Force and Motion

I just want to remind you that Parent Teacher Conferences are on Thursday, December 7.  There will be no school on that day.  If you haven't signed up for one, I do have openings earlier in the day.  I can also meet with you on another day before or after school.  Report cards will go home on Wednesday.

Monday, December 4 is a Popcorn Day.  Popcorn is $.50, if you haven't already prepaid for the year.

This week we talked about our schema (what we already know) about force and motion.  We have read some books, done some experimenting and played some games to learn more about what makes things move from one place to another.

        

We haven't finished Unit 1 in Fundations.  We have learned how to recognize, write and name the letter sound for all lowercase letters.  As a review, we have been using this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwOQvh_mJ4w&list=RDqwOQvh_mJ4w

The sight words we have learned so far are:

I, a, is, the and, can, like, my, to.

In Readers Workshop, we are continuing to build our super powers to read bigger books.  These books are more challenging because there are more words on a page, some times more sentences, and the pattern has more changes.  

In Math, we have finished our topic on Classifying and Counting objects.  The most challenging part is for students to explain how they would sort the objects.  We are also continuing to check our work when counting so that we don't miss any or count the same object more than once.  Next, we are starting to explore addition!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have had a busy week and a half!

This week we celebrated STEAM by doing a project with a cardboard box.  First, we read these books:

    

Then, we brainstormed what they could turn their box into.  We shared our ideas.  Each kindergartener chose a box and used their imagination to turn it into a toy.  We had robots, cars, rocket ships, a Christmas tree, and more!

We made a turkey book about what we are thankful for.  Students also made a paper bag turkey for you to decorate your house with.

Happy Veterans Day!

This week we learned what a Veteran is and shared about Veterans in our family.  Mrs. Torres brought in her son's uniform for us to see and touch.

In Readers Workshop, we continue to talk about our Reading Super Powers.  We began looking at how patterns help us to read.

In Writing, we continue to add to our chart, "What makes writing easy to read?"  We will learn how to use this checklist on our own writing.

In Math, we have been comparing and ordering numbers.  We have focused on proving how we know a number is greater by using matching or a number line.  

We added the word my to our sight word chart.  We have also been practicing the letters v and w.  We continue to practice letter formation-starting at the top of the letter, using the lines to help us make the letter the correct size, and using lowercase letters.

We have been reading books with patterns from the Brand New Readers Series.

        

Happy Halloween!

It was a great week for us to start recording the weather!  I hope you were all safe and warm during the storm.  Our Halloween snack was delicious.  Thank you to everyone who was able to send in a treat and visit with us.

On Wednesday, we used candy corn to do some fun math activities.  We learned what it means to make an estimate and then check the estimate with an actual count.  We reviewed putting the numbers 1-10 in order using a fun candy corn pattern.

In math, we finished our topic on numbers to 10.  We can all count ten objects when we remember to go slow.  Some of us are practicing writing the numbers correctly and others are learning to recognize the numbers.  We are using are number knowledge from the previous topics to compare numbers.  We are remember to explain how we know a numbers is greater or less using matching or a number line.

In Readers Workshop, we are learning super powers to help us read.  We have talked about pointer power, partner power, sight word power, and first sound power.  We will be adding persistence power and pattern power next week.  As you are reading with your child at home, you can show your child how you read one word out loud for every word on the page.  As your child reads little books from school, encourage a crisp point under each word when reading.

In Writers Workshop, we are talking about how to make our writing easy to read.  We know that we need to add spaces between words and neat letters help us to read our own writing and others to read it as well.

In the next week, look for a sign up for Parent Teacher Conferences.  Parent Teacher Conference Day is December 7.  There will be no school on that day.  Fifteen minute conferences will be scheduled from noon to seven.

There is no school on Friday, November 10 in honor of Veterans Day.

Book Orders are due on Thursday, November 9.

Owls, Pumpkins, Bats, Oh My!

We finished our Owl books, and they look adorable on the bulletin board.  We also learned about bats and are starting to learn about pumpkins.

We have been counting to ten and writing numerals to ten.  The last part of the topic got to be a little tricky.  We were finding all the ways to make numbers up to ten.  We are doing it in an organized way to make a pattern.

In Readers Workshop we have been learning how to do some partner centers.  We added Reading Response Journals to write about our books, Super Sentence Center to build and read sentences, and Act It Out to act out stories.  

Progress Reports go home on Friday, there will be no new blog post!

Our special Halloween snack will be on Monday at 1:15.  All are welcome to attend.

We Are Readers Celebration!

Thank you to those who were able to attend our Reading Celebration on Friday.  We enjoyed modeling how we do a reading lesson and independent reading.  One of our main goals for this unit was for all the kindergarteners to see themselves as readers.  Looking at books and telling the stories is how we start reading.  Now many of us are able to recognize some words and use a pattern to read a story.  Some can even read most of the words.  We will continue to develop our reading super powers!

We have begun writing words in our Drawing and Writing books.  We have a slogan, "If you can say a word, you can write a word!"  We practiced saying the word slowly and writing the sounds we hear.  In order to create independent and creative writers, we encourage students to do their best job with the sounds and not ask for help or if the word is right.  As we begin to learn more spelling patterns, our spelling will improve.  At this point, just encourage your child to try his or her best and have him or her read it to you.

In math, we are learning to recognize and write the numbers 6-10.  We are marking objects as we count so that we don't forget any or count any twice.  The whole class is doing a great job counting with one to one correspondence.  We are working on forming the numbers correctly.

In Fundations, we have added the letters s and d.  We are practicing the sight words I, see, a, is, the, like, and can.

  

We finished our book about owls.  We have been reading both fiction and nonfiction books about bats, including Stellaluna.  We read the book a few times so that we remembered lots of details.  At the end of the week we watched a video adaptation of the book.  We watched it with the closed captioning on and the kindergarteners were so excited to find words they know!  Then we wrote about similarities and differences in the book and movie.  They had some really great ideas!

We will be having a special Halloween snack on Monday, October 30 at 1:15.  We don't dress up, but we do invite our parents in to have a little party.  We are looking for volunteers to provide the refreshments.  We would like a sweet treat like cupcakes, cookies or brownies, juice boxes, cheese and crackers, and a fruit or veggie tray.  If you are able to send in a snack, please send me an email.  

Owls and More!

We have been learning about owls this week.  We learned words like oviparous, parliament, and nocturnal.  We are creating our own books about owls with fabulous illustrations.

We started writing in our new Drawing and Writing books.  We are learning that illustrators can show feelings and places in their drawings.  I am amazed at the details students are showing in their stories.  Next week, we will start adding words to our stories.

We will finish our first reading unit, We Are Readers, next Friday.  We would like to invite one guest per child to school to observe a focus lesson and read with your kindergartener in his or her reading spot.  They will be bringing home an invitation for you this weekend with all the details.

Thank you for helping your child get a new old favorite this week by reading Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus.  It is a fun story to read over and over again.  Reading the same story again and again, helps students in so many areas-comprehension, stamina, storytelling, concepts of print, and just plain old enjoyment!

We have introduced the following sight words:  I, a, is, the, like, and see.  We are practicing sight words with center activities, whole class games, and by reading and looking for the words in books.  You can help at home by playing games like Go Fish or memory by writing the words on index cards.  You can put the words on post it notes around the house.  When you read to your child, stop when you get to a popcorn word and have your child read it.  We also added the letters a and g to our daily practice.

  

In math, we finished up our topic Comparing Numbers 0 to 5.  We continue to practice writing our numbers correctly and fluently.  We are also using the vocabulary greater than, less than, and equal to.  We have two strategies for comparing numbers.  We can match the objects up to see if there is a group that doesn't have enough or has extras.  We can also count the objects.  The number that is less will be first when you count.  You can practice this skill at dinner.  Do you have a greater number of carrots or chicken nuggets?  Which is group has less, parents or children?  Make sure you follow up with how do you know?  What strategy did you use?

Information went home this week about the food drive and the Yankee Candle fundraiser.  Also, a book order was sent home and that is due on October 13.  

Enjoy your holiday weekend-no school on Monday!

Here are some books we have read this week: