A BIG thank you to all of the families who attended their child's parent teacher conference this week. I enjoyed sitting down with each of you and showing you how much your child has grown over the past trimester. Raising children and helping them learn takes a village and I appreciate your teamwork! Thank you for also supporting the Scholastic Book Fair while here.
A look at our learning last week...
Fundations: all year we have known c and k make the same sound and we always just had to guess which letter we used for certain words....until now! We learned that we have to listen to the vowel sound that follows the /c/ or /k/ sound to help us determine if we use a c or a k. If we hear the a, o or u sound, we use the letter c. If we hear the i or e sound, we use the letter k. We have this chart in our room to use as a resource when tapping out and spelling words. The kiddos have done a GREAT job at using this chart to help them know which letter to use.
Shared Reading & Spelling: we read the Big Book What has these stripes? and the poem As Fast as a Cheetah to help us practice our new spelling words as and has.
Next week's new spelling words:
was
look
Writing Workshop: they are LOVING our informational writing unit. Not only are they learning so many things about penguins, but the growth in their writing skills is quite impressive!
Our informational writing booklets consist of 6 pages:
1) Cover with a title that they choose and author/illustrator name
2) Opening page that tells the reader what they will learn about in the book
3, 4, 5) 3 pages of facts
6) Ending page that wraps up the writing/reminds the reader what they learned about
We have also learned that informational/non-fiction books have labels in the pictures and headings for each page.
We will continue to work on penguin books next week and choose a different animal to learn/write about the following week.
Math: we are beginning unit 7 in Math. Please check your child's Friday Folder to see what they will learn about during this unit. The "Math at Home" book you received at parent teacher conferences is also a great resource to extend their learning at home.
They have really enjoyed learning about addition and subtraction through games and story problems over the past couple of weeks and are doing a great job with it!
February Packmate of the Month: yay Aleah! She was chosen, by her peers, as our February Packmate of the Month!
Shade Structure: check out the new shade structure on the playground! This was purchased with PTA funds collected over the years! We love it!
Book Giveaway: this week Mrs. Fitch, our media specialist, gave away 20 books from the Scholastic Book Fair. We had two winners in our class! Congrats to William and Chi Chi!
Social Skills: next week we will devote some time each day to work on a couple of important social skills: tattling vs. reporting and worrying about/being in charge of ourselves. The case of tattle tongue has definitely been on the rise. While this is something that is common in Kindergarten, it has gotten a bit out of hand lately.
The counselor lesson this week was also about using our words to solve conflict. They practiced using the following statement with peers "I feel......because....." when something happens that they don't like. For example: "I feel frustrated when you won't let me have a turn at the game." instead of running to a teacher and saying "they never let me go first." This is just one of many examples. Not going to lie, this was a tough lesson for many of them and a difficult sentence for them to say. At home, when conflict arises with a sibling I encourage you to have them use the above language as well. Do not acknowledge the tattle until they have tried using their words.
Effort in P.E.: Coach C has talked with me about effort from many students in my class in P.E. (as well as the tattling/worrying about oneself as mentioned above). He has reported that there is a great deal of whining occurring (for lack of better words) and not participating when required. Many of the complaints are "I'm tired" or "I'm thirsty" or "I want to do something else." They are having a difficult time understanding that P.E. is a class where they must learn certain gross motor skills, games and increase their physical activity, rather than a free for all recess.
We have talked about how if they can run around and play at recess for 20 minutes without complaining of being tired and thirsty, they can do the same in P.E. Students at this age should easily be able to participate in a 50 minute physical education class without needing to stop every few minutes. We know that they CAN, we see it at recess, but rather their attitude and effort has become poor due to wanting to do what they want, rather than what is asked of them. Please know, they are given drink and rest breaks. They are not being deprived of that, but rather we are asking them to put forth their best effort in P.E., just as they would for me in the classroom.
As technology in homes become more and more common, we can see this gradual change in physical activity. We highly encourage you to limit screen time and encourage your child to be active every single day. Thank you for your help with this. We want to raise healthy, active children.
Fun from our week
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