Weekly News (Jan. 21-23)

It may have been a short week, but we sure were busy! Here is what we have been learning this week.

Math

This week in math we reviewed how to add numbers with sums up to 10, and we worked to solve subtraction problems too. Using our interactive whiteboard, the children took turns subtracting or "taking away" dragonflies from our jar while playing a game called "Fly, Fly Away!" They did a great job recording their thinking using a number sentence such as 10-7 = 3, and they even learned how to use addition to check their work! We also used our mental math skills to practice solving number puzzles such as, "What number comes before 35?" We had some time to use our IXL math accounts in the LMC last week too. Here is the web address if you'd like to login at home!

www.ixl.com/signin/dryden

Subtraction on the Interactive Whiteboard

Literacy
This week during our reading workshop time, the students began to think about and develop their own identities by reflecting on themselves as readers. Thank you SO much for working with your child to complete the "Who Am I as a Reader?" and the "Book Favorites" surveys. I thoroughly enjoyed reading through each and every survey and talking about our favorite books in class. During our interactive read aloud lesson this week, 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 some 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. As we read through the story and Charlie showed Lola different kinds of books, the students gave a thumbs up or a thumbs down to show their interest in a particular genre. They had some time to talk about their favorite books with a partner too!

In another reading workshop lesson, the students learned how to use pictures to help them read words and make meaning of a text. Using an "action rhyme" poem called Catch the Moon, they studied the pictures to help them figure out the words on the page and understand the poem. They practiced reading the poem independently, and then we acted it out as we read it one more time. Take a peek at us in action below!

Reading Catch the Moon

Acting out and reading the poem Catch the Moon

Handwriting/Writing

The children have been doing a nice job practicing their handwriting skills. As we practice each letter of the alphabet, we are working on the following skills: correct letter formation; proper placement using the top, bottom, and dashed lines as a guide; and writing letters using a top down approach. We have a song that we sing to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It", and it goes like this: 

I always start my letters at the top. (At the top!) 


I always start my letters at the top. (At the top!) 


When I write another letter, 
I get better, better, better, 


When I always start my letters at the top. (At the top!)

We have been using the following guide as we introduce each letter. So far we have been practicing all of the letters that begin with what we call a "magic c." The letter "c" forms the foundation for many other letters as you can see below. Next week we will begin working on some of our "tall letters."

During writing workshop, the children continue to make progress stretching out the sounds they hear while trying to record their ideas on paper. We have recently been working on adding detail to our writing by adding more words to our sentences or writing multiple sentences on a topic. We have also been working to use lowercase letters when writing, with the exception of using capital letters for names and at the beginning of each sentence. 

Social Studies

With the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday this week, we spent some time learning about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his dream for peace and equal rights. We watched a BrainPop, Jr. video and read a book about his life. We had a great discussion about what it means to be fair as well as what it means to be kind or cruel to others. Some very thoughtful and compassionate responses!

Centers

The children had some time to work in a center of their choice this week, and all students had time to practice reading books on their RAZ Kids account. The children have responded very well to the RAZ Kids reading program and are eager to earn stars for their rockets! Here is the web address for at home access. Keep up the great reading K-2!

PJ Day!

Have a great weekend!
Thanks for reading!

Weekly News (Jan. 12-16)

It was great to be in school for a full week! The children jumped right back into our kindergarten routines. Take a peek below to see what we have been learning!

Math
The children completed their "Teen Number Books," which were a great way for them to understand and reinforce the concept of our teen numbers as "ten plus some more." In our number books, we practiced writing each teen number, reading each teen number word, and using a ten-frame to show each number. We took a closer look at shapes this week as we identified some of the similarities and differences between squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles. We also introduced the terms: corner, side, and angle. 

Literacy
The children have been learning many new skills and strategies during both our reading and writing workshop time. This week the children learned how to be "active listeners" during our interactive read aloud. I modeled for students how to pay close attention to the illustrations and words of the story, how to think about what's going on in the story, and how to talk about what the characters in the story are doing. Students were able to practice this "thinking aloud" strategy with a partner. Then they were able to use books from their individual book bins to practice their reading skills during independent reading time. 

During writing workshop, the students have been doing a great job leaving spaces between words and adding detail to their writing. The students are working on a writing activity that encourages them to focus in on one "small moment" of a winter activity. They will soon be working with a partner to edit and revise their first draft!

The kindergartners were also treated to a special reading of the book
Stranger in the Woods by Mrs. Sessler. What a beautiful story!

Winter Fun
The children were SO eager to finally get outside to play! They had a blast in the snow. Here are a few pics from recess!

All About Me

This week the class loved learning all about Sophie's favorite things. It was easy to see that Sophie enjoys arts and crafts. She loves to color, paint, and create! Sophie enjoys playing with her American Girl dolls and her Lego Friends. She loves the movie Frozen and spending time with her family!

Sophie's mom read a Bailey story to the class, which is now a class favorite!
Thank you so much for coming in to read!

Weekly News (Jan. 5-12)

What a chilly way to start off 2015! I hope everyone stayed warm and enjoyed the days off from school. 

Kate and James keeping busy on one of our snow days!

Math
This week in math, the children were introduced to calculators for the first time this year. We learned about the different keys and functions of the calculator, and we even played a math game using our calculators! The students also continued to work in their "Teen Number Books." They will bring home their books soon! We spent some time reviewing our shapes while the children had their first introduction to the concept of area.

Jolly Phonics

Now that all the Jolly Phonics sounds have been introduced, please continue to review these sounds with your child regularly. Knowing their sounds well really helps when learning to read and write. I can tell many of the children have been practicing. Keep up the good work!

Literacy

The children learned some new routines during Reading Workshop this week. They are learning how to be an active listener during our read aloud and shared reading lessons and an active participant during our "turn-and-talk" activities with classroom partners. I have also begun to reassess the students' guided reading levels. It is amazing to see how much they have grown since the beginning of the year! Students will not bring a new guided reading book home this week. 

During Writing Workshop, the children learned about "small moment" writing. We used the book The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats to help the students identify small moments throughout the book. Then the students had a chance to talk about and begin writing about their small moments from our two day cold days off from school. The children will be working through the writing process to edit their sentences, add more detail, and create a final draft of their writing. Can't wait to see their finished pieces!

Centers

The students have been working in centers on a variety of word work activities such as: sight word practice, labeling practice, writing CVC words, identifying missing sounds in words, and working on RAZ Kids. 

Looking forward to a great week in kindergarten!

Weekly News (Dec. 8-19)

The last two weeks before break have been great! We have been busy learning and are excited for our winter vacation!

Math
In math, the students learned about ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc,) and practiced putting a series of objects in order as they completed a Kwanzaa themed worksheet.  We also completed several "gingerbread math" activities.  We used pennies to cover an outline of gingerbread man and counted the number of pennies to see how many would fit.  It was a great way to introduce the children to the concept of area and review our counting skills.

The children also learned a new math game this week called Top-It, which is a game similar to the card game "War."  Using our set of number cards from 0-20, the children sat side by side, flipped their top card, and compared the two numbers to see who had the higher number.  The one with the higher number added both cards to their stack. We completed a graphing activity as well that the children absolutely loved and played a game of "Roll and Record" too!

Jolly Phonics
HOORAY! We did it! We learned the last of our Jolly Phonics sounds! The students have now been introduced to all 42 sounds. Many of the children are already using some of the double letter sounds we have learned in their writing and recognizing these sounds while reading. We will continue to review and practice our sounds. Keep up the great work!

Literacy/Social Studies
I loved seeing how excited the children were to find out what new gingerbread story we were going to read each day.  We read several versions over the last couple of weeks including: The Sourdough Man (an Alaskan version of the Gingerbread Man), Gingerbread Cowboy, Cajun Cornbread Boy, Gingerbread Baby, and Gingerbread Friends.  With each new book we read, we continued to discuss the similarities and differences between the main characters and the setting of each story as well as the major events and the refrain in each story.  They loved this unit!!

The children learned the sight word "have" and brought home a new sight word book that focused on ending sounds.  Please add this book to your child's plastic baggie and keep reading those books at home too!

In celebration of our gingerbread literature study, Mrs. Schmidt and I transformed the kindergarten hallway into a Gingerbread Wonderland!  The children were so surprised to see the hallway decorated with the gumdrops and candy swirls they made. 

We even made our own gingerbread boys and girls, and we learned "The Gingerbread Song" too, which follows the tune of Jingle Bells. You can hear it in action below!

All About Me
We loved learning all about Danny this week! He is an avid hockey player and enjoys playing games like Memory. He likes watching movies and playing with his Skylanders. He also loves to color and spend time with his family!

A big thank you to Danny's mom for coming in to read a story. Stick Man was a big hit!

Art Appreciation

The class really enjoyed the art lesson presented by Callie's mom this week. The students learned all about the painting The Fifer by French artist Edouard Manet.

Thank you for reading!

Wishing you all a wonderful winter vacation and a

Happy New Year!

Weekly News (Dec. 1-5)

The children have done a great job jumping back into our daily routines after the long Thanksgiving break, and our December is off to a GREAT start!

Math
The children were excited to bring home their December calendars this week.  I was so happy to hear from several families at conferences how useful the calendar is at home.  Thank you for encouraging them to use their calendars at home! Counting ahead on a calendar is a great skill for the children. This week we practiced moving forward and backward on the number line to solve number stories that reinforce addition and subtraction concepts.  The children also practiced sequencing the numbers from 0-20 and made a set of number cards that they will use next week to play a new math game called Top-It. This game is similar to the card game "War."  The children were also able to use our pattern block templates to create their own gingerbread houses. They did a great job using a variety of shapes to add detail to their houses. What a creative group we have!!

Jolly Phonics
This week the children learned the first two sounds in our final Jolly Phonics book including the sounds:

/qu/ as in "queen"

/ou/ as in "house"

Gingerbread Literature Unit
This is one of my favorite times of year in kindergarten. We have begun a literature unit where we will compare several different versions of the familiar story The Gingerbread Man. This unit provides us with a great opportunity to engage in some close reading exercises. This week we read The Gingerbread Man by Karen Schmidt and The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst.  After reading both stories, we compared the characters, the setting, and the major events in each story.  We also talked about the differences in the main chorus from each book, which the children loved reading along with me.  They did a fabulous job with their comparisons, and they can't wait to hear other gingerbread stories next week!  

Making our own "gumdrops" to add to our class gingerbread house.

Making swirl candies for our gingerbread house too!

Literacy and Social Studies
The children learned the sight word "to" this week and brought home a new sight word book to add to their growing collection of books.  We also began a mini unit featuring different December holidays.  We began the week reading a nonfiction book about Hanukkah and completed a worksheet to sequence the order in which the candles are lit on a menorah.  We also read a cute story titled Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah about a spider who watches a family celebrate the eight nights of Hanukkah, and wishes he too could spin his own dreidel.  After listening to the story, the children then completed a worksheet that required them to find words that began with the same sound as the word "menorah."  

Centers

The children worked well in centers this week while I worked with students in guided reading groups. Check out this week's centers below!

Geoboard Creations

Computer Center

Reading from our book bins

Creating our own Gingerbread Bears
after listening to the story in the listening center!

Writing Center

All About Me

We had a great time learning about Callie and all of her favorite things this week! We learned that Callie is very creative, and she loves to paint and color. She also enjoys doing ballet and playing with Lego Friends. Some of her favorite foods are strawberries, Goldfish, and apple juice. Callie lovers her dog, and she enjoys spending time with her family!

A special guest came in to read Zoomer. It was a hit and a perfect read aloud for this time of year!

Weekly News (Nov. 17-21)

I can hardly believe Thanksgiving is just around the corner and that we are already one third of the way through our kindergarten year.  My how time is flying by!  It's amazing to see how much the children have grown in such a short time.  I am so proud of all they have already accomplished!

Math

This week in math we created a class graph of our favorite Thanksgiving day foods from the following choices: mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie, and turkey of course! We counted the number of votes for each choice and analyzed our results. We learned that the same number of students liked mashed potatoes and turkey. Pumpkin pie was the clear winner, and Mrs. Riesing was the only one who liked stuffing!! We also practiced our counting skills this week. We counted by 1's and 10's and played a game on the whiteboard to put our counts of 10 in order from 10 to 100. We revisited the concept of our "ten frame" this week by talking more about a "teen frame." We used the interactive white board to help use add two numbers with totals beyond 10. The children are doing a great job recognizing our teen numbers as "ten plus some more." The children also worked more closely with the numbers 11 and 12 in their teen number packets!

Jolly Phonics

We are cruising right along with our Jolly Phonics sounds. We finished learning the sounds for Book #6, and we will begin our final book when we return from Thanksgiving break. This week we learned some of our "H Brothers!"

/ch/ as in "choo-choo"

/sh/ as in "ship"

/th/ as in "this" or "thing"

We have been reviewing all of our Jolly Phonics sounds each week, and the children are becoming more and more confident applying their sounds to their writing. It is so exciting to see!!

Literacy

The children enjoyed listening to several Thanksgiving related stories this week including: The Pilgrim's First Thanksgiving, Bear Says Thanks, and 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving. We also enjoyed reading several Thanksgiving poems and even created our own acrostic poems that highlighted many of the things we are thankful for. The students added a new sight word book to their book bags and brought home a copy of our November song for their green poetry folders. Click on the link below to hear us singing it one more time!

The children have also been busy with their writing the last couple of weeks! We have been writing about our favorite Thanksgiving foods, what we are thankful for, and what we like to do in the fall. Looking forward to sharing some of your child's writing with you at conferences!!

Centers

The students did a great job during centers this week as I met with groups for guided reading!

Roll-a-Turkey

Sequencing Numbers

Writing Center

Listening Center

Sight Word Center

All About Me
We loved learning all about Scot this week! He did a great job presenting his "Me Box," and we had a  great time learning all about his favorite things. We learned that Scot is a big fan of Legos. He loves catching bugs, and he loves dinosaurs. Some of his favorite foods are peppers and watermelon. He likes Transformers, and loves spending time with his family!

A special visit from Scot's Mom to read I'm Dirty!  A new class favorite!

Loved seeing the "Buddy Bench" in action during recess this week!

PJ Day with our Furry Friends!

Happy Thanksgiving from K-2!