Weekly News (April 21-25)

All About Me

The morning class loved learning about Gabriel this week. It was easy to see how excited he was to share his Me Box! We learned that Gabriel loves cars and motorcycles, and he enjoys doing Tae Kwon Do. He is a big fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He loves spending time with his family and cuddling up with his stuffed dog.

Julia did a great job sharing her Me Box this week too! The class loved learning about all of her favorite things. We learned that Julia is very artistic and loves painting and doing crafts. She enjoys playing with her Lego friends and snuggling up with her stuffed animals. She loves spending time with her family and visiting her grandparents!

Math

We started our week off with a math craft! Using a pipe cleaner and some beads, the children made counting loops. We placed 10 beads on each pipe cleaner and then closed the pipe cleaner to form a loop. The children practiced making "10's Buddies," as we have been calling them, on their loops. For example, they would slide 3 beads to the left of the loop and then 7 to the right side to help them learn that 3 and 7 make a 10. A note came home earlier in the week explaining how to use the loops at home as a learning tool. We also played a new game this week to reinforce the concept of place value called the "Ones, Tens, Hundreds" game. We also practiced our counting skills by counting the number of spots found on a group of ladybugs. It was great practice counting a large collection--there were 44 spots in all! The children were also introduced to telling time to the hour when we read the story The Very Grouch Ladybug. We will learn more about time next week using the ladybug clocks the students made for homework. The children have also been bringing home math fact flash cards to cut out and practice at home. Facts for +0 and +1 have already come home. According to the Common Core Standards, at the end of kindergarten, children should be able to fluently add numbers with sums up to 5. 

Literacy/Science

This week we began our newest theme for our Treasures reading program---Amazing Creatures. This week we focused on the amazing world of insects with a special focus on ladybugs! We learned about ladybugs and other insects this week during read aloud, and we even did some writing about what we would do if we caught a ladybug. The children had such creative and thoughtful ideas! The children also did some writing about their long weekend, and from what I read the children took full advantage of the beautiful weather we had last weekend! We also celebrated Earth Day this week with one of my favorite stories--The Lorax. We read a Time for Kids magazine about ways we can protect our Earth and did some writing about what we can do to help. We learned the sights words he and she, and the students brought home a new sight word book this week as well.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Thanks for reading!