April Citizen of the Month

 Yay Keaton!  He was chosen, by his peers, as April Citizen of the Month!

A look at our learning...

Fundations: we are working on the difference between short vowels and long vowels.  We continue to work on trick words, tapping out 3-4 letter words and dictation sentences.  Dictation sentences are simple sentences that I say out loud to the students and they write it on their board.  This shows me the following: who starts their sentences with an uppercase letter, ends with punctuation, uses word spaces, spells trick words/word wall words correctly and taps out 3-4 sound words.  They are getting really good at this!

Check your child's take home folder for the Friday Fundations note for ideas on how to help with this at home. 

Next week's spelling words:

they

her

Writing Workshop: we continue to work on Opinion Writing.  We added the word "because" to our word wall since they use it so much when writing opinion pieces. It isn't a word they are expected to spell independently, but is there as a resource.  

This week they wrote their opinion on the best pet, best food, if they could visit any special place where would it be...just to name a few!

Math: this week was about shapes and measurement.  We continued our learning from last week on 3D shapes.  We also did two fun lessons on measurement.  We had to figure out if we were tall enough to ride a roller coaster at an amusement part.  In Kindergarten we use non-standard units of measurement: post it notes, paper clips, snap cubes, etc.  

Check out your child's Seesaw to see the awesome work they did!

Guided Reading Groups & Literacy Workstations: for an hour and a half each day students work in guided reading groups and literacy workstations.  While I meet with kiddos in their individualized reading groups, the rest of the class is working independently in the classroom on literacy activities.  

Science: we are on week 2 of our Force and Motion unit.  We've had fun learning about machines that require pushes and pulls and force and motion.  

We also celebrated Earth Day and CPS Make a Difference Day by planting flowers for our Kindergarten playground!

I only posted a few photos here.  You can see all of the gardening photos on our class Facebook page. 

Play time is the best time!

Wednesday was Administrative Professionals Day!  We are lucky to have the best of the best at Beulah Ralph Elementary!  Kindergarten teachers thanked Mrs. Lambert, Ms. Grace, Mrs. Stokes and Mr. Cameron with lunch from Addison's and our class made them a special poster.

We are grateful for all they do!

Lots of Learning

 A look at our learning...

Cafeteria & Playground: this week we were able to transition to students using the entire playground and playing with other students in their grade level at lunch and afternoon recess.  We will still have our special days to use the front Kindergarten playground and Nature Play Area (Thursday and Friday for our class), but only at afternoon recess when teachers supervise, due to needing all the classroom aides on the main playground for lunch supervision.

On Thursday, K-1 students transitioned into eating lunch in the cafeteria.  Kindergarten received big praises from the principals and classroom aides who supervised this!  They did a great job!  Grades 2-5 will transition to this as well, but we had to do it in shifts to have time to teach the students, reinforce rules and work with the MAP testing schedule that is occurring right now in the older grades.  This is a big change, and just like the beginning of a normal school year, it takes time to teach new routines and expectations. 

Fundations: we continue to focus on digraphs (two letters that make one sound) and reading and writing them in words.  We are learning that the digrpah wh is only used at the beginning of a word and the digraph ck is only used at the end of a word after a short vowel.  

We have now moved on from simply practicing correct letter formation and tapping out single words to hearing a simple sentence read aloud by their teacher, counting the words on our fingers and writing the sentence independently.  They focus on many things when doing this: beginning their sentence with an uppercase letter, word spaces, ending with punctuation, correctly spelling word wall words/trick words and tapping out unknown words.  They are doing a great job! 

Next week's Word Wall Words:

yes

no

Writing Workshop: this week we began our new writing unit-opinion writing.  Over the course of the next month we will learn that an opinion is how you feel about something, there is no "right or wrong" answer with an opinion and how to give supporting reasons why we feel that way.  We will learn to write our opinions and reasonings down on paper. 

This week, we read the book Duck! Rabbit! and each student formed their own opinion on if they thought the character in the story was a duck or a rabbit.  They wrote their opinion with 3 reasons why they felt that way and shared with the class.  

Check out this work and some of our lessons below.  

Math:  This week we also circled back to collecting data and graphing. We also began learning about 3D shapes.  We are learning the following shapes: cube, cone, sphere, cylinder, pyramid, rectangular prism. Check your child's Seesaw for an activity they did with both of these. We also had another lesson on measurement (height in particular).  They had to be problem solvers and line up from tallest to shortest without any help from me!   

Science: this week we started a science unit on "Force & Motion."  Some key words we are learning: push, pull, friction, movement, force, motion.  Check your child's Seesaw to see one of the activities they did this week.  

Kiddos working hard during guided reading group.  Good readers point to the words when they read and use multiple strategies when they encounter an unknown word: look at the picture, get your mouth ready for the first sound in the word, say the word slowly/tap it out, reread.