Thank you to everyone who attended parent-teacher conferences this week. I enjoyed showing you how much your child has grown, academically and socially, during the 1st trimester of Kindergarten. A big thank you to everyone who volunteered to work a shift at the Scholastic Book Fair or donate items for teacher and staff dinner on Monday. It is greatly appreciated!
A look at our learning...
Fundations: we continued learning about lowercase v and w. We only have 4 letters left to learn. I will not introduce new letters until the week of November 28th, due to only being in school for two days next week.
Shared Reading: we are getting good at noticing our word wall words in print and texts. Check out how many times we found the word "up" in our poem of the week!
New spelling words for the week of November 28th:
in
it
if
There will be 3 words that week due to them being similar.
Math: this week we learned a new game called "Spin a number" that focuses on one to one correspondence when counting and identifying numbers, lining up numbers in order and representing numbers in more than one way. Check your child's Friday Folder for ways to extend their learning at home. The "Math at Home-Book 2" that was given to you at parent teacher conferences also has fun and easy ways to extend their learning at home.
They are also bringing home their 0-10 number book we have been working on. As mentioned in the blog last week, and many parent teacher conferences, it is more than ok if they are still writing their numbers backwards. This is developmentally appropriate through the end of second grade. We focus more on writing our letters correctly in Kindergarten.
Writing Workshop: we are moving further along in the writing process. We have moved from telling a story through pictures, to adding labels, to now writing a "story." In Kindergarten, a sentence is a story at this point in time. We are learning the writing process you see in the picture below. Students are expected to spell word wall words correctly and sound out/stretch out non word wall words. Check out some of the great stories from some of our classmates this week! I love the phonetic spelling! This is what we should see!
I went to the basketball game.
I am at the trampoline park.
I ate at KFC.
Social Studies: last week we started a Geography Social Studies unit. We are learning about maps and things on a map (compass, map key) and globes. We tied in the fairy tales Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk to help us with our learning. We read several versions of both books and then made maps for the characters. Your child brought one map home today and will bring the other one home next week. We will finish this unit on Monday and Tuesday of next week.
Friday craft: we made cute little turkey magnets for you to hang on your refrigerator!
I can't believe that November is already here and it's the end of 1st trimester!
The students have grown so much since the beginning of the year and I look forward to meeting with you next week at parent-teacher conferences to share about their progress. Parent-teacher conferences are only 15 minutes long and we must stay on schedule or else it affects the scheduling of every teacher and every classroom. I will use this time to chat about what I see in the classroom, their strengths and any areas they are still growing. This will not be a time to discuss the format of the report card because there just isn't enough time, therefore, we strongly encourage you to watch the video Dr. Woods sent on Wednesday so you understand why your child is marked the way they are.
A look at our learning...
Fundations:this week we learned the name, sound and correct letter formation for lowercase v and w. They are "slant down" letters. The "slant down" can be a bit tricky for kids. When practicing at home this weekend, watch and see if they are slanting down the correct way. We will continue with letters v and w next week as well due to the shortened school weeks.
Please use the following verbal prompts for correct formation:
v-slant down, slant up
w-slant down, slant up, slant down, slant up
Writing Workshop: we are working hard on learning how to sound out or stretch out words to help us spell. In Kindergarten, phonetic spelling is what we mostly want to see, unless it is a word wall word/spelling word. Those should be spelled correctly at all times.
To help with this at home, when your child asks "how do I spell...?" please encourage them to "sound it out or stretch it out and write the sounds they hear." They may ask "did I spell it right?" when finished. Please try and refrain from telling them no, as this will discourage them and make them afraid to try. They will start to think everything they do is wrong. I just say "did you write the sounds you hear? Great! Looks good to me!" especially if it is close. At this point in the year, we are hoping for beginning and ending sounds. So for "house" they may write "hs." If they get a middle sound in there too, great!
Shared Reading/Spelling: we are reading the big book Up and Down and the poem Up, Up, Up to help us practice our new spelling word (up.) I will NOT introduce a new spelling word next week due to the shortened school weeks. We will continue to practice the word up and our weekly test will be on Thursday, due to no school on Friday.
Math: we learned about positional words by reading the book Rosie's Walk and making our own turkey positional book. These came home in their folder on Thursday. We also worked on different ways to make a number, as you can see in the photos below. We continued to work on number formation for numbers 0-10 as well. Please know that it is totally ok if children are having trouble properly forming numbers or reversing numbers at this point in Kindergarten. Just like letter writing, number writing takes time. We do not focus as much on forming numbers correctly as we do letters. It is still common and age appropriate for students to be learning how to form their numbers correctly through second grade.
We also watched this video! I encourage you to check it out, then you can practice similar ways at home! Give your child a number between 0-10 and ask them to show it to you in a variety of ways, like in the video.
Heroes Day: thank you to all of the grandparents, everyday heroes and past and present members of our military for joining us for our annual BEU Heroes Day. It felt so good to be able to continue this tradition after having to put it on hold for a couple of years due to Covid. We enjoyed hearing 2nd-5th grade essay winners share with us who their personal hero is, watching a cute video of K-5 students discussing everyday heroes, listening to Dr. Woods speak, recognizing past and present military and a performance from the Rock Bridge High School cheerleaders. We also enjoyed playing math games, reading and visiting the Scholastic book fair with our special visitors in our classroom.
When you are at parent teacher conferences, be sure to check out the sweet writing and craft your child made about their everyday hero. They are located on the bulletin board outside our classroom.
Did your child miss out on having a visitor this year? No worries, this is a yearly tradition and we hope they can visit next year!
Friday Craft: we have read some silly Thanksgiving and turkey books this week to help us come up with ideas for the disguise a turkey project you are working on at home! We also made a turkey craft today in class!
Reminder:the family "turkey in disguise" project is due no later than Thursday, November 17th. All students should have one turned in to share. We have had so much fun sharing them in class!
