Happy February

A look at our learning...

Fundations: we have begun Unit 3, which will mainly focus on learning to "tap out" 3-4 letter words quickly when reading and writing.  We will also begin learning "trick words."  Trick words are words that can't be "tapped out" and are words we have to "just know" or memorize.  They are important words, as they are ones that will show up often in books as they are becoming readers.  In your Fundations parent packet there are "trick word" flash cards.  I encourage you to cut these out and place in a baggie to practice often.  I have included these words in our spelling words for the rest of the year.  Meaning, when it is the week in Fundations for us to learn a particular "trick word," I will make sure it is also one of our new spelling words that week.  That way you aren't practicing additional words.  That being said, you do not have to wait until that week to start practicing the other words with your child!  The more you practice, the better they get! 

Please check your child's Take Home Folder for their end of Unit 2 assessment to see what areas they did well on and if there are any areas you may need to practice at home.

Shared Reading: we read the big book One, not two and the poems Love is and I'm a little groundhog.  They featured our new spelling words of the week.  They were able to add small copies of these books to their book boxes to practice reading during Read to Self time.

Below, they are highlighting spelling words they notice in the book.  Noticing "known words" in text is an important skill when reading. 

Next week's spelling words:

go

so

Daily 5 workstations: we have several new workstations that focus on "tapping out" 3-4 letter words.  This ties into our Fundations lessons and is more practice to help us become better readers and writers.  

Writing Workshop: next week we will wrap up our narrative writing unit.  Since the beginning of Kindergarten we have been writing narratives, stories about our lives, as this is what Kindergarteners are experts on and can easily come up with something to write about.  Whether it was a t-ball game, playing in the snow on a snow day or a simple trip to the store with their parents.  They have grown from telling a story only through a drawing, to writing a simple sentence to writing 3 details.  We will learn how to write informational pieces beginning the week of February 13th.  We will research a few animals and write pieces based on what we learned about those animals.  This is always a super fun unit! 

Math: we are beginning Unit 6 in math.  Please check your child's Friday Folder for what we will learn in the upcoming unit and how you can support their learning at home. 

A few things to see if your child can do:

*Count to at least 60 by 1's and 10's

*Identify the following shapes: circle, square, triangle, rectangle, trapezoid, hexagon, rhombus

*Identify at least 15 numbers from 0-20

*Count backwards from 10

*Write their numbers to at least 15

All of those will be items assessed and reported on for the 2nd trimester report cards in 3-4 weeks.  We practice at school, but if you notice your child can't do these things, extra practice is encouraged at home. 

Craft: on Thursday we celebrated Groundhog's Day.  We have enjoyed making predictions about what would happen, reading books about the groundhog and watching the live video of Punxsutawney Phil telling us there would be 6 more weeks of winter!

Valentine's Day cards: we made cards for a local nursing home for Valentine's Day.  The list of things to write inside the card is one of the million reasons why I love teaching Kindergarten.  So sweet and innocent.  

Global School Play Day: this day is always a hit! I'm so glad that our school values the importance of play and this special day! Here are a few pictures, but I shared even more and a video on our class Facebook page.