Weekly News (Oct. 24-28)

Is it Halloween already? Can't wait to see all the great costumes on Monday! Take a peek below to see how we have been wrapping up October.

All About Me
This week we loved learning all about Josie! We learned that Josie loves owls, and she enjoys taking dance lessons. She loves Halloween and celebrating fall with her family at Didier farms. She also enjoys reading and spending time with her family at Lake Carroll!

Math
This week in math we played some oral counting games to help students practice counting fluently. They loved playing "Count and Sit." In this game, a target number is chosen, and then students stand in a circle and take turns counting up to the target number. The person who says the target number sits down and then a new target number is chosen and the count begins again. We played several times. They couldn't get enough of this game! We also explored patterns in our everyday lives and practiced writing the number 2.

Count and Sit

Jolly Phonics
This week we finished learning the last three sounds in Book #4:
ie  as in "pie"
ee as in "sheep"
or as in "corn"

Literacy

Reading Workshop

This week during reading workshop we learned how to use connecting words such as once, next, then, after that, later, and finally to help us tell a story as we read through the books in our book bins. We were also "buzzing about books" this week as we learned how to talk about the books we love with our classmates. We used the steps below to help us retell the exciting events in our books!

Writing Workshop

This week the students finished working on their "ouch" stories. Then we worked together as a class to create a rubric to help students reflect on their own writing, targeting the skills we have been learning during the first part of the school year. We will continue to modify our rubric as we learn new skills! We also learned how to write the letter E during handwriting time. 

Science

Please click here to see what we have been learning during our Rainbows, Colors, and Light unit!

Art Appreciation

A big thank you to Josie's mom for coming in for our first Art Awareness lesson of the year. The children learned about the paintings inside Lascaux Caves in France. They also learned about the different materials that were used long ago to make paint, and they even had a chance to go in their own caves to create their own cave drawings!

Have a great weekend!

Weekly News (Oct. 17-21)

It's amazing how fast the days go by when you're having fun!! We've been busy learning and growing in kindergarten. This is what we have been up to this week!

All About Me
The class loved learning all about Elizabeth this week. We learned that Elizabeth loves to play music on the piano and spend time with her family. She is also an avid reader and loves to play with her Shopkins and other toy figurines. She is a big fan of the movie Frozen, and she enjoys coloring and drawing.

Thank you to Elizabeth's mom for coming in to read
a great story about friendship--Nugget and Fang.

Math
This week in math, we spent some time reviewing shapes. The children practiced identifying, naming, and describing the attributes of several 2-D shapes. Then we played a game using a covered box of shapes. Students had to reach in with their eyes closed to find two matching shapes using their sense of touch.

Math at recess?? You bet!! We also spent some time this week exploring spatial vocabulary as we completed an obstacle course outside at recess. We learned the following spatial vocabulary words: next to, between, behind, in front of, around, over, inside, outside, above, on top, up, and down. Take a peek at us in action below during our obstacle course!

On top of the hill

Up the stairs and down the slide

In between the swings

Under the basketball hoop

Jolly Phonics
We learned three new sound this week including:

"ai" as in rain
Jj as in jello
"oa" as in goat

We also added several sounds to our Jolly Phonics rings in our blue bookbags. I can tell the children have been practicing their sounds. Keep up the great work!

Literacy
Reading Workshop
This week during reading workshop, the children learned two more ways to be strong readers. First, we learned how to solve problems that arise during independent reading time. Then we also learned 4 steps that good readers use to help them better understand and enjoy a book. Take a peek below to see us in action using these four steps!

Writing Workshop
This week during writing workshop time, the students reviewed how to use words to help communicate their ideas in writing. We learned that we can add labels to our pictures to give our reader more information. We also learned that kindergarten writers can write a sentence to further describe their picture. We used the phrase, "If you can think it, you can say it. And if you can say it, you can write it!" They did a great job adding labels and writing a sentence for their "ouch" stories!

Science
Click here to see what we learned this week about weather.

Digital Citizenship
Mrs. Frantz, our technology facilitator, came into the class during Digital Citizenship Week to help our kindergarteners understand how to use technology, safely, responsibly, and respectfully. The children had great insights and comments to share, and they were a TERRIFIC audience!

Centers

Sight Word Practice

Ten Frame Practice

Little Boo! at the Listening Center

Lego Fun

Thanks for reading!

Weekly News (Oct. 11-14)

Wow! These two short weeks have flown by! Take a peek below to see what we have been learning in K-2.

Math
The children were introduced to the concept of a "Ten Frame." (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. To represent numbers, 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.

We also 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 like the ones below. We went on a shape hunt in our classroom too!

To wrap up our first unit in math, we went on a "Number Hunt" throughout our classroom and around the building. Check out our findings below!

Jolly Phonics
It's amazing to see how well the students are doing labeling their pictures in their Jolly Phonics notebooks. I can tell many of the students are practicing their sounds. Keep up the great work K-2! We learned several new sounds over the last two weeks including:

Gg as in "goat"
Oo as in "on
Uu as in "umbrella"
Ll as in "leaf"
Ff as in "fish"
Bb as in "balloon"

Literacy
Reading Workshop
The students learned the following phrases during reading workshop time to help them keep their conversations going during turn-and-talk time. 

"I think...because..."

"I notice..."

"I agree with you because..."

I disagree with you because..."

We also learned another skill that strong readers use--they read books over and over again, especially their favorites! This helps build reading fluency and confidence. 

We also learned how to take care of the books in our classroom library. We practiced holding our books with two hands while carefully looking through our book 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 students learned how to choose books from our library too by using the following three steps: 

Writing Workshop
Our writers have been busy during writing workshop time. We have been reviewing our workshop routines and taking a closer look at the 4 steps that writers use to record their ideas.

We spent some time talking about how writers think of their ideas, and we learned that good writers answer the following questions when telling a story: Who? What? When? and Where? While reading I Broke My Trunk by Mo Willems, we were able to see how Mo Willems answers these questions as he tells us the story of how Gerald broke his trunk. Then we practiced thinking about these questions as we shared our own "ouch" stories. 

Guest Reader
The class loved the story Dominick's mom shared with us during his "All About Me" week--The Scrambled States of America.

Science
We have started collecting weather data as we prepare for our Tracking the Weather science unit. As part of this yearlong unit, we will collect information about the weather each day and then compare our data from season to season. Please click here to see our science page or click the "Science" button at the top of our blog.

Centers
Take a peek at some of our new centers!

Number Puzzles

Listening Center

Puzzles and teamwork!

Kitchen

Math center

Thanks for reading!

Have a great weekend!