Weekly News (Jan. 20-24)

Our science centers for our Dirt, Sand, and Water Unit were certainly the hit of the week!  A HUGE thank you to all of the volunteers who helped run each of our centers.  You did an amazing job with the children!  They had a great time exploring and making discoveries at each of the centers.  The children learned how sand is formed, what materials can be found in dirt, what objects sink and float, as well as how many drops of water fit on a penny.  The children were able to record their findings in their science journals and had a chance to take a closer look at all three materials--dirt, sand, and water. 

Morning Class 

Dirt Center

Sand Center

Water Center--Drops on a Penny

Sink and Float Center

Afternoon Class

Dirt Center

Sand Center

Water Center

Sink and Float Center

Math

This week the students worked in their math journals for the first time.  The students reviewed the concept of patterning and recorded different patterns in their journals.  We will continue to use our journals weekly throughout the rest of the year, which will be great practice for first grade!    We also learned about the concept of a timeline and created our own timelines for activities we do throughout the day.

Literacy

This week we focused on making predictions while reading a story.  We read several stories this week that were great for practicing this skill---Footprints in the Snow, Wolf's Coming, and Sadie and the Snowman.  Each book provided opportunities for us to stop and make a prediction about what was going to happen next.  The children had a chance to record some of their predictions in writing, and for two of the stories they enjoyed a surprise ending!

The students also learned how to use the Montessori Crosswords app on the iPads this week, which is a great tool to help students practice their phonics, spelling, and reading skills.  It's not a free app, but it is an excellent app if you're looking for something to use with your child at home.

Montessori Crosswords on the iPads

Thanks for reading!

Stay warm and have a great weekend!

Weekly News (Jan. 13-17)

All About Me
Our morning class learned all about Luciano this week as he shared his Me Box filled with some of his favorite things.  We learned that Luciano is creative and loves to build with Magna Tiles.  He is also an avid reader and enjoys both fiction and nonfiction books.  His favorite movies and shows include: How to Train Your Dragon series, Spiderwick, and Phineas and Ferb.  Luciano is also learning Spanish, and he loves sweets--especially ice cream and sandwich cookies from Trader Joe's! 

     

In the afternoon class, we loved learning all about Joe and his favorite things.  We learned that Joe's favorite colors are black, white, and blue--the same colors in the husky stuffed animal he brought in.  What a clever idea!  We also learned that Joe loves sports, especially hockey and baseball, and that his family enjoys watching the Boston Red Sox play since Joe's Dad is from Boston!  Joe is a big fan of Angry Birds, he likes going to Dryden school, and he loves spending time with his family!

Math
This week we played a game to help prepare students for a game they will play in first grade called "What's My Rule?"  Using a group of children, we had to identify what trait or traits all of the children had in common such as: hair color, color of clothing, hairstyle, etc.  In first grade, students will apply this type of skill when trying to identify an addition or subtraction rule for a given set of numbers.  We did some more work with numbers stories this week and used the iPads to create our own problems.  Check out some of our addition problems below!

   

Jolly Phonics
HOORAY!  We did it!  We have officially introduced all 42 Jolly Phonics sounds.  We introduced the last four sounds this week.

oi as in "coin"
ue as in "barbecue"
er as in "mixer"
ar as in "bark"

Now that the children have learned all the sounds, we will be working more on sentence writing using these sounds.  Please continue to practice these sounds often with your child.  The more automatically the children are able to name the sounds (especially the short vowels and double letter sounds), the easier it is for them to apply these sounds to their writing and blend them when reading.  

Literacy/Social Studies
I loved meeting with the students one-on-one this week to assess their reading progress.  It's amazing to see how much the children have grown since the beginning of the year!  I will begin meeting with students again in small groups for guided reading starting next week.  The children brought home a new sight word book this week and spent some time reviewing our kindergarten sight words.  In the afternoon class, Andrew's Mom read two fantastic books that the children loved--Don't Push the Button and Snow Dude.  We also watched the movie The Snowman this week, which is based off of a wordless picture book written by Raymond Briggs.  It's a beautiful movie that tells the story using only images and music.  The children really enjoyed the movie and loved comparing it to the storybook version!  We also read the story Elmer in the Snow and completed a project for our new hallway display!

The children also heard a nonfiction book about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and completed an activity that helped the children learn the importance of being kind to one another.

Science
Next week the children will be learning about Dirt, Sand, and Water.  Students will be working in centers to explore the properties of each of these materials by observing and conducting experiments.

Dolphin Do's
We worked with our 3rd grade buddy classes this week to learn more about our Dolphin Do's (Be Safe, Be Respectful, and Be Responsible).  The children worked together to act out and model what some of Dolphin Do's should look like throughout the school.  

Centers
The children were happy to be working in centers again this week while I was working one-on-one with students to complete our guided reading assessments.  

Sight Word Review

Snowman Magic at the Listening Center

Cooperative Puzzle Time

Writer's Workshop

Roll and Record

Weekly News (Jan. 6-10)

Happy 2014!  Two extra days off of school...what a way to start the new year!  With the two unexpected days off of school, we tried to squeeze in as much as we could this week.  It's amazing how quickly the children have gotten back into the swing of things!


All About Me
Both classes enjoyed a "Me Box" presentation this week.  Take a peek below to learn more about Zhara and Aleena!

The children had a great time learning about some of Zhara's favorite things.  We were very impressed with her chef set, and it was easy to see how much she loves baking and cooking with her mom, who is a phenomenal baker!  Zhara is also a talented ice skater, and she loves doing gymnastics.  She is an avid reader and loves reading with her mom!

Aleena shared a beautiful handmade book with photos showing different events in her life.  She loves to play tennis and golf, and she is a big fan of chocolate!  Aleena also shared a beautiful outfit that she loves to wear for special family celebrations!

Math

We explored calculators for the first time this week, and it was great to see how many children were already familiar with how to use one!  We also looked at the similarities and differences between squares, rectangles, triangles, and a circles, and we introduced the terms corner, side, and angle.  We learned about the minus sign and practiced solving some subtraction problems too.

Jolly Phonics

The students didn't miss a beat this week jumping right back into learning two new Jolly Phonics sounds.  This week we learned the following sounds:

qu as in "quack"

ou as in "ouch"

We have just four sounds left to learn, which we will introduce next week.  Please continue to practice and review the sounds we have already learned--especially the short vowels and two-letter combinations.  The more confident they are with their sounds, the easier it is for the children to express their ideas in writing and to read new words.  Thank you so much for your support with this at home!

Literacy

We enjoyed several snowy stories this week including: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow, The Snowy Day, and The Hat.  We learned a song called Five Little Snowmen and used our handprints to make an adorable snowman art project.  Take a peek below!

The morning class also enjoyed listening to two stories read by Emma's mom--The Cupcake and The Gift of Nothing, which were both big hits!  Joe's mom shared two fabulous stories to the afternoon class as well--Bear Snores On by one of our favorite authors, Karma Wislon, as well as a cute story about all the great things kids can do to have fun during winter!  A big thank you to our guest readers!

Dolphin Do's

Mrs. Sessler came in this week to talk to all of the kindergarteners about our new "Dolphin Do's."  There are three things that all Dryden Dolphins need to practice doing each day, and they are:

Be Safe

Be Respectful

Be Responsible

The children enjoyed Mrs. Sessler's presentation, and we are eager to start practicing our Dolphin Do's!

Train Display
Over the winter vacation, we ran into Mateo from our morning class at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library.  He was setting up some of his trains for the display case in the children's section.  If you're at the library, be sure to check it out.  It is an impressive collection! 

Winter Fun

Thank you to everyone who sent in photos from the winter break.  It looks like everyone had an AMAZING vacation!  Click here to enjoy the slideshow below!