Math
During math this week, we learned a new game called Monster Squeeze. Monster Squeeze is a game that challenges your child to guess a secret number while becoming more comfortable with using a number line. The directions and materials for this game were sent home in your child's Take Home Folder, so you can practice and play at home.
The students were also introduced to a pan balance. They had the chance to predict and compare the weights of different objects while using this new math tool. I was quite impressed with the reasoning behind their predictions!
Last, we used dominos to help practice our counting and sorting skills. The students did a great job of noticing patterns on the dominos as well!
Writing
The kindergarten authors continue to do a great job during Writing Workshop. They are becoming quite the experts at our 4 steps: Think, Draw, Label, and Write. This week, we began adding another part to our writing! Students are now working to think of two ideas for each prompt. Then, they can draw and label those ideas before working to write TWO sentences! I was so proud of the hard work and effort I was seeing with this challenging task. We will continue to work on writing sentences with a capital letter at the beginning, a period at the end, and spaces between each word.
Reading Workshop and Guided Reading
We are still working on fiction books and stories during our Reading Workshop unit. This week, we used two different short stories to help work on the skills of making predictions and finding repeating words and patterns.
Hopefully, you saw the note in your child's Take Home Folder that we began guided reading groups this week. During guided reading group time, students are matched with books at their appropriate instructional level and we work on a variety of reading strategies and word work activities, depending on the needs of each group. After meeting with me, students place their book in their blue book bag to take home. The letter that was sent home gives many tips and ideas for ways to have students read this book at home. Please keep this book in the book bag, as this will help the students be ready when I call their group on any given day. When they meet with me for a new lesson, I will collect the old book and they will bring home a new book. Thank you so much for your support with this at home. I can't wait to see the students continue to grow as readers!
Art Appreciation
We were so excited to welcome Mr. and Mrs. Turcotte to our room for an Art Appreciation lesson. We had a chance to learn about the artist, Horace Pippin. We enjoyed hearing the story, A Splash of Red, which told us about his life and how he enjoyed using a splash of red in his artwork. The students had the opportunity to see one of Horace Pippin's paintings titled "Domino Players" and find the splashes of red throughout. Last, the kindergarteners really enjoyed becoming artists themselves and creating a pictures about something they enjoy doing with their family! Thank you to the Turcottes for a fun lesson!
Winter Weather
As we are now well into winter, I wanted to send a few reminders about dressing appropriately for the weather. Please make sure your child comes to school each day with a coat, hat, and gloves. Even though we are not outside for recess each day, the students do line up outside before school and do need to walk to buses and cars after school.
The students will only be going outside for recess on Wednesdays and Fridays, so those are the days to have all the snow gear brought to school. In order to play in the snow at recess, students must be dressed appropriately in boots, snowpants, coat, hat, and gloves. Snowpants and boots are not necessary on any other days. If something changes in our schedule, I will be sure to let you know. The school rule is that we do go outside for recess is the temperature (with windchill) is above 0 degrees.
If your child wears boots to school, please make sure they have shoes in their backpack to put on.
I know those zippers can still be tricky for little hands, so extra practice at home is definitely helpful.
Stay warm and have a great weekend!
