Kinder News!

It's amazing to see how much the children have grown since the beginning of the year! They are learning more and more each day, and I am excited to see more growth in the weeks ahead! We've been busy during the month of October. Take a peek below to see what we have been up to!

Math
This week will be wrapping up our second math unit. This unit has focused on building confidence with the numbers 0-10. The children have had many opportunities to practice writing numbers, counting collections of objects, comparing numbers, and identifying numbers that are one more or one less than a given number. The students have also been working in their math journals and are beginning to complete these pages more independently. We will take a test on Chapter 2 this week and then begin our next unit on measurement!

Counting and moving spaces around a game board.

Making matches for numbers 0-9.

Reading Workshop
The children have been doing a great job during our first reading workshop lessons of the year. The students were introduced to all of the mentor texts that we will be using during our Launch Unit, and they have been doing a nice job applying the skills they have been learning. During each lesson, the students gather together to learn a new skill or strategy. Then they have time to practice the skill with a partner during our "turn and talk" routines and then on their own during independent reading time.

Mentor Texts for our Launch Unit

Reading Workshop: Distinguishing between a letter, a word, and a sentence.

Using pictures to help us read unknown words. 

Reading Workshop Lesson: Who Am I as a Reader?
These surveys are a great way to help students begin
to understand their interests. We will be using the
information from these surveys to help students select
books for their book boxes for independent reading time.

Our "Comfy Reading Spots" collection of photos is growing! You can send
in a photo or email me a photo of your child's favorite reading spot at home
anytime. We will continue to add to our photo collection all year!

Jolly Phonics

The students continue to do a great job working in their Jolly Phonics notebooks each week. We have been introducing two new "double letter" sounds each week, and we also continue to practice all of the consonant and short vowel sounds. Please continue to practice these sounds at home as well. Having a good grasp of the letter sounds will help boost your child's confidence during both reading and writing tasks.

Writing Workshop

The students are really getting into the swing of our writing workshop routines, and they are gaining more confidence in themselves as writers each week! We continue to follow our four steps during our workshop time--THINK, DRAW, LABEL, WRITE--as we have been working to use pictures and words to communicate our ideas.

Centers
The students worked on a variety of skills during center time including: counting, letter identification, fine motor development, teamwork, and matching. Take a peek at some of our centers in action below!

Building Letters with Legos

Roll and Add Apples to the Apple Tree

Building Letters

Counting, Matching, and Sorting Colored Pom Poms

Zones of Regulation

The children were recently introduced to the Zones of Regulation. We learned that we all have many different feelings and emotions and that these emotions can fall into four different zones. These zones can be compared to traffic signs like the ones below. We talked about how it's okay to have many different feelings, but our goal at school is to try and stay in the "green zone," which is when we're feeling happy and ready to learn! We read the book The Way I Feel and then sorted different emotions into the four zones. We'll continue to practice identifying our emotions, and we'll also learn strategies to help us get back to the green zone when we feel ourselves moving away from green.

LMC
The students have been busy learning many different skills in the LMC!

Learning how to code our "BeeBots" to move in different directions.

Learning how to use a shelf marker to look for a book on the bookshelves.

All About Me
We have had a GREAT time learning all about our kinder friends. Keep reading to learn more about some of our students' favorite things!

In the morning class, we loved learning all about Nicolas. We learned that he loves playing with Legos and his collection of construction and military toys. He also enjoys playing with electronics and games like "Spin the Top." He likes the show PJ Masks and playing with his PJ Mask figurines. Nicolas also likes playing and fishing outdoors and spending time with his family too!

The morning class also loved learning about Jasiel and some of her favorite things! We learned that Jasiel is a big fan of Pete the Cat and Hello Kitty, and she enjoys watching movies like Wreck it Ralph, Spiderman, and The Descendants. She also loves cupcakes, bacon, and bread! Jasiel is very active and enjoys dancing and playing tennis. Her favorite color is pink, and she loves to wear dresses. Beyonce and Bruno Mars are her favorite singers, and she loves to spend time with her family too!

We had fun learning all about Kaia too! We learned that Kaia enjoys swimming and playing outside. She likes to take photos with her digital camera, and she is a big fan of American Girl dolls. She is also a fan of JoJo Siwa, and she likes to wear bows. Kaia enjoys reading and writing, and she also enjoys spending time with her family!

The afternoon class loved learning all about some of our kinder friends too! We learned that Elda enjoys playing soccer, and she likes to play outside. She also enjoys coloring, and her favorite colors are pink, red, and blue. She is a great big sister, and she also loves spending time with her cousins in New York. Elda is also a dancer and enjoys doing ballet and tap dancing!

The afternoon class loved learning all about Alexandra too! We learned that Alexandra is a big Disney fan, and she loved visiting the Magic Kingdom. Alexandra also loves to color and draw, and her favorite colors are pink, orange, and yellow. She loves writing with her electronic pen too!

We also had fun learning all about Lila! Lila enjoys collecting Beanie Boos and playing with her collection of Squishies. She also likes to spend time with her friends and her family, and she is a big Cubs fan! Lila enjoys spending time outdoors and playing with her LOL dolls. She also likes to dress up and wear her favorite jewelry!

Thanks so much for reading! 

Click here for more photos from the month of October.

I will post pictures from Halloween once I collect them all as well!

Have a great week!