Weekly News (Apr. 20-24)

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Hopefully some warmer days are in our future! We have been busy learning and having fun in kindergarten. Take a peek below to see what we have been up to!

Math

This week we revisited coins and introduced the quarter. We practiced naming each coin and counting a small collection of coins. We also practiced reading The Coin Poem to help us remember the value of each coin. We played a game this week called "Roll and Record" to help us practice our addition math facts. The students also had a chance to create more 3-D shapes using marshmallows and toothpicks during centers this week. 

Roll and Record

Making 3-D Shapes

Thank you Hailey for letting us borrow your Magnetix to create even more 3-D shapes!

Reading Workshop
This week during reading workshop, we learned how to visualize when listening to or reading a story. We learned that authors often use descriptive words when writing to help us create mental images. To help students understand how we all make our own unique mental images, we read the following poem called The Green Giant and created our own illustrations.

Later in the week we continued to learn about visualizing and talked about how our mental images can change as we read more and gather new information. After listening to the first first stanzas of the poem My Neighbor's Dog is Purple, the students drew a picture of their mental image. Then we read the final stanza of the poem and revised our pictures. They couldn't believe the surprise ending!

Writing Workshop

The students continued to work on persuasive writing this week as they wrote about which animal would make the best classroom pet. They came up with great reasons for each pet, and they are still trying to convince me that we should really get a pet for our classroom! We also celebrated Earthy Day this week and wrote about the different ways we could protect the Earth. We read a story about recycling and had a discussion about different ways to help our environment, and then the students wrote about one way they could help too.

Science

We concluded our study of Rainbows, Color, and Light this week with some exploration time during centers. They experimented with flashlights, prisms, and colored transparency paper. They painted with watercolors and mixed some beautiful colors with playdoh.

All About Me

The class loved learning all about Dylan this week! We learned that Dylan is very creative. She loves to sing and do art projects. She even plays the harmonica! Dylan enjoys playing soccer, and she is a great skier. She likes to play dress up and spend time with her family too!

Dylan's mom shared one of our class favorites this week-The Book With No Pictures.
It was a big hit. Thank you for coming in to read!

Have a great week! 

Thanks for reading!

Weekly News (Apr. 13-17)

It's been another busy, fun, and productive week in kindergarten! Take a peek below to see what we have been learning about.

Math

This week we played a new math game called "The Money Exchange Game." We practiced exchanging 10 pennies for a dime and then 10 dimes for a dollar bill. We also reviewed how to solve addition number stories and created some of our own stories, which have be made into a class book. The class loved reviewing 2D and 3D shapes this week as we created pyramids and cubes using toothpicks and marshmallows. Some students loved this activity so much that they were making 3-D creations at home! They are excited to build even more creations during centers next week. 

Making a pyramid with a triangle base

Making a cube with a square base

Teamwork

Creations made at home by Dylan F.
Way to go!

Reading Workshop

During reading workshop this week, the students learned about cause and effect while listening to Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes. Through our discussion, the students learned that an effect is what happens in a story, and a cause is why something happens. We used several examples from the story to help us understand this literacy concept. The students also learned how to ask questions while reading to help them better understand a story. They were excited to select new books for their independent book bins too!

Writing Workshop

This week during writing workshop, the students were learning about facts and opinions. They learned that a fact is a statement that you can prove to be true or false and an opinion is a judgement that often uses words like I believe, I think, best, or probably. After learning about facts and opinions, the children had several opportunities throughout the week to express their opinions in writing. They even expressed their opinions in LMC this week after listening to the story Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Students had to decide if they believed the character in the story was a duck or a rabbit. Then they drew a picture with some clues to express their opinion. We recorded their opinions using an app called Explain Everything. Click the link below to take a peek at the students' opinions in the video below!

Mrs. Riesing's Class Opinions

Rainbows, Color, and Light

The children loved learning about shadows and experimenting with bubbles this week. They also did a great job creating stained glass windows as they further explored the concepts of light and color!

Our shadows at 9:00 am.

Our shadows at 11:00 am.

Light reflecting off of the bubble and creating rainbow patterns

All About Me
This week we loved learning all about Andy! During his "Me Box" presentation, we learned that Andy enjoys playing soccer and basketball. He also likes to play Pokeman and Sklylanders. Andy is a a big fan of Olaf and Spongebob. and he loves to dance!!

Weekly News (April 6-10)

What a fabulous weekend! It finally seems like spring! 

Math
The children have been practicing their counting skills. We reviewed counting by 1's, 5's, and 10's, and then we introduced counting by 2's. We talked about items we might find in pairs such as socks, mittens, and shoes. Then we practiced counting collections of items by 2's. We also created our own "human number line" that highlighted count's by 2. We introduced the concept of fractions by dividing objects or a group of objects in half as well as dividing one whole object in half. We tried dividing a graham cracker in half several different ways and learned that when dividing an object in half, both parts must be equal or the same size. We also watched a short video that illustrated the concept of fractions by showing examples of what the word "half" means. 

Our "human number line" showing counts by 2!

Reading Workshop
During reading workshop time the children have been learning many valuable reading skills and strategies. Recently they have been learning the following skills:

• By listening to and reading descriptive language, students are able to create mental images to help them understand the events in a story or the content presented in a nonfiction text.
• Literary nonfiction is a type of genre that looks like a fictional story but includes facts and information on a topic.
• While reading and learning about a topic, readers need to identify the big ideas and determine which information is important and which information is interesting.

An example of a literary nonfiction text

Writing Workshop
The children continue to blow me away with their writing. It is amazing to see how far they have come since the beginning of the year. Their confidence with their letter sounds continues to grow, and it is becoming easier for them to record their ideas on paper. We have begun a short writing unit on opinion writing. After doing some research using Pebble Go in the LMC, the students chose which season was the best and added details to support their opinion. They did a fantastic job! Their writing is on display in the hallway.

Science
The children have been busy exploring, investigating, asking questions, and recording their observations during our current science uint--Rainbows, Colors, and Light. We have been learning about primary and secondary colors while experimenting with paint, play-doh, and food coloring. We have used a variety of materials to create rainbows and have explored the following questions: Can you make a rainbow without light? Can you make a rainbow without water? What do you need in order to make a rainbow? We will continue to explore these questions next week!

What do you get when you mix all the colors together?

Finding "hidden colors" in a black marker

All About Me
The class had a great time learning all about Sofia this week. We learned that Sofia enjoys cooking and reading. She is creative and likes to paint and color. Sofia likes playing with her dolls, and she loves accessories! She also likes to swim and dance, and she loves spending time with her family!

A big thank you to Sofia's mom for coming in to read a Froggy book!

Candace Fleming
The children were very excited to meet author Candace Fleming. They did a great job listening to her presentation about how she comes up with ideas for her writing. She made a great analogy during her presentation and talked about how an idea for a book usually starts out as a "story seed" and then grows from there. The children loved it! Thank you to the PTA for bringing Candace Fleming to our school!