Weekly News (April 24-28)

Hoping all these April showers bring some beautiful May flowers!!

Math
This week we practiced solving comparison number stories using our interactive whiteboard. For example, in the problem below, students had to determine how many more cars Brian had by comparing the two amounts.

We also practiced our counting skills this week. We reviewed counting by 1's, 5's, and 10's, and then we introduced counting by 2's! We talked about when it might be useful to count by 2's and named items we might find in pairs such as socks, mittens, and shoes. Then we practiced counting collections of items by 2's.

Click here to dance and count by 2's!

We also introduced the concept of fractions by dividing objects or a group of objects in half. Students talked with partners about the meaning of the word "half" and came up with these great ideas:

"When you divide things in half you break it into two pieces."

"In the morning I break my muffin in half and share it with my brother or sister."

"When you share something with someone, you should make sure both 
halves are the same."

Then we watched two Brainpop videos to introduce the concept of dividing objects or collections of objects into equal groups. When cutting an item in half, we learned that both parts must be equal or the same size.

Literacy and Science
This week we began our final science unit of the year that will focus on how animals, plants, and people use resources from their environments to survive.

We began our unit by listening to several short texts about different kinds of animals, like the ones pictured below, and then we discussed what information we knew about animals. We recorded our thoughts and came up with the following class definition for an animal:

An animal is a creature that can move and get what it needs from where it lives like water, food, air, and shelter.

We also talked about the different needs of pets, wild animals, and people and learned that people and animals have four basic needs---food, water, shelter, and air. Click on the video below to learn more about these four needs.

The students also had time to select an animal they would like to research throughout our unit. They are super excited to begin their research!

Weekly News (April 17-21)

Another great week in kindergarten! Keep reading to see what we have been learning.

Math
This week in math, we learned more about the dime and reviewed how to count by 10's when counting a collection of dimes. We also played a new math game called "The Money Exchange Game." We practiced making equal coin exchanges using pennies, nickels, and dimes. We learned how to exchange 5 pennies for 1 nickel and 10 pennies for a dime. One student even noticed that we could exchange 2 nickels for 1 dime! We also reviewed 2 and 3-D shapes.

Take a closer look at a dime

Exchanging pennies for nickels and dimes

Literacy
Reading Workshop
We wrapped up our poetry unit this week. We learned how good readers make connections while reading to better understand and enjoy poetry. We used the poems Eagle Flight and Song of the Dolphin by Georgia Heard to learn about making text-to-text connections, and then we read the poem Bedtime, which all the children could relate to, as we learned about making text-to-self connections.

We also practiced finding the "big" idea or the message of a poem. After reading the poem My Bed, we used the strategies shown below to help us figure out the real meaning of the poem. We learned that the poem wasn't just about a boy pretending his bed was a race car or a rocket ship. It was about being lost in our thoughts and using our imaginations to create dreams for ourselves and our lives.

Writing Workshop

In addition to our weekly weekend writing, the students also spent some time creating a "copycat" poem where we added our own lines to an existing poem. Using the poem Raindrops, we came up with our own pairs of rhyming lines and added pictures to match!

Earth Day
We finished out the week celebrating Earth Day and learned about ways we can protect the Earth and take care of our environment.

Click here to see more photos from the week!

Have a great weekend!

Weekly News (April 10-14)

Hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend! Take a peek to see what we have been learning in kindergarten.

Math
We explored the concept of time and talked about different tools we could use to keep track of time including clapping a steady beat. Then we clapped the number of beats it took to walk, run, and tiptoe across the room. We recorded and compared our results, and then we talked about how our results would change if we clapped faster or slower. We decided that it was important to keep a steady beat when counting! We also learned about the nickel and spent some time exploring its uniquie features. We learned about 3D shapes too including: sphere, cone, cube, rectangular prism, and cylinder. Then we worked together to sort a collection of shapes!

Literacy
Reading Workshop
This week we learned how poets use words and phrases to help us better visualize and understand poetry. We read two poems, Snuggles and Rain Song, and identified words that "leapt" off the page.

We also learned how to use context clues to help us understand the meaning of new or unfamiliar words. Using the poem Houdini, we were able to us clues to help us understand the meaning of the words wriggles and slats.

We also learned how poets use literary devices like the ones in the chart below to help us know how to change our voices as we read poetry. These devices not only make poetry more fun and enjoyable, they help us better understand the meaning of the poem too!

Writing Workshop
Our weekend writing routine has been a great opportunity for the students not only to practice their writing skills, but it has also been a great opportunity for them to talk to their friends and me about their weekend adventures! It is exciting to see them gaining more confidence in themselves as writers each week!

Guest Readers
We were excited to welcome two guest readers this week--Tyler and Jeanie. They were winners of the ABC/25 raffle prize of reading to a kindergarten class. They did an unbelievable job reading to our class! Take a peek at them in action below!

Thanks for reading!

Weekly News (Apr. 3-7)

I was so happy to see the children back at school this week! It sounds like everyone had a great spring vacation! Take a peek below to see what we've been learning this first week back.

Math
This week we continued to explore the concept of measurement. Students were introduced to a new measuring tool--a tape measure! We spent some time looking at our tape measures, and the students quickly noticed there were different markings and numbers on each side of the tape measure. One side was marked in centimeters and the other side in inches. We practiced opening and carefully closing our tape measure, and then students had some time to measure their supply boxes.

We also played a few rounds of the "Mystery Number" game. For this game, a number is covered on our hundreds chart and students have to figure out which number is covered by looking at the numbers before and after the mystery number. It's a great game to help students recognize number patterns and understand how the number grid is organized.

We also spent some time exploring the penny this week. We used magnifying glasses to take a closer look at the front and back of the penny and read a nonfiction book to learn more about the history of the penny. We learned that a penny is worth one cent and Abraham Lincoln is shown on the front of the penny. We watched the following two videos as well to learn even more about the penny and the other coins we will be learning about!

Literacy
Reading Workshop
This week we began our Poetry Unit and started to explore the exciting world of poetry! We practiced getting ready to read poetry by looking at and reading the title of the book and the poem; looking closely at the illustrations; making predictions; making connections to our own lives; and thinking about how the poem makes us feel. We also learned about the different ways poetry can look and how poets use different features to help us know how it should sound as we read it. We made a chart to help us keep track of our thinking as we talked about how imaginative and creative poets can be! Check us out in action below looking for features of poetry!

We also learned about poetry in the LMC this week as the students used the Nearpod app to learn about the unique features of poetry.

Writing Workshop
The class did a great job writing about their spring vacation adventures. We have been focusing on using lowercase letters when writing and listening for vowel sound sounds in words. To support our poetry unit, we wrote acrostic poems about spring. Check out some of our work below!

You may have also seen some notes come home this week in your child's blue folder from our new class "Post Office." We will continue to use our Post Office during free choice writing time as a way to make writing fun and purposeful. We will also add a new job to our job board--Mail Delivery Person!

Guided Reading
The children continue to do a great job during our small group guided reading time and are always eager to get a new book. Thank you all so much for your continued support at home. I can tell the children have been practicing their sight words and reading their books at home. Keep up the great work K-2!

Indoor Recess
Despite the rain start to the week, the children had a great time during indoor recess!!

Have a great weekend!