Weekly News (Sept. 22-26)

We officially welcomed in fall this week, which tied in nicely with our apple theme! Here is what we have been up to!

Math
This week we reviewed our shapes and reinforced the concept of patterns. We also practiced our counting skills by counting basketfuls of apples and matching each basket with the corresponding number. The children were also introduced to the concept of a "Ten Frame" this week (see example below).  The format of the ten frame helps children develop number sense.  For children and adults, it is easy to immediately recognize quantities less than 5, however, recognizing quantities beyond 5 is more difficult.  The ten-frame helps students visualize the numbers between 5 and 10.  The children fill the top row of the ten-frame with objects from left to right before filling the bottom row to promote recognition of "5 and some more" patterns.  For example, the ten-frame below represents the number 7---5 plus 2 more.

Ten Frame Practice

We also learned about positional words this week including: above, below, next to, between, on top of, behind, in front of, over, under, and inside. We even headed out to recess a few minutes early to complete an obstacle course using some of these positional words!

Walking under the slide

Jumping off the bottom of the slide

Waiting at the top of the slide

Jolly Phonics
This week we learned the sounds and motions for the following letters:

/r/ as in rag
/m/ as in mouse
/d/ as in dog

Please continue to practice our Jolly Phonics sounds at home. The children have been doing a nice job matching letters with their sounds during Writer's Workshop time. The more practice they have with their sounds, the easier it will be for them during our writing and reading activities.

Literacy 
The children also enjoyed listening to several apple themed stories this week including a nonfiction book about how apples grow titled Apples Grow on a Tree.  As we read this book, we took a closer look at many of the features of nonfiction text including: the table of contents, labels, captions, photographs, and the glossary.  It was a great introduction to how we use nonfiction texts to locate and read information on a particular topic. We also read a book about John Chapman, otherwise known as Johnny Appleseed, and watched a BrainPop Jr. video that introduced the children to the concept of a "tall tale." We even made our own Johnny Appleseed projects!

This week during reading workshop time, we reviewed our 3 ways to read a book (reading the pictures, reading the words, and retelling a familiar story), and then we practiced using pictures and words such as and, then, and next to help retell a familiar story. 

This week I modeled for students how our "All About Me Box" show-and-tell program will work. On Monday, I brought in a box with some photos and a few of my favorite things to share with the class, and then my mom came in to read a story to the class. They LOVED the story!!

Centers
The children continued to practice working independently at centers this week while I worked with some students at our reading table. I will begin meeting with students for guided reading groups after next week, so the students will have one more week to practice how our centers run.

Sight Word Practice

Listening Center

Legos

Pattern Block Puzzles

Apple Addition
Looking forward to another great week!

Weekly News (Sept. 15-19)

It's hard to believe we have already been in school for 4 whole weeks! The children have learned our classroom routines and how to transition between activities, and we are off and running now! Take a peek to see what we have been learning this week.

Math

This week the children had their first introduction to coins as we worked together to find ways to sort a collection of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. After reviewing how we sorted our button collection last week, the children came up with several great ways to sort our coins. We sorted our coins by color, size, and value. We will continue to revisit coins throughout the year. The children also practiced counting up and back from 10 and worked to match numbers with a given collection of items. We talked more about measurement this week and the concept of length.  The children had to find objects in the room that were both shorter and taller than a kindergartener.  Our findings are shown below! 

Reinforcing the concepts of shorter and taller

We are shorter than the easel!

We spent some time reviewing shapes, and we also began exploring the concept of patterns this week, which lays the foundation for many math concepts.  We worked on color patterns and talked about the different patterns we could follow such as an AB pattern, an AAB pattern, or even an ABB pattern.  Check out our color patterns below. We even painted our own dot patterns during center time!

Pattern painting!

Jolly Phonics

This week the children learned the sounds and motions for the following letters:

/c/ as in "cat"

/k/ as in "kite"

/e/ as in "elephant"

/h/ as in "hot"

We reviewed all the sounds we have learned, and we watched our first Jolly Phonics video, which the children really enjoyed!  Please continue to review all of the sounds at home too using your child's Jolly Phonics Sound Book. In class, we practice naming the sounds while doing the motion.

Literacy

For our read aloud stories this week, we did an author and illustrator study. The children loved listening to books written by Audrey Wood, and they were excited to learn that many of her books are illustrated by her husband Don or her son Bruce!  In The Napping House, a small little flea bites a mouse, causing a chain reaction in the napping house and wakes everyone up.  Silly Sally was a fun book about Sally who walks to town backwards and upside down--the children had a good laugh during that read aloud!  We even made our own class book showing "Kindergarteners Walking Backwards Upside Down!" We practiced counting back from 10 in Ten Little Fish, and we solved the mystery of the missing letter "x" in Alphabet Mystery.  We finished the week learning about opposites in Audrey Wood's book Quick as a Cricket.  The children loved her stories!

The children were also introduced to Writer's Workshop this week, and they have been doing an amazing job.  They are learning the four steps we follow during our writing time--think, draw, label, and then write--and they are gaining more and more confidence each day.  Next week we will be using the sentence starter "I can______" for our writing. When writing words, the children are doing a nice job listening for the beginning sound and some children are hearing the middle and ending sounds too. As we continue to practice our writing and learn more sounds, the children will gain more confidence as they stretch out and record the sounds they hear. 

During our Reader's Workshop time this week, the children learned about the different ways we can read a book.

We practiced looking at the cover and finding important information like the title and the name of the author and/or illustrator. We then practiced reading by looking at and talking about the pictures and reading the words we knew. We looked for pictures, words, and phrases that were repeated in our books and agreed that those pictures and words must be important if we see them over and over again. Check us out in action below!

Finding the title

Reading the pictures and words

Looking for the main character

Looking for patterns that repeat in the story

Using the pictures to retell the story

Centers

We continue to practice our centers each week as well, and the children continue to do a great job working quietly so I can meet with students.

Dollhouse Center

Number Matching

Button Sorting

Listening to The Napping House

Pattern Painting
We had many great patterns this week! Great thinking!

Thanks for reading!
Have a great weekend!

Weekly News (Sept. 8-12)

Hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather this weekend! Take a peek to see what we have been up to this week in kindergarten.

Math
We practiced many math skills this week. The children worked to name, describe, and sort the following shapes: circle, square, rectangle, triangle, oval, and diamond. We named the number of sides for each shape and introduced the concept of angles by counting the number of corners for each shape. We also used our interactive whiteboard to practice our graphing skills when we made a pictograph showing the different ways the children get home from school. After surveying the class and analyzing our results, we reinforced the math terms: fewest, greatest, more than, greater than, and equal. The children also did a great job using our "magic pen" to sort a collection of buttons. After listening to one of our Frog and Toad stories called The Lost Button, we sorted buttons by size, color, shape, and number of button holes. Check us out in action below!

Sorting by size

Sorting by number of button holes

Sorting by number of button holes

Wow! This one was a challenge! We sorted by size, color, and number of button holes.

Jolly Phonics

The children did a great job learning our new Jolly Phonics sounds. This week we learned the following sounds:

/i/ as in "pin"

/p/ as in "pig"

/n/ as in "noise"

I can tell the children have been using their Jolly Phonics Sound Books to practice their sounds at home. Thank you! A little extra practice with the vowel sounds (a, e, i, o, and u) is always helpful. The sounds for our short vowels can be harder to learn since there is only a subtle difference between each sound. Thank you for remembering to send your child's blue book bag to school each day too. The children have been doing a great job learning our book bag routines in class!

Literacy

This week the children learned the sight word "can" and brought home a new sight word book. Please continue to have your child practice reading their sight word books at home. Thank you so much for your support! 

Each morning we use a program called Phonemic Awareness: The Skills That They Need to Help Them Succeed. This program uses a series of quick and interactive listening games that help students lay the foundation for future reading success. The children practice a variety of skills including: naming and identifying rhyming words; identifying beginning and ending sounds; segmenting and blending compound words; adding or deleting syllables; and reading sentences to practice segmenting words and reading with expression. The children have been doing a SUPER job with these activities each morning! 

We enjoyed several read aloud stories this week including two more Pete the Cat stories--Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes and Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons. Click on the links below to hear these stories at home.

Click here to listen to Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes

Click here to listen to Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons

We also read a book together during shared reading time called Hands Can. This book not only reinforced our new sight word, it also showed different ways we can use our hands to help us learn, play, and lend a hand. The children also loved listening to a Dr. Seuss favorite, Ten Apples Up On Top, and completed a number sequencing activity to reinforce our number recognition and counting skills! Check out some of our projects below!

Reminders

Please remember to have your child wear gym shoes on Mondays and to bring their library book back to school on Tuesdays. Thank you all so much for your support at home and for helping to get this school year off to an amazing start! Hope everyone has a terrific week! :)

Storytime in the library

Curriculum Night Presentation

For those of you who were not able to attend our Kindergarten Curriculum Night, I have posted my presentation below. If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know!

Weekly News (Sept. 2-5)

Well, it was another great week in Kindergarten! The children continue to do a terrific job learning our classroom routines and expectations. They are making new friends and becoming familiar with our school and staff. Here is what we have been learning this week!

Math
This week we explored our pattern blocks. We talked about the different attributes of each block including color, size, and shape. We sorted the shapes by the number of sides and took a closer look at all of the shapes with four sides--so many differences! 

The children have also been doing a great job with our calendar and weather routine in the morning. Each day our "Hello Helper" gives a weather report and adds the next number to our calendar. Our "Hello Helper" also counts the number of days we have been in school. We use a place value pocket chart like the one below to help us keep track of our days!

Jolly Phonics

We introduced the first three Jolly Phonics sounds this week! 

/s/ as in "snake"

/a/ as in "apple"

/t/ as in "tennis"

Learning the Jolly Phonics sounds is not only important in helping the children learn how to read, it is just as important in helping the children as they learn to express their ideas in writing. We will continue to add new sounds to our Jolly Phonics Sounds Books each week. Please practice these sounds nightly with your child!

Please use this mini sound book to practice sounds at home and keep it in your child's blue book bag so we can add to it at school!

Literacy

The children enjoyed listening to several stories this week including Only One You read by Mrs. Beane, our assistant principal. This simple story about a young fish ready to begin his own life reminds us that, "There's only one you in this great big world, and we should make it a better place!" After listening to the story, the children designed their own unique fish that we displayed in the hallway for all to see!

The children also listened to several other stories this week including: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten, and a new class favorite Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes. Click on the link below to hear the audio version of this story and be sure to stay tuned next week for two more Pete the Cat books!!

Click here to listen to this story!

The children also learned the first of our kindergarten sight words this week and brought home their first sight word book. This sight word book came home in your child's blue book bag. We will continue to add sight word books throughout the year for you and your child to practice reading at home!

Assessments

This week I began meeting with students one-on-one to gather information using our Fountas and Pinnell guided reading assessment, which will help inform my instruction as I work to meet the individual literacy needs of each student. I learn so much about my students when I am able to meet with them one-on-one! While I was assessing students, the rest of the class was busy working at centers. Take a peek at this week's centers below!

Puzzles

Legos

Play-Doh Shapes

Geoboards

Pattern Block Creations

Clean Up Time

Happy Helpers!

Thanks for reading!