Happy March!

It sure was nice to finally have a 5 day week, even if it was full of out of routine things!

They were all super fun though!  

Check out all of our fun from "Read Across America Week!"
Turn up the volume, there is sound.

Box Tops: we haven't heard which class earns the pizza party for collecting the most Box Tops, but our class brought in a total $26.30 worth of Box Tops during this last contest! Kindergarten alone raised $102.20. Way to go!  Thanks for helping us earn money to go towards more playground equipment.  Dr. Majerus showed me a picture of the equipment they are thinking of purchasing and it looks like so much fun!  

Library trip:  we had fun touring the Daniel Boone Public Library this week.  The kids are excited to go back with their families to check out all of the fun things and use their "free book" coupon!  

A look at our learning...

Shared Reading: we learned the tricky new words her & of. Even though these words can't be sounded out and we have to just know them, they are showing up more and more in our guided reading books and our writing so they are important words to know.  

Next week's new word wall words:
look
as

Fundations: the kids are getting good at tapping out 3 letter words to help them spell (and read).  I encourage you to use the packet sent home in last weeks Friday Folder to help them continue this practice at home.  You can also write simple 3 letter words (non-word wall words) on a piece of paper and ask your child to tap the word out for you and read it. Be sure to use words that can be sounded out and don't have any tricky sounds.  Words such as: bat, tub, pig, van, hit, etc. You can also find words like this in books you are reading and ask your child to tap the word out for you and read it to you.  

Math: this week several of our lessons focused on subtraction.  We learned about the minus sign.  We learned that subtraction means to take away and our number will get smaller.  We mostly focused on subtraction through verbal story problems.  I would tell a simple story such as "I have 5 flowers.  I gave 2 flowers to my friends.  How many flowers do I have left?"  The kiddos would then use objects (fingers, counters, snap cubes, etc.) to solve the answer.  I encourage you to do story problems like this at home, as well as writing down basic math facts up to 10 for them to solve.  10-2, 8-4, etc. It is definitely ok for them to use their fingers, objects, drawings, etc. to solve the problem!  We encourage this in Kindergarten! 

Writing: we have spent the last couple of weeks learning how to write informational books.  We have learned all about penguins and each child has written their own factual book about penguins.  Most kiddos are on the final stages of their book!  

They have learned that informational books contain the following:

*cover page

* opening

*at least 3 facts

*closing/ending

*each page has pictures with labels

*headings at the top of each page

Ask your child to tell you about their penguin book and what 3 facts they included! They have LOVED this unit and their writing is incredible!