It's beginning to look a lot like GINGERBREAD! The hallway outside our classroom was transformed into a gingerbread house! The students had so much fun creating the candies and gingerbread kids!
Reading
We have been learning a lot during our fiction reading unit! The students have been focusing on the different story elements of characters, setting, problem, and solution. We are reading several stories based on The Gingerbread Man and are working to compare and contrast the elements in each of these stories. What wonderful observations these readers were making!
Our reading stamina continues to grow! I am so proud of the progress these kindergarten readers are making during our independent reading time. They enjoy reading from their book bins, and especially love sharing a good story with a friend!
Writing
The kindergarteners continue to work hard during our Writing Workshop time. Each writer has to THINK of an idea, DRAW a picture with details, LABEL that picture, and then WRITE a sentence that matches that picture. What fantastic authors they are becoming!
Math
We are currently working on Chapter 4: Counting and Numbers 0 to 10. In this chapter, students count up to 10 and down from 10. Counting with one-to-one correspondence and determining numbers that are one more and one less are skills that are featured throughout this chapter. The concepts of addition and subtraction are introduced, and students will be working to combine and take away objects and then count to find the result. These activities help develop the meaning of addition and subtraction, which is a prerequisite for learning addition and subtraction facts.
Centers
Our centers are even gingerbread themed this month!
Students are playing Gingerbread Bump to help practice adding two numbers together.
At the listening centers, the students are enjoying hearing the story, The Gingerbread Bear.
Using dry erase markers and gumdrop counters are a fun way to practice addition problems during Gingerbread Math!
Practicing sight words is a lot more fun with a gingerbread color-by-sight word page!
Students are identifying different shapes with a gingerbread house color-by-shape activity.
Cardboard Challenge
Thank you so much for sending in cardboard! Our whole school will be participating in a Cardboard Challenge, where students will work in small group to plan and build a creation out of cardboard. This week, the students worked together to plan out their design for their very own gingerbread house. They first had to work together to come up with 3 things their house needs to have, as well as create a design for the outside of the house. I loved hearing the creativity and compromising happening within each group! The building will start next week and end in a school sharing assembly on December 19. I will be sure to post pictures of the finished designs!
LMC
During our LMC time, the students are learning what it means to be a digital citizen and how to be smart and safe when using technology. This month, we will also participate in coding lessons, which is always so much fun for the students.
All About Me Bags and Guest Readers
The students continue to love hearing about what their friends enjoy doing outside of school, and they especially love having guest readers surprise us with great stories!
We learned that Ryne likes sword fighting, fast race cards, and playing catch.
We were so lucky to have Ryne's mom join us to read The Giving Tree and remind us how good giving to others can make us feel.
We learned that Annette loves her family, reading, and the color pink.
We loved having Annette's mom be our Guest Reader. Reading Mo Willem's books with the silly characters of Pigeon, Elephant, and Piggie was a great way to end our week!
Winter Gear Reminders
Now that some snow has fallen, it is a good time to share some reminders that will help our kindergarten day run smoothly. Please have your child's belongings labeled. Many things look alike, especially snowpants, so having all your child's winter gear labeled helps a lot.
The students only go outside for recess on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so those are the only days that your child needs to have all 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. The school policy is that we do go outside if the temperature (with the windchill) is above 0 degrees. Snowpants and boots are not necessary on days we go don't go to recess. If something ever changes in our schedule, I will be sure to let you know.
If your child wears boots to school, please make sure they have gym shoes in their backpack to wear while at school.
I also ask that you practice putting on and taking off all winter gear with your child, so they can do it independently. My two hands don't get very far (or very fast) with 20 students and each piece of snow gear, so your help with this is greatly appreciated!
