Class Store and Valentine Monsters!

Today we learned how to count combinations of nickels and pennies! Our class store opened once again, selling many different things that we had to purchase with the correct amount of change. 

We also created our Valentines Day monster bags which we will use to collect all of our Valentines tomorrow.

We are getting very excited for our party tomorrow afternoon!

See you tomorrow!
Love,
Ms. Conlee

Cones and Fabric Coats!

This week we have learned the names for 3-dimensional shapes! Today we were challenged to turn a flat piece of paper into a cone. We know that cones have one point, round sides, and a circle bottom. The challenge was hard, but with some great teamwork, we turned our paper into a 3-dimensional object!

This afternoon we read The Jackt I Wear In The Snow by Shirley Neitzel. In the story the little boy puts on many layers of clothing to play in the snow.

We then began building our own snow suites using many different types and colors of fabric!

Thanks for a great day!
Love,
Ms. Conlee

Surveys, Letters, and Fabric Pictures

This week we learned how to give a survey to our friends and calculate the results. Many friends asked questions about our favorite places for vacation, our favorite colors, favorite sports teams, and favorite foods. We shared the survey results with our class and learned a lot about the things our class loves the most!

On Tuesday, Ms. Kirchner visited our classroom as a guest speaker for Junior Achievement. She will join us each Tuesday afternoon for a series of lessons about counting, saving, and using money to make a purchase.

This week we have learned how to write a friendly letter. They begin with a greeting, usually say something nice or ask a question, and end with your name. Each of us drew a friend's name and wrote them a letter.

 Dear Emily,
You are a great friend. What is your favorite food? What is your favorite color? What do you like to play? What is your favorite thing about kindergarten?

Yesterday we also began creating a picture using fabric. We have so many creative ideas using different types of fabric of many different colors.

See you tomorrow!
Love,
Ms. Conlee

We Are 100 Days Smarter!

We are officially 100 days smarter! We began our day with a "100 breakfast!"

We sorted our collections into ten groups of ten and counted everyone's collections!

We played a "100 dice tally race!" With a partner, we rolled a dice and recorded the corresponding number of tally marks. The first partner to get to 100 tally marks won the game!

We had a contest to see how many things we could do in 100 seconds: 

• how many times can we jump rope
• how many steps can we take 
• how many words can we write

We also wrote books about the number 100!

Happy 100th day of school!
Love,
Ms. Conlee

Raft Game, Welcome to February, and Washing Fabric!

Yesterday we played the "raft game" which practices the concept of making an exchange. Each turn you rolled the dice and took the corresponding number of beans. With five beans you could make an exchange for one plank. It took seven planks to purchase a raft. The person in our class the with most rafts and planks at the end of the game, won! This was a well loved game we will play again!

Today we opened the January weather predictions we wrote back in December. Many of us were correct and predicted that we would have the most sunny and cloudy days in January.

We also created our February calendars today!

This afternoon we brainstormed how we could best get the stains out of our white fabric which was covered in mustard, BBQ sauce, strawberry jelly, and Ketchup! First we scrubbed them with brushes and water. Next, we added laundry soap to the water. We found that mustard was the most difficult stain and didn't completely come out of our fabric.

Have a great weekend!
Love,
Ms. Conlee

Water and Stains on Fabric!

Yesterday we experimented to see what happens when fabric gets wet. Each of us had an eyedropper and a watchful eye to notice any changes as the fabric became more and more wet. We noticed that some fabrics absorbed the water quickly, some changed colors when they were wet, and others became very heavy. We worked with ten different kinds of fabric and predicted which would make the best raincoat. Our experiment taught us that nylon would make the best raincoat because water rolls off it and does not absorb into the fabric which would keep us dry for a longer amount of time. 

Today we added stains to white fabric using different things we may find in our refrigerator. They are hanging on a clothesline in our classroom to dry with great anticipation to see if we can remove all of the stains from our fabric. I wonder if we will need to use anything special to help turn our fabric back to white?

See you tomorrow!
Love,
Ms. Conlee