Weekly Peep Report

Happy Thursday, Kindergarten Families! 

Remember that there is no school tomorrow. The teachers have Professional Development training. Next week, we have Picture Day on Wednesday, and Hat Day on Thursday. If your child would like to contribute 50 cents to benefit pancreatic cancer research, please send that on Thursday as well. 

Next week, the children who ride buses home will walk to their buses with a 5th grade bus buddy. This is a little different than what we've been doing up to this point, where teachers walk kindergartners to each bus. We're excited for our 5th grade bus leaders to help, and the children will enjoy it, too! (This will cut down on the time that the kindergartners spend waiting for buses to arrive. We will stay in the classroom until each bus is called, and big buddies come to pick up their kindergartner.)

Kindergarten Weekly Report

 September 24, 2015

ABC's and 123's

Reading: This week we've focused on letters Q, R, S, and T. We've read some terrific books together, including Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Old Malolo Had a Farm, The King's Pudding, Rainbow Fish, and The Deep Blue Sea. When we find the letters that we know, we're listening carefully to hear the letter sound in the word. That helps us with our word stretching in writing, too! When you read an old favorite book with your child, take some time to talk about letters and words. Ask your child to find a one-letter word, a two-letter word, a three-letter word, and the longest word on the page. If there is only a line or two of text, count the words on the page together. Practice our sight words as often as you can: the, I, a, see, can, he, she, is

Math: There are lots of ways to show numbers! We can write the number symbol, write the word, show a number on a ten frame, write tally marks, count and color objects, and more! We've been practicing with manipulatives in our math stations this week, and working on number formation. We've also been working to make AB and ABC patterns. First we sort cubes by color, and then we make a pattern unit. This is very important with 3-color patterns, because it's easy to mess up! When the pattern unit repeats the same way, you know you've got it!

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Social Studies/Science: Our new habit for happy kids is Think Win-Win. We've read Rainbow Fish, and talked about how Rainbow Fish felt terrific when he shared his shiny scales with all of the other fish in the sea. We practiced our following-direction skills and cutting skills when we made rainbow fish of our own!

As we've read stories with a tropical island theme this week, we've talked about living and non-living things in science. We know how to sort things as living and non-living. Be sure to ask your child all about it! (One of my favorite class discussions this week was when we talked about how all of the boys and girls would keep growing and changing. They will get taller, and be grown up! The children were quick to point out that I wasn't going to get taller, and I'm just going to keep getting old. One friend said, "Yeah...my mom has this stuff she puts on her face so that you can't see all of her wrinkles!")

Writing Workshop: We're focusing on thinking of an idea first, and then writing about that idea. It can be very challenging, but we're like The Little Engine That Could. When it's tricky, we say, "I think I can!" We started writing stories that are several pages long. To get ready to write, we plan the story across the pages, and "read the invisible story" to our friends, so we get a good idea of what's going to go on each page.

Today as a guided writing activity, we wrote pattern books with words we know: "He can" and "she can." We had lots of fun thinking of things that our friends can do. Please see if your child can read his/her book to you, and maybe even add to the book with more pages! Writing pattern books is a good way to build confidence, and to practice sight words and handwriting skills.

Please be sure to let me know if you have any questions about your child's progress report that went home on Wednesday! I'm happy to talk with you anytime.

Enjoy your weekend!

Upcoming Events

A Peek at Next Week:

Monday: E Day (Library/Technology)
Tuesday; A Day (Art)
Wednesday: B Day (Music)/PICTURE DAY 
Thursday: C Day (P.E.)/HAT DAY
(Bring 50 cents to wear a hat; proceeds to benefit pancreatic cancer research.)
Friday: D Day/Cultural Dinner at 6:30 PM (P.E.)

Learning Fun

What does Reading Workshop look like? 

The Peeps each have a box on top of our construction center shelf. In the box is a folder for Reading Workshop, Writer's Workshop, and Math Workshop. I am so proud of the way that the children have been following directions and learning to manage their folders! (We have other goodies in our boxes too...like a DVD case "practice pack," and a playdoh mat. We need all sorts of supplies in Kindergarten!)

During Reading Workshop, the children meet with me or with Mrs. Carroll in small groups. When they are not with a teacher, they know that they need to do reading, writing, or letter/word activities. Here are some friends in action!

We've learned how to handle lots of literacy station activities, like Listening Center, and sorting letters and building words with letter cubes, or reading books in the School Center.

Big books are lots of fun! We can read regular sized books, big books, or go to the Book Nook to read with a friend. When we "read" we can read the words sometimes...but ALL of the time, we can use the pictures to tell a story, and find words and letters that we know.

These friends are matching letter pairs. 

Here is a group of learners with Mrs. Carroll:

More Scenes From Our Day

During snack time today, we took turns matching letter pairs on abcya.com. This is a wonderful website to use at home, There are some terrific math and reading games.

We've been enjoying the gorgeous weather during recess!

This afternoon, we made Rainbow Fish! We learned about the habit "Think Win-Win" when we read the book Rainbow Fish. We practiced problem solving some situations where we could think "win-win." It's tricky! Sometimes no one gets their way, and you have to look for a 3rd option that will make everyone happy. Other times, you have to compromise in a way that helps everyone be happy.

Look at these finished fish! They are as full of personality as our Peeps are! I absolutely love it!

 

Weekly Peep Report

Happy Sunday, Kindergarten Families! 

Only a few more days left in September! With the change in weather this weekend, it truly feels like fall is here. Thank you for taking the time to stay on top of things. I appreciate all of your support from home! Please look for progress reports coming home this week (Tuesday or Wednesday). 

Kindergarten Weekly Report

 September 20, 2015

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ABC's and 123's

Reading: This week we've focused on letters M, N, O, and P. We are working on letter identification, letter formation, and letter sounds. At home, please continue to help your child master alphabet letters, if he/she has not already. With reading, we have to "put first things first," and learning letter names and sounds is definitely first. Then it's on to learning sight words, and using decoding skills! We've been working on one or two sight words each week. So far, we've learned the, see, I, a, can. Please practice these as often as you can, reinforcing that words are made of letters. At school, we practice these words in isolation, in games, and by finding them in the books that we read. We talk about letters and words all day long!

*Mrs. Karen Carroll has started coming into our classroom every day during Reading Workshop. She will continue to visit us each day to see groups of children as they work to master letter names and sounds, and then begin reading books! We will both work with all of the children throughout the year in Reading Workshop. 

*Keep reading books with your child as often as you can. I am so impressed with the consistent reading that I'm seeing! Thank you so much for taking the time to establish this important habit! You're awesome, families! We have 100% of our Peeps reading almost every night!

Math: Sorting is the first step towards making patterns! This upcoming week, we'll be learning all about patterns. At home, you can help develop your child's understanding of patterns by pointing out patterns that you notice. There are patterns everywhere--on clothes, furniture designs, wallpaper, and in nature outdoors. Patterning is a skill that is important to reading, believe it or not! When children can recognize patterns with shapes, colors, and designs, then they can transfer that knowledge to beginner reader books where there is lots of repetition. During our school days this week, we continued working on counting to 20 without errors, writing numbers 1-5, and counting objects in a line and in a group. 

               

​Science: We're learning to think like scientists and carefully observe things that we experience. We know that "observe" means to look and think carefully about what you're seeing. We learned that scientists use tools like a hand lens and a balance. In the Game Spot center, we have had lots of fun figuring out ways to build a house that the big bad wolf can't blow down, and building a chair to hold all three bears. These are STEM activities that integrate Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. The children love them!

Writing Workshop: Our writers have started using a few new strategies this week.  We've practiced listening to the sounds in words to write some letters to go with our pictures. At this point, it's OK for children to try to write just one letter, such as putting "S" next to a picture of a school. Some friends are able to write more, and that's wonderful. Some writers are applying their sight word knowledge, and writing words they know! Everyone is doing what they can do, and feeling good about where they are. In our School Center station, "Write the Room" is a new favorite activity. We're learning how to read all of the writing on the classroom walls, and some of us are incorporating that into Writer's Workshop writing! We're making terrific connections!

Upcoming Events

A Peek at Next Week

Monday: A Day (Art)

Tuesday: B Day (Music)

Wednesday: C Day (Wear tennis shoes for P.E.)

Thursday: D Day (Wear tennis shoes for P.E.)

Friday: NO SCHOOL (Professional Development day for teachers)

Be sure to come to Long School's 1st Cultural Dinner on Friday, October 2nd from 6:30-8:00 pm. Bring a food (dish) to celebrate your culture. There will be cultural entertainment from all over the world. This is a fun family event! Contact mwigger@lindberghschools.ws with any questions or concerns. 

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Learning Fun!

We had a week full of activities! Miss Catherine from NCADA came to teach a lesson about using our Teddy Bear words and actions, and not "porcupining." "Porcupining" is when you hurt others with unkind words and actions. We try to never do that in Kindergarten!

Here are the boys and girls working in centers this week. We're having lots of fun working and playing with our friends!

Zero the Hero Visits Again

Zero the Hero came back to visit us on the 20th Day of Kindergarten! He reminded us how important the number 0 is, and gave us special "0 treats" to give us super math power. He also gave us a $20 Zero Bill! He said that you can only buy things with it at home. Zero the Hero has a fantastic sense of humor, don't you think?!?

 

Busy Learners!

We started working in our science workbooks this week! Most of our science lessons are hands-on, and active, but we do practice writing down what we observe and think about in our workbooks. (I know that the children like something when they say, "Can we take this home?!?" That's what they said about their workbooks.)

We are learning about what scientists do, and what tools they use. We were so excited to watch Orbeez plump up in water, and think about why they do that! We especially liked getting our very own hand lens to use, and to keep in our toolbox. 

 

Identifying letters during our Scholastic "Let's Find Out" lesson: