Newsletter 9/29

Thank you so much for coming to Open House last night.  What fun to have you all in our room!  The children were elated to see your pictures for them on their folders this morning.  Big smiles all around.

Next week we will do our sharing time, which takes place during Morning Meeting, in a new way.  Every day a student is invited to share some news on his/her heart or an item from home.  Your child should be prepared to speak about why the item/news is important to him/her.  Students who forget an item, can always share news.  Also, students do not need to share if they don't want to.  Your child will know when it is his/her turn.  It is your child's responsibility to remember that their turn is coming.  I will not be emailing you about your child's upcoming turn.  Sharing is a time to learn more about one another and to demonstrate listening and questioning skills.  Please note, in an effort to avoid "Bring and Brag" sharing, please discourage your child from bringing in toys/trophies.  This week, while modeling, I shared a photo, my favorite book, and some news.  Other ideas include letters/postcards, treasures found, and an item from a collection.   Sharing time will continue in this manner throughout the year and your child will have multiple turns.  Please contact me with any questions regarding sharing time.

We began our Emergent Reader unit this week in Reading Workshop.  Everyone is reading our classroom favorites!  Soon, your child will choose one to bring home and "read" to you. This week, we learned that readers look at the pictures to help them remember the story.  Readers also have to be careful to not get ahead of the pictures while telling the tale: the story and pictures must match.  We are also working on retelling a story.  We made puppets from The Three Billy Goats Gruff, so we can act out the story and practice our retelling skills at home.  Ask your child to act out the story for you!

In Writing Workshop, we learned how we can solve our own problems.  We are learning to become independent writers.  We also did our first Character Friend page, writing about the little boy in our classroom favorite, The Carrot Seed.

We began a new unit in math this week, and each student is making a counting book.  This book will take a while to finish.  We are working on numeral formation (handwriting), developing strategies for accurately counting and keeping track of numbers, connecting number words, numerals and quantities and representing quantities with pictures.

Along with writing numerals in handwriting, we used our slates for the first time to do "Wet, Dry, Try".  The students used this multi-sensory technique to learn correct letter formation for a few first letters.

In social studies, we read about being a "Bucket Filler" and made a chart about how we can fill one another's buckets with good feelings.  We also want to fill the buckets of other Ox Ridge citizens, so we made a list of all the adults who care about us at school and came up with ways we can greet them when we see them.  We want to fill everyone's buckets!

In science, we gathered data on September's weather and made graphs in our science notebooks.  We are searching for changes in weather patterns.

News and Notes:

• Save the date/time:  Kindergarten Halloween Parade 10/31 at 9:45 a.m.  Parents welcome.  More info coming soon!

Reading our classroom favorites

Reading a counting book example with Ms. Coyne, the math specialist

Acting out The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  Studying characters and setting.

Wet, Dry, Try

Newsletter 9/22

We have been reading "The Eensy Weensy Spider" in shared reading and The Three Billy Goats Gruff as our read aloud this week.  We finished Mrs. Wishy Washy and everyone got their own copy! Please read it with your child and ask him/her to read as much as possible.  Please be sure to send the book, as well as the sleeve, back to school on Monday.  We also began to work on retelling this week.  This is a skill we will practice all year.  When a child finishes "reading" a book (looking at the pictures and making up words that match), s/he can retell it to a partner by saying "This book is mostly about___" .  If it is nonfiction, s/he can say "It taught me about ___".  You can do this when you finish reading stories with your child at home.  When we retell a book, we can connect the pages using words like "and then..." as we turn the pages.  We practiced that, too.

In Writing Workshop we learned "When I'm done, I've just begun!".  We can add more details to the illustrations and more words to the page.  We also learned how to independently begin a new piece.  We looked into the hearts that you all made at home and we were reminded of great stories to write!
 
In handwriting, we used wooden pieces to form all the capital letters of the alphabet.  Our handwriting program, Handwriting without Tears, incorporates great multi-sensory strategies to help children learn how to form their letters.

In phonics, we learned a story about our owl friend, Echo, and then tried to recall basic story elements and retell it.

We learned how Center time works in our classroom this week.  The majority of our work revolved around spelling our friends' names, on white boards, with stamps and magnets.

In Math, we gathered data and created a graph representing our favorite classroom activity.  Most of us like writing, and the least preferred activity is math.  See photo below. We also did a listening and counting activity where we had to keep track while we counted.

In science, we observed the apple tree right outside our window and recorded our observations.  We'll be making observations of this tree each season.  Everyone was so excited to notice the crab apples on it!

We began Second Steps in social studies this week.  We learned what the "Listening Rules" are to help us succeed in class.  The Second Steps homework is NOT MANDATORY, but coincides with the lessons taught in class.  It is a good way to reinforce those ideas at home.

News & Notes:

• Please come to Open House next Thursday the 28th.  Our kindergarten time slot is 7-7:30 pm.

Building letters with wooden pieces

Organizing data in math 

Being responsible 

Stamping names

Writing names

Making names with magnets

Newsletter 9/15

We have been very busy enjoying our first full week of school!

In Reading Workshop, we've been reading Joy Cowley's Mrs. Wishy Washy for shared reading.  We read it every day, each day examining a new reading technique:  making predictions, learning vocabulary, retelling, using the pictures to help us read, searching for letter sounds, reading with fluency and expression, etc.  Lastly, we wrote our own version of the story!  Our read aloud stories this week have been our first emergent stories, The Carrot Seed and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!  We We read these everyday as well, exercising similar skills as in shared reading, but also really learning about the story plot and character feelings.  Soon each child will be borrowing an emergent storybook to bring home and "read" to you!

We also learned that readers re-read nonfiction texts to learn more; they connect pages while reading using transition words like "and then...", and share "WOW!" pages with partners.

In Writing Workshop, we reviewed what "Kindergarten Spelling" is, and we wrote about our hopes and dreams for the year.  We also learned that we can be authors, just like the authors we love!   Everyone was so excited to "look inside their hearts" for writing ideas!  THANK YOU for helping to decorate their hearts!  We can make illustrations and try to label them.  Lastly, we became a club of authors, giving our club a name ("Kindergarten Writers!") and cheering on each others' amazing writing efforts.

In our handwriting lessons, we met Mat Man, who is made of big and little lines and curves.  Mat Man helps us draw realistic looking people, breaking down a body into manageable shapes.  Look for your child's before/after Mat Man work being sent home. Soon, we will use those same lines and curves to make letters!

In our phonics lessons, we used letter magnets to match letters to their spaces in the alphabet.  We also created an alphabetized list of all of our names, which is so useful to have in the classroom.

We played a lot of math games while focusing on attributes this week.  We matched buttons and blocks by attributes and developed language on how to describe them.  Everyone was comparing how the objects are the same and different.  We also counted cubes in a jar and learned how to record data by representing quantities with pictures, numbers and words.

Our social studies lessons focused on safety and making our classroom rules. We discussed bus safety and made a long list of rules for our classroom.  Then we found out what those rules had in common, catagorized them, and made a much shorter (and more manageable!) list.

News & Notes:

• No School next Thursday, 9/21
• Open House Night 9/28
• Did your child lose a white cardigan?  I have one here that should belong to someone in our class.  Please let me know if it's yours.  

Playing School during Choice Time

Our name list

Our finalized rule list

First draft of student generated rules, with similar ideas sorted out by color

Teamwork during Choice Time

Artists!

Imaginative Play!

Sorting by attributes

Re-reading non-fiction texts with a partner to learn more

Newsletter 9/7

We have had a very full week (despite the day off)!  Besides becoming more independent in our basic routines like Morning Meeting, lunch count and dismissal procedures, and besides all the fun at recess and choice time, we've done a lot of academics, too!

In Reading Workshop, we learned that we are ALL READERS!  We were amazed by how much environmental print we could read by ourselves (stop signs, exit signs, cereal names, McDonalds signs, etc).  This week we learned that readers look, think, read and learn- in that order.  We also learned about two kinds of books: storybooks and "learn about the world" books (fiction and non-fiction).  We had fun examining the difference between the two.  Lastly, we learned that we can read privately or with a partner, and what that looks like.  The Reading Workshop format revolves around private and partner reading, and we'll be working on that all year.  We are beginning to learn how to be good partners!

In phonics, we met new friends Echo and Baby Echo.  Ask your child about them! We are learning a "story" for every letter of the alphabet.  The story consists of the letter name, a "key word" which begins with the letter, and then the letter sound (i.e. the letter Bb story is "B, bat, /b/"). These stories will increase letter/sound awareness.

In Writing Workshop, we learned that we are ALL AUTHORS!  Everyone has stories to tell and things to teach.  Even a picture can tell a story, so we are beginning there.  We made pictures of our families and things we like to do and what we want to be when we grow up.  We learned about "kindergarten spelling" (which is also called temporary spelling) and how it's okay to not spell correctly in kindergarten.  Everyone just needs to try their best.  Your young author will be gaining independence and confidence as a writer and speller as the year unfolds.  We are beginning to take risks and try to "spell" on our own.

In math, we set up our calendar for September and organized our birthday graph.  We'll be having a lot of birthday celebrations in October and June!  We explored how to count in an organized manner so as not to lose track.  We learned about the importance of double-checking.  Lastly, we took time exploring some of our math tools, how to use them, and the importance of working in a team.

In science, we're beginning a year long unit on the weather.  We will be recording the weather and temperature all year long and searching for patterns and changes. We learned how to read our classroom thermometer.  We use the rainbow colors instead of degrees.  Red weather is hot and purple is the coldest.

In social studies, we discussed safety and rules around the school.  We also made a brainstorm of why we come to school in the first place!

News & Notes:

• School photo day is 9/12.  
• Kindergarten coffee is 9/14.  Here you will have a chance to learn about how to volunteer in the classroom.  If you cannot attend, but are interested in volunteering, please contact our room parents after the coffee...
• ...Our room parents are Mrs. Hoffmeister and Mrs. Garvey.  THANK YOU in advance for your help this year!
• Be on the lookout for HOMEWORK coming home for Writing Workshop.  Your child needs to decorate something to find inspiration!

A Reading Workshop anchor chart

Reading with partners

Reading privately

Exploring buttons

Exploring color tiles

Exploring Geoblocks

Exploring connecting cubes

Exploring pattern blocks

Supplies for K

Click here for a link to the Kindergarten supply list.

Newsletter 8/29

Welcome to our newsletter!  This newsletter will be posted on our blog every Thursday evening/Friday to update you on class activities.

We had a great day today!  We met new friends and learned routines.  Everyone knew his/her lunch plan.  Way to go!  We took a tour of the cafeteria, set up our new calendar and discussed the weather. We read The Kissing Hand and made Chester puppets.  Ask your child to give you a kissing hand for when you're feeling lonely!

We enjoyed music class today, an extra recess and a busy choice time as well.  We closed our day by talking about our favorite thing that happened today, and everyone got a Kissing Hand certificate for doing such a great job in K!

News & Notes:

• No school on Monday.
• Please be sure to check the KINDERGARTEN SCHOOL SUPPLY LIST on the school website and/or the post above.  It is located under "Teacher Websites" in the kindergarten area.