Fall Fun

A look at our learning this week...

Fundations: this week we learned the lowercase letters p and j.  These two letters have come in very handy during writing workshop where we are learning to label and add print to our stories!  Many have written about pj day this week, now that they have learned how to form the letters p and j correctly. 

Please use the following verbal prompts when practicing at home:

p-dow...n, up, around

j-dow...n, curve up, dot

In your child's Friday Folder is a mid-unit check.  This check-in will show you what letters and sounds your child knows and which ones they still need to practice.  It will also show you what lowercase letters they are forming correctly (and on the lines correctly) and which ones they still need extra practice with.  Any extra practice you can do at home is great!  If your child is struggling with letter formation I encourage you to take advantage of the extra handwriting sheets I send home every week in the Friday Folder.  If they are struggling with letter name and/or sounds I encourage you to utilize the Fundation packets that come home every Friday with suggested activities and the flash cards we use.  

Becoming fluent in knowing their letters, sounds and correct letter formation will help them greatly as they become writers.  We want them to be fluent in these areas so they can later focus on the craft of writing and not be hung up on the mechanics of writing.  If we nail down the mechanics now, they will be wonderful writers before we know it and it will feel natural to them and not laborious.  

Shared Reading: this week we learned the new spelling word see.  To help us learn how to identify and read this word in text we read several Halloween and Fall themed books that featured this word.  

Ask your child to tell you about the following books we read and they can now read independently during Read to Self time:

*I See Halloween

*The Colors of Fall

*What Do You See?  

When reading, we are learning to track (point) to each word with our finger and monitor on a known word.  This means that their finger should be pointing to the word that is coming out of their mouth, especially if it is a known word (aka spelling word we have learned.)

I have noticed more and more children noticing our words in books, even if they can't read the other words!  This is great and one of the beginning stages of reading!  

Daily 5: Mrs, Fitch, our Media Specialist, joined us during Daily 5 time on Tuesday.  While the children were working at their centers, she worked with small groups teaching them how to use Osmo's.  Osmo is now one of our new Daily 5 center choices.  At this point in time we are just working with Osmo Letters.  This activity helps us with beginning sounds.  Later we will learn Osmo Numbers and Osmo Tangrams.  

Want to learn more about Osmos?  Click here.  The Osmo starter kit is what we have in our Kindergarten classrooms if you are looking for a fun, learning idea for a birthday or Christmas gift.  

Read to Self: this is a 20 minute portion of Daily 5.  During this time students are reading independently to themselves without teacher support. This time helps children to develop good reading habits, a love of books and helps to build their reading stamina.  It is also a very quiet time.  I usually turn off the lights, turn on the lamps and the children are given this time to relax, calm down and just read. No one is talking, no one is up moving around, we are simply just reading. Below you will see the various things they have in their Book Boxes to read during this time.  

You will see a section titled "Guided Reading Books."  At this point in the school year, these are the books I mention during Shared Reading.  They are familiar reading texts that we have read together over and over and they can now read independently.  As the year progresses, these will also include books they receive during their guided reading groups that are at a child's individual reading level.  When we get to that point in the school year not every child will have the same books in their book box, as not every child is always at the same reading level.

You will also notice a section called "Wish Books."  These are two books from our classroom library that they have picked out for the week.  They are most likely books they can't read on their own, but "wish" they could (and one day will be able to!).  This is a time for them to just enjoy picture books and either read the book from memorization or tell the story by looking at the pictures...both of these are important steps in the reading process!  Every week they will be able to pick out two new wish books to enjoy for the week.  

Below we are enjoying Read to Self time.

  

Writing Workshop: I am so impressed with how many students are trying to add labels and print to their stories!  When your child is drawing/writing at home, encourage them to add labels and print to their pictures. 

They also thought it was fun to label their teacher.  Zoom in on the photo and check out their wonderful spelling.  They sounded those words out on their own and I didn't help them at all!

Check out some of our writers from this week and their labels! Some words are "sounded out" and some are copied from resources in the room.  Is it ok to copy things around us? YES, YES, YES!  Using resources shows higher level thinking and shows they are aware of print in our environment and that print carries a message!

Math: this week we learned about circles, 10 frames and learning how to count objects in an organized way to ensure we count correctly. We learned lining objects up helps us count them easier than when they are scattered.

Below we are using 10 frames to show numbers in different ways.  We learned there is more than one way to show a number.  For example: 6 can be 3 and 3 or 5 and 1 or 4 and 2.  They showed different arrangements of a number on their 10 frame mats.

Social Skills: thank you so much for your support at home the past week in regards to treating our specialist teachers with respect, having safe bodies and playing with toys and school things in a kind, safe and appropriate way.  It has made a big difference and I appreciate it.  The children had much better reports from their specialists teachers and I hope to see it continue.  I know they LOVE specials and get so excited for that time, but it is important for them to know that they can have fun and still be in control of themselves and their actions.  When they are in control, they will learn so much more and be able to do even more fun things. 

This week we read many books and had discussions about what it means to be respectful of others with our words, bodies and actions.  We hung up our "safe hands" activity from last week in our classroom to be a visual reminder of the promise we made.  

Once again, thank you for your support with this at home.  It has truly made a difference and it is so important for our little ones to see that we (parents and teachers) are a team and we all want the best for them and want to help them grow into even more wonderful little people!  

Friday Craft: this week has been all about pumpkins!  We read the book I like pumpkins    and made beautiful pumpkins to decorate our bulletin board outside of our classroom.  

Halloween Fun: this week we had so many special things to help us get ready for Halloween.  A big thank you to Valerie King, mom of Greyson, for the awesome door decorations!  That was such a nice, and funny, surprise to walk into on Monday.  The kids LOVE seeing their faces in the bats.

Another classroom in our school started spreading Halloween cheer with "Boo Baskets."  Our classroom received a "Boo Basket" earlier this week full of goodies for every child: Halloween pencils and activity kits, pumpkin notebooks and Halloween stickers for us to use in the classroom!  We are now spreading the cheer by delivering two "Boo Baskets" of our own.  We voted to surprise Mrs. Layla's Kindergarten class and Mrs. Smith's 2nd grade class (because they share their iPad's with us on ST Math day).  We gave them Halloween pencils, erasers, candy and a fun book to keep in their classroom called Hallo-Wiener by Dav Pilkey.  Shhhhh don't tell them it was from us though!!!

We also had another sweet family buy a Halloween book for every child in our class from the October Scholastic Book order.  Thank you to Ward and his parents, Jessica and Steve Sowers, for buying the book Spookly the Square Pumpkin for every child in our class.  The excitement on the kids faces when they realize they ALL got a book from the book order is priceless and so heartwarming.  I love how the gift of a book can make a child (and a teacher) so happy!  I am blessed with such sweet and giving families this year ! Thank you!