Weekly News (Jan. 26-30)

Well, we certainly got the blizzard they were expecting! Hope everyone was able to stay safe and warm over the snowy weekend! Take a peek below to see how we wrapped up the month of January.

Math

This week in math we used our attribute blocks to learn about sorting, patterns, and size comparisons. We played a game called "What's Inside My Bag?" where students had to ask yes or no questions related to the attributes of size, color, thickness, and shape to identify an attribute block  hidden inside a paper bag. The class LOVED the game and did a great job describing each item in the bag using these attributes. 

We played another game this week called "What's My Rule?" to help prepare students for some math routines that they will learn in first grade. 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 revisited number stories this week and created some of our own addition and subtraction number stories and practiced reading and locating two-digit numbers as well!

Literacy

This week we began reading books by an amazing author and illustrator---Jan Brett.  Not only are her books well written, they are also beautifully illustrated.  Her books are a great way to help students learn how both pictures and words work together to tell a story.  We kicked off the week with one of my favorite Jan Brett books--The Mitten.  When a boy drops his new mitten in the snow, the animals of the forest squeeze inside one-by-one to stay warm--even a big, brown bear!  Then I bet you can guess what happens when a tiny mouse squeezes into the last spot on the bear's nose--the bear sneezes and all the animals fly out of the mitten!  The loved the story and had a great time making their own mittens and animal cards to practice retelling the story.  Retelling practice is a great way for the students to strengthen their reading comprehension skills by using their own words to retell the story.

Making our animal cards to help retell the story of The Mitten.

This week during reading workshop, the students did a great job learning about the collection of books in our classroom library. We learned that books in our library fall into two categories--fiction and nonfiction. The students learned about many different features of nonfiction text during an interactive read aloud of the book Penguins, and they had opportunities to share their thinking about the book during "turn and talk" time. During another reading workshop lesson, we spent some time talking about how good readers practice their sight words so that they can read them quickly and with ease when reading a book. While listening to the book How Rocket Learned to Read, the students learned how to follow and understand a fictional story from the beginning, to the middle, and to the end. 

During writing workshop, the students have been making great strides with their writing. Students are working to start each sentence with a capital letter, leave spaces between words, and end with a period. We continue to add detail to our writing, and the children have enjoyed sharing their writing with their classmates too!

The children have been making solid progress with their handwriting skills too. This week we learned the strokes for the letters "q" and "b."

LMC

As an extension of our fiction/nonfiction lesson during reading workshop, Mrs. O'Kelly prepared a fantastic lesson in the LMC this week for our kindergarteners. Using an app called Nearpod, Mrs. O'Kelly guided the students through a lesson on "author's purpose." The children learned about the different reasons authors write books such as to persuade, to inform, or to entertain. The children worked in small groups to sort a collection of books into piles of fiction and nonfiction and then identified the author's purpose for each book by voting using the iPads. The students' responses were right on target. It was great to see!

All About Me

This week we loved learning all about Hailey. We learned that Hailey is artistic, and she enjoys painting and coloring. She is a big fan of Barbie and Doc McStuffins, and she likes to play ball. Hailey loves to spend time with her family, and she really enjoyed their trip to Disney!

A big thank you to Hailey's mom for coming in to read to our class.
We loved the stories!

Science
In the upcoming 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.