Countdown to winter break

 A look at our learning...

Fundations: please check your child's Friday Folder for the Fundations parent packet.  It clearly explains how we are learning to "tap out" words when reading and writing.  I encourage you to do the daily activities they suggest and use the language we are using at school when your child wants to spell something at home. 

Shared Reading: this week we read the book Santa, Santa, What do you see? (similar to Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?) and the big book A Cold Day.  Both of these books featured our word wall words and we were able to add them to our book boxes as familiar read books for Read to Self time (a quiet, independent reading time we have each day). 

Writing Workshop: we continue to work on sounding out words when we write stories and forming our letters correctly, the way we learned at Fundations.  We are also working more on putting spaces between our words when we write to make it more legible.  

Math: this week we worked on teen numbers, shapes and making shapes using other shapes (for example-6 triangles can make a hexagon, but so can one triangle, one rhombus and one trapezoid).  Teen numbers can be tricky.  We are singing this song daily at math time to help us learn them.

Citizen of the Month: yay Savannah!  She was chosen, by her peers, as our December Citizen of the Month!  We celebrated her today!

We've read many fun holiday books, made crafts and enjoyed our Countdown to Cozy Day this week!  

Your child has a special gift for you that they are bringing home today to put under the Christmas tree.  They are supposed to let you know that you need to wait to open these on Christmas Eve or Christmas day or whenever you have your family celebrations.  They are breakable, just a heads up.  Enjoy!

Learning in room 302

 A look at our learning...

Fundations: now that we have finished learning all 26 lowercase letters, we are moving onto reading and writing 3-4 letter words by "tapping them out."  Ask your child to show you how to tap out a word.  More information will be in next week's Friday Folder.  There will not be Fundations handwriting practice in this week's folder, but will be next week as we quickly refresh uppercase letters (that we expect students to come into Kindergarten knowing.)

Please check your child's Friday Folder for the end of unit 1 Fundations assessment. 

Shared Reading: this week we read the Big Book Look at me.  This book featured our new word wall word, at.  We continue to work on pointing to words when we read and noticing when we come across word wall words in text. 

I'm very impressed with how well they have done on their first two spelling tests!  Keep practicing at home!  They should be able to read and write the words, so make sure you practicing both ways (flash cards are a great way to practice reading them). 

Below, students are highlighting word wall words in their own copy of the book Look at me.

Writing Workshop: we continue to work on sounding out, or now tapping out, words to help us spell when writing our stories.  This is a continuous theme in Kindergarten writing.  Their words should be more decodable and easier to read now that they know all of their letter sounds.  

Math: this week we worked on graphing, sorting shapes by type and exploring calculators.  They loved the calculator day! 

Check your child's Friday Folder for ways to extend their math learning at home. 

More great weather this week to play with our friends outside!

A beautiful start to December

 A look at our learning...

Fundations: we have learned all 26 lowercase letters of the alphabet!  Yay!  This means your child should know the name, sound and correct formation of all 26 lowercase letters.  Next week, they will have a Fundations assessment, similar to the one I showed you at parent-teacher conferences, so you can see what letters/sounds/formations they need to work on.  I will send these home in next week's Friday Folders.  

Our final two letters are z and qu.  We learned that "qu" is a "scaredy cat" and can never be alone.  When spelling words, q and u must always be together.  

Please use the following verbal prompts when forming these letters:

z: across, slant down, across

qu: over, around dow....n, curve back (q) down, curve up, down (u)

Shared Reading: this week we read the big book We Are and the poem I am me.  Both of these texts featured our new word wall word, am.  We are working on pointing to words when we read and identifying words we know (word wall words) in text.  

Writing Workshop: now that we know all 26 letter sounds, students should be applying this knowledge more when spelling words and writing stories.  At the beginning of the school year simply drawing pictures was ok, then adding a random string of letters showed they had an awareness of print even if you couldn't read it.  Now, they should be writing words that are legible and using their letter sounds for at least beginning and ending sounds in words.  

Look at the great "sounding out" on these Thanksgiving papers we did on Monday!

Math: this week we learned a new game called "Number Line Squeeze" or Monster Squeeze as we like to call it on the Every Day Math app in the CPS portal.  You can access Every Day Math Games at home as well through the CPS portal.  A note was attached to the parent hand out you received at parent teacher conferences explaining how to access these games.  If you mis-placed it and would like another, please let me know.  We also worked on positional words again, ST Math and number formation through a game called "roll and record."

We are beginning unit 4 next week.

Snacks: a reminder to please send one healthy snack to school with your child each day.  I have noticed since returning from Thanksgiving break, many friends have not had a snack.  I will always give a child a snack if one is forgotten on the rare occasion or you are unable to provide due to life situations, but if it is daily they are not bringing one simply because they prefer my snack, I will not provide one.  You guys are very generous and have provided plenty of extra snacks, which I am not low on.  I DO NOT need extra snacks provided at this time, but rather am trying to encourage responsibility of them remembering their school things. Thanks for understanding and helping with this. When they say "mom or dad forgot my snack" I always have them correct it and say "I forgot my snack."  I remind them that mom and dad have their things to take care of, but their backpack, folder, library books and snack is their (the kindergarteners) responsibility.  This is a great, age appropriate job for them. 

November Citizen of the Month: I posted on Facebook, but wanted to share on here as well!  Yay Cooper! He was chosen, by his peers, as our November Citizen of the Month!

The weather this week was beautiful!  We enjoyed every minute!

Please be sure to send a jacket next week, as the weather cools of.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 A look at our learning...

Fundations: this week we learned the name, sound and correct letter formation for lowercase x and y.  We only have TWO LETTERS IN THE ALPHABET LEFT TO LEARN! YAY!

Please use the verbal prompts below when helping your child form these letters:

x-slant down, slant back

y-slant down, slant baaaackkkk

Slant down letters can be tricky for some kiddos.  If you notice this is tough for your child, I'd suggest some activities that support crossing the midline. There are SO MANY activities that work on this skill.  Click here to see a few.  Even just having them stand up (without a pencil) and making the "slant down" motion with their arm across their body is good practice. 

Writing Workshop: our main focus continues to be writing a story (sentence) by sounding out/stretching out our words.  If they are writing about walking their dog, their story shouldn't just say "dog," but rather something such as "I took my dog on a walk."  That may be spelled something like this "I tk mi dog on a wk." 

Check out your child's Take Home Folder tonight. We did a "label the sticker" activity that specifically focused on sounding out words.  Take notice and see if your child heard/wrote most beginning and ending sounds (with maybe a middle sound) or if they wrote a random string of letters.  By now, Kindergarten students should be hearing and writing at least the beginning and ending sounds in words since we have learned 24/26 letter sounds. 

 

Math: this week we worked on representing numbers in different ways (check their folder for this.....one time they worked with a partner and one time independently), number formation and a new math game called "Spin a number" that focuses on counting and number identification. 

Science: as mentioned in our Kindgarten team newsletter in today's Friday Folder, we have switched gears in science.  We are finished with our living and non-living unit and are in the middle of a health unit.  This week Mrs. Lolli, our school nurse, came into our classroom to talk about germs and proper handwashing.  She used some special glo germ lotion to help us see the germs on our hands before and after washing.  If they could still see the lotion under the black light after washing, it helped them see where and how they could better wash their hands.  

We teach the following for handwashing and appreciate your support at home:

1) wet hands with warm water

2) turn off water and get one squirt of soap

3) scrub with soap while singing the ABC song, making sure to get wrists, between fingers, around fingernails and both sides of hands

4) turn the warm water back on and rinse off soap

5) dry

Friday Craft: last week we made turkeys (think I forgot to post) and today we made scarecrows.

We have LOVED sharing our turkey disguises the past few weeks! Your families are so creative!  We will keep them in our room through the end of November and then send them home. I hope you enjoyed working on these as a family.  

I will see your children at school on Monday and Tuesday, but want to wish you and your families a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving!  Enjoy your time together!