Happy September!

A look at our learning this week...

Fundations: we learned the name, sound and correct letter formation for lowercase n and m this week.  The handwriting part of this was trickier for the class than t, b and f from last week.  In the Friday Folder I have included extra handwriting practice if you want to work on it at home.  It isn't homework or required, but if they work on it and want to bring it back next week to show me, that is fine too.  

Please help them use these verbal prompts when forming the letters:

n-down, up and over (NOT up, over and then draw a stick)

m-down, up and over, up and over

Check out these sweet friends helping their classmates with their letter formation. They are helping to make sure they start their letters in the correct spot and say the verbal prompts. 

Daily 5: Daily 5 is our literacy center time.  During this time we work on 5 major literacy concepts: reading to ourselves, listening to reading, word work, writing, reading with the teacher or a buddy.  While the children are working at their centers with a partner, I am working with children one on one or in small groups at my teacher table.  Eventually these small groups will be reading groups, but right now they are things such as learning how to write our name, learning our letters, extra Fundations handwriting practice, and other child specific skills.  

Writing Workshop: this year we will become writers!  We will write narratives (stories about our lives) informational (we will study non-fiction topics and write about them) and opinion (every Kindergartner has an opinion haha!)  We will start with narrative writing.  However, before we can start writing, we have to get really good at drawing pictures.  Pictures are an important part of writing as they help tell our story.  This week we have been learning how to draw people/ourselves using basic shapes.  We are trying to get away from drawing "spider people" aka circles with sticks coming out that looks like our arms and legs are coming out of our head.  Once we get really good at using shapes to draw people, we will move onto learning how to draw a setting/background and then we will be ready to write!  

Math: we learned a counting game called "Count and Sit."  We'd pick a "magic number," such as 10.  We'd start counting from 0-10 and whoever said 10, was out.  We'd start back at 0 every time until there was only one person left.  We did this several times with several different numbers as our "magic number."  We are also talking about birthday's.  Does your child know when their birthday is? (month and date)  Ask them this weekend to see if they know.  It will help them for a math activity next week. 

We also worked more on ST math and learning our password to login. Check the Friday Folder for more info on ST math and the every day math we did this week.

Computers: now that most students are experts at knowing their student id (aka lunch number) it is now time to practice their username and password for logging into the computers.  Mr. Heidlage started working with them on this during media class this week.  We will also begin practicing in our classroom next week. In your child's Friday Folder is a practice keyboard that has your child's username and password on it.  This is for you to practice at home.  I'd suggest having them practice it nightly.  The quicker they learn to log on, the quicker they will get to learn so many cool things on the computer!  

Social Skills: it was MUCH better this week with keeping our hands out of our mouths!  Thanks for your help with this at home.  We are trying to keep everyone healthy!  This week, we focused on how to be respectful of others things, especially the toys in our classroom.  We are working on playing with toys respectfully and gently.  We are also working on cleaning up gently and calmly....not throwing things, slamming things and rushing so fast that we get too rough or break things (which has happened a few times this year already).  We have discussed how we would feel if people came to our house and mis-treated our toys and things....probably pretty sad and maybe wouldn't want to invite them over again...and the same thing goes for school.  We want to take care of our school toys so we can continue to use them.  We also talked about how this shows they care for me when they are taking care of our classroom toys and things.  

Table Points: every table is working on earning a special lunch and dessert with me!  After we do work at our tables, I give "points" (stickers) to the table(s) that follow the 3 expectations listed on this chart.  Sometimes everyone gets a point, sometimes 1 or 2 tables, sometimes no one.  It depends on how hard they work and how focused on their work and making good choices they are!  When a table fills up their ten frame, they will earn their special lunch with me and start over again!  So everyone has a chance to earn this special lunch with me! Ask your child what table number they sit at to see how their table is doing.  

Friday craft: today we read the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  We made our own coconut trees and the letters in our first names tried to climb up the tree.  Check them out!  

A few other books we read this week: A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon, Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann, Bugs in my Hair! by David Shannon, Chester's Way by Kevin Henkes, Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein (this one helps us learn how to not interrupt others when speaking aka crashing words...we are working on this one haha!) Bulldozers Big Day by Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt and A Birthday for Bear by Bonny Becker.  

Fun with friends on the playground!