First Snow Day!

 The kids were so excited to have their first real school snow day this week!  On Tuesday, we read The Night Before the Snow Day in anticipation.  They also learned 3 things to try to ensure a snow day: pj's inside out and backwards, sleep with a spoon under their pillow and flush ice down the toilet (with parent permission).  They were so excited their tricks worked! Silly, but simple pleasures that is the joy of teaching and raising little ones!

A look at our learning...

Fundations: We almost finished our letter formation review for all uppercase letters this week (the snow day threw us off, so we will learn Y & Z on Monday).  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.  The less they have to think about how to form their letters, the more they can focus on the craft of writing. 

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 to spelling words, etc. 

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: We read the books Who, Who, Who? and They Are On to help us with our tricky new spelling words this week.  Said is a tricky one, but so important as it is in many of the books that they read.  Most students missed this word on the test this week.  Please continue to practice reading and writing it.  This word will be on the weekly spelling test until most students are spelling it correctly.  

Next week's spelling words:

one

day

Writing Workshop: As mentioned above in Fundations, Writing Workshop time is focused on the craft of writing, rather than the mechanics of writing.  When they naturally know how to form a letter and don't have to think on it, all of their brainpower can be put into writing a story with detail and sounding out their words.  We continue to work on making sure we include who is in the story, where the story takes place and 3 details that happened when writing.  We have moved beyond a sentence being acceptable for a story.  

Daily 5 Workstations/Guided Reading: Guided Reading groups are in full swing!  While students are working independently at their literacy workstations each day, I work with small groups of students in guided reading groups.  These groups are based on student ability and we work on reading strategies and books that are appropriate for those specific children in that group.  Many groups are focusing on pointing to the words when they read and multiple reading strategies when they come to an unknown word, rather than appealing to an adult.  

Check out some of our readers below.  You will notice the red card in front of them reminding them of reading strategies to try before I will help them.  9 times out of 10, if they try these strategies they won't need adult help. The strategies we are working on at the moment: 1) Look at the picture 2) Get your mouth ready for the first sound in the word 3) Say the word slowly (tap it out, sound it out) 4) Reread to see what might make sense.

Math: We shared our 100th Day collections as they came in, worked more on tricky teen numbers, learned about the equal and addition symbols and what they mean and played Top It to compare numbers. Check your child's Friday Folder for ways to extend their learning at home. 

Science: The Force & Motion units in Kindergarten is one of the most fun science units!  We learned that a force is a push or a pull.  On Tuesday we had a full day of science! All 5 Kindergarten classrooms rotated through each classroom doing various Force and Motion stations.  It was so much fun!  I don't have pictures from all classrooms, but here are a few!

My classroom: bowling

Mrs. Layla-Mary had a little snowplow

Miss Tolbert-push and pull cut and paste activity

Mrs. Croom-Hard pushes and soft pushes with various size balls

Mrs. West-Marble art

We ended the day with a Peep & Chirp video about Force & Motion.  Ask your child to tell you more about each station. 

Mystery Zoom: On Friday, we participated in a Mystery Zoom with Miss McIntyre's Kindergarten class at Cedar Ridge Elementary.  Students had to create their own c-v-c (consonant, vowel, consonant) words, tell us what the words begin with, end with and rhymes with.  They had to come up with 5 words each and record it in SeeSaw.  The other class tried to guess the word based on the clues.  It was such a fun way to incorporate all we have learned this year in Heggerty and Fundations!  Thanks to Miss McIntyre's class for asking us to participate!  We sure have some smart kiddos! 

Packmate of the Month: Yay Bella! She was chosen, by her peers, as our January Packmate of the Month!

Monday Morning Meeting: We loved having the Monday Morning Meeting as a whole school on Monday. We used to do this before Covid. Dr. Woods and Mrs. Nickens wanted to try it again to make sure the entire school would fit in the gym for an upcoming school wide assembly.  We fit!  For now, we will be going back to having the Monday Morning Meeting split into teams again, K-2 and 3-5, and down the road may try whole school again.  K-2 is in the gym on Monday.  Don't forget to wear BEU spirit wear on these days! The school store is also open on this day from 8-8:15, but your child MUST check in with their teacher before shopping. 

*This was per Dr. Woods as of Friday.  If he changes his mind, we will let you know. 

School day fun