A look at our learning...
Fundations: tapping, tapping and more tapping! Such an important Kindergarten skill. We also have several new literacy workstations that focus on tapping out CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words to reinforce our learning from Fundations. Ask your child about these workstations!
I encourage you to use the parent packets that come home every Friday if you don't already. Have your child tap out and write the words so you can see their tapping/spelling ability. When your child asks you "how do you spell...?" don't tell them! Remind them to "tap it out." Phonetic spelling is developmentally appropriate at this stage in their education career.
Shared Reading: we read the Big Books I was with and This is big to practice our spelling words is and his this week. The reading skill we focused on was attending to the print. In our books this week there were many words where they had to make sure they were really attending to the print and not just guessing based on the picture. For example: it was a picture of a sheep, but they used the word lamb in the text or a picture of a horse, but they used the word pony. We learned how good readers look at the picture and look at the letters in the word and think about what word was used in text. They did a great job with this!
New spelling words next week:
as
has
Writing Workshop: this week our lessons focused on putting spaces between our words. We learned to use a "two finger word space" in between words so that our stories are easy to read. This helps us tell where one word ends and a new one begins. At school, they can use their fingers or a super cool spaceman stick to help with this! Check out the photos below!
Want a spaceman stick at home? Easy! Get a popsicle stick and you can draw a face on it! Get as simple or creative as you like! Or they can use their fingers because they always have those with them!
Math: they did some incredible problem solving this week. I posed this question: "I was having a party. I put 4 chairs at the table for my party. The doorbell rang and there were 7 friends at the door. Do I have enough chairs for the party?" They had to answer yes or no and then show their answer through pictures, numbers and words. We really worked on showing the whole story, rather than just the answer. We want to see their thinking as well as the answer. Throughout the week I posed several problems just like this for them to solve and show their work. I encourage you to do these same kind of problems at home.
We also worked on teen numbers and math problems using the + and = symbols.
Counselor: this week Mrs. Bergeson's lesson focused on mindfulness. They discussed what mindfulness is and how to practice it. Such a peaceful and important lesson! We love our time with Mrs. Bergeson!
Parent-teacher conferences: I look forward to meeting with all of you at parent-teacher conferences next week. This is our last conference for the year. In the spring, report cards will be sent home on the last day of school.
Illnesses: please be sure to read our Kindergarten team newsletter this week. Illness is running rampant in our class and school and we want to keep everyone as healthy as possible. We are really stressing the importance of keeping their hands away from their face, mouth, nose. When you notice this at home, please tell them to stop and properly wash their hands. The faster we can break those habits, the better.
Book Fair: the book fair is back at school next week! This time it is the Literati Book Fair, rather than Scholastic. We were able to preview it today and the kids found lots of great books!
We are still looking for volunteers to work a shift at the book fair. Super easy AND you get 20% off your purchases for helping out! Seems like a win-win to me! Click here to sign up. I will also post the signup on our class Facebook page again. Thanks to Kayla and Jenny for already signing up!
