Fuel Up to Play

We would like to thank our wonderful PE teachers that organized "Fuel Up to Play" which is part of a grant through NFL Play 60. Our school following their lunch times ran/walked twice around the big track. Our school together ran more than 700 miles. Our PE teachers are hoping to win $10,000 to support our athletic department at Chets.

It was a hot day and Mrs. Ellis wore the wrong shoes but fun was had by all. We came in and cooled off with ice pops! It was a great way to end a great week at school.

Math Workshop

Last Friday, the students had the opportunity to explore geoboards. They seemed to really enjoy them. They practiced making shapes like squares, triangles, rhumbus', and rectangles. They also had fun making designs

Today during Math Workshop the students explored buttons. They noticed that some of the buttons were smooth or rough. The buttons were different colors and shapes. After exploring the buttons for a while, the students played the game "Button Match". They picked out one button and found another button that would match. It only had to match one attribute. For example some students matched buttons that had two holes or four holes. It was exciting to see how many different groups of buttons they found.

Learning Rituals and Routines

We have completed our first week of school. We have already learned many new things in our room. We learned how to use our wipe boards correctly. We practiced writing on the boards the beginning sounds of the words Ms. Ellis called out.

We also received our Independent Book Bags which we will use every day. Our bags hang on the back of our chairs. We learned that we can turn around without standing up to get a book out of our bags. Right now we have our Poetry Folder and a Star Book in our bags. As we learn to read they will hold "just right" books that we can read.

After reading out of our Independent Reading bags we had a chance to go to our Literacy Stations.
Literacy Stations are libraries we visit each day. Each table has their own library to read from for that day. We also have special places we will sit to read. We have the Book of the Month Library that holds all the previous Books of the Month since Chets Creek has opened.

We also have the Math Genre Library. There we get to read counting and math books.

We have a Series Library. There we find Clifford, Froggy and other books that have multiple stories written about the same character.




The third station is the Genre Library. There we have collections of books about subjects. We have a basket about zoo animals, fairy tales, and transportation.







Our final station is the Science Library. There the students love to read books about insects, sharks, and space.

Day Two

Our second day of school was very productive! We were very busy learning the rituals and routines that we will follow all year long. We started our day with Skills Block where we talked about the letter "Bb" and the sound that it makes. We even put "Bb" words on our word wall. In Readers Workshop we decided that good readers read ALOT and this year we are going to read ALOT! In Writers Workshop we decided that good writers write ALOT and this year we are going to write ALOT! Today we wrote about how we get to school each day. We had Math Worksop in the afternoon. We looked at our calendar and then we learned about some of the tools that we will use as mathematicians this year. We used connecting cubes to build a really tall tower. We counted 35 cubes and that's how many friends are in our class. We also had a great time at lunch together and we played on the playgroud. It was such a good day and we can't wait until tomorrow:)

1st Day of School

WOW! What a day! We had so much fun. After saying goodbye to our parents, we went to our class to begin our day. We had story time in the Media Center. A real farmer read us a story about where food really comes from. After the story we returned to our room for Writer's Workshop. We read the book "Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready For Kindergarten". We loved that story. Then we went to our seat to write about how we got ready for kindergarten. After lunch we went outside to the watermelon patch and ate some yummy watermelon. We then watched Ms. Ellis ride in a wagon that was pulled by two mules. Wow, did they run fast. We also saw a really old tractor and a new tractor. Next we got to pet some animals like lambs, goats, chicks, pigs and a pony. Following that we learned about Bee Farms. We even got to taste some new honey made by the bees we saw. Finally we planted a seed. We can't wait to see what comes up. It is going to be a great year! We can't wait to see what the next 179 days hold for us.

Welcome to Kindergarten

Welcome to Kindergarten at Chets Creek from Melanie Holtsman on Vimeo.

Who better to ask about Kindergarten then the previous students. These old students share their favorite part about their Kindergarten year.

Welcome to a whole new "crop" of students!

Hi new Kindergarten students and parents. We are so excited about the upcoming year. We are looking forward to meeting all the new students. It will be a "blooming" year for everyone. See you soon on August 20th for Orientation!