Lots of Learning

 A look at our learning...

Cafeteria & Playground: this week we were able to transition to students using the entire playground and playing with other students in their grade level at lunch and afternoon recess.  We will still have our special days to use the front Kindergarten playground and Nature Play Area (Thursday and Friday for our class), but only at afternoon recess when teachers supervise, due to needing all the classroom aides on the main playground for lunch supervision.

On Thursday, K-1 students transitioned into eating lunch in the cafeteria.  Kindergarten received big praises from the principals and classroom aides who supervised this!  They did a great job!  Grades 2-5 will transition to this as well, but we had to do it in shifts to have time to teach the students, reinforce rules and work with the MAP testing schedule that is occurring right now in the older grades.  This is a big change, and just like the beginning of a normal school year, it takes time to teach new routines and expectations. 

Fundations: we continue to focus on digraphs (two letters that make one sound) and reading and writing them in words.  We are learning that the digrpah wh is only used at the beginning of a word and the digraph ck is only used at the end of a word after a short vowel.  

We have now moved on from simply practicing correct letter formation and tapping out single words to hearing a simple sentence read aloud by their teacher, counting the words on our fingers and writing the sentence independently.  They focus on many things when doing this: beginning their sentence with an uppercase letter, word spaces, ending with punctuation, correctly spelling word wall words/trick words and tapping out unknown words.  They are doing a great job! 

Next week's Word Wall Words:

yes

no

Writing Workshop: this week we began our new writing unit-opinion writing.  Over the course of the next month we will learn that an opinion is how you feel about something, there is no "right or wrong" answer with an opinion and how to give supporting reasons why we feel that way.  We will learn to write our opinions and reasonings down on paper. 

This week, we read the book Duck! Rabbit! and each student formed their own opinion on if they thought the character in the story was a duck or a rabbit.  They wrote their opinion with 3 reasons why they felt that way and shared with the class.  

Check out this work and some of our lessons below.  

Math:  This week we also circled back to collecting data and graphing. We also began learning about 3D shapes.  We are learning the following shapes: cube, cone, sphere, cylinder, pyramid, rectangular prism. Check your child's Seesaw for an activity they did with both of these. We also had another lesson on measurement (height in particular).  They had to be problem solvers and line up from tallest to shortest without any help from me!   

Science: this week we started a science unit on "Force & Motion."  Some key words we are learning: push, pull, friction, movement, force, motion.  Check your child's Seesaw to see one of the activities they did this week.  

Kiddos working hard during guided reading group.  Good readers point to the words when they read and use multiple strategies when they encounter an unknown word: look at the picture, get your mouth ready for the first sound in the word, say the word slowly/tap it out, reread.

First 5 Day Week

 We did it!  We survived our first 5 day week of in-seat school! Yay!  Next week, the students will be able to each lunch in the cafeteria (K-1 begins the phase in on Thursday and other grades will follow in the days after) and utilizing the entire playground, rather than having zones, beginning on Monday!  Such great news and a small glimpse of life slowly, hopefully returning to normal. 

A look at our learning...

Fundations: we continue to work on tapping out words when reading and writing.  We are also focusing on digraphs in words.  Digraphs are two letters that make one sound.  We focus on the following in Kindergarten: wh, th, ch, sh, ck.

Please check your child's take home folder for a poster of these digraphs and trick words for you to cut out and use as flash cards at home. 

Speaking of flash cards.  I am SUPER impressed with the kiddos and their spelling words and spelling tests the last few weeks!  Almost everyone has been getting 10/10 for weeks now!  However. I am noticing that while they can write the words with ease, they don't always seem to know them "quick and fast" when having to read them in books or in isolation.  I'm sure most of you practice spelling words at home with good ol' pencil and paper.  You say a word and have them write it down.  That's super, keep doing that!  They need it!  However, they also need practice reading them.  I highly, HIGHLY recommend making flash cards of our word wall words and practicing those nightly as well.  Each week, add new flash cards for the new words.  It's easy to make it a nightly routine.  You can make it an expectation before bedtime or in the car while driving somewhere or at the dinner table, wherever!  It could even be part of their 15 minutes of nightly reading homework!  Basically, if they can spell it, they should also be able to read it and that hasn't been the case.  

Next week's spelling words:

be

up

Writing Workshop: we got outside as much as we could this week and spent several days writing outside in the outdoor classroom!  This week we finished up narrative writing (stories about our lives) and will learn about opinion writing next week.  We will work on opinion writing for the next month or so. 

Math: we reviewed 2-D shapes and spent most of the week learning about addition.  We learned about the plus and equals sign, writing simple addition sentences, solving simple addition sentences, using the terms addition, adding, plus, add, equals, sum and explored math games on the Connect Ed app on our ipads that work on addition.  Ask your child to show you the Every Day math games they played in Connect Ed at home!  

Science: this week, CPS Kindergarteners did a week of health and safety lessons.  We learned about our 5 senses and went on a 5 senses nature walk, the 5 food groups, germs and rules/how to stay safe.  We will finish up next week with some dental health lessons and every student will come home with a dental health care package from Delta Dental.

Library: we were able to visit the library this week and they were able to pick out their own books!  We will visit every other Tuesday.  They can keep their books the entire 2 weeks or you can continue to put books on hold from your iPad and they can return and check out books that way as often as they please!  They were SO EXCITED to visit the library! Another sign of "normal!" 

School Fundraiser: today the grade level winners who sold the most Shakespeare's Pizza during our school fundraiser awhile back were able to cash in on their "pie in the face" award!  There was one winner from each grade level and the entire school watched while it was filmed on Zoom.  Mr. Heidlage, Mr. Woods, Mrs. Rogers and Mrs. Pennington were the lucky recipients of a pie in the face!

Thanks to all who sold pizzas for our school!

Fun from our week!