Ms. Choiniere's Kinders

Field Day

This was our first field day event...going to the gym to see the reptile show. It was really fantastic. As you can see from the photos, there was no shortage of volunteers to "be a tree" for snakes, spiders and lizards. Unfortunately, I lost all the other photos for the outdoor activities on this special day. It was really fun--well-organized with a variety of games and races for all the children. The other events included: the bounce house, relay races, the dunk tank, spin art and the cookout. I know I was exhausted at the end of the day!

Field Day

Take a look at these brave kids holding an Albino Python! They loved it!

Pajama Day!

As you can see, we had all sorts of characters on pajama day..and who doesn't like to dance in their pj's!

Stranger Danger with Officers Riley and Rob

Officer Riley, Brynn's dad, generously offered his time and knowledge to talk to all of the kindergarten classes individually on the topic of "Stranger Danger". Officer Rob, the Narragansett Officer who works in the schools, joined Officer Riley as they introduced themselves and talked a little bit about the topic. The children watched a video which included a policeman and children as they role-played situations involving potential strangers. After the video, Officer Riley fielded questions and went over the important aspects to remember; namely, strangers aren't always scarey looking and adults don't ask children for help (i.e., "Can you help me find my dog?"). What to do if a stranger approaches you: Yell, "NO!" and run to a parent, teacher, adult. I think the children learned some important information and I can't thank Officers Riley and Rob enough for their time and expertise! At the conclusion of the lesson, Officer Riley brought in Roki, the police dog. The children loved him!

Awesome Art!

On Mondays, the children go to Art with Mrs. Peabody. This is always a fun time for the kids. They love the art room, the long tables, Mrs. Peabody's funny chair and Mrs. Peabody herself!

Literacy Centers on the Computer click here

Each Thursday morning, Mrs. Batchelder, our computer teacher, comes into our classroom with her rolling cart equipped with her laptop and projector. She researches and introduces the children to 3 different activities on line. These computer games reinforce literacy and math skills. After the group lesson, children take turns on the computers in the classroom as Mrs. Batchelder assists them. The rest of the children are at literacy centers as they anxiously await their turn. These computer lessons can be accessed at home if you go on our school website. Click next to the title of this posting.

Counting and Measuring

In this activity, the children line up popsical sticks end to end as a way of measuring lengths of tape on various objects throughout the room. They count the sticks and record those measurements with pictures, numbers, or words. Again, any activity with a clip board is worthwhile!

Spring Literacy Centers

Several mornings a week, children work with a teacher, teacher's aide, or parent volunteer in small groups on specific literacy skills. When this lesson is completed, children may go to a literacy center. There are so many and they change weekly. Among these centers are: literacy games, magnetic letters, dry erase boards, word families, light table, pocket chart activities, listening center, read the room, etc. All of these activities are intended to reinforce the literacy skills the children are introduced to daily. It's an active time of day, but the children are engaged and learning and having fun!

Developing a strong sight word vocabulary is an important outcome at the end of the kindergarten year. There are many games to increase this awareness. One is sight word bingo and another is called, "Sorry!". In the latter game, sight words are written on the end of a tongue depressor. Children take turns taking a stick out of the can and if they can read the word, they get to keep it. One of the sticks has the word "sorry" written on it. Whoever chooses that one, has to put all his/her sticks back in the can and begin again. They love this game!

Learning about weather has been an on-going unit this year. After many activities relating to wind and wind speed, the children made a class book called, "The Wind Blew". Here are children gluing their sentences down and illustrating pictures.

Using the light table is a fun way to reconstruct a nursery rhyme using transparencies. The nursery rhyme is copied on a transparency which is cut apart sentence by sentence. Looking at a copy of the nursery rhyme on the wall, the children put the sentences in order.

These children are on a shape hunt. They are using clipboards and a recording sheet to find shapes around the room.

Literacy Centers

Children are writing "silly sentences" choosing a word from each ray of the rainbow. They create a silly sentence, write it and then illustrate. Jordan's read: His horse skated over your jacuzzi!