Classroom News

It's hard to believe we are getting close to the end of October!  Read on to see what we have been up to in kindergarten!

Reading Workshop:

We have finished up our first unit!  During the last few weeks, students have learned about how to choose and take care of books, how to notice the details in the illustrations to read the pictures, and how to "buzz" about a good book to a friend.  They are so engaged with their books during our reading time!  This week, the students will have a chance to do some "book shopping" as they browse our classroom library and choose books for their own personal book bins.  I am so excited to see their reading stamina continue to grow!

These strategies help young readers learn the important strategy of visualizing.  This also helps our kindergarteners feel more confident in choosing books where they may not be able to read all of the words, but they can certainly read the pictures to tell the story.  

Buzzing about books we enjoy helps students learn about books that they may not have chosen on their own.  Exposing kindergarteners to many different types of books helps ensure that everyone will find books they love!

Math:

We are continuing to work hard exploring the numbers 0-10.  Students are building their number sense through games, counting activities, and classroom discussions.  It has been so wonderful to see the students using math vocabulary when sharing their observations about numbers!

One Book, One School:

I hope your family is enjoying reading A Nest for Celeste.  The school is enjoying participating in discussion and activities revolving around this great book.  One of their favorites is to listen to the clues during announcements to hear where Celeste may be hiding around the school.  Our kindergarteners are quite good at finding this sneaky mouse!

Centers:

Center time remains a favorite part of our day!  The students love having time to practice different literacy, math, and fine motor skills in a fun, playful way.

Making letters with colorful counters

 Practicing counting, colors, and fine motor skills by putting the correct poms into the muffin tin with tweezers

 Rolling the die and placing the correct number of "apples" on the tree

Putting puzzles together

Whole Body Listening:

We were so lucky to have Mrs. Rebsamen join us to read Whole Body Listening Larry at School.  This book taught us what it means to listen with our entire bodies.  The students enjoyed practicing this important skill!

Spirit Days:

Career Dress Up Day was a hit!  It was so fun to see all the students dressed up as doctors, marine biologists, meteorologists, artists, teachers, chefs, policemen, and firemen!  Our next Dryden spirit day will be Sports Dress Up Day on November 17.

All About Me Bags and Guest Readers:

We love learning about our classmates each week when Me Bags are shared!  We have also had some very special guest readers join us lately!


We learned that Eden loves Pete the Cat books, her pink stuffed animal, and Sleeping Beauty!  We were so lucky to have her sister, Yola, come read a Pete the Cat book to us!

We learned that Vince likes his Nerf gun and a special picture of his dad.  Vince's mom came and read the very funny book, Dinosaurs in the Supermarket, which we all loved!

We learned that Veronica loves playing soccer, the Cubs, and her dog, Biscuit!  We were so excited to have Grandma Jackie join us to read the perfect book for October:  The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. 

Classroom News

Fall is in the air!  As we get ready to change the calendar to October, the students are continuing to do amazing things in kindergarten!

Reading Workshop

During our Reading Workshop the past two weeks, the students have been doing a great job listening, sharing, and discussing the stories and poems we have read.  I am proud the partner sharing I am seeing with our turn-and-talks!

While reading the book, But Excuse Me, That is My Book, the kindergarteners had a 
chance to get to know themselves better as readers.  They were able to talk about what types of books they like and even what they don’t like.  Then, they had a chance to look at different books and choose one they would like to read.  Thank you so much for returning those surveys about the type of books your child likes to read.  Those will help when it becomes time for us to choose books for our book bins during our independent reading time. 

We also had the chance to really observe the different illustrations in the poem, “Catch the Moon” and see how the pictures can help us figure out new words.  

In another lesson, we learned that books can be fiction or nonfiction.  We were able to read and explore the nonfiction book, Apples.  We then used a chart that highlighted the different features of both types of books.  

The students also learned how important it is for readers to know their sight words while reading, so those words can be read quickly.  So far, we have introduced the following sight words:  I, can, we, the, like

Each week, these words are introduced and practiced through a song, chant, poem, and mini book.  In your child's blue book bag, you will find all the sight word mini books and word cards that have been introduced.  Poems are placed in the yellow poetry folder each week.  Please make time to practice these words regularly at home.  

Jolly Phonics

We have learned another 6 sounds during Jolly Phonics:

/c/ /k/ as in cat and kick

/e/ as in egg

/h/ as in hot

/r/ as in rabbit

/m/ as in meal

/d/ as in drum

Each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we spend time listening to a short story introducing that day’s sound.  Then, we learn a song that practices that sound.  Afterwards, we make a class chart where the students share words that begin with that day’s sound.  Students then work on a coloring page practicing that sound.  These coloring pages are then sent home and may remain at home.  They do not need to stay in your child's blue folders.  

I am so pleased to see that students are beginning to try to add more sounds to their labels in their notebooks.  At this point of the year, it is perfectly fine if the students are only able to write the first letter of their label.  Please don’t feel as if you need to help them spell the entire word or do the writing for them.  We are looking to see what the children can do independently with our new sounds.  

Name Centers

The students had a chance to explore several different centers that helped them work on the letters of the alphabet, as well as their names.  Completing an alphabet puzzle, using magnetic letters to spell the names of all the students, sorting uppercase and lowercase letters, and putting together name puzzles allowed the kindergarteners to become more familiar recognizing and spelling their own name, as well as their friends' names too!

Math

We have finished our first chapter!  The students have done a wonderful job exploring the numbers up to 5 and being able to explore the concepts of same and different in various groups of objects.  They are showing great progress with counting objects and showing the numbers 1-5 in different ways.  They even had a chance to design their own pretend animal and practice counting while sharing the different parts of their animal.  

LMC

The students have loved heading to the computer lab each Thursday.  They are learning how to use the laptops and have practiced their click and drag skills with a shape sort.  They even had their first experience with research, as they used the website Pebble Go to learn more about the different seasons, which ties into our science unit on weather.

Novel Engineering

We were so excited to have Mrs. Wasik, Dryden's Advanced Learning Facilitator, join us this week for our first novel engineering experience.  Novel engineering is an innovative approach to integrate engineering and literacy.  Mrs. Wasik began by reading the book, Peter's Chair.  After hearing the story, students had to identify the problem, which was Peter had outgrown his chair so it was given to his little sister and he no longer had a chair.  Then, they had to design realistic solutions to solve the problem, which required the students to design a new chair for Peter.  As a group, the students had to work together to choose the best chair for Peter.  Last, each group had to engage in the engineering process as they chose from a variety of materials to make a model of a new chair for Peter.  It was so great to see the creativity, teamwork, and problem solving skills in action as these chairs were being created!

One Book One School

A Note From Mrs. O’Kelly:

Dear Dryden Families,

Today your youngest/only child who attends Dryden will be bringing home a copy of the book A Nest For Celeste.  We are excited to begin our “One Book, One Dryden” event!  Inside your family’s copy of the book you will find a note about the event and a reading schedule.  We encourage your family to read the book at home together, following along with the reading schedule.  

For more information, visit: http://drydenlmc.weebly.com/one-book-one-school--a-nest-for-celeste.html

To hear chapters read aloud, visit: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1awkpRYC0Q_bt_BLnpDQHXoM31kr6Ntx1fPw1NwoV9lE/edit

Thank you for participating!

#1Book1Dryden

Me Bag

We have started our Me Bag schedule and have loved getting to know a couple of our classmates!  We learned that Alex loves his family and building with Legos!

We learned that Vicki loves her stuffed animal toy and her very special baby picture!