Weekly News (Nov. 17-21)

I can hardly believe Thanksgiving is just around the corner and that we are already one third of the way through our kindergarten year.  My how time is flying by!  It's amazing to see how much the children have grown in such a short time.  I am so proud of all they have already accomplished!

Math

This week in math we created a class graph of our favorite Thanksgiving day foods from the following choices: mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie, and turkey of course! We counted the number of votes for each choice and analyzed our results. We learned that the same number of students liked mashed potatoes and turkey. Pumpkin pie was the clear winner, and Mrs. Riesing was the only one who liked stuffing!! We also practiced our counting skills this week. We counted by 1's and 10's and played a game on the whiteboard to put our counts of 10 in order from 10 to 100. We revisited the concept of our "ten frame" this week by talking more about a "teen frame." We used the interactive white board to help use add two numbers with totals beyond 10. The children are doing a great job recognizing our teen numbers as "ten plus some more." The children also worked more closely with the numbers 11 and 12 in their teen number packets!

Jolly Phonics

We are cruising right along with our Jolly Phonics sounds. We finished learning the sounds for Book #6, and we will begin our final book when we return from Thanksgiving break. This week we learned some of our "H Brothers!"

/ch/ as in "choo-choo"

/sh/ as in "ship"

/th/ as in "this" or "thing"

We have been reviewing all of our Jolly Phonics sounds each week, and the children are becoming more and more confident applying their sounds to their writing. It is so exciting to see!!

Literacy

The children enjoyed listening to several Thanksgiving related stories this week including: The Pilgrim's First Thanksgiving, Bear Says Thanks, and 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving. We also enjoyed reading several Thanksgiving poems and even created our own acrostic poems that highlighted many of the things we are thankful for. The students added a new sight word book to their book bags and brought home a copy of our November song for their green poetry folders. Click on the link below to hear us singing it one more time!

The children have also been busy with their writing the last couple of weeks! We have been writing about our favorite Thanksgiving foods, what we are thankful for, and what we like to do in the fall. Looking forward to sharing some of your child's writing with you at conferences!!

Centers

The students did a great job during centers this week as I met with groups for guided reading!

Roll-a-Turkey

Sequencing Numbers

Writing Center

Listening Center

Sight Word Center

All About Me
We loved learning all about Scot this week! He did a great job presenting his "Me Box," and we had a  great time learning all about his favorite things. We learned that Scot is a big fan of Legos. He loves catching bugs, and he loves dinosaurs. Some of his favorite foods are peppers and watermelon. He likes Transformers, and loves spending time with his family!

A special visit from Scot's Mom to read I'm Dirty!  A new class favorite!

Loved seeing the "Buddy Bench" in action during recess this week!

PJ Day with our Furry Friends!

Happy Thanksgiving from K-2!

Weekly News (Nov. 10-14)

Can't believe it's already snowing! My children took full advantage of the first snowfall this weekend!

Take a peek to see what we have been up to this week!

Math

This week in math we reviewed how to use a pan balance and talked about the terms balanced, equal, heavier, and lighter. We also introduced the concept of probability. We talked about what it means when things are sure or certain to happen and talked about the terms possible and impossible. We learned a new game this week called the Train Game, which reinforced making complements of 10.

Pan Balance Review

Jolly Phonics
This week we learned the following sounds:
/v/ as in "van"
/oo/ as in "book" or as in "moon"

/y/ as in "yogurt"

/w/ as in "wind"

Please note that there are two different sounds for "oo."  

Literacy

The children enjoyed listening to several stories this week related to fall and Thanksgiving.  They also learned the sight word "go" and brought home a new sight word book that highlighted three different types of punctuation--a period, a question mark, and an exclamation point.  The children continued to practice their writing this week as they wrote several Thanksgiving themed pieces. We learned a new poem this week called The Turkey and reviewed the concept of rhyming words and learned about the ending -ing. The children also brought home new guided reading books this week too!

Centers
In centers this week, the children listened to a Thanksgiving inspired story called The Very First Thanksgiving and used the iPads to play math and literacy BINGO games.  They also worked with our new sight word "go" and used pattern blocks to reinforce their patterning skills. They also played a game called "Domino Parking Lot," which required the students to count all of the dots on our domino "cars" and park them in the the appropriate parking spots.  This activity not only provided an opportunity for students to practice their counting skills, it also provided them with foundational practice for understanding addition and math facts.  Using the dominos with different combinations of dots, the students were able to see that different combinations can have the same total.  For example, a domino with 6 dots and 1 dot could be parked in the same spot with a domino that had 5 dots and 2 dots.  For a simple game, there was lots of learning going on!  

All About Me

This week we loved learning all about Harin and his favorite things! We learned that Harin enjoys playing with Legos and his toy cars. He is a big fan of Ironman and Batman. Harin enjoys swimming and Tae Kwon Do, and he loves spending time with his family!

Art Appreciation Lesson--Learning about the Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa Creations!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Weekly News (Nov. 3-7)

Can you believe it's November already?! The time is flying by in kindergarten. I am really looking forward to meeting with all of you for parent-teacher conferences soon. I spent some time meeting with the students one-on-one this week for some assessing, and it's amazing to see how much the children have grown in such a short time!

Math
We used the interactive white board this week to solve addition and subtraction number stories similar to the one below. We used the words "more" and "less" to help us understand the concepts of adding and subtracting. 

The students also practiced sequencing the numbers from 0-20 using an interactive game on the whiteboard.  The children did a great job with this activity, especially with those teens numbers! We continue to reinforce the concept that the teen numbers are made up of a ten "plus some more." 

The students also spent some time in the LMC learning how to access the Everyday Mathematics Online game website. There are several games that the students will have access to at school and home. A card with login information will be sent home at conferences!

The November calendar went home last week as well.  Please find a spot at home to display the calendar and have your child trace the number for each day.  There are many ways you can use the calendar with your child at home including:

• review the days of the week
• find the first and last days of the month
• find the number ___
• find the number that is 1 more than ___
• find the number that is 1 less than ___
• find and read all of the teen numbers
• find the counts by 10
• find the counts by 5

Jolly Phonics
We worked through Book #5 in Jolly Phonics this week.  The children learned the sounds and motions for the following letters:

/w/ as in "wind"
/ng/ as in "sing"
/v/ as in "van"

Thank you so much for all your support at home reviewing our Jolly Phonics sounds. The extra time practicing really pays off when the children are learning to read and write.  The short vowels and double letter sounds are trickier and could use some extra practice!

Literacy
This week we introduced the sight word "see."  We highlighted the new word in our sight word books and brought them home earlier in the week.  Please add this book to your child's plastic baggie.  We read several books with a bat theme this week including: Stellaluna, National Geographic: Bats, and Fantastic Bats.  After reading our bat books, we completed a graphic organizer together as a class that listed our ideas about what bats can do, what bats have, and what bats are.  The students also wrote facts they learned about bats, and they used their letter-sound knowledge to label a picture of a bat. The children were also able to watch the movie version of Stellaluna, which made for some great conversation as we made comparisons between the book and the movie. 

Social Studies
The children learned about the upcoming Veteran's Day holiday.  They talked about what it means to be a veteran and made cards that will be delivered to veterans in honor of their service.

All About Me
We loved learning all about Lydia and her favorite things this week! We learned that Lydia's favorite color is pink, and she loves Hello Kitty. She enjoys doing puzzles and jumping rope. She also loves blowing up balloons. Her favorite foods are pancakes and mac-n-cheese, and she loves fruit, especially blueberries, bananas, apples, and oranges. Thank you for sharing Lydia!

The class loved listening to Rapunzel! Thank you for coming in to read!

Our first taste of Thanksgiving fun--making turkey wreaths!

Happy Halloween

Enjoying our first Art Appreciation lesson of the year.
Thank you for a great lesson!

Weekly News (Oct. 27-31)

What a fun and busy week we had in kindergarten! Take a peek at some of this week's highlights!

All About Me
The class loved learning about Nico this week! It was great to learn all about his family and some of his favorite things. We learned that Nico loves Spiderman, Legos, and playing on the iPad. He also is a big fan of pizza and shrimp. Yum! Nico loves playing basketball and baseball. He has a big toy car collection, and he loves spending time with his family! 

A big thank you to Nico's mom who came in to read a Halloween story.
What a perfect start to our special day!

Take a peek at our Halloween slideshow. It was fun to see all of the children dressed up. Their costumes were fabulous! A big thank you to all of the parents who provided treats and supplies for our party and to the parents who helped run a station. The kids had a great time! Thank you!