Weekly News (Feb. 9-13)

It was an exciting week in Kindergarten. There was a lot to celebrate!

Math

The 100th day of school was definitely one of this week's highlights! The children had a great time celebrating this special milestone. In honor of our 100th day, we reinforced several math concepts including: counting by 10's, making 5 groups of 20 to show 100, searching for the number 100, making 100's Day necklaces, and even singing a song about our 100th day of school! 

100's Day Necklaces

We reviewed the concept of attributes this week and played a game called "Guess My Number" where students had to figure out the "mystery number" by listening to clues such as: "This number comes right after the number 34" or "This number comes right before the number 67." We also used heart-shaped counters this week to practice solving addition problems such as: 4 + 2 = ___.

Literacy

It was an exciting week for reading workshop. The children had their first opportunity to independently "shop" for books in our classroom library. They did an AWESOME job selecting books for their individual books bins using all of the strategies we have been learning. They did a great job looking through the books in our classroom library and asking themselves questions such as:

• Am I looking for a fiction or nonfiction book?
• Is this a topic or story that interests me?
• Is this a book I can read all by myself, or will I use the pictures to help me understand the text?
• Is this a "good fit" book for me?

I was so proud of how engaged and thoughtful they were when selecting their own books. They did such a great job!

The children continue to grow and develop as writers too. During writing workshop, we continued to work on stretching out the sounds we hear when writing, leaving spaces between words, and adding detail to our writing. They gain more and more confidence in themselves as writers each week. If you're looking for ways to help your child practice their writing skills at home, you can have your child: 

• help you write out your grocery list
• write thank you notes after they receive a gift
• write notes to family members
• make a birthday wish list

In honor of our 100th day of school, the children also worked on a 100th Day writing project. After reading a story about the 100th day of school and talking about what we might look like when we are 100 years old, the students wrote out a "bucket list" of 3 things they want to do before they turn 100. We even used an app on the iPads that altered a photo to show what the students might look like when they're 100 years old. Take a peek at the video below to see their reaction to their 100 year old photos!

Science

We took a closer look at the properties of water this week during our experiments this week. We did an experiment to see how many drops of water fit on a penny. We also made predictions about objects that might sink and float, and then we tested out our predictions. Some of our results were quite surprising!

All About Me

We had a great time learning all about Mia this week! It was fun to learn about all of her favorite things. Mia is a big fan of Frozen, and she loves to wear necklaces and dresses. She enjoys putting together puzzles, playing the violin, building with blocks, and playing with her dolls. Mia also likes ice cream, and she loves spending time with her family!

The class loved the story Mia's mom read called A Pipkin of Pepper. Thanks so much for coming in!

Valentine's Day

The children had a fabulous time at our Valentine's Day party. A huge thank you to all of our parent volunteers who came in to help with the party and the parents who donated items. Thank you SO much!

Thanks for reading!