Hello December

 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. 

Shared Reading: we read the books Day and I pick up this week.  We learned how to do "buddy reading" with familiar texts. This will become a new weekly routine.  One person is the "teacher" and the other is the "reader."  Then they switch.  This allows all students the chance to read the familiar text and work on the concepts such as: pointing to words when we read, monitoring on known words (being able to locate and read spelling words quickly that are in text, even if we don't know all the words in the text) and discussing what we read. In the pictures below your child is participating in buddy reading. 

New spelling words of the week:

in

it

if

There will be 3 words that week due to them being similar.

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 a couple examples from some of our classmates.  This is similar to what your child's writing should look like at this point in the year. 

I cleaned out my garage. There was leaves.

I went to the beach.  It was sunny.

I went to the swimming with my family.

I build a fort.  It was a fun day. 

Math: we are becoming teen number experts! Between singing our "Numbers in the teens start with a 1" song daily and regular morning work activities that involve teen numbers, we have greatly improved!  I'm so proud of their hard work!  Not only can they recognize the teen number, but are getting very good at understanding and explaining how it is a group of 10 and some left over.  

This week we also worked on representing numbers in many different ways and learned a new number/counting game called "Spin a Number." 

Holiday fun: Jack is back!  One of Santa's helpers has been visiting my classroom since 2011.  He loves seeing all the things the kindergarteners are learning and reporting the kind things he sees to his "boss" Santa Claus!  The kids were excited to meet him this week and they all assured me they would be showing Jack only the BEST things to report to Santa! 😀

Friday craft & Reindeer cam: it's time to take the turkeys down and bring in the reindeer!  Our room is feeling very festive.  Speaking of reindeer, we found Santa's security camera at the North Pole and are able to watch his beautiful reindeer throughout the day!  Sometimes we even get glimpses of Santa himself!  So exciting!  You can watch at home too.  Check it out here.  There are times that Santa will read a story, and most are times we aren't in school, so you can enjoy it at home with your family.  Enjoy these magical moments with your little ones, they are only young once and it goes by so quickly. I try to bring as much magic and joy as I can into their lives during the school day. As they grow older, they may not remember when they learned certain letters or how to count, but they will remember these magical moments.  

New School Nurse: a big welcome to our new school nurse, Heather Jones!  We are excited to have her at Beulah with Mr. Cameron. 

Recess fun

Happy Thanksgiving

A look at our learning...

Fundations: this week we learned the name, sound and correct letter formation for lowercase v and w.  They are "slant down" letters.  The "slant down" can be a bit tricky for kids.  When practicing at home this weekend, watch and see if they are slanting down the correct way.  

Please use the following verbal prompts for correct formation:

v-slant down, slant up

w-slant down, slant up, slant down, slant up

Shared Reading & Spelling: we read the poem A Fall of Colors and the big book What I like.  Both featured our new spelling word like. We discussed point of view in poems/stories.  We figured out that it was a leaf's point of view in our new poem.  In our big we discussed thought bubbles and what they mean and can tell us.  

We will not introduce new spelling words next week due to the short week.  When we return on Monday, November 27th we will begin learning 2 new words a week instead of one.  Our new words that week we will be up and day. Feel free to start practicing early!  

The students are doing a WONDERFUL job spelling their words correctly on their spelling test, but many are missing a point for their name due to not forming their letters correctly.  We have learned correct letter formation for all lowercase letters except q, x, y, z.  They are expected to form all lowercase letters learned correctly at all times; not just on their spelling test, but every time they write. If your child is missing points for this on the spelling test, please work on correcting it. 

In your child's Friday Folder is a paper with correct letter formation and verbal prompts for ALL letters.  These are the verbal prompts your student is expected to know and use.  Please do not throw this paper away.  Please keep it somewhere to use often and hold your child accountable.  If they are forming their letters incorrectly, they need to be saying the verbal prompts out loud to you when writing those letters.  They have learned that those words tell their pencil what to do. 9 times out of 10, if they are verbally saying the prompts they will not form it incorrectly.  Thank you for helping with this at home. 

Writing Workshop: we are moving further along in the writing process.  We have moved from telling a story through pictures, to adding labels, to now writing a "story." In Kindergarten, a sentence is a story at this point in time.  We are learning the writing process you see in the picture below.  Students are expected to spell word wall words correctly and sound out/stretch out non word wall words.  Check out some of the great stories from some of our classmates this week! I did not help them with any of this!  I love the phonetic spelling!  This is what we should see! 

                                                 

I went to gymnastics.

I went to the Mizzou football game.

Math: this week we started focusing on teen numbers and how they start with a 1, as I discussed with many of you at parent-teacher conferences.  For the rest of November and all of December we will start math every day with this song below.  It's a great one to help learn their teen numbers and fix the reversals.  

We also did several activities with the number 10: we found various ways to make 10 on a ten frame (1 and 9, 4 and 6, etc.), putting numbers in order from 1-10 with a cute turkey craft and learning about positional words. This is always one of my favorite things to teach and kids love it as well.  They brought home a turkey positional words book on Thursday that we did in class. 

We have also started learning correct number formation of numbers 0-10.  It is just a quick overview and we don't spend a great deal of time on it like we do letter formation. We talked about how if they can write those numbers, they can write any number in the whole wide world!

As I discussed with many of you at conferences, it is developmentally and age appropriate for students to write numbers backwards until the end of second grade. It doesn't mean they are dyslexic, I promise. 😀 While you can work on it if you wish, it isn't required and will often naturally correct itself.  We don't want to transpose numbers (41 for 14, 61 for 16, etc.) but simply writing a number backwards isn't a huge deal.  

Counselor: this week Mrs. Bergeson's lesson was about kindness.  This was perfect since World Kindness Day was on Monday, November 13th.  Ask your child about the photos below and what they are doing with Mrs. Bergeson.

A wonderful way to talk to your child about school each day is to ask "how were you kind?" or "who were you kind to today?" rather than "what did you do at school today?" Try it! 

Packmate of the Month: yay Molly! She was chosen, by her peers, as our November Packmate of the Month! 

Disguise a turkey: we had so much fun sharing the "disguise a turkey" family projects over the past few weeks!  I hope you enjoyed this special time with your child!  What I love most is how you can tell the child was the leader and the family assisted.  Thank you for encouraging and embracing their creativity! We will proudly display them through the end of November and return home in December.  

Class goal: we earned 10 compliments from our specials teachers and celebrated with a pj, pillow, blanket and movie day on Friday.  We enjoyed watching Free Birds.  It's a great one for Thanksgiving time if you haven't seen it!  It also tied in nicely with our "disguise a turkey" project. 

We are going to continue to work on earning compliments from specials.  When we earn our next 10 stickers we decided we will celebrate with a costume day.  They can wear their Halloween costume or any play dress up clothes.  I will let you know when we reach this goal. 

Buddy Bench: check out our Kindergarten team newsletter for information on a new Buddy Bench on the front Kindergarten playground!  Check out how beautiful it is!

Next week: a reminder that Columbia Public Schools IS in session on Monday and Tuesday. Thanksgiving break is Wednesday-Friday.  We are working hard on improving kindergarten attendance numbers. Thank you for helping your child arrive to school on time and allowing them to stay all day.  

I hope all of you have a wonderful, safe, happy and healthy Thanksgiving!  I am very thankful to you for sharing your kiddos with me each and every day and the support you give me as their teacher.  I love my job and what I do! 

Kindergarten is a fun and busy place!