Weekly News (Nov. 16-20)

Happy Thanksgiving from K-2!

We have been spending some time this week thinking about all of the things we are thankful for, and I was so touched by the students' thoughtful responses. We made "Thankful Turkeys" in the LMC this week, which are on display in the hallway outside our room, and we also thought about all the things we are thankful for in our classroom! 

What a thoughtful and kind-hearted group!

Math
This week the children learned a new game called "Roll and Record," which reinforced their counting and graphing skills. After rolling a single die, students would count the dots and practice writing the corresponding number in a bar graph like the one below. We practiced first as a class and then students rolled their own die and created individual graphs. This game was also a great way for many students to practice their "subitizing" skills--the ability to quickly identify the number of items in a small set without counting. Although students were able to count the dots on the die each time they rolled, they were also encouraged to roll and quickly identify how many dots there were without counting if they could.

Roll and Record

We also practiced following and creating our own patterns 
using colored Unifix cubes. 

Jolly Phonics

This week we reviewed all of the sounds from Book #4, and we learned the first two sounds from Book #5.

Zz as in "zebra"
Ww as in "wind"

Literacy

Reading Workshop
This week we finished the last two interactive read aloud lessons for our Fiction Unit, and we will begin our mini-lessons when we return from break. As a class we worked to create a story map after reading the book A Balloon for Isabel. In this story, Isabel tries to convince her teacher that she and Walter, both porcupines, should receive balloons on kindergarten graduation day just like the other children. As we listened closely to the story, we identified the characters and the setting as well as the problem the characters were trying to solve. In this story the characters were very resourceful and made several attempts to solve their problem before finding a solution that would work. We learned some valuable lessons from this story as you can see from our story map below. 

The children also did a terrific job during another reading workshop lesson this week. Using the wordless book Wave by Suzy Lee, the children learned how to describe the details in the illustrations to tell a realistic story just like a storyteller would from beginning to end. Using words like the ones in the illustration below, the children and I worked together to tell the story of the Wave. What an amazing group of storytellers we have in K-2!

Storytelling practice with the book Wave by Suzy Lee.

Writing Workshop

We continued to work on our narrative writing books this week, and we also did some writing about our favorite Thanksgiving day foods--so many healthy eaters in K-2!

All About Me

This week the class loved learning all about Ivan! We learned that Ivan loves to play soccer, and he also does Tae Kwon Do. Ivan is a big fan of Minecraft, and he LOVES computers. Ivan enjoys solving math problems and listening to stories from his favorite fairy tale book. He also likes to play with Legos and spend time with his family and his two cats!

The class loved Good Night, Sleep Tight, Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite! A big thank you to Ivan's mom for coming in to share a family favorite!

Thank you to Matthew's mom for reading some great stories 
from some of our favorite authors. What a great time!

Thank you to Ian's mom for reading There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Cat 
and a Pete the Cat book. We loved them!!

Thank you all so much for sharing your children with me each day. They fill me with pride, laughter, and warmth each and every day. I am so lucky to be their teacher. 
I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Love,
Mrs. Riesing

Weekly News (Nov. 9-13)

The days keep flying by in Kindergarten! Here is what we have been up to this week!

Getting ready for Thanksgiving!

Math

This week we introduced the concept of a number story. We used our interactive whiteboard to create our own number stories such as, "Ryan saw 2 green leaves on the tree and Maggie saw 3 orange leaves on the tree. How many leaves did they see in all?"  Then we wrote a number sentence (or a number model) to match our story, 2 + 3 = 5.

The children also learned about symmetry this week by looking at many different examples of symmetrical shapes. We learned that objects have symmetry when they are the same on both sides. We also learned that objects can have up and down (vertical) symmetry, side to side (horizontal) symmetry, or multiple lines of symmetry like the examples below. 

Click on the picture below to play a symmetry sorting game.

The children have also been learning how to login to their Everyday Math online accounts. Student passwords and login information will be sent home at parent-teacher conferences so students can access math games and other resources at home as well.

Jolly Phonics

This week we finished Book #4 in Jolly Phonics and learned several more double letter sounds. Thank you so much for all your support at home reviewing the sounds we have learned. 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! We learned the following sounds this week:

/oa/ as in goat

/ie/ as in tie

/ee/ as in feet

/or/ as in corn

Literacy

Reading Workshop

We read another familiar fairy tale this week, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and learned how to identify the problem and solution in a fictional story. We learned that the main character or characters in a story often face trouble or have a problem to solve. By paying close attention to these problems and how the characters solve them, we can learn how to solve similar problems in real life. We also learned that the main characters are usually introduced at the beginning of the story and that traditional tales often have a villain or bad guy. We also spent some time comparing and contrasting Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Billy Goats Gruff using a Venn diagram similar to the one below. 

Using Mo Willem's book I Broke My Trunk! as a mentor text, the children learned how to infer characters' feelings and traits by thinking about what's happening in the story, studying the characters' facial and body language, and listening to what the characters say and think. Authors use feeling words like the one below to help us better understand how a character feels.

Writing Workshop

After learning about informational writing and sharing our teaching books with our 5th grade buddies last week, we shifted our focus this week to learning how to write stories. Using our Halloween parade and party as a shared experience, I modeled for students how we can retell the events of something that happened in our lives using the words first, then, and last. After modeling for students how to tell a story, the children practiced telling their own stories to a buddy during turn-and-talk time and are now working on recording their ideas in writing. Many children are writing about our Halloween celebration, but we also have children telling stories about other events such as a trip to the zoo, going to the pool, visiting a museum, and having fun at school. They are doing an amazing job!

All About Me

This week we had a great time learning all about Matthew! We learned that Matthew is an avid Minecraft player. He enjoys playing Minecraft on his X-box, and he loves researching new ways to build things. Matthew also enjoys playing with his Transformers collection, and he is learning how to shoot a bow and arrow. Matthew also likes Batman, especially his Clayface action figure, and he loves spending time with his family! 

Centers

The students did a great job during centers this week as I met with students one-on-one to work on writing. In centers this week, the children listened to a Thanksgiving inspired story called The Very First Thanksgiving and spent some time in our writing center. 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 and one-to-one matching 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! 

Domino Parking Lot: Counting and Matching Numbers

Listening Center: The Very First Thanksgiving

Roll-a-Turkey

Kitchen Time

Writing Center

Veterans Day Celebration

We were so lucky to celebrate Veterans Day with an all school assembly and two special guest speakers who talked about their experiences serving in the United States Navy. What an amazing experience for us all!

Weekly News (Nov. 2-6)

Gobble, Gobble! Happy November! It's been an amazing week in kindergarten. Here is what we've been up to in K-2!

Math
This week in math we spent a lot of time learning about those "tricky teen" numbers from 11-19.  We practiced sequencing the teen numbers and counting out each number.  We also talked about how each teen number is "10 plus some more."  

Click on the picture below to play a game that reinforces teen numbers.
(Be sure to select numbers from 10-20 to practice the teens!)

We also introduced the concept of estimating, and we talked about how we can use information we know to make a "thoughtful guess."  We put 10 objects into one container and filled a second container with either more or less objects.  Then we estimated how many objects might be in the second container by comparing it to the container with 10.  The children did a GREAT job with this activity!

Jolly Phonics

This week we began learning the Jolly Phonics sounds from Book #4.  The children learned their first long vowel sound, long a, and they did a great job finding examples of these sounds. We talked about how sometimes two letters work together as buddies to make one sound. Below are all the sounds we learned this week.

ai as "train"

Jj as in "jiggle"

Click on the links below to practice these sounds.

Literacy
Reading Workshop
This week we began our new unit that focuses on fiction books. We learned that authors of fiction write stories that are made up from their imaginations. They write books to entertain us or to teach us an important lesson. We also learned that there are two types of fiction stories:

Realistic Fiction: stories that could happen in real life

and

Fantasy: stories that are imaginary or make-believe and can't happen in real life

Using the book Could Be Worse by James Stevenson, we practiced distinguishing realistic fiction from fantasy by noticing the details in the story and asking ourselves, "Could this really happen?"  

We also learned how to retell the events of a story using a familiar fairytale--Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The class did a great job sequencing the events and using the words first, next, then, after that, and last to retell the story.

Writing Workshop and 5th Grade Buddies
The class did a terrific job sharing their books with their 5th grade buddies. We can't wait for them to visit again! Next week we will focus on writing narrative pieces during Writing Workshop.

All About Me
The class loved learning all about Ian this week! We learned that Ian loves to play sports, especially soccer. He also does Tae Kwon Do, and he is very proud of his well-deserved trophies! Ian also loves to spend time with his family, and one of his favorite places to go is Dave and Busters. Ian is also an avid reader and loves books, especially the Pete the Cat series!

Art Appreciation
A big thank you to Jeanie's dad for a TERRIFIC art lesson. The children learned all about the paintings inside the Lascaux Caves in France. The children even had a chance to go in their own caves to create their own drawings!

Indoor Recess