December is off to a fantastic start in Kindergarten! Take a peek below to see what we have been doing.
Math
This week in math we learned about the concept of weight and practiced using a pan balance. We passed around a cupful of pompoms and a cupful of plastic counting bears and made predictions about which set of objects was heavier. We used the pan balance to test out and confirm our predictions and learned that a pan balance is like a see saw. The heavier side goes down and the lighter side goes up. We also learned that the pans are balanced when both sides have an equal amount of weight.
We also used our interactive white board this week to solve addition and subtraction number stories similar to the one below. We used the words "more" and "less" to help us understand the concepts of adding and subtracting. We also used dominoes this week to practice finding the sum and wrote a number sentence to match each domino.
Jolly Phonics
This week we learned the following sounds as we finished Book #5:
/ng/ as in "king"
/v/ as in "van"
/oo/ as in "book" and "moon"
Literacy
Reading Workshop
We began the mini-lesson portion of our Fiction Unit this week. Using two short stories, Where is Little Bear's Hat and Waking up Farmer Fred, the children learned how to make good predictions and practiced retelling the story in order. They also practiced listening for repeated phrases and patterns within each story.
This week we also started our Gingerbread Unit, which will provide an opportunity for the children to practice using and applying the retelling strategies we have been learning during our reading workshop time. We will be comparing several versions of the Gingerbread Man, and we will use a graphic organizer to help us compare the different story elements we have been learning about including: main characters, setting, problems and solutions. So far we have read and compared the following two stories and have had quite a lively discussion!
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| The Gingerbread Man by Jim Aylesworth and The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst |
Writing Workshop
I absolutely LOVED reading all about what the children did over their Thanksgiving break! I could tell everyone thoroughly enjoyed the time off. It is great to see the children's confidence in themselves as writers continue to grow. Next week we will continue to practice stretching out the sounds we hear when writing and leaving spaces between words.
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| Sight Word Coloring |
Coding in the LMC
Our class did an amazing job in the LMC this week! A special thank you to Cara's mom for helping out during Mrs. Breaux and Mrs. O'Kelly's coding lesson. Mrs. Breaux and Mrs. O'Kelly did a terrific job guided the students through several coding activities. They started out with a whole group lesson, then guided the students during partner work, and finally introduced the students to an app on the iPads call Kodable, which the children absolutely LOVED!! Kodable even "tweeted" about their work on twitter!
Free Choice Centers
The students were able to self-select their centers this week as I continued to work with students one-on-one to assess guided reading levels. I am eager to begin meeting with students for guided reading, and I think they are too!
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| Our Gingerbread Kids Hope everyone has a great week! |
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