Weekly News (Oct. 26-30)

Happy Halloween

The class had a great time parading around the school and having a party to celebrate Halloween. Take a peek at our Halloween slideshow below!

Math
This week in math we reviewed patterning, and we took a closer look at coins. We talked about the value of each coin and put the coins in order from least to most value. Then we played a dice rolling game where students had to identify and sort coins into piles of pennies, nickels, and dimes.

We also took a closer look at the digits 0-9 as we worked together to complete a number board this week using our interactive whiteboard. After completing the board, we talked about the different patterns we saw. Seeing the numbers 0-10 represented in this visual way prompted some great conversation!

Jolly Phonics

This week we finished learning the remaining sounds in Book #3:

/l/ as in lollipop

/f/ as in fish

/b/ as baseball

Click here to watch the ABC Mouse video for Ll.

Click here to watch the ABC Mouse video for Ff.

Click here to watch the ABC Mouse video for Bb.

Literacy

Reading Workshop

This week during reading workshop the children were "buzzing about books!" During our lesson this week, the children learned how to talk about and recommend a book to a friend. We used the steps below to help us retell the exciting events in our books.

Writing Workshop

We have continued to be brave writers this week as we continued to work on our books. The children are extremely excited to share them with Mr. Holston's class next week. Although we still have some finishing touches to add to our books early next week, we were able to add a title as we worked on creating a book cover. 

Science: Collections in Nature

This week we wrapped up our first science unit of the year, and the children did an amazing job wondering, investigating, and seeking out the answers to many of our "I Wonder" questions. We have explored many of our initial "Wonders" throughout our unit as you can see from our list below.  

A few of the questions the children were eager to learn the answers to were:

How do leaves change color in the fall?

How do leaves fall off of trees?

How do leaves grow on trees?

Using several resources, we were able to begin to answer these question. Using the book I Wonder Why Leaves Change Color and several videos, the children were able to develop a beginning understanding of our amazing and complex natural world! 

Through our investigations, we were able to come to the following understandings:

• Leaves need sunlight, air, water, and chlorophyll to make food for the tree.
• Chlorophyll is the green pigment in leaves during the spring/summer, and the green pigment hides any other colors in the leaf.
• Leaves get less light each day in the fall and stop making food to get ready for the winter.
• The chlorophyll (green color) fades and other colors (mainly red/yellow/orange/tan) in the leaves begin to show.
• The stems of the leaves become weak without food and the leaves fall from the trees.

Centers

The children have been doing a terrific job during centers while I have been meeting with students one-on-one to do some assessing for report cards. Take a peek at this week's centers below.

Listening to The Runaway Pumpkin

Puzzle Time!

More Puzzle Time!

Cars and Roads Center

BINGO on the iPads

Naming Objects and Sorting by the First Sound

Happy Halloween!
Have a great weekend!

Weekly News (Oct. 19-23)

Wow! What an amazing fall week we've had. It's hard to believe November is right around the corner. Time sure flies when you're having fun in kindergarten!

Math
This week in math we learned a new game called Spin a Number where the students had to spin the spinner, read the number where the spinner landed, and move the corresponding number of spaces on the game board. This game was a great way for the students to practice number recognition and one-to-one correspondence while counting the spaces on the board. Family game night is a great time to practice these skills at home. Some of our family favorites include: Candyland, Shoots and Ladders, Sorry, and Trouble! Take a peek at us playing Spin a Number below.

We also spent some time this week working with patterns. We learned that patterns surround us everyday and can be made with colors, shapes, movements, and even different sounds to form music. Click on the picture below to practice making patterns!

We have also been busy this week counting by 1's up to 100.  Our goal for the end of kindergarten is for students to be able to count by 1's to 100 with smooth transitions at the 10's. Click on the picture below to get some exercise while counting to 100!

Jolly Phonics
This week we learned the following three new Jolly Phonics sounds:

/g/ as in gas
/o/ as in octopus
/u/ as in umbrella

Literacy
Reading Workshop
This week during reading workshop, the children learned three more ways to be strong readers. We learned how to:

1. solve problems that arise during independent reading time all by ourselves.
2. visualize and make a movie in our heads while tracing the pictures in a book and saying what is happening out loud.
3. use connecting words such as once, next, then, after that, later, and finally to help us tell the story from the beginning, to the middle, and to the end.

Writing Workshop
This week the children learned how brave writers can "publish" their work by making their writing the best it can be so that others can read and enjoy it. Using some of our writing from previous weeks, the children began publishing a book on a topic they know a lot about. They worked to add details and labels to their pictures and to add words at the bottom of each page to match their drawings. The children are doing an amazing job, and they can't wait to share their books with our fifth grade buddies!

First Draft and Final Draft--adding more labels

First Draft and Final Draft--adding more detail and words

Science: Collections in Nature
This week we took a closer look at our leaf collection and used field guides to identify different types of leaves. We spent some time sorting our leaves by color, size, and shape, and we couldn't believe how many different types of maple leaves we had in our collection! We also played a game of "Twenty Questions" to help us carefully observe the distinct differences of each leaf. We were even able to answer some of our "I Wonder" questions this week!

All About Me
The class loved learning all about Cara this week. We learned that Cara loves to fly kites and play cards games like Go Fish. She likes stuffed animals, especially her elephant stuffed animal, and she also loves sports and playing catch. Cara likes spending time with her sister Ella and doing fun things with her family like going to the pumpkin patch!

A big thank you to Cara's mom who came in
to read Love, Ruby Valentine. What a great story!
We loved it! :)

Weekly News (Oct. 12-16)

We've been busy learning during another short week in kindergarten. Here's what we have been up to!

Math

This week in math we spent some time reviewing and sorting shapes. The children practiced identifying, naming, and describing the attributes of the following four shapes: triangles, squares, rectangles, and circles. We also began a discussion comparing 2-D and 3-D shapes. 

We spent some time this week exploring spatial vocabulary as well by listening to the story Rosie's Walk. We learned the following spatial vocabulary words: top, below, next to, between, behind, in front of, around, over, under, inside, outside, above, beside, up, down, left, and right.

Jolly Phonics

This week we finished Book 2 in the Jolly Phonics program. The children learned the sound for the letter Dd and spent some time reviewing all of the sounds from Book 2. Click on the picture below to watch the video for the letter Dd.

Here is a video that reviews all of the sounds and motions for Book 2.

Literacy

Reading Workshop
This week we began our mini lessons from our launching unit. The children learned how to choose books for their book bins using the following three steps: 1) Look closely at the cover, 2) Flip through the pages and predict what might be inside, and 3) Ask, "Would this book interest me?"

We also learned how to take care of the books in our classroom library this week. We practiced holding our books with two hands while carefully looking through our books bins, turning the pages at the top right corner, and returning the books to our bins right side up with the covers facing forward. The children did a great job practicing these skills and continue to demonstrate them when looking for new books.

Writing Workshop
This week during writing workshop, the students continued to work on their teaching books. During our workshop time, the children practiced stretching out words to carefully listen for sounds, and they also learned how to use different resources available in our room to help them with their writing such as our class word wall, ABC charts at our tables, and labels throughout our room. We will be adding even more labels in the upcoming weeks. Next week the children will begin publishing their teaching books, and they will have an opportunity to share their books with our fifth grade buddy class at the end of the month.

Science: Collections in Nature

Our budding scientists have been busy wondering, investigating, observing, and recording notes about our fall leaf collection. As a class, we have generated some of our wonderings, which are posted below, and we have begun to investigate the different properties of our collection. The children have practiced sorting leaves by color, size, and number of leaf points. They have also explored the textures of different leaves and begun to make their own field guides. We will continue to add to our wonderings list below and explore leaves over the next couple of weeks so we can answer some of our questions!

Weekly News (Oct. 5-8)

We definitely packed a lot of learning and fun into a short week! Keep reading to see what we have been up to in K-2!

Math
This week we reviewed our shapes and used tangram pieces to make shape puzzles. By rearranging and rotating our collection of 7 shapes, we were able to make new shapes. Click on the picture below for more practice with shape puzzles!

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 a good 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.

The children did a great job during our lesson turning and talking with their neighbors to answer some of our questions.

Is this ten frame filled out correctly? Why or why not?

What number does this ten frame show?
How many more chips do you need to get to 10?

To wrap up our first unit in math, we went on a "Number Hunt" throughout our classroom and around the building. Below are some of our findings!

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

/r/ as in rag

/m/ as in mouse

Click here to listen to the ABC Mouse song for Rr.

Click here to listen to the ABC Mouse song for Mm.

Please continue to practice our Jolly Phonics sounds at home. The children are becoming more and more confident with their sounds each week, and it is definitely showing during writing workshop time!

Literacy
Reading Workshop

This week we learned some new phrases during reading workshop to help us learn how to have back-and-forth conversations with our partners when talking about books. We learned the following phrases:

"I think....because...."

"I notice..."

"I agree with you because..."

I disagree with you because..."

The students did a great job using these phrases during our whole group read aloud and when discussing books with their partners. It was great to see how these phrases really encouraged students to support their thinking with examples and evidence from the text!

We also learned another skill that strong readers use--they read books over and over again, especially our favorite ones! This helps build reading fluency and confidence. This week we practiced reading a short piece of text in a variety of ways using some of the suggestions below. 

As we continue to work together to help our kindergarteners grow as readers, please continue to make reading aloud to your child a part of your daily routine, and when your child says, "Read it again! Read it again!" please do! Hearing the same story over and over again helps young children develop their vocabulary, strengthen their comprehension skills, and develop their phonemic awareness, and most importantly it promotes a lifelong love of reading!

Writing Workshop
It was a very exciting week for writing workshop--the students began working on their very own books! After looking through two mentor texts--one all about chipmunks and another book about soccer--we learned how authors can write several pages on one topic. After brainstorming some topics we know a lot about, the children talked to their partners about their chosen topic and shared three ideas about their topic that they wanted to write about in their book. Our brave writers wrote about a variety of topics including--soccer, dinosaurs, squirrels, cupcakes, porcupines, woolly mammoths, and more. Wow, what experts we have in K-2! Later in the week, the children continued to work on their books after getting feedback from a partner on where they could add more detail or how they could make their pictures or writing more clear to the reader. What an exciting week for our kindergarten writers!

Science
The children brought home a letter this week explaining our first science unit of the year--Collections in Nature. For our collection, we will be studying leaves. I can't wait to see all the different leaves the children bring in on Tuesday! 

All About Me
This week the class loved learning all about Ian and some of his favorite things. We learned that Ian is a big fan of Pokeman, and he enjoys playing frisbee. Ian also loves playing with his Hot Wheels, riding his bike, and playing the guitar. He enjoys spending time with his family, and he loves books--especially the book Dogzilla that his mom shared with us during the week!

A big thank you to Ian's mom for coming in to read one of Ian's favorites--Dogzilla!

Centers
The children are doing a great job during center time while I am beginning to meet with students one-on-one and in small groups. Here are our centers from the week.

Upper and Lowercase Letter Match

Identifying the Letters in Our Name

Listening Center: Fox and the Falling Leaves

Playdoh Center--Numbers 1-10 with Ten Frames

Lego Creations

Enjoying our freezer pops!

I hope everyone is enjoying the nice long weekend!

Thanks for reading!