it in a pile as we count to make sure we don't count it again. Then we did Counting Cat for the first time. This is where we sit in a circle and pass The Cat in the Hat around the circle. Each kiddo says a number and we continue counting as high as we can. This 9 weeks students are expected to be able to count to 25. I encourage kiddos to count wherever they are; in the bathtub, in the car, at sporting events, EVERYWHERE!

Vocabulary: Nine and Ten. We finished up our number words and showed ways to make each number by drawing a picture, showing it on a tens frame, drawing dice, and writing the number and number word.

Content: This week we spent lots of time with our names. We had fun activities all week that had us reviewing our names and working with the letters in our names. On Monday we counted the letters in our names and added each of our names to our Word Wall. This is where all of our sight words are for the entire school year.

NEXT WEEK:
Reading: Students will...
-learn about and identify print concepts (parts of a book).
-identify letter sounds for B, H, J, K, M.
-learn about Word Work.

Writing: Students will...
-write the letters Jj, Qq, Uu, and Ss. 

Math: Students will...
-learn about a number line and how to use it. 
-count objects making pictures and showing on tens frame. 

Content: Students will be talking about families and who are in their family. We will share pictures of our families and talk about what makes each family different but special in their own ways. ** Don't forget to send in a family picture in a frame to keep at school all year long. 

Getting to Know You

Poem: I Clap My Hands
Sight Words: a, I

Reading:
Comprehension Strategy: This week we reviewed Read to Self and 3 ways to read. Students practice the 3 ways to read while building stamina during Read to Self. We also introduced choice during Read to Self. Students can sit wherever they would like as long as it is a smart spot away from others. They could choose some of the Big Joe chairs or the scoop seats as an option.

We also introduced our second choice; Work on Writing. We together talked about materials in our book box and made an I-Chart with our expectations during this time. Our first Work on Writing page is for students to draw a picture of their favorite part of a book from their book box. I start my modeling from a book we have read together and then we complete the I-Chart. We were able to practice building stamina a few times this week!

Accuracy: We are building our understanding of letters and letter sounds. We did this a variety of ways including Letter Hunt, Who Let the Letters Out, and SWAT IT!

One way we practice identifying letters/sounds is when we go on a letter hunt. We start by singing, "We're going on a letter hunt, what's that letter?", I will then produce a letter sound and then call on a kiddo in our circle. They go to the center of the circle and find the letter card that matches the sound said aloud. Take a look at the video below for better understanding.

We also played Who Let the Letters Out? This comes from the famous Dr. Jean song. We sing the song then we play with our letter house. I start by singing "Who let the b out? /b/ /b/ /b/ /b/ /b/" After calling on a kiddo they come up and find the magnetic letter that matches and brings it into the house.

The last game we played this week was SWAT IT! This is a fun interactive activity that gets competitive. Students come up in pairs and listen for the letter or sound to be said aloud. They each are holding a flyswatter to "swat" at the letter on the board. They love playing this because of the excitement and competition of swatting first!

Writing: We kickstarted our handwriting unit this week. Each day over the next 26 days will be spent learning how to form capital and lower case letters. We start by watching our letter song video, then completing our chart for the letter, practice tracing the letters then finishing with an activity or craft.

Monday: We wrote the letter Ll.

Tuesday: We wrote the letter Ii. After learning and the letter Ii and writing we working on a coloring page with ice cream and an iguana.

Wednesday: We wrote the letter Tt. After learning about the the letter Tt and writing, students got playdoh and made the letters Ll, Ii, and Tt.

Thursday: We wrote the letter Oo and practiced writing letters on the dry erase boards.

Friday: We wrote the letter Aa and colored a picture of a letter a.

Math: This week our vocabulary words were the number words: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Each day we used dry erase boards to show everything about the number by writing the number word, the number, drawing a dice representing the number, and drawing a picture representing the number. I also showed students a tens frame and they helped to complete it.

Content: This week we spent time learning about one another. Monday we took pictures with friends who share our birthday month. This was used to complete our birthday display in the classroom. On Tuesday we rolled a big dice and shared with the class favorite color, movie, thing to do at recess, etc.

Wednesday we each got a starburst and shared with the class based on the following:
red: favorite animal
yellow: favorite sport
pink: favorite movie
orange: favorite toy

On Thursday and Friday we shared our All About Me bags. Students were to spend the week finding 4 small objects that describe them to put in their paper bags.

NEXT WEEK:
Reading: Students will...
-learn about consonants and their letter sounds.
-learn about Good Fit books and choose books for their book box. 
-be completing the NWEA Beginning of the Year (BOY) assessment for reading and math. 

Writing: Students will...
-learn to write letters Dd, Cc, Ee, Ff, and Gg. 

Math: Students will...
-learn about numbers 9 & 10.
-work on recognizing numbers 1-10.
-count objects to 20. 

Content: Students will practice their name in a variety of fun ways. Handwriting pages went home today and are "extra credit" if completed at home! **Your child can earn a dum dum sucker if they return them finished! 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION!! PLEASE READ!! 

It is a priority of the Tippecanoe School Corporation to provide a safe learning environment for all of our students and employees. In an effort to continue our due diligence, we now require all volunteers having ongoing contact with children and/or supervising students (field trips, etc.) to have cleared an expanded criminal background check. These background checks are conducted through Background Investigation Bureau (BIB).  

The criminal background check will search national sex offender databases, court records,and other sources. The cost of the criminal history check is $17.95 (base cost) and is paid for by the volunteer through a link on our website.

Once approved, the volunteer will receive a TSC Volunteer identification card that will be valid for a period of three (3) years. If you volunteer in multiple buildings, you will only need to complete one background check.

Volunteer background checks may take several business days to process so it is important to plan ahead.  

We appreciate your understanding of this important safety guideline.  

Here is the link to complete a background check:

https://www.tsc.k12.in.us/parents/volunteer-information