Weekly Update

 A look at our learning...

Fundations: We finished our letter formation review for all uppercase letters this week.  Your child has now learned how to form ALL uppercase and lowercase letters correctly.  While I do see them forming their letters correctly, for the most part, when we explicitly work on it during Fundations time, I do notice many struggling to carry the correct formation over into their daily writing.  I continue to encourage you to hold them accountable for forming their letters neatly and correctly at all times.  The more we perfect it now, the more successful they will be as writers as they go to first grade and beyond.  

Don't know where to start to hold them accountable for their learning? Their name is a great place to start!  Do they rush and just slop their name down on paper?  If so, have them erase and tell them to slow down and form their letters correctly.  Then expand beyond that. 

Please refer to the Fundations parent packet in the Friday Folder.  I encourage you to use the ideas for handwriting and tapping out words at home throughout the week.

Shared Reading: This week we read the books Up & Down and I See Animals.  Both texts featured our new word wall words, up and see.  Today they brought home a worksheet that went with the book I See Animals.  Ask them to read the sentences on the paper to you.  Make sure they are pointing to the words when they read. 

Spelling Words:  We are now up to 8 known words!  We are becoming better readers and writers as our spelling word knowledge increases.  That being said, the tests this week were a bit rough with many incorrect spellings.  I encourage you to practice our spelling words nightly with your child.  They need practice writing them and reading them.  As mentioned before, flash cards are a great way to practice reading them.  You don't need to buy fancy pre-made flash cards, simply write the words on index cards, post it note's, whatever!  Put them in a bag on their nightstand and practice before bed or keep a bag in the car and practice while going places or at appointments.  2-5 minutes each night and you're finished!

It is also important to practice writing them.  Write them with pencils, markers, chalk, whatever!  Keep in mind what I mentioned in the Fundations section though, please also focus on writing neatly. 

Please check your child's Take Home Folder for their test so you can see what words they need help with. 

Next week's spelling words:

if

in

it

Due to NO SCHOOL on this coming Monday, next Friday and the following Monday and Tuesday we will introduce the 3 new words above on this Tuesday, January 18th, but the test will not be until Friday, January 28th.  This will give them ample time to practice and freshen up on the older words as mentioned above. 

In the pictures below they are working on one of our new literacy workstations, Search & Tally.  At this station they search in books for the listed spelling words and when they find a word they mark a tally.  Easy to do at home as well when these papers come home in their folders.

Writing Workshop:  This week we started a new unit of writing: opinion writing.  We mostly discussed what an opinion is, read books and shared our opinions in regards to those books.  We also discussed the difference between a fact and an opinion. 

We read the book Not Norman: A Goldfish Story and shared our opinion on the best type of pet.  We also read Too Many Toys! and discussed if we agreed with the mom's opinion that her child had too many toys or the child's opinion that he did not have enough toys. 

On Friday, we did our first writing activity with opinion writing.  We read the super fun book Duck! Rabbit!. If you haven't heard of this book, ask your child to tell you about it!  Next, we discussed and charted why one character in the book thought the animal was a duck and why the other character thought it was a rabbit.  After that, each child shared their opinion on if they thought the animal was a duck or a rabbit and wrote three reasons why.  Last, we made a craft to match out opinion.  The craft and writing piece came home in your child's Take Home Folder today.  Check it out!

Math: we worked on counting by 10's (can your child do this to 100? ask them to show you; it's an end of Kindergarten goal), number identification and counting.  In your child's Take Home Folder is another Top-It game for you to cut out, keep and play at home.  They have played this game at school with number cards as well. 

Friday Craft: today we read and learned about Martin Luther King Jr. to help the students understand why we have school off on Monday.  We learned he was a kind man who helped change unfair and unkind laws.  We did a directed drawing of him for our craft.  We did not have time to color them, but I told the kids they could at home.  Check them out in their folders, they did a beautiful job!

  

Library day is one of our favorite days!

It will be library day when we return on Tuesday!  Make sure they have their books!

Thank you!

If you happened to be a part of the group that went around school with kind words and words of encouragement like this, THANK YOU!  It was so nice for our staff to see as we walked into school this morning.

To say teaching during Covid has been a challenge, is an understatement.  Since returning from winter break things have been especially challenging due to so many illnesses, staff and sub shortages and many other things.  Your kindness through these chalk messages, emails, notes, etc. does not go unnoticed and is appreciated more than you know.  So again, thank you.  In a time full of challenges, it's wonderful to see the good in so many people as well.