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!

Classroom News (Oct. 1-12)

I loved seeing the excitement when the students saw our new collection of featured books. Welcome October! These two short weeks have flown by. Take a peek below to see what we have been learning!

Math

We have been learning all about the numbers 7 and 8. As we have been learning more about each number, students have practiced writing each number, counting collections of objects, and finding matches for each number. During this unit, the children have had many opportunities to point and count collections of objects, which helps students develop one-to-one correspondence. This unit also includes many matching activities where students have to find two groups that have the same number of objects. This not only helps students gain a visual understanding of numbers, it also introduces them to the concepts of more and less. Students have also been working in their math journals and are beginning to complete these pages independently. 

Jolly Phonics

This week we reviewed all of the consonant and short vowel sounds and began learning some of the double letter sounds as well. This week we learned the following two sounds:

"ai" as in wait

"oa" as in goat

As a reminder, we will introduce two new sounds at the beginning of each week, so students will only have homework in their notebooks the first two days of each week. Students should also continue to review the items in their blue book bag throughout the week. 

Reading Workshop

The children did a great job during our first reading workshop lesson of the year. During this lesson, the students were introduced to all of the mentor texts that we will be using during our Launch Unit. We practiced "turning and talking" with our partners on our rainbow rug as we explored our collection of books.

During our reading workshop time, we will use these mentor texts to introduce skills and strategies that good readers use to help us learn and enjoy books. Students will learn a new skill during a whole group lesson. Then they will practice the skill with a partner, and finally they will try out the skill on their own using the books in their individual book bins. It is always exciting to watch the children grow as readers throughout the course of the year! 

Our "Comfy Reading Spots" bulletin board is growing! You are welcome to send in a photo or email me a photo of your child enjoying their comfy reading spot at home. More information can be found in the letter that was sent home about our first reading workshop lesson.

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! During our first writing workshop lesson, we learned that we are all writers who have ideas to share. We also learned that authors write for many different purposes and for many different audiences. Then we looked at several real life examples of writing and learned the four steps that we will use all year long as we work to share our ideas with others.

Centers

The students have been working on a variety of centers over the last two weeks that focused on the following skills: counting, letter identification, fine motor development, teamwork, and matching. Take a peek at us in action below! 

LMC

In the LMC, the students listened to It's Picture Day by Megan McDonald, and then they used the app Chatterpix to take a selfie and share a message!

All About Me

We had a great time learning all about Nick and Patrick this week. The morning class loved learning all about Nick and his favorite things. We learned that Nick LOVES Dr. Seuss books, and he enjoys making his own books and comics too. He likes Halloween and making crafts, especially handmade signs. Nick also enjoys spending time with his family and friends!

A big thank you to Nick's mom for coming in to read one of Nick's favorites to us!

The afternoon class loved learning all about Patrick and his favorite things. We learned that Patrick is a Spiderman fan, and he also enjoys playing with his dinosaur and car collections. Patrick also enjoys writing and drawing in his special planner that was hand painted by his mom. Patrick loves his stuffed animal collection, especially his cute dog, and he enjoys spending time with his family!

The afternoon class also enjoyed a Dr. Seuss book this week.
Thank you to Patrick's dad for coming in to read!

HOORAY! Celebrations

Both classes were excited to celebrate reaching the top of our class HOORAY board for good behavior. After taking a vote, the morning class decided to celebrate with a PJ and stuffed animal day, and the afternoon class celebrated with a scavenger hunt and a dance party. Keep up the great work kinder friends!!

Looking forward to seeing all of you at conferences next week!

Thanks for reading!