Photo Gallery

Centers and Things in Our Kindergarten Classroom

School & Bus Theme

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Theme

Fire Safety Theme

Apple Theme

Halloween Theme

Bear Theme

Thanksgiving Theme

Christmas Holiday Theme

WinterTheme

Valentine's Day Theme

These are our class rules and our behavior traffic light. We try to do our best and stay on green all day long!

Whenever Mrs. Thompson or another adult catches us being good, we get a sticker on our behavior chart. When we get a 10 stickers, we get to go to the treasure box & pick a prize!

Some of the Things That We Do in Kindergarten

We do our attendance/lunch graph each morning as one of our jobs.

We move our namecard to the pocket chart on the right and put in under either "Bringers" or "Buyers."

At lunchtime & other times throughout the day, Mrs. Thompson sings the "If You're Ready for the Hall" song

to help us line up & get ready to walk in the hall.

These are the "bringers" who are bringing lunch from home.

Here are the "buyers" who are buying lunch at school today.

Our class has 2 tables to sit at during lunchtime.

This is our calendar bulletin board.We use this everyday during morning meeting.

Each day, the calendar helper puts the number on calendar and tells us the date.

The calendar helper also changes the words in the "Today Song"

& then uses a pointer to track print as we sing it together.

The days of school recorder's adds a straw to the ones place each day. When we get to 10, then we make a bundle with a zero (rubber) band & place it in the tens place. This person also adds the correct number card to the blue number grid and then uses a pointer to count with us up to that number.

The banker adds a penny to the days of school bank each day & then counts the money with us.

When we get ten pennies we trade them for a "dinky dime."

Eventually, we will begin to trade five pennies for one nickel and then two nickels for one dime.

On the 100th day of school, we will trade the ten dimes for one dollar!

The meteorologist checks the weather outside and records it on the weather graph. S/he must respond to the song, "What's the Weather Like Today?" that the class sings to him/her in a complete sentence.

(Later on in the year, the meterologist will also go on Weather.com to find the current weather/temperature for Hyde Park and record them on the graphs and large colored thermometer.)

This is an example of our daily schedule. Can you tell what special we went to on this day?

We eat snack everyday in the afternoon.

We clean up after ourselves after snack.

We have a water fountain in our classroom!

We wait our turn to use the water fountain or sink.

We play outside on the playground.

Who do you think will go faster?Someone with sleeves or bare arms?

We climb up this ladder VERY carefully!

We hold on as we walk up the stairs to the tunnel slide.

We look and wait for the person to get out of the slides before we go down!

He used his muscles to climb up. Good job! You made it!

We wait our turn to climb up the rope ladder.

We line right up when we hear the whistle or when Mrs. T. calls us.

Pattern blocks and pattern block workmats are fun to explore and design with.

Can you name all 6 pattern block shapes?

(orange square, green triangle, red trapezoid, blue rhombus, tan rhombus, yellow hexagon)

We enjoy doing puzzles.

Many of us like to play with table toys, the houses, cars and farm sets.

Other kids like to play at the Lego table.

Playing with the workbench in block area is lots of fun!

The whole class worked cooperatively to build a structure with hollow blocks in block area!

Small colored blocks are tons of fun too!

Listening to a story at the listening center is always more fun with a friend!

We like to investigate things in the science center.

The boys are taking turns looking through the microscope.

The girls are exploring with color paddles.

Do you know what happens when you put the blue and yellow ones on top of each other?

How about the red and yellow? What about the blue and red?

Pretending in the dramatic play center is a lot of fun!

We recite and act out nursery rhymes in Kindergarten.

After we read the poem, "Jack Be Nimble," we put each of our names in the poem and acted it out by jumping over our pretend candlestick.

We use the world map and the map of the United States in our class. Ask us what the blue represents and what all the other colors represent. We know that we live in New York State. Sometimes we receive postcards from other classes from all over the United States. When we receive one, we add a pin to the state that it came from.

We learned about,compared the similarities & differences of,& explored with Unifix cubes and linking cubes.

We made tall towers with Unifix cubes!

We made long trains with them too!

School and Bus Theme

We all worked cooperatively to put our first floor puzzle together!

Didn't we do a great job?

At this center, we each had to match the buses with numerals to the schools that had that many kid stickers on them.

Here we are spinning the number spinner and putting that many people counters on our bus workmats.

These girls did a super job of matching and sequencing all the bus numbers on the sentence strips!

We made our Kissing Hand handprint puzzles on the first day of school!

We made a school bus by tracing, painting, cutting, and decorating

to go with our first class book that we made called Who Got on the Bus?

Here are our completed buses along with the pages from our first class book, Who Got on the Bus?

This is our bus graph that we did.

Do you remember what bus # you ride on?

We made school buses for snack. They were yummy!

After reading Tom Goes to Kindergarten, we completed the paper "I go to kindergarten at Ralph R. Smith."

Here's the song Mrs. Thompson wrote for us:

(It goes to the tune: "The Wheels on the Bus")

I go to kindergarten at Ralph R.Smith,

Ralph R.Smith, Ralph R.Smith.,

I go to kindergarten at Ralph R.Smith all day long.

Here is one of the stories we listened to during this theme.

This is part of our word wall. You can see the first two sight words that we learned "I" and "me" are on it.

This is our school/bus theme word wall.

"We're Glad You're Here Today" is a song we sang to everyone in our classroom using their namecards!

This is an interactive "Wheels on the Bus" pocket chart song.

Here is a pocket chart poem called "School" that we learned.

The Kissing Hand Story

We made a class book entitled, "Our Kissing Hands."

This is our Kissing Hand alphabet game.

We had to work cooperatively to match & sequence the uppercase letter cards.

Here are a few of our Kissing Hand math games.

We had to sort colored hearts onto the racoon workmat of the same color.

We had to pick raccoon number cards and put that many heart counters on it.

These three kids did a great job matching the raccoon number cards to the correct number pocket.

We had fun making Kissing Hand cookies!

We were so happy that everyone said that they loved school on this graph that we did!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Theme

We graphed our first names accordiing to the first letter in our name.

Here are some of our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom trees that we made.

We made Chicka Chicka Boom Boom trees for a special snack using green apple slices,

graham crackers, Coco Puff cereal (for coconuts) & AlphaBits cereal for the letters!

We had to sort cards in a bag into one of the four categories in the pocket chart.

Then we each had our own worksheet to complete. It said "Does it go on the coconut tree?" so we put only letters on the yes side of the paper and shapes, numbers, and other things went on the no side.

Here are some of the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom literacy & math centers that we did:

Here we had to work cooperatively to sequence the coconut trees with letters on them into the pocket chart. Then we did a worksheet on which we had to color the correct path of the alphabet.

At one center we had to match the capital and lowercase letters to form the trees.

We worked on number recogniton, counting, & 1:1 correspondence using Chicka Chicka Boom Boom workmats & brown Unifix cubes. Can you guess what we were pretending the brown cubes were?

One game had palm trees with numerals written on the trunk of each. The kids had to put the trees in order & then put the correct number of coconuts (Cocoa Puffs) on each tree.

(Of course you got to eat the coconuts when you were done, but only after Mrs. T. checked them!)

We counted & put the correct number of palm tree counter sticks in each cup, based on the number that was written on the trunk of the coconut tree.

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We worked cooperatively to match & sequence the coconut tree number cards 1-30 onto the workmat.

A sorting activity ~ only the coconut tree counters go on the coconut tree. All other counters go in the white areas.

A coconut number matching & memory game

We played an alphabet lotto game.

At this literacy workstation, we put magnetic letters on coconut tree workmats and some of us even

spelled names and sight words!

At the playdough center, we make letters and words!

At the chalkboard center, we practice writing letters, names and sight words.

We used our five senses to investigate a coconut.

Can you name the 5 senses and the body part that is used for each?

Did you like the taste of the coconut?

This is what we used to drain the milk from & open the coconut.

We used various scoops and containers to investigate volume in our texture table filled with alphabet noodles.

Counting games

Coconut bowling and graphing game

We listened to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom at the listening center!

We used letter puppets to act out Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

This boy was really good at doing the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom puzzle.

This is our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom flannelboard that we played with by putting letters on it.

At other centers, we had to spell our names with magnetic letters on the coconut tree workmats. Then we used capital & lowercase stamps to spell our names on a worksheet that we colored.

We each had one capital & one lowercase coconut tree workmat & a cupful of alphabet tiles that we had to sort onto the correct workmat.

The other game had palm tree workmats with capital letters on them. You had to find either the capital or lowercase foam letters that matched & put them on top.

This is a poem that we learned & then put it in our poetry journals.

We read this chant & then we did a writing activity about our favorite thing about Kindergarten.

Fire Safety Theme

Here are some of our fire safety pocket chart poems and activities.

This is our fire safety flannelboard. We could sort the helmets by color and/or sequence the numbers.

These are two of the books we listened to at the listening center.

Here's our fire safety bookshelf.

We learned that firefighters are a "community helper" and we worked together to complete a community puzzle.

These are a few of the firefighters that visited us.

We learned not to be afraid of a firefighter who is wearing all their gear and equipment. Even though they may sound scary like Darth Vader when they talk with their oxygen mask on, we know they are NOT!

Their job is to help us!

We knew to stay low and go in the smokehouse!

We had to find and correct all the dangerous things in Sparky's Hazard House.

Watch the firefighter climb UP, UP, UP all the way to the top of the ladder!

See the front and the back of the firetruck!

The firefighters are teaching us about fire safety and all their firefighting equipment!

Here we are climbing through the house with pretend smoke!

Future firefighters? Maybe!

We practiced Stop, Drop and Roll even before the firefighters visited our school!

We used pieces of red felt to pretend they were flames on our clothes!

This girl remembered to cover her face with her hands while she rolled! Great job!

Wow! Look how well we knew how to Stop, Drop and Roll with the firefighters!

Here are some of the fire safety centers that we did.

On our flannelboard, we had to sequence the fire helmets.

In this pocket chart, we extended and created patterns.

Look at the firetrucks and dalmation fire dogs that we made!

We measured how many firetrucks tall we were.

Here is the "campfire" snack that we made.

Here are some of our firetrucks and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom name trees hanging on a bulletin board!

Do you remember what number to dial when there's an EMERGENCY?

(Hint: Look at the papers hanging below with the song "Emergency" on the back.)

At the art table, we marbled painted with red, orange and yellow & labeled our paintings with "Ff is for fire." too!

We made a campfire snack using pretzel sticks for logs, squeeze cheese for flames and cocoa puffs for rocks around the fire. We even got to roast a mini marshmallow on a pretzel stick too! They were yummy!

Our whole school went outside and exercised together! It was so much fun!

Thanks to our wonderful PE teacher, Mr. Moughan, for organzing it!

We gave Mrs. Turner, our principal, a farewell card on her last day before she moved back to Texas.

Apple Theme

We conducted surveys by asking one another and our family members if they liked apples.

We sorted the apples that we each brought in from home.

First we sorted by color and then we sorted by size.

Then Mrs.Thompson tried to trick us when she sorted them by stem/no-stem, but we figured it out!

We had fun picking and sorting apples by size at our texture table using tongs and buckets!

We tasted red, yellow and green apples and then graphed our favorite.

Can you tell which color apple was liked the best?

We tasted apple cider and graphed whether or not we liked it.

We made applesauce and apple crisp. They were delicious!

We peeled and peeled and peeled!

We cut the peeled apple in smaller pieces.

We crumbled the graham crackers in a ziploc bag.

Wow! Look at how long that apple peel is!

We played with LOTS of apple centers during this theme!

Check out some of them below.

After playing the apple tree math game with cubes, an apple tree workmat & a # spinner, we fingerprinted the correct number of apples on each tree based on what numbers we spun.

After completing this "wormy apple workmat game and worksheet" we got to eat a gummy worm! YUM!

Here we are making the seasons of an apple tree.

Here we are painting and decorating paper plate apples.

Some of our other art projects.

A few of our pocket chart songs & poems

Can you tell how someone sorted these apples on the flannelboard?

Here are some of the apple graphs that we did.

Pumpkins and HalloweenTheme

We matched and sequenced the lowercase candy corn letters to the uppercase ones.

Here's another pumpkin alphabet game.

Here are some of our books about pumpkins.

Here are a few pumpkin big books.

Here are a few of our math activities.

Can you figure out which numbers are missing?

We traced & cut the pumpkin shapes and then turned them into jack-o'-lanterns by gluing on pattern block shapes!

Then we had to count and record how many of each shape we used.

We made patterns using jack-o'-lanterns.

Gg is for ghost on these spooky handpainted ghosts.

How many pumpkins and ghosts tall were you?

Here is one Halloween song that we sang.

It's to the tune of "Bingo" and we cover each letter with a witch picture when we clap for that letter.

Can you tell how many claps we need to do this time?

Here is another song that we learned and acted out using the flannelboard.

We learned about ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) too!

Here's another song that we learned.

Thanks to all the family members who came to help out at our class' Halloween party!

Your help and support is always greatly appreciated!

We go on our annual kindergarten Halloween parade throughout the school!

Kindergarten just loves Halloween!

Our wonderful PTA sponsors the amazing Halloween party every year!

Unfortunately, it had to be canceled this year because of all the illness going around.

If the haunted house in the cafeteria is too scary, there's always the unhaunted house that begins in the art room and ends in our classroom!

Bear Theme

We graphed whether or not we had a teddy bear

Can you tell what most people said?

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We sorted and graphed bears by size and color using our own cup of bear counters.

After reading the Gummy Bear Counting Book,we estimated how many gummy bears were in the bag.

Congratulations to the friend who estimated the closest and got to take them home!

We tasted and graphed our favorite flavor of Teddy Grahams.

Can you tell which flavor was liked the best?

Look at the adorable Corduroy bears that we made!

We sang "Ten in the Bed" using our bed workmats and Teddy Grahams as counters.

When we counted backwards and got to zero we got to eat them!

Then we glued 10 paper bears on our bed workmats.

At the art center, we sponge painted brown bears. When they were dry, we decorated them with markers and buttons. Then we counted and recorded how many buttons we glued on.

These friends built the home of the 3 Bears in block area and then took turns acting out the story of

Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

At the texture table, we used small, medium & large scoops & bowls with porridge (dry oatmeal) to investigate volume.

Do you remember the word that means that an animals sleeps during the winter?

(hint: It begins with Hh and has and has 4 syllables.)

Thanksgiving Theme

We wrote and illustrated stories about what we were thankful for.

We made Pilgrim hats and Native American headbands as well as patterned noodle necklaces.

Here are the Pilgrim and Native American art projects that we made.

Our school collected food items for the Stuff-the-Bus food campaign.

Our class sorted and graphed how many cans, bottles, boxes and bags that we collected.

Do you remember the name of the ship that the Pilgrims sailed from England on?

Kids pretended to do the chores of Pilgrim children at the texture table filled with popcorn (maize)!

Christmas Theme

Here are some of the holiday crafts that we made.

We made these trees to go with the individual gingerbread houses that we made.

We made these trees to go along with a writing activity about what we hoped to see under our trees.

Gingerbread

We read many different versions of The Gingerbread Man story and then we wrote our class book.

We each took one bite of our gingerbread cookie and then graphed the part that we bit first.

Here's a gingerbread man glyph that we did.

Here is one of the math activities that we did.

Winter Theme

We read different versions of the story, The Mitten, after reading the one by Jan Brett.

We even acted out Jan Brett's version!

These are some of our art projects that we made.

We did a mitten and a snowman glyph.

Here is one of the poems that we learned during this theme.

Some of the graphs that we did

Some of the centers that we did

Valentine's Day Theme

We made these "Will you 'bee' my valentine?" as a step-by-step art project.

Many thanks to all the family members who were able to join us to help at our party!

Passing out valentines is always so much fun!

We made these Valentine vests for the letter Vv.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We predicted whether we thought the groundhog would see his shadow.

Can you tell what most kids predicted?

Congratulations to this classmate for a wonderful science fair project!