November 20th

Congratulations to Maria, Russell, Andi, Ada, Weldon, and Ryder for being leaders in our classroom and getting the leadership award at the assembly!

Kindergarten teachers are asking that children who are dropped off in the mornings and need to eat breakfast arrive by 8:10.  This allows them enough time to eat breakfast before learning begins at 8:20.  We are having many students arrive later or even after breakfast is over who have not eaten.  Students who arrive late and need to eat breakfast miss our morning routine and opening.  This is an important part of our day and a lot of learning conversations happen at this time.  Please make sure that if your child needs to eat breakfast they arrive by 8:10.  Thank you for your support in this matter!

Reading

This week in reading we talked about making connections when we read.  We talked about what making a connection is, things that the books remind us of.  At literacy stations we worked on:

At the math station we colored by number a picture of a turkey.  

At star station we made a paper bag turkey.  

At smartboard we worked on beginning letter sounds.  

At word work we make turkeys and wrote a word wall word on each feather.  

All of the other stations were the same as last week.  

Writing

In writing this week we talked about "When we are done, We've just BEGUN."  When we finish a story we try to add more details to the picture, then we add more words, and after that then we start a new story.  I am encouraging kiddos to add details like where their story happened, who else was in the story, etc.  Then to label all of the added pieces.  

Math

We played compare this week in math.  Compare is similar to the card game war.  This game focuses on greater than/ less than.  Each player gets a pile of cards face down, we practiced dealing the cards fairly.  After each player has their cards each player flips the top card over.  Whoever has the greater card says "Me, because __ is more than __."  The kids did a great job playing with their partner and keeping the focus on more/less.

Week of November 13th

We are having an open house to celebrate our new classrooms. Please join us on Thursday, November 19th from 4:30- 6:00.  

I made an error on our specials calendar and have posted an updated schedule under the schedules tab.  SORRY!!

Happy birthday to Maria!

Thank you for completing the turkey feathers. Our class turkey looks great!

We learned about scarecrows and made our own. The kiddos are so creative!

We learned about veterans and why we celebrate Veterans Day.  

Week of November 6th

Reading

This week in shared reading we talked about reselling stories. We learned that when you retell you must tell what happened in the story, using lots of details and tell the beginning, middle, and end. 

At literacy stations we:

Computer

We used the iPads to play an alphabet id game

Reading

Our library changed to have fall and thanksgiving books. 

Star

At star the kiddos made a scarecrow puppet. 

Writing

At writing the kiddos can label fall pictures, make a list of things they are thankful for or fall things, or write a card. 

Listening

At listening we listened to books about fall

Math

The kiddos represented numbers using pictures about fall. For example the page said "6 squirrels" so the kiddos drew 6 squirrels. 

Smart board

We practiced lower case letter formation. 

Poetry

Our fluency poem is I'm a little scarecrow. We added "and" to the word wall.

Storytelling

We retold the wheels on the bus. We also learned a new game- ABC rock, paper, scissors. 

Word work

We learned to roll " snakes" with play dough to make letters. 

Math

We have been working on numbers to 10. This week we played a game called grab and count. We grabbed a handful of cubes. Counted them, represented how many by drawing a picture, and writing the number. This activity practiced a lot of different math skills. We practiced counting with one to one correspondence, representing sets of things with drawings and numerals. The kiddos did a great job with this activity!

Writing

We have been talking a lot about writing goals, what each kiddo needs to be focusing on during independent writing. At writing conferences I talked with each kiddo about what they are already doing consistently and what they need to focus on. I added a visual goal to their writing folder to act as a reminder. 

Some kindergarteners are working on adding details to their story- where the story happened, what they were doing, who else was there, etc. Some kindergarteners are consistently sketching a story with lots of details so they are focusing on labeling their story. We try to hear the beginning and ending sound. If kindergarteners are consistently labeling their story then they are focusing on stretching out words to hear lots of middle sounds. 

New classroom!

We have had so much fun exploring our new classroom. We did a scavenger hunt this morning to find all of our materials and fun new places to learn!