Kinder happenings

A look at our learning this week...

Fundations: we have now learned all 26 letter names, sounds and correct formations!  Yay!  We enjoyed our Alphabet Celebration today!  You can see all of the pictures at the bottom of this blog post!

Our last two letters this week were qu and z.  We learned that "q is a scaredy cat and must always be with u."

Please use the following verbal prompts at home:

q-over, around, dow...n, curve back (and they already know u-down, curve up, down)

z-across, slant down, across

Tegan leading us in saying our letters and sounds

Shared Reading: we read the Big Books My Pet Dinosaur and My Dog.  We discussed which book is non-fiction and which is fiction and why. We also built on our reading strategies when we come to an unknown word.  

We are learning to:

1) look at the picture for clues

2) say the word s-l-o-w-l-y to help us sound it out

Writing Workshop: just like I mentioned above in reading, we are learning how to sound out our words to help us spell/write a sentence about our story during writing time.  We made this chart this week to help us.  Please encourage your child to do the same when writing at home.

Math: this week we started working on teen numbers (check out the song below that we are singing daily to help us), ordering numbers 0-10 and answering questions with our number cards (point to 8, point to the number that is before 7, point to the number that is after 9, etc.), writing and representing numbers and a fun new computer game called "Number Line Squeeze" (or we like to call it "Monster Squeeze.") The students can access this game through the CPS Portal on the Every Day Math app.  Please refer to the math handout I gave in the packet at parent-teacher conferences for more info on how to access this at home.

They are bringing home their number writing book today.  While we briefly touch on how to correctly write numbers 0-10, it is ok if they are still writing numbers backwards in Kindergarten.  They will get it eventually.  

Rhyming: at conferences I spoke to many of you about the importance of rhyming.  This week we worked on generating rhyme and learning about word families.  See the example below of the -ag word family.  The kiddos came up with these words on their own!

We generated words with the following word families this week: at, an, ag, ack.  Any extra practice at home with rhyme/word families would be great as well!  

Lego tub: we won the Lego tub at last week's Monday Morning Meeting.  This is a random drawing that Mr. Woods and Mrs. Rogers do every week as a fun incentive.  The class that wins is able to keep a HUGE tub of legos in their classroom for a week to build creations.  These creations are then displayed in the glass case across from the tech lab for a week.  We put ours in today and they will be displayed for the 2 days we are at school next week and the entire week after!  Ask your child what they created and check it out when you are at school sometime in the next week and a half!

Centers: center time is an important part of our school day.  It is a time to work on social skills such as sharing, cooperation, using kind words, problem-solving, compromise, etc.  We love this 30 minute part of our day!

Turkey's in disguise: WOW!!  You guys are so creative and fun!  I am so impressed with the turkeys in disguise!  We have LOVED sharing these each day they are brought in!  The kiddos love to show anyone and everyone who visit our classroom!  I hope you enjoyed this project at home as much as we did at school!  My hope is that it was a good family bonding time for you!  We will display them in our room for a few weeks and then return them home for you to keep and treasure! 

We had so much fun today during our alphabet celebration!

Thank you to all of the families who donated supplies!

We read alphabet books, put together alphabet puzzles, used alphabet stamps and stickers, made alphabet crowns to wear, made letters with play-dough, ate alphabet snacks, wrote our letters in shaving cream on our tables and so much more!  We even watched a cool "Mystery Science" video about who invented the alphabet (it was the Phoenicians long ago).  Such a fun day!