Mr Welsh's Kindergarten Class

Happy New Year! 恭喜发财 Gong Xi Fa Cai

murchelementary — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:49:26 +0000

First, Monday morning we wished you Happy Chinese New Year of the Dragon!

Lauryn was our Star of the week! She loved to say the Good Line rubric as fast as possible. Mr. Welsh had to slow her down. No one heard her she was so fast! You drew a colorful picture for her which she took home with all the good and true things we said about her.

Mr. Welsh had you do all kinds of counting and reading and other “stuff” so he could write a letter to your parents telling what you are good at, what you know and what you are working to get better at.

That letter for your parents is called your report card. You talk with Mr. Welsh about what you are good at and what you are learning everyday.

working with Mr Welsh

Your parents need to hear about it too. So the report card will come home after Mr. Cebrzynski sees what Mr. Welsh wrote.

You have started learning a new poem “Winter Moon” by Langston Hughes.

‘How thin and sharp is the moon tonight.

How thin and sharp and ghostly white

is the slim, curved, crook of the moon tonight.’

Mr. Welsh really likes the way Mr. Hughes used his words in this poem.

Mr. Welsh was home Tuesday, so Mr. Rope was the substitute teacher. He showed you the beautiful book Cathedral. We will go to the Cathedral on February 8th by bus. Mr. Welsh will lead the tour. You will see the stained glass windows, arches and much more that the class has talked about in the Architecture unit. Do you remember who came to the cathedral to speak? Mr. Welsh showed you a picture of him shaking hands with Mr. Welsh’s dad.

You will see where Dr. King stood when he spoke to the many people who came to hear him.

You saw that the cathedral is made mostly of stone. It has a strong foundation. The architect was very wise. He was ready for rain, floods, snow and winds. But he did not plan for…. ( an earthquake.). You will see how the repairs are going. We talked about why the builders used stone. We talked about strength and beauty.

You looked at or “built” or read words this week with Mr. Welsh. The sound /sh/ is one you are trying to remember. There are also words you are learning to remember. Like, this and she are words that seem to be in books often. See if you can find them in books this week end.

In Art you worked with watercolors:

your work

In P.E. You are using scarves to help you dance and play: Here is a link to Mrs Marcus’ flickr page with a short video!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ernamarcus/6782610715/in/photostream

Homework for the week of January 30, 2012.

Monday Who is Star? New Sharing groups have been emailed.

Tuesday Play with a ball.

Wednesday Write a sentence with words you know how to write, and bring it to school Thursday.

Thursday Recite a poem and/or sing a song for an adult.

Friday See the blog sometime this weekend.

Note: There is no school on Friday February 3, for students. The teachers and aides are attending professional development. On Monday February 6 , citywide DCPS Parent-Teacher conferences take place and there is no school for students. Here is the link to find the sign-up online:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0B4DA4AA2C7-parent

Wise Men Build their House on…..

murchelementary — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:48:19 +0000

…you are correct: a solid foundation. They need to do that, because otherwise their building won’t stand up for very long, will it? Look here in the block corner what will happen when you forget that foundation!

you have to make a solid foundation!!

No Star? This was a short week as we celebrated the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday ( see last week’s blog in the homework section for a link to his very famous ‘I have a dream speech’) and teachers had meetings on Friday afternoon. You will hear more about Dr. King in the weeks ahead as we discuss great Americans.

You have been learning about architecture. You know an architect designs or plans a building. Diego asked what a “blueprint” is. It is a name for the drawing or plan for a building. A real ‘blueprint’ is printed in blue ink!

a blueprint of a house can you find the dining room? the toilet?

The construction workers build according to the plan. You designed buildings this week. Some of the class used flat tracing shapes and some used pattern blocks or the big wooden ones. Another name for those is unit blocks. You decided what your building would be as you used simple shapes to make bigger, more complicated shapes. Thursday you designed cool houses. Connor and Dora wanted tall towers. There were houses with domes, pools and even one with a hidden secret basement. Tell an adult what was interesting about the house you designed.

Mr. Cebrzynski visited the class and he saw you listening, raising hands, speaking politely and working cooperatively. It is hard to remember to wait to speak until you are called on. All of us have agreed to listen to our classmates and teachers. You are also remembering or trying to remember not to tease other children. If you are laughing but the other child is unhappy, then you are teasing. No one wants to have their feelings hurt.

You can count to 100 by 1’s and tens. Counting by 5’s is harder. Practice with an adult. You also were asked to tell us your address and phone number. Many of you already know this, but if you do not yet, please practice it with an adult. By the way, if you know your parent’s cell phone number it is great too. Any phone number that will reach a member of your family will do! We also went to google maps with some of you and after typing in your address we could find a street view photo with your street, and house(or yard) right there on the internet. Cool! Try that at home. Here is an example of a downtown street in Washington DC.

washington dc street view

Mr. Welsh has been calling each of you over to him to count and do other activities so he knows what to write to your parents about what you have learned and what you still are learning. Listen during the lessons and do the games, activities or writing, and you will learn so much!

You have been word building and writing funny sentences with Mr. Welsh and at Writing Workshop. You know that if you change a letter in a word, you make or build a new word. Mr. Welsh wrote “hut” on the chalkboard because Eleanor had made a hut in her house drawing. He changed hut to hit by taking away the u and putting an i in its place. You read, “A man hit a hut” and other silly sentences. Can you do some funny word building with an adult?

In Art you experimented with watercolors and special, thicker paper. Ms Cutelis explained that you need thicker paper when you paint with wet materials. You could see it was smaller and fatter than regular drawing paper. She said it contains more ‘pulp,’ and therefore it is also heavier and more expensive. You watched the different colors blend into each other and used caution mixing colors.

she shows the thickness

Jasper's mother

blending colors

Jasper’s mother, came to help you and she noticed you worked calmly and with much concentration to do your work in the Art class.

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Homework for the week of January 23, 2012.

Monday (Library) There is a new Star; is it a boy or a girl? You need to learn your address and a phone number by heart. Group 1 may share.

Tuesday (Music) Play with several different size balls. Does that change how you control the balls? Use some of the new tricks you learned with the PE teachers. Practice your address and phone number. Group 2 may share.

Wednesday (Art) Write your phone number on a piece of paper and bring it to school tomorrow.. Practice your address and phone number. Group 3 may share.

Thursday (Sports/P.E.) Where will we travel on February 8^th? Practice your address and phone number Group 4 may share.

Friday (Sports/P.E.) Recite a favorite poem for a parent. Read the new blog sometime this weekend, at http://murchkindergarten2.wordpress.com/ with a parent. We hope you will have a good time remembering what happened in class when you read it again on the blog. Did you notice the new Poll (question) at the bottom?

Snack Please send a small snack with your child each day.

Remarks: Please do not send any toys from home with your child in the backpack, except when your child is sharing. We do not allow any toy weapons in school.

Snowflakes and architecture

murchelementary — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:38:51 +0000

Jasper's wall of fame.

On Monday, Jasper was surprised and happy to be the Star. You said kind things about him, and he used his Star prerogatives (= special things he got to do ) thoughtfully.

He led lines expertly; he used a strong voice to say the Good Line Rubric; he brought a very interesting book about Planet earth. He helped with several clean ups. He knew how to follow the Agreement we have in the class (for the grown ups: we use Responsive Classroom in the class and you can find more about this program here ).

The wind moved the snowflakes around on monday… so you can check out the video clip on Mrs Marcus’ flickr website.

snow flurry on Monday January 9 2012

Who has seen the wind? We could not see it, but we knew it was passing by! You saw the leaves swaying and trembling. You felt it on your face. You heard it too. So when Christina Rossetti asks ‘Who Has Seen the Wind?,’ you can answer her. Did you see what Devan saw? He saw leaves swirling around on the playground. He predicted either a hurricane or a tornado. However that did – luckily – not come to pass…

Hey, did you get bitten by that ‘Little Turtle?’ Who did? A mosquito, a flea, and a minnow got bitten, but not me! Vachel Lindsey wrote that poem . It is on the last page of the poem book you received just before the winter break.

You sang a new song this week. A wise man and a foolish man built their houses. What did the wise man’s house have that the foolish man’s house did not? We are learning about architecture. A foundation is very important. You learned about domes, arches and columns.

You are seeing some ‘solid ( or three-dimensional) shapes’ in or on buildings. Domes are like hemispheres and arches like semi-circles (a ‘flat shape’). We saw different kinds of houses. The houses were different around the world. Why are igloos made of ice and not bricks? Why did the sheep and goat herders have yurts? (They need to have a house that can be moved.) An architect designs a building to be useful and appropriate to climate or geography. If Indians followed the buffalo to hunt them, would they build a brick house or a teepee that can be moved? When you live near a beach or next to a river with a lot of water, you might need a house on stilts.

the poster you saw.

You earned 5 horseshoes this week. How did that happen? Why do the kids all over the school earn horseshoes? Why do you have to raise your hand in a meeting or lesson? Is there an agreement about that? Mr. C. visits us sometimes to see how well we keep to our agreement.

In Art most of you finished your clay sculptures. It took a long time to work on those, and the attention you gave the work paid off in the end. A few children needed to wait until the paint would be properly dry, so those will take the sculptures home next time.

During PE you are learning several dances ‘left, left, right, right, hop, hop,jump – jump – jump!’ Everyone participates and everyone enjoys the 40 minutes 2x a week of almost constant movement

In our math lessons, you have been counting by 2, 10 and 5. How many school days have you counted? How many days have we counted in January? You have learned to recognize: a sphere, hemisphere, cube, cone, pyramid and cylinder see the picture above in the blog and test your knowledge. Next week we will start making larger shapes and designs from the solid or flat shapes.

You are working in your orange Handwriting Without Tears book. This week you did a beautiful job forming L and U.

Many of you “built” words with -ing, -ang and -ong. It is hard to hear the difference between some of these sounds. Still you are learning to read more and more by playing the simple and short “Word Building” games with Mr. Welsh. If you substitute a for i, you change a word completely. Sing and sang.

Short i and short e sound almost the same. Do not worry. Your ears will get better at hearing the differences between the sounds. seeing words written also will help you learn how to write them. Every day you stretch words at Writing Workshop or when reading the schedule. This practice helps your ears to hear the sounds.

dance dance dance

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Homework for the week of January 16, 2012.

Monday: There is no school on Monday January 16. It is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. You heard several good books about his life and his work for the civil rights movement. His best remembered speech is called ‘I have a Dream, ‘ and here is a link to it on Youtube. It is rather long, the film is in black and white, and of course the speech was meant for grown ups. Still, you might wish to listen to it and talk about it with an adult. Mr. Welsh’s father and older brothers went to hear and see Dr King that day. Mr. Welsh was too little at the time.

Tuesday: Play with a ball. Group 1 and 2 may share.

Wednesday: Pretend you are an architect: draw a building you might like to live in. Bring it to school on Thursday. Group 3 may share.

Thursday: Tell an adult some things you have learned about architecture so far. Group 4 may share.

Friday: Reminder it is a half-day today so you will need to be picked up at 12:15 pm after lunch. Check out the blog over the weekend

Happy 2012!

murchelementary — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:44:06 +0000

Back to work!

Happy New Year! It is now January 2012.

During the winter break you spent time with your family and when you came back you had a lot of memories to share with your classmates and the teachers.

You learned about Simple Machines. Can you tell an adult the names of the five or six we studied? You used some of them before you knew they were Simple Machines. (Ramp, wedge, wheel and axle, pulley, screw and maybe gears) They help you do and make things – work. More work can be done more quickly and more easily using a simple machine. Lila said sometimes it makes work safer, such as using a ramp for a wheelchair. Mr. Welsh brought out a set of gears. Gears are not always mentioned as a Simple Machine. Mrs. Marcus said there is a set of gears used every day in our room. Do you remember what it is? (hint : it keeps your pencil pointy). Connor, Diego, Daphne and Dora used the gears in a way Mr. Welsh had not thought of. Do you remember what they did with paper? Can you tell an adult some jobs that are easier because of Simple Machines?

solid (or 3D) shapes

You also learned about solid shapes this week. You already knew a number of flat, or 2 dimensional shapes: circle, square, triangle, rectangle, trapezoid and hexagon. Mr. Welsh showed you the solid, or 3 dimensional shapes: sphere, cube (like dice or ice), cone, pyramid, cylinder (like a can of soda), and prism. Devan will try to bring in a glass prism to show us how light changes when it shines through the prism. Next week you will start to put some of these things together in our study of architecture. Columns and domes and other shapes will be part of this too. Your house or apartment building was designed by an architect. Have you learned your address yet? It is very important and safe if you know the address where you reside. You can look your address up on google maps and see if they have a street view available. Mrs Marcus hasdone that in the class with some of you already and you thought it was very interesting to see your own house or building! Everyone can recognize the home they live in now that they are all 5 or 6 years old.

You wrote letters in your orange Handwriting Without Tears book. It is called Handwriting Without Tears book because the way it tells you to form letters and numerals is so easy there are no tears of frustration. Remember, the First Grade teachers said to Mr. Welsh, “Tell those kids to start at the top of the letters!”

You have been remembering the vowel sounds and using them to make or “build” words. You have done this in small groups with Mr. Welsh and at Writing Workshop time and sometimes when trying to read. It is fun to make silly sentences too.

Homework for the week of January 9, 2012

Monday: Tell an adult about our new Star. New Sharing groups for January will be emailed to you.

Tuesday: Play with several different size balls. How does that change how, and how well, you control the balls?

Wednesday: Tell an adult what you have written or read so far this week.

Thursday: Sing a song you have learned. Can you sing “The Wise Man” song? Tell an adult about our study of architecture and building.

Friday: This weekend read the blog with an adult.

Here is a fun addition to our blog: a real Poll. Just as with our morning questions on the closet -you are asked to answer a question…

Take Our Poll

Trains and PJ’s

murchelementary — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:55:55 +0000

Dora's wall

Dora was the Star of the Week! Eleanor was Star on Monday December 19, because she missed a day in her Star week. Dora was Star all last week. She was so happy! She was a wonderful Star and a star example of good behavior. She brought home all your beautiful pictures and comments in a special Star folder.

Polar Express Day was so much fun! Everything was different! The schedule was very different. First you found a ticket in your cubby. As you came in the conductor (Mr. Welsh) punched your ticket. It was a “round-trip” ticket. That meant you would chug chug home too. At Morning Meeting Mr. Welsh read The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg. Then you wrote and illustrated where you would go if a train stopped at your house.

Then you took a break and had a holiday party! Several parents had sent cookies and apple juice.

We had sharing for almost all the groups in one day! After lunch you saw the movie!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtszN3TkQsI

Somehow after that it seemed a stretch to try to go to music. So Mr. W. said, “ let’s run outside.” Whew. A book of poems that you have memorized and/or are working on came home. Your book also has some you will be hearing in the New Year. Do you know what the New Year will be? You are just finishing 2011….

All of you have been working with Mr. Welsh in small groups on vowel sounds, ‘Word Building’ and making silly sentences. You have been very focused and it shows. You are writing more words at Writing Workshop and reading more words on the schedule, on signs, on the walls and in books. Good work.

Numbers, numbers, numbers!!! You have been counting things and just from memory (by rote). You knew the ordinal numbers… First, second… When you counted by 2’s Mr. Welsh showed how odd and even numbers work. There is a pattern. Even numbers have “partners” and odd numbers do not. 2-4-6-8-10 … keep going to 20!

Wednesday Mr. Welsh read about the story of Hanukkah. It is a Jewish holiday with lights. Diwali, Christmas and others in our Celebrations book also have candles or lights. You have seen how there are many different ways people live and celebrate. We are happy and interested to see how our friends and neighbors do things differently and how we are all the same too.

in PJ's ready to hear the book.

Have a happy Winter Vacation, and come back January 3, 2012 ready for more learning in Kindergarten! Practice the agreement!