Happy New Year!

It was great to see all of the students again, and I LOVED hearing about all of their winter break adventures! Take a peek below to see what we have been learning!

Literacy

Prior to winter break, we completed a gingerbread unit that helped reinforce the concepts we have been learning during our literacy time. We compared several versions of the Gingerbread Man and then compared the different story elements including: the main characters, the setting, the main events, as well as the repeated refrain in each book. The class also loved predicting the main character's fate at the ending of each story! 

This week we began Module 4 in our new literacy program, which focuses on being fit and healthy. Through the stories we read in this unit, students will work to answer our essential question, "How can I be my healthiest me?" 

During our phonics and writing instruction time, students will learn the follow skills and high frequency words. Continued practice with the items in your child's blue book bag will be very be very helpful as students continue to gain independence with these skills. 

Math

Prior to winter break, we finished our math unit on comparing numbers and began Unit 5, which focuses on flat and solid shapes. Students are learning to name and identify flat and solid shapes based on their specific attributes. We have also worked to identify shapes in real life and have used flat shapes to make new shapes. Students have experimented building with solid shapes as well. We have learned about positional words including: above, below, behind, in front of, next to and beside. Students will also learn more about sequencing and using shapes to create patterns.

Social Studies

In our current social studies unit, students will be learning to compare the past to the present. Throughout this unit, students will engage in tasks and activities that will help us answer the following questions:

• Who am I?
• What is a family?
• How is our life different than long ago?

Social Emotional Learning

Mrs. Elsey, one of our school social workers, has also been coming to visit our kindergarten classes to talk about big problems vs. little problems. In our first lesson, students learned that big problems are problems we cannot solve on our own (i.e.--we are bleeding, we feel really sick, someone else hurts us, etc.) Students learned that they to ask an adult for help with these big problems. 

Students also learned that little problems are problems that we have everyday (i.e.--lose a game, can't find a pencil, someone else is running in the hall, etc.) We learned that students can work together to solve these problems on their own. In our next lesson, Mrs. Elsey will help students learn some strategies they can use to solve problems at our everyday problems. 

Looking forward to a great week!

Thanks for reading!

What's Happening in K-2?

 

Happy Friendsgiving!

Literacy
Our current literacy unit focuses on the essential question, "What makes a community?" Through the stories we read in this unit, students will learn about the different places and people that make up a community. They will also learn how important it is for members of a community to work together to make their neighborhood a welcoming and productive place to live. 

During our phonics and writing instruction time, students will learn the following skills and high frequency words. Continued practice with the items in your child's blue book bag will be very helpful as students continue to gain independence with these skills.

Math
We finished our unit on measurement and have started our next unit, which focuses on comparing numbers. Students will learn to count and compare collections of objects to determine which group has more, which group has fewer, and which groups have the same amount. We will also explore the concept of "1 more" and "1 less" and connect those concepts to addition and subtraction. We will review number order and practice sequencing as well. 

Using our whiteboards to compare sets of objects. 

Playing "Top It" to compare numbers. 

Science and Social Studies
We completed our science unit, which focused on observing and tracking the weather. Each day our "Hello Helper" acts as our meteorologist and helps us graph the day's weather conditions. We also learned about the effects of the sun and how the sun can provide warmth, and we designed sun shields to help us provide shade. 

When we return from our Thanksgiving break, we will begin our next social studies unit which focuses on American celebrations and holidays as well as comparing life long ago to life today. 

Have a great week! Thanks for reading! 

What's Happening in K-2?

It was a busy week in kindergarten that ended with a beautiful day for school pictures! Take a peek below to see what we have been learning! 

Reading

This week we began our new reading unit that focuses on the essential question, "What makes each of us special?" In the fictional text, I Am Rene, the Boy, we learned that our names are unique and often hold a special meaning. We also learned that authors can use facts and opinions to help persuade our thinking. In the book, Being Different Rocks, the author helped us see that being different is great, and that by celebrating our differences, we can learn from each other, work together as a team, and be open to trying new things. 

Structured Literacy

During our structured literacy time, we worked on the following skills:

Irregular Heart Word

Math

We completed Chapter 1 in math, which focused on the numbers 1-5, and we began Chapter 2, which focuses on numbers up to 10. In this unit, we will focus on the following skills:

• counting, reading, and writing numbers from 6 to 10
• ordering numbers to 10
• making number pairs to 10
• using ordinal numbers to tell order

Science

We finished our first social studies unit, which focused on building our classroom community, and now we are ready to begin our first science unit of the year--Tracking the Weather!

Kindergarten Activity Night

Some of kindergarten students had a blast participating in Dryden's Activity Night that was sponsored by the PTA. Check them out in action here! 

Looking forward to a GREAT week! 

Thanks for reading!

What's Happening in K-2!

Wow! These first few weeks of kindergarten have flown by, and I am so impressed with how well our kindergarten friends are adjusting to full-day kindergarten. The students have been doing a great job learning our daily routines and classroom expectations, and we are off to a great start! 

Arrival
We love starting our day with a soft start so students can move through our morning routine as they arrive at school. Our day begins with students choosing a morning greeting from our "How we like to say HELLO!" chart. Then students follow our morning routine to get unpacked and ready for the day.

 

Once everyone arrives, we move to the carpet for our morning greeting and our calendar routine. We sing to our "Hello Helper," who helps us count the days we have been in school. Our helper also gets to be our "Line Leader" and "Electrician" for the day! 

Reading
This week we learned about the genre of poetry as we read Stephanie Calmenson's Kindergarten Kids. We also learned how to use the pictures and words in a story to help us make meaning as we listened to School Bus by Donald Crews. We learned about the different parts of a book and went on an alphabet scavenger hunt using books from our classroom library too! 

Structured Literacy
This week, the structured literacy portion of our new reading programs focused on the following skills: 

• Phonological awareness
• Phonics instruction
• Handwriting

Writing
During writing time, the students have been learning how writers select a topic for their writing. They have also been learning about opinion writing. As a class, we have been practicing how to state our opinions on a topic and give a reason that supports our opinion. 

Grammar
We have also been learning about nouns and verbs during our literacy time. The students have been doing a great job identifying nouns as people, places, and things, and they are understanding that verbs are action words. 

Centers

We introduced learning centers this week. Students rotated through several centers throughout the week.

Playdoh names
Name puzzles
Magnet names
Hair salon scissor practice
ABC puzzles

Social Studies
Our first social studies unit has been focusing on building our classroom community and forming relationships. During our first three lessons, we worked together to answer the following questions:

• How do I get along with others?
• How do I make friends?
• How do I solve problems with others?

Through hands-on activities and class discussions, the class has been doing a great job learning how to be a good friend and how to work through problems when they arise! 

RULER
We have begun our social emotional learning (SEL) curriculum, which focuses on helping students recognize and understand their emotions so they can learn strategies to help them regulate their emotions as they move throughout their day. As a class, we created a charter that will guide us during the year and remind us of how we want to feel when we are at school--happy, safe, and included. We also introduced the "Mood Meter" to help us begin to understand and label different kinds of emotions. 

Education Academy Student

We are so happy and fortunate to have a high school intern supporting our class in the afternoons once each week. Miss Drury is a high school senior at Hersey and is looking to pursue a career in education. She has been a positive and welcome addition to our classroom community! 

Dance Party Celebration

We were so excited to celebrate filling our "warm and fuzzy" jar by having a dance party on Friday. Check us out in action! I am so proud of the caring and mindful behavior I am seeing at school as we work together to fill each other's buckets! Keep up the great work K-2!

I hope you have a FANTASTIC weekend!