Weekly Peep Report

Happy Friday, Kindergarten Families!

I hope that you've had a good week, as we've started back to school. I know it can be challenging to get children back on schedule. At school, we started our week with our first field trip of the year, and we've been busy learning all about winter, and having fun with mittens and gloves! I think the Peeps are tired now that it's the end of the week!

Kindergarten Weekly Report

January 8, 2016

ABC's and 123's

Reading and Writing

As a class, we read different versions of The Mitten, a classic story where animals climb into a forgotten mitten to get warm. We also read The Missing Mitten Mystery, Missing Mittens (about odd and even numbers), and Mountain of Mittens. We discovered that stories about mittens almost always have lost mittens! In Guided Reading groups, the children practiced reading books using their storyteller voices. We are building fluency when reading. We revisited "fiction" vs. "non-fiction" when we read about the real animals of The Mitten, and what they really do in winter! Animals can't all fit in a mitten in real life, of course! 

Keep working on sight words at home to be sure that they are automatic. We need to know these words as soon as we see them! The new lists for third quarter are in your child's binder. You'll notice that the list is a little longer this quarter. We started working on "went," "in," and "how" this week. Please do not work on the third quarter list if your child still needs to master the words on the first or second quarter list. Third quarter words are:

went, in, are, how, yes, no, come, this, who, will, be, have, do, not, where, when, why

Please keep reading at home as often as you can. Point out sight words when you see them. Don't forget to write down the books that you read in the reading log. Many of you have set reading goals for this month already! Thank you!

Math:
We are working on building number concepts for addition and subtraction. This week we have been composing and decomposing numbers. We are discovering different ways to make a number, and different ways to take it apart. Splitting a number into two groups can be tricky. It's not always easy to find new ways. At home, you can help by getting a group of six pennies, or other objects. Ask your child to practice separating the pennies into two groups. The groups you can make are 1 and 5, 2 and 4, 3 and 3, etc. We're also learning about odd and even numbers, and connecting that math concept to the mitten stories we've read.

​Science:
There are lots of science concepts that we've focused on this week, as we had fun learning all about winter!  We've talked about the differences in the seasons, which months the different seasons occur in, and how we are best prepared for different types of weather. We've had fun experimenting with our thumbs, too! (See the pictures to understand more.) The temperature is going to really drop next week, so please be sure your child is ready for cold recesses. (We will only go outside if the wind chill is 20 degrees or above.)

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Upcoming Events

A Peek at Next Week:

Early Release Day is on Wednesday. Please be sure to email me if your child has a change in transportation that day. Otherwise, I'll assume that we're going with the usual dismissal plan. Thank you!

Monday: B Day (Music) 
Tuesday: C Day (P.E)
Wednesday: C Day (P.E.*) Early Release Day (dismissal is at 1:40; the theme for the day is "dress comfy")
Thursday: D Day (P.E) Remember library books.

Friday: E Day (Technology)

**The double C Days are not an error...Dr. Parker said that we'll have two C Days in a row due to Early Release schedule changes. 

There is NO SCHOOL on Monday, January 18, for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Keep in mind our 100 Day shirt project (100 Day is February 1.)
Enjoy the weekend, and stay warm!