Goofy Glasses

Well, it has been a while since I have posted, so this will be the beginning of many in a row. :) After we worked on the letter "G" the kids made "Goofy Grandma and Grandpa Glasses." I wish that I had some video to post of them using their grandma and grandpa voices and walking with a pretend cane. They cracked me up! Once they had their glasses on, they went on a search for "g's" around the room. I was surprised at some of the places that they found the letter.

COCONUTS!

WOW did we have an exciting day today in science. We have been reading the book, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" which is about the alphabet climbing up the coconut tree. Today we did our first science experiment with a coconut. The kids passed the coconut around and used their senses to explore it. They then took turns guessing what was inside of the coconut... some of my favorite guesses were, "a pecan," "Coke," and "Apple Juice." We hammered nails into the 3 holes in the coconut and drained out the coconut milk. The kids thought that was really cool. We then wrapped the coconut in a towel and used a hammer to crack it open. It took 5 smacks. They children loved passing around and smelling the freshly opened coconut. We had a great time!

Doing Our Seat Work

Hi and welcome to the first posting of the Tomme Tigers Blog for 2008-2009. The past couple of weeks have been filled with lots of learning, laughter and good times. We have worked and are still working really hard on learning our classroom procedures...each day we are getting better and better. The kids in my classroom are SUPER smart and pick up on things very quickly. Please enjoy the pictures of the kids working hard on their seat work. I love taking pictures of the kids, so please check back often. :)

Journaling

We write in our journal almost everyday. This is a very imporant part of the day and the kids are sure to let me know if we didn't get to it. This is the first year that many (7 or 8 ... in years past maybe 1 or 2) of my kids have done, what I call, a 4-part plan. A 4 part plan is when they draw 4 parts to their story ... i.e. a beginning, two middles, and an ending picture. They then write their story based on those pictures. It is a very tough thing to do at a kindergarten age, yet I have MANY kids doing it. WOW! They ROCK!!!

Check Me Out!!

We're ROCKIN' WRITERS!!

Publishing Books

The kids work very hard writing in their journals each day and have REALLY come a long way from the beginning of the year. A couple of months ago we began "publishing" their journal writings into books. This is a special occasion that only happens on Fridays. The kids get to select which story from their journal they want to turn into a book, come up with the title and illustrate it. Once their book is complete they get to read it to me, other teachers, kids in the class and even MRS. SATTERWHITE!! After they read it, the listener gets to sign the back of their book. This shows how many times they have read their book and who they have read it to. It fills my heart to see the pride they have in their finished work. We will be sending these home at the end of the year for you to share with your family.

Focused on Publishing

Excited About My Book!

Flower Pot Addition

For the past few weeks we have been learning about addition. We then tied it into our plant unit for some "flower pot addition" fun! The kids took turns rolling the dice and drawing that many flowers in their pot. Once both pots were filled they solved their problem and the child with the largest number won the round. They played again and again and were bummed when it was time to stop! Who knew learning could be so much fun! :)

Modeling for the Class What to do.

Addition is "Cool."
Future Mathematicians
Putting Addition into Action!

This Makes Me SO Happy!

OPEN HOUSE!

The kids worked extremely hard preparing for Open House. Our theme for Open House this year was ZOO. Our class studied many zoo animals including, flamingoes, lions, zebras and giraffes. They even worked in groups to make different parts of me as a zookeeper. Check out the picture of Ms. Collins and me next to our paper selfs... Pretty good resemblance! :)

Our Lions, Zebras & Flamingoes

Can you SPOT our Giraffes??

Ms. Collins & Mrs. Tomme

I also gave the families a challenge to make a "Tomme Tiger." We had a TREMENDOUS turnout!! We were very proud to hang these up for all to see at Open House. Thanks for all of your hard work.

Our Family Projects

Open House night was a FUN time. We had many families come in and the kids were very proud to show off their work, classroom and school. Thanks for supporting our school!! :)