Weekly News Nov. 14-18

The days keep flying by in kindergarten! Here's what we have been up to the last couple of weeks.

All About Me
This week the class loved learning all about Cameron! We learned that Cameron loves to build with his Legos, and he also loves to draw and color. He is a big baseball fan, and he loves to do math. He is also proud of his stuffed animal collection and enjoys spending time with his family!

A big thank you to Cameron's mom for sharing some GREAT stories!

We also loved learning all about Abby last week. We learned that Abby loves stuffed animals, and she has a HUGE stuffed animal collection! Two of her favorites are her stuffed monkey and Winnie the Pooh. Abby also enjoys watching Dora, and she loves spending time with her family. She had a great time on their most recent vacation to Disney World!

Math
In math, we spent some 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." We watched the video below to help us better understand teen numbers.

We have also been practicing counting to 100 by 1's and 10's. The class LOVES the video below, which is a great way to get a little exercise while practicing how to count to 100!

Jolly Phonics
We learned several new sounds over the last two weeks including:

Vv as in "van"
oo as in "book" and "moon"
Yy as in "yes"
Xx as in "fox"
ch as in "chicken"

Click here to listen to the Vv song.

Click here to listen to the oo song.

Click here to listen to the Yy song.

Click here to listen to the Xx song.

Click here to listen to the ch song.

Literacy
ReadingWorkshop
We read another familiar 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 with The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

Using the book I Broke My Trunk! by Mo Willem's, the children also learned how to infer characters' feelings and traits by thinking about what's happening in the story, studying the characters' facial expressions and body language, and listening to what the characters say and think.

Writing Workshop
The children have been busy using our 4 step writing process (Think, Draw, Label, and Write) to share their ideas with others. Students had a chance to write about what they did over the weekend. Then they used our writing rubric to self-reflect on their own writing and make a goal for their next writing piece. It's amazing to see how far our authors have grown since the beginning of the year!

September

November

Centers
The children rotated through a variety of centers over the last couple of weeks while I worked with students one-on-one to complete some of our fall assessments.

Watercolor painting

ABC Mouse on the computers

Listening to ebooks on the Unite for Literacy website

Unite for Literacy

Matching labels and pictures by listening for the first sound

Book shopping

Book shopping

Science
Click here to see what we have been learning in science!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Thanks for reading!

Weekly News (Oct. 31-Nov. 4)

Happy Halloween! We had a great time parading around the school and having a party to celebrate Halloween. Take a peek at our Halloween photos by clicking here.

Math
This week we practiced sorting a collection of coins, and we also took a closer look at the digits 0-9 as we worked together to complete a number board using our interactive whiteboard. After completing the board, we talked about the different patterns we saw and then created our own boards. We also learned how to write the number 3!

Jolly Phonics
The children are doing a great job learning our new Jolly Phonics sound and applying these sounds to their writing. I can tell many students have been using their sound rings to practice at home. Keep up the great work!! This week we learned the following sounds:

Zz as in "zebra"
Ww as in "wind"
ng as in "strong"

Click here to listen to the Zz song.

Click here to listen to the Ww song.

Click here to listen to the ng song.

Literacy
Reading Workshop
This week we began our new reading workshop 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 a n important lesson. We also learned that there are two types of fiction stories:

Realistic Fiction: stories that could happen in real life

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 and asking ourselves, "Could this really happen?"

We also learned how to retell the events in a story using a familiar tale--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
The students were excited to share their "Ouch!" stories this week. We even made "I am a writer!" crowns to wear during our sharing session!

Science
Use the link at the top of our blog or click here to see what we learned during our Rainbows, Color, and Light science unit this week.

Thanks for reading!