Classroom News

Welcome back!  I was so happy to see the students after the winter holidays!  They came back excited to share about all the fun they had over break.  Read on to see what we were up to during our first weeks of 2018.

Reading Workshop:

We recently finished up on fiction unit.  The students did an amazing job with the different skills taught during this unit.  Using a variety of stories, the kindergarteners were able to work on making connections, creating a story map with the important story elements, retelling a story, and describing a character by telling about his/her traits.  I am amazed by the progress each reader is making!

 We recently began our new unit on nonfiction.  In this unit, we will explore three different types of nonfiction texts:  biography, reference, and literary nonfiction.  The buzz in the classroom as they discover new information is so exciting to hear!

We also had a chance to learn about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  We read the book, The Crayon Box That Talked.  In this book, the crayons do not like each other, but as they begin to notice and appreciate each other's differences, they realize they can work together to create beautiful pictures.

Writing:

Students had a chance to set some goals for the new year.  Each student wrote about a book they would like to read, a personal goal that they would like to accomplish, and a new food they want to try.  It was so exciting to see the thought and effort put into writing these goals!

 Math:
We are currently working on Chapter 6:  Numbers 0 to 20.  In this chapter, students should not only be able to count and recognize the numbers 0 to 20, but also understand that each number they say is one more than the number before it.  This leads to an understanding of one more and one less.  Knowing the size and order of these numbers is essential to understanding place value later on.  Taking a few minutes at home, or even in the car, to count and/or compare is extremely helpful in building this number sense in your child.  

We are also learning about different ways to represent numbers.  Students have been practicing with drawing pictures and using their fingers to show numbers.  

Students were also introduced to the concept of a ten-frame.  This tool can help represent numbers 0-10.  For numbers larger than 10, we began practicing with a double ten-frame!  We will continue to use these visuals to help students understand the concepts behind each number to help strengthen their number sense.

Ten-Frame:

Double Ten-Frame:

Science:  

In addition to researching and continue to graph our daily weather for our Tracking Weather unit, we have also started a unit on Pushes and Pulls!  In this unit, children heighten their awareness of motion in their surroundings as they act out different motions and go on a motion search.  They will explore how pushes and pulls cause changes in motion, such as starting, stopping, and changing speed and direction.  They will find that pushes and pulls have different strengths through exploration with toy cars and balls.  The students were so excited to get started with this fun and hands-on unit!

LMC:

The kindergarten researchers continue to do an excellent job using the website, Pebble Go, to learn about weather.  Recently, they recorded facts about winter clothes, winter sports, winter work, and winter food.

After hearing the story, Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, the students had the chance to use the Bee-Bots to help practice sequencing the main events in this story.  I am so impressed with the coding skills I am seeing in these young learners!

Me Bags and Guest Readers:

Before break, James shared his Me Bag and we learned that he loves sharks, drawing, books, and the color blue!

We loved having James's mom come in to read the funny story, Shark vs. Train!  Such a perfect book for this shark lover!

We were also lucky to have Gracen's mom join us as a Guest Reader!  She read the perfect book for winter:  Penguin's Big Adventure.

We learned that Saya loves princesses, coloring, and the color pink!

Saya's dad helped us end the week in a fun way by reading the books, Don't Let the Pigeon Wear the Bus and Fancy Nancy:  Poet Extraordinaire.

Winter Weather

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 Thursday, 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.  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 and all the extra snow gear provides an even bigger challenge, so extra practice at home is definitely helpful and appreciated!

Please remember that there is NO SCHOOL for students on Monday.  

Enjoy your weekend!

Happy Holidays

What a fun week we had!  Ending our week in pajamas was definitely a highlight!

We loved having Mr. Deptula and the 5th graders come visit and share some holiday songs!

The Cardboard Challenge was such a fun event!  I was so impressed by the creativity, problem solving, and teamwork I saw in each group as they designed and built their gingerbread houses!

Thank you so much for all of the thoughtful cards and gifts!  I feel so lucky to be teaching your children this year.  I love seeing them work and play together, learn, and grow.  I wish all of you a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year!  I look forward to seeing all of the children back at school on Monday, January 8. 

Classroom News

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!