Ms. Concannon's Kindergarten: A fun-filled week!

A look at our learning...

Fire Prevention Week: this week was Fire Prevention week and we had fun learning about all things firefighters, firetrucks and fire safety. On Thursday, we enjoyed a visit from the Columbia Fire Department, Station 7. We learned about their job, fire suits, equipment and more! They encouraged the students to remind their families to practice two ways out of their house in case of emergency and discuss where their outdoor meeting spot is. Please take the time to talk about this with your family if you haven't. It was a super exciting ending to the visit because they got called to an emergency and we got to see them leave with sirens flashing! Check out our class Facebook page for a video of this.

Fundations: we learned the name, sound and correct letter formation for lowercase a and g. We learned there is a "funny a" and "funny g" that we sometimes see in books, and the regular a and g that we write.

Please use the following verbal prompts:

a-over, around, down (NOT circle and a stick)

g-over, around, dow....n, curve up

Spelling & Shared Reading: the kids were SO excited to learn their first 3 letter spelling word this week! I am very proud of their first spelling test. I want to reiterate to you what I reiterated to them. It is okay if you missed a word or two, that just tells your brain you need to practice it some more. I am not upset with them and their parents aren't upset with them. That is part of learning! When you make a mistake, you can learn from it! In their daily Take Home Folder is their test, a parent note and ways to practice spelling words at home. The most up to date word wall list is also in their folder. They will bring one home every Friday.

During Shared Reading we have been reading poems and books that feature our new spelling word "see." We read the poem Pumpkins and the books Fire Truck and Pumpkin Life Cycle. We are working on pointing when we read and "monitoring on the known"; this means they are able to identify known words in print and be able to point to it. Check our class Facebook page for a video of them doing this yesterday! They love that learning these words are helping them to become readers! These activities not only incorporated reading and spelling, but science as well! So many lessons in one simple activity!

I will introduce the new word of the week on Monday's to the students, but every Friday in the blog I will give families a sneak peak of next week's word. I highly encourage you to check this blog every Friday to get a head start on practicing the words at home.

Next week's new spelling word:

Ask your child about the photos below and how this helps us practice our word.

Writing: we continue to work on telling stories through pictures. We have gotten really good at drawing people using shapes and have moved onto learning about settings. A setting is where the story takes place. They were able to choose a character card to glue in their writing notebooks and draw a setting that matched that character. As you can see below, one child chose an alien character card, so drew a rocket ship in space. Another child chose a farmer so they drew a farm and barn setting. Next, we will transfer this knowledge over to writing about ourselves and including a setting based on what WE did.

Literacy Workstations: this week we began literacy workstations. This is a time when students will rotate through centers with a partner. I like to call them workstations, rather than centers, because it reinforces that they are working and learning and not just playing. During this time they will work on literacy activities to reinforce reading and writing skills learned in the classroom. Right now the workstations are pretty simple as our goal right now is to stay at our center and use a whisper voice. We will eventually work our way up to going to 3 workstations a day (one being a quiet read to self station). Once routines are in place and the children can work independently I will start pulling guided reading groups and teaching the students how to read more in depth during this time. It takes time to build these routines and make sure the children can work at their workstations without my support and help, that way I can teach reading groups uninterrupted.

Ask your child what literacy workstation they went to this week!

Math: we began unit 2 this week. We learned two fun games: Match it with dot cards and Top it with dot cards. They loved playing these cards games. There are copies of these games and directions coming home in the Friday Folder today! We also learned about triangles and worked on ST Math this week.

Science: as mentioned above, we have incorporated science into our spelling/shared reading time by discussing the life cycle of a pumpkin. We have also continued our "Bears through the seasons" curriculum and have been learning about how animals and people cool off in the summer when it is hot, how to check the temperature each day and learning about different temperatures in shady vs. sunny spots.

Lunch with the principal: this month Mr. Foulk and Mrs. Nickens started "Lunch with the Principal." This is a Beulah tradition that the kids love! Every month, one student from each classroom is chosen for this special time. They get to eat and play games with one of our principals! Jamario was chosen from our class for the month of October! Yay Jamario!

Golden Broom Award: our class won the coveted "Golden Broom" award this week! It was announced at the Monday Morning Meeting. Every week the custodians watch to see who takes care of their classroom and bathrooms and gives this award to one K-2 class and one 3-5 class. We celebrated with an extra recess! You can see Charles holding the Golden Broom in the photo below.