Classroom News (Nov. 5-16)

I hope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving break! We had a busy two weeks learning and having fun in kindergarten...and enjoying the first snowfall too!

Math

Over the last two weeks we completed a short unit on measurement. During this unit, students engaged in many hands-on experiences that helped them develop an awareness of the concepts of length, size, and weight. Students were able to see and feel these differences, which helped them compare and order objects based on these attributes. Students also had opportunities to use some of their new "math words" as they explained their thinking to the class such as: bigger, smaller, shorter, taller, longer, lighter, and heavier.

Which sweater is longer?

Which object is heavier?

Literacy

Jolly Phonics

The students continue to do a great job learning our double letter sounds and are working hard to apply these sounds during writing workshop time. We have learned the following letter pairs over the last two weeks, and we will learn our final two sounds when we return from Thanksgiving break. 

th as in "thin" or "this"

ou as in "out"

oi as in "boil"

ue as in "blue" or "barbecue"

Please continue to practice these sounds using the sound ring in your child's blue book bag. Strengthening students' grasp of letter sounds helps boost their confidence during both reading and writing tasks

Reading Workshop

We continue to learn about all the good things readers do to help us enjoy and learn from books. We learned about the different types of books in our classroom library; how to take care of our books; how to "read" punctuation marks; and how to talk about books with our classmates.

We learned that the books in our classroom library fall into two categories--FICTION and NONFICTION. The students learned about the different features of fiction and nonfiction texts, and then they worked to sort collections of books into two piles--fiction and nonfiction. It was exciting to listen in on the students' conversations when deciding which pile to place the books. "This one must be nonfiction because it's about real animals!"

The students also learned good book handling skills. 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. They take such pride in our classroom library, and they love adding books to their individual book bins!

We also learned that authors use special "marks" to help readers know how to read their work. Using the poem My Big Book, we practiced "reading" the punctuation marks to help us read with good expression. Then we searched for examples in our own books.

Finally, we spent some time learning how to retell a story using connecting words like once, next, then, after that, and finally. Then we practiced talking about our books with our partners.

Writing Workshop
Students wrote about a place they would like to visit as well as their favorite Thanksgiving foods. Students will bring home their first trimester writing samples when we return from break.

Veterans Day Celebration
Our Veterans Day Celebration is always such a special day at Dryden. It's a meaningful day for students, families, and especially our great veterans. Thank you to everyone who helped make this a special day!

LMC
During our tech time in the LMC, the students spent time using our Freckle math accounts. More information about Freckle will come home soon. Students also learned about germs and how to stay healthy at school. They completed a sorting activity on the laptops to identify ways to prevent and spread germs.

All About Me

We were excited to have two more students in each class share their "Me Bags!" In the morning class, we loved learning all about Ella and her favorite things. We learned that Ella's favorite color is blue, and she enjoys coloring and doing crafts. She also likes ballet, candy, and Star Wars. Ella collects Tsum Tsum toys and has a special Disney Tsum Tsum collection. She enjoys hanging out with her cousins, spending time with her family, and snuggling up with Winnie the Pooh.

An all time favorite! Thank you to Ella's mom
for coming in to read Corduroy!

The morning class also loved learning all about Emma. We learned that Emma likes unicorns and rainbows. She also likes coloring and building with her Lego blocks. Emma enjoys playing with her Disney characters, and she is hoping to be a veterinarian when she grows up. She also likes cats, playing in the snow, and swimming.

Thank you to Emma's mom for coming in to read
a book from one of our favorite authors--Mo Willems!

The afternoon class loved learning all about Ella. We learned that Ella loves Disney characters and playing with her My Little Ponies. She also likes collecting squishies, playing with her American Girl dolls, and eating cookies! She enjoys going to the beach to collect shells and spending time with her family too!

Thank you to Ella's family for coming in for
a fun read aloud--Sweet Dreams Jack Jack!

We loved learning all about Delaney too. We learned that Delaney enjoys The Magic Treehouse series of books, and she likes to paint and do crafts. She is a fan of Halloween, and she likes to collect lip balms. Delaney likes to collect LOL dolls and spend time with her family too! 

Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!
See you soon!

Classroom News (Oct. 22-Nov.2)

Halloween was definitely a highlight of our week! The students had a great time showing off their costumes as we paraded around the school and played several different games during our class parties. A HUGE thank you to all of the parents who helped make our parties a success!!

Click HERE to see more photos from the morning class.

Click HERE to see more photos from the afternoon class.

Math

We finished our second unit in math, which focused on building confidence with the numbers 0-10. This week we focused on comparing two sets of objects using one-to-one matching. We also practiced solving "one more" and "one less" number stories using counters and cubes and reviewed the concepts of "before" and "after" as we worked to identify numbers that come before or after a given number. We finished our week with our Chapter 2 test. 

Jolly Phonics

We have learned several more double letter sounds over the last few weeks, and the children have been doing great job thinking of examples for each of these sounds and trying to apply these sounds during writing workshop time. 

ie as in "pie"

ee as in "feet"

or as in "corn"

ng as in "sing"

oo as in "book" and "moon"

ch as in "chick"

sh as in "shoe"

Reading Workshop

During our launch unit for reading workshop, we have spent some time thinking about who we are as readers. As we read several different stories and explored different genres of books, we learned that we are all unique readers who have different interests in books! We began thinking about the types of books we like and learned that some of us like books about animals, some of us like books about outer space, while others like fairy tales and poetry. During an interactive read aloud lesson, we read But Excuse Me That is My Book by Lauren Child, which is a story about a girl named Lola who goes to the library to check out her favorite book only to find out that someone else has already checked it out. Her brother Charlie tries to help her see that there are other books at the library she might enjoy, and Lola discovers there are many other books she would like too! In your child's blue folder, you will find a survey to work on with your child so we can begin to answer the question, "Who Am I As a Reader?" Thank you so much for your help with this! The information from these surveys will be very helpful in the coming weeks as the children shop for new books for their individual book bins.

We also took a closer look at the poem The Itsy Bitsy Spider as we learned the difference between letters, words, and sentences. We also learned about spacing between words and beginning a sentence with a capital letter and ending with a period.

Writing Workshop

The children continue to gain confidence using the Jolly Phonics sounds we have learned. We practiced matching letters and sounds as students worked to label different parts of a pumpkin. We also wrote about the spooky and silly things we saw on Halloween.

LMC

The children enjoyed listening to the story a Creepy Pair of Underwear by Aaron Reynolds in the LMC this week, and they had a blast making their own pair of creepy underwear!

Centers

The students have been doing a great job working in centers over the past couple of weeks while I have been meeting with students one-on-one for report card assessments. Our centers reinforced letter naming, name writing, story retelling, math, and fine motor skills. Take a peek at us in action below!

Matching and tracing letters

Name writing practice

Listening to Little Boo

Adding and making pumpkins on a vine

Building upper and lowercase letters with Play-doh

All About Me
We loved learning all about Evelyn and Daniel in our morning class over the last couple of weeks. We learned that Evelyn is an avid dancer, and she loves dressing up for dance shows. She also enjoys playing with her squishy collection and her mini stuffed animals. Evelyn likes to paint and do crafts and spend time with her family!

Thank you Eveyln's mom for bringing in one of our favorite authors--
Mo Willems!!

We also loved learning all about Daniel and his favorite things. We learned that Daniel loves to listen to stories and spend time with his younger sister. We also learned that Daniel's favorite color is blue, and he enjoys playing with his car collection and magnetic tiles. Daniel also loves spending time with his family for the holidays!

Thank you to Daniel's mom for reading a sweet book about bedtime stories!

The afternoon class loved learned all about Jackson. We learned that Jackson is a huge fan of The Magic Treehouse book series, and he also enjoys classic comic books. Jackson likes to play with his car and Lego collections, and he is a fan of Star Wars. He also likes St. Patrick's Day and spending time with his family!

Always a fun read! Thank you to Jackson's mom for making us laugh with
The Book with No Pictures!

The afternoon class also loved learning all about Cole and some of his favorite things. We learned that Cole enjoys playing soccer, and he loves animals, especially dinosaurs!! Cole also enjoys playing with Legos, and he is a fan of Star Wars. He likes visiting the zoo and spending time with his family!

Could you imagine dinosaurs at school?
Thank you to Cole's mom for sharing this fun story!

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!