Weekly News (Sept. 25-29)

We've been busy learning and growing in kindergarten! Keep reading to take a peek into our week.

Nest for Celeste
I hope everyone found their Nest for Celeste book in your child's backpack. Here is some more information from Mrs. O'Kelly about our One Book, One School program. If you have any questions, just let me know!

Hello Dryden Families,

We are excited to begin our "One Book, One Dryden" event! Inside your family's copy of the book, you will find a note about the event and a reading schedule. We encourage your family to read the book at home together, following along with the reading schedule. For more information, visit:

https://drydenlmc.weebly.com/one-book-one-school--a-nest-for-celeste.html

To hear chapters read aloud by Dryden and district staff members, visit:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1awkpRYC0Q_bt_BLnpDQHXoM31kr6Ntx1fPw1NwoV9lE/edit

Thanks for participating!

--Mrs. O'Kelly, #1Book1Dryden

Math
This week we finished our first unit in math, which focused on the numbers 1-5. We continued to practice finding similarities and differences between numbers and objects, but we focused on finding smaller or more subtle differences. Next week we will begin our second unit, which focuses on numbers up through 10.

Jolly Phonics
The students are doing a great job learning our Jolly Phonics sounds, and it's great to see all of the different examples the students come up with for their notebooks! These are the three sounds we learned this week:

/r/ as in "rag"
/m/ as in "meal"
/d/ as in "drum"

Click HERE to watch the video for the letter R.

Click HERE to watch the video for the letter M.

Click HERE to watch the video for the letter D.

Literacy

The class loved learning about the collection of books in our own classroom library this week. We learned that the books in our library fall into two categories--FICTION and NONFICTION. The students learned about the different features of fiction and nonfiction texts, and then they worked together to sort a collection of books into piles--fiction and nonfiction. Their conversations were right on target as they worked together to use the features of the books to determine which pile to place each book. Now each time the students pick a book from our collection, they can't wait to tell me if it's fiction or nonfiction. So exciting to see!

In another reading workshop lesson, the students learned how to use pictures to help us read words and make meaning of a text. Using an "action rhyme" poem called Catch the Moon, we learned that good readers use pictures to help them read and understand words.

Science

We have started collecting weather data as we prepare for our Tracking the Weather unit in science. As part of this yearlong unit, we will collect information about the weather each day and then compare our data from season to season.

All About Me
This week the morning class loved learning all about Ryan. We learned that Ryan enjoys playing baseball and loves visiting the zoo to see the rhinos! He is also a big fan of Scooby Doo, and he likes to play with Legos and his collection of cards and trains. Ryan is a Jayhawks fan too, and he loves to spend time with his family!

A big thank you to Ryan's mom for reading Cupcake!
Such a sweet story!

The afternoon class loved learning all about Nora this week! We learned that Nora loves to dance, and she also LOVES mermaids. She even saved up enough money to buy her own mermaid tail---a dream come true! Nora is a Cubs fan, and she also enjoys fishing and searching for fossils on trips with her family. She likes books, especially the book Little Humans by Brandon Stanton, and she was excited to tell us about the time she met Hillary Clinton!

A big thank you to Nora's mom for coming in
to read Peanut Butter & Cupcake!
Thank you for adjusting your schedule too!

Thanks for reading!