Happy Halloween! I am proud to say we were still able to accomplish a lot with the excitement of Halloween brewing in the air.
In Reader's Workshop, we have been focusing on characters. We learned that characters can talk and authors show dialogue by using quotation marks and speech bubbles. We can describe characters and compare characters from the same book. It is also important to use characters' names when we retell a story. We did a lot of work with the stories Chicken Little and Stellaluna. Our focus will be shifting toward the setting of a story.
In Math, we have begun to look at 2 dimensional shapes. We have studied circles, squares, rhombuses, rectangles, trapezoids, ovals, hexagons, ovals, and triangles. It is important for your child to be able to find these shapes in their environment. Take your child on a shape hunt. The park is a great place for this! You can document your finds with photographs.
Next Thursday, November 7, will be our fiftieth day of school. To celebrate, we will be dressing up in 1950's outfits. Please don't go out and buy anything. Girls can wear skirts (I cut a poodle out of felt and pinned it to my skirt) and pony tails. Boys can wear jeans and white t-shirts. If you are looking for ideas, do a google image search of the 50th day of school. Lots of teachers have posted pictures of their classes.
Don't forget to fill out the Get Active, Get Fit paperwork. We can win a Disney Dance party for our school just by participating. I know that the kindergarteners are active every school day!
Thank you for returning the progress reports and goal sheets.
There will be no school on November 11 in observance of Veteran's Day.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Week 8
Thank you for the quick responses for our Halloween Party. We have enough treats to make a special snack for the children. If you wanted to volunteer an item, don't worry we will have a special Christmas project and a Valentine's Day Party too! We do not dress up in our costumes for the party. It takes a long time to get the children changed, and I don't want anyone to lose any pieces.
This week we started talking about pumpkins. We read Pumpkin, Pumpkin to learn about the life cycle of a pumpkin. We read a Let's Find Out! magazine also. We also read some fictional stories like Spookley The Square Pumpkin.
In Reader's Workshop we talked about retelling a story. The story we used was Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. We used a chart to help us remember what happened, we looked at pictures, and we also acted it out with props. I loved watching the students use different voices for the characters and remember all the details. Ask your child to retell the story for you. You can also do it with stories at home using dolls, puppets, or make your own characters using paper. The more chances students have to retell, the better their comprehension will be.
We are going to start using Words Their Way to help students with phonics skills. The students completed a spelling inventory this week. I used the inventory to sort students into groups to work on skills like letter identification, beginning sound, final sound, medial vowel sound, and consonant digraphs. Each week, your child will be focusing on a particular skill and given opportunities to practice the skill each day. At the end of the week, we will check their progress.
In math, we continued to work on counting on. I also assessed the students on adding one more object to a group. The goal is for students to add one more and tell how many without recounting. I was happy with how the students did. We also used a scale to compare the weight of various objects to a small pumpkin. The students completed sorting activities using Halloween erasers, table scatter, and other small objects. At home you can sort with cereal pieces, cars, Littlest Pet Shop toys, etc.. Try to encourage your child to sort the same object in more than one way: color, size, and shape are just a few ideas.
This week's popcorn words are he and she. We talked about the letter Pp. Try going on a scavenger hunt to find things that start with p.
Progress Reports will go home next Friday. Have a great weekend!
This week we started talking about pumpkins. We read Pumpkin, Pumpkin to learn about the life cycle of a pumpkin. We read a Let's Find Out! magazine also. We also read some fictional stories like Spookley The Square Pumpkin.
In Reader's Workshop we talked about retelling a story. The story we used was Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. We used a chart to help us remember what happened, we looked at pictures, and we also acted it out with props. I loved watching the students use different voices for the characters and remember all the details. Ask your child to retell the story for you. You can also do it with stories at home using dolls, puppets, or make your own characters using paper. The more chances students have to retell, the better their comprehension will be.
We are going to start using Words Their Way to help students with phonics skills. The students completed a spelling inventory this week. I used the inventory to sort students into groups to work on skills like letter identification, beginning sound, final sound, medial vowel sound, and consonant digraphs. Each week, your child will be focusing on a particular skill and given opportunities to practice the skill each day. At the end of the week, we will check their progress.
In math, we continued to work on counting on. I also assessed the students on adding one more object to a group. The goal is for students to add one more and tell how many without recounting. I was happy with how the students did. We also used a scale to compare the weight of various objects to a small pumpkin. The students completed sorting activities using Halloween erasers, table scatter, and other small objects. At home you can sort with cereal pieces, cars, Littlest Pet Shop toys, etc.. Try to encourage your child to sort the same object in more than one way: color, size, and shape are just a few ideas.
This week's popcorn words are he and she. We talked about the letter Pp. Try going on a scavenger hunt to find things that start with p.
Progress Reports will go home next Friday. Have a great weekend!
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Week 7
This week was a busy week for me! The kindergarten team met with a Data Coach. We are grouping children to do some intervention work on letter naming and letter sounds. Please practice these skills at home too. You can look for letters on signs while you are driving or practice writing them in the tub with bubbles. It should be fun for you and your child! Of course reading to and with your child is the best thing you can do to help your child be successful.
We talked and read about community helpers this week. One of our favorite literary texts was Officer Buckle and Gloria. We read informational books about police officers, firefighters, and postal workers.
In Reader's Workshop, we learned how to use sticky notes to mark things to share with our EEKK (Elbow to Elbow, Knee to Knee) partner. We marked a favorite part, something cool, something we learned or a connection to something that happened to us. Sticky notes help us to remember what we found during independent reading.
In math we are working on the tricky concept of counting on. We played a game in which we put some counters in a cup and some on the side. The challenge was to find out how many in all without recounting. So if there were 5 counters in the cup and 2 on the side, we started counting at 5 to find the total. You can practice at home with toys. Say to your child, if there are 4 cars parked in the garage and 3 outside of the garage, how many are there in all?
Our popcorn word this week was you. Our popcorn words include I, is, the, you, yes, no, see, and a. Keep looking for the words in the reading you do. You can play games like Go Fish or Memory by writing the words on index cards. Make sure to make two sets! We talked about the letter E and the short sound it makes like in elbow. Your child can make an E collage by finding E and e in magazines and cutting them out to glue onto construction paper.
Progress reports will go out Friday, October 25. I am sending an email out to ask for goodies for our Halloween Party. It will be held on October 31 at 2:00. You are welcome to join us! I would love the help setting up and cleaning up our little feast!
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Week 6
We finally made the applesauce! It was delicious! We used 16 small apples, 1/2 c sugar, sprinkle of cinnamon, and a cup of water. We let it cook in the crockpot on high all day, and tasted it at snack time. Most of the children really enjoyed it. If we let it cook longer, it would have been less chunky, but it was still great!
Our theme this week was Farms. We read both informational books like Farm Machines and Animals on the Farm, as well as literary texts like Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type and Mrs. Wishy Washy. This week during Reader's Workshop we talked about what we can share: a favorite part, something cool, something interesting we learned, or something that happened to me. Encourage your child to do this at home too!
In math we continue to work on number concepts to ten. We matched sets that are the same (a duck with 10 mud spots went in the tub with 10 bubbles). We played Fill the Chutes, by rolling a die and coloring the boxes until the muddy animal made it to the tub. We practiced counting on and will continue with that skill next week. I showed some tokens, covered them with my hand, and showed some more tokens. Students then had to determine how many tokens there were in all by counting on from the number covered up.
This week we finished the chapter book My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett. It is the first story in a trilogy. If your child really enjoyed the story, the sequels would make great read alouds at home. I am sure they have them at the Derry Public Library.
Mrs. Herr sent home a form for Get Active, Get Fit. Through this program, our school has earned two really fun Disney Dance Parties and playground equipment for each grade level. It is very easy for you to help us with this activity. Each day, ask your child if he or she was active and check the box. During the school week we are active with our movement songs, recess, and P.E.. Many kids also walk home either from school or the bus stop.
Students who completed the September Reading Log earned a coupon for a personal pizza at Pizza Hut. The same prize will be given at the end of October for the October Reading Log.
Our Home-School Co-ordinator, Mrs. Taylor, has set up a book swap in the cafeteria. Children can bring in books from home to swap for "new to them" books. She gave each child a book to keep this week. At any point in the year, your child can swap books.
There will be no school for students next Friday, October 11 for a teacher workshop or on Monday, October 14 in observance of Columbus Day. Enjoy the long weekend with your little ones!
Our theme this week was Farms. We read both informational books like Farm Machines and Animals on the Farm, as well as literary texts like Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type and Mrs. Wishy Washy. This week during Reader's Workshop we talked about what we can share: a favorite part, something cool, something interesting we learned, or something that happened to me. Encourage your child to do this at home too!
In math we continue to work on number concepts to ten. We matched sets that are the same (a duck with 10 mud spots went in the tub with 10 bubbles). We played Fill the Chutes, by rolling a die and coloring the boxes until the muddy animal made it to the tub. We practiced counting on and will continue with that skill next week. I showed some tokens, covered them with my hand, and showed some more tokens. Students then had to determine how many tokens there were in all by counting on from the number covered up.
This week we finished the chapter book My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett. It is the first story in a trilogy. If your child really enjoyed the story, the sequels would make great read alouds at home. I am sure they have them at the Derry Public Library.
Mrs. Herr sent home a form for Get Active, Get Fit. Through this program, our school has earned two really fun Disney Dance Parties and playground equipment for each grade level. It is very easy for you to help us with this activity. Each day, ask your child if he or she was active and check the box. During the school week we are active with our movement songs, recess, and P.E.. Many kids also walk home either from school or the bus stop.
Students who completed the September Reading Log earned a coupon for a personal pizza at Pizza Hut. The same prize will be given at the end of October for the October Reading Log.
Our Home-School Co-ordinator, Mrs. Taylor, has set up a book swap in the cafeteria. Children can bring in books from home to swap for "new to them" books. She gave each child a book to keep this week. At any point in the year, your child can swap books.
There will be no school for students next Friday, October 11 for a teacher workshop or on Monday, October 14 in observance of Columbus Day. Enjoy the long weekend with your little ones!
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