A look at our learning...

Thank you to the friends who have donated pennies to our penny drive for the Missouri Department of Conservation!  This will help the Monarch Butterflies, which is what our Kindergarten Service Learning Project is focusing on.  A detailed note came home in last week's Friday Folder, please let me know if you need another note.  Keep sending in those pennies (or quarters, dimes, dollars, etc.)!!!

Fundations: the kiddos are getting better at hearing/seeing/noticing digraphs in words when reading, writing and spelling.  We have been focusing on the digraphs wh, ck, ch, sh, th. On Tuesday and Thursday they brought home sorting papers with these digraphs.  Check your Friday Folder for the Fundations newsletter to find ways you can help continue their learning at home.

Shared Reading: we read 2 big books this week to help us with our new words had and did.  We read Lucy Did It and I went walking.  We also read the poem Mary Had a Little Lamb.  

Next weeks spelling words:

look

as

Daily 5/Reading Groups: I love seeing the wonderful comments on the Tuesday/Thursday reading homework logs from you guys!  One of the many things I love about Kindergarten is how they learn to read for the first time!  It is thrilling to them and they LOVE bringing home their newest book from their reading group to share with you on those days!  I'm glad to hear that you love it just the same!  

Math: we continued our Bunk Beds and Apple Boxes math unit, this week focusing on the Apple Boxes portion.  This portion focuses on addition as well, just like Bunk Beds did last week.  Miss Nemechek told the kiddos a story about how she went to the grocery store and wanted a box of 10 apples.  She wanted a box with red AND green apples, but they only had boxes of red and boxes of green and nothing with mixed colors.  The grocer was confused and didn't know how he could make a box of 10 with both colors and it was up to the children to help us!  Check their Friday Folders for their work!  We are learning how to organize our thinking to find ALL possible ways to make a number.  Last week it was all ways to make 8 with bunk beds and this week it is all ways to make 10 with apple boxes.  They are learning to start at the number 0 (or this week 1 because we want red AND green apples so starting at 0 isn't a choice) and then to work their way up the numbers.  They are also learning to "flip flop" solutions.  So if they know they can have 1 red apple and 9 green apples, they can "flip flop" it and also have 1 green apple and 9 red apples.  It's amazing how well they are catching onto this concept.  

Writing: they are loving the informational writing unit.  This week we are finishing writing our informational books on caterpillars/butterflies.  Ask your child to tell you some facts they included in their book. 

Next week is going to be super exciting because they were able to pick their OWN topic they want to learn more about and will be researching that topic and writing about it over the next two weeks.  Not only that, but we will be incorporating technology into it! They will be researching their topic through library books on that topic AND on ipads/computers via PebbleGo.  Once they take notes on their topic with these resources, they will voice record on an ipad everything they have learned.  They will then use their voice recordings to help them remember their facts and use it to write their story on paper.  Once that is finished they are going to memorize their story and we are going to record them reciting it in front of a green screen with pictures that match their topic on the green screen.  We will send these to you to view once they are complete right before spring break!  It's going to be so fun and so cool!  
Ask your child what topic they picked for this!  We had some good ones!