A look at our learning...
Fundations: this week we learned THREE new letters: l, h, k. Lowercase k can be super tricky for kids, but they are doing a great job! We also learned about question marks, what they mean and when to use them in a sentence.
Please use the following verbal prompts when your child is forming their letters:
l-down
h-down, up, over
k-down, slant in, slant out
Writing Workshop: we are learning how to add words, in the form of labels, to our stories. To adults, it might be confusing as to why labeling is important, but it is a stepping stone to writing sentences and stories! First, a child must be able to verbally tell a story (which they can all do), then they must be able to legibly draw a picture to match their verbal story (still working on this) and labeling comes next. The labels help tell the story. Once they are experts at this, we can move onto actual sentences. Even a sentence in Kindergarten is considered a "story." Some students are already writing a sentence and that is great! However, they will still add labels to their picture in addition to their sentence.
Check out the poster below! The class helped me label it by sounding out words! I didn't spell any of the words for them, they told ME what to write.
Ask your child what they wrote about this week. We write about real things we do in our lives and not made up stories. Things such as going to the store with mom, riding their bike after school, going to the ARC to swim, etc.
Shared Reading/Spelling Words: this week we read the Big Book Halloween Costumes. We discussed how it is a non-fiction book and that non-fiction means real or true facts. Many non-fiction books also use photographs rather than drawings. This book, like many books at this level, had a repetitive pattern of "I look like a....." then a particular Halloween costume. We made our own page to go along with the book where they were able to tell what they dressed up as for Halloween. This helped them with writing our word wall words I, like and a. They brought this paper home on Thursday to share with you.
We also read the poem A Fall of Colors that featured our new word wall word like.
New spelling word:
up
Due to the students having several days off over the course of the next two weeks, I will introduce the new spelling word, up, on Wednesday, November 9th, but our spelling test will not be until Thursday, November 17th. There will NOT be a spelling test on Friday, November 11th, due to us only being in school for 3 days next week. This will give them ample time to practice this new word (and the older words).
Science: our living and non-living unit is finished. During 2nd trimester, we will learn about health. We will focus on healthy eating, exercise, moving our body, the 5 senses, etc.
Daily 5 Literacy Workstations: last week in the Friday Folder you may have noticed worksheets that your child completed. These are activities they work on throughout the week during our Daily 5 literacy workstation time. They focus on letters/letter sounds we are learning, our word wall words and more! Not all workstations have worksheets to complete. So if there aren't any in your child's folder from time to time, that just means they went to workstations that week that focused on other skills.
Friday craft: this week we learned about Veteran's Day and discussed real life, every day Heroes in preparation for our Heroes' Day celebration next Friday. Our craft went along with this. We wrote/drew about our own personal hero and made a patriotic craft. These will be on display on the bulletin board outside our classroom for our special visitors to see next Friday. We hope that every child will have some sort of special visitor attend next Friday. That can be a grandparent, veteran or just someone who is special/an everyday hero to your child. We combine Grandparents Day and Heroes' Day for this particular reason.
Social Skills: we are working on using our words to communicate our needs. I have noticed that many students in our class will have a problem arise, but rather than raise their hand to ask for help they will just sit and do nothing. We have discussed how we can't read their minds to know what they need and even if we (adults) can tell what they need, it is important that they use their words to communicate those needs. For example: if their glue stick runs out they should raise their hand to ask for another glue stick, rather than sit and do nothing and wait for me to come over and ask why they aren't working. Or if they don't know the answer to something (that's ok!) they need to say "I don't know" rather than sitting and staring. As adults, it is easy to jump in and speak for them or see their needs and help them without thinking and allowing them the time to communicate their needs for themselves. I encourage you to allow them and encourage them to use their words to communicate their needs at home as well and try to refrain from jumping in too quickly.
Fast Pass Award: our class won the Fast Pass Award for the second time this school year! Yay! This means the recess and lunch supervisors thought that our class did the best job playing safely and following recess rules and doing their job and cleaning up well during lunch. We were able to keep a Flash the Timberwolf stuffed animal in our room all week AND be the first to go inside from recess to lunch every day this week!
October Reading Logs: October reading logs were due last week. Reading is required homework at Beulah Ralph. Kindergartners are expected to read or be read to at least 4 days a week for 15 minutes per time AND recorded on their reading log to turn in at the end of each month. If your child did not return their reading log last week, please do so on Wednesday. November reading logs were in last weeks Friday Folder.
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