Newsletter 6/1/18

We continued our reading play dates this week and we read a wonderful book, The Invisable Boy, as a group.  We read it many times and each time we understood more and more!  We learned new vocabulary and expressions, acted it out and tried to retell it.  We strengthened our comprehension skills when we had a whole class conversation about the most important parts and the author's intentions.  The book taught a wonderful lesson on what a good friend does and what makes a leader.

We began our last unit in Writing Workshop: Crafting Stories.  We wrote true stories in the beginning of K, but now we know so much, we're giving it another visit!  We can't wait to see how our writing improves.  We generated a list of possible topics/stories that we can write.  We can add to it any time we want!  If something interesting happens that I think would make a good story, I can note it on my topic list so I remember it later.  Ask your child about the story ideas on his/her list.

CompuChild visited this week.  We enjoyed making a LEGO robot that moved!  Everyone worked on their engineering skills during this fun activity.

We solidified our understanding of addition facts 1-10 while playing multiple games this week.

In our science lessons, we went on another nature walk to find where animals are hiding.  Ask your child about what s/he saw. We also watched videos of animals that shape the earth around them, like beavers and gophers.  Are they helping or harming our environment?  We also collected May's weather data in our journals and examined it for patterns.

In Social Studies we reflected on May's activities and holidays and we made way for June!

News and Notes:

• FIELD DAY IS MONDAY!  Please refer to the yellow sheet sent home to know your child's team color.  Note that students need not go all out with crazy colored outfits for field day.  A t-shirt in your child's assigned color is perfect.  Please send your child to school wearing sneakers and sunscreen.  Families are invited to watch 10-11:30 am.  At the end of the activities, stick around for a group photo opportunity!
• 6/8  Ox Ridge Walk-a-Thon!  Collect those pledges!
• Book sleeves due Monday 6/4
• THEME DAYS are coming!  Be on the lookout for more information coming home on Monday.

Engineering fun with CompuChild

We built robots that moved!

Addition games

How animals change the environment

Newsletter 5/25

We continued our reading play dates this week and everyone is enjoying them.  We read a book called Plants Can't Stand Still multiple times, acting it out, learning new vocabulary and discussing all that it teaches.  We also had a short and sweet exposure to poetry.  We learned that poems encourage us to make pictures in our minds and poets get to break writing rules!  Some poets don't even write in straight lines!  We compared poems and story books.  Everyone is excited to have a new bin full of books in our classroom: poetry!

We all enjoyed author Alyssa Capucilli's visit on Thursday.  She was a wonderful speaker and showed us how her books are made.

We shared our persuasive writing pieces with the authors in Mrs. G's classroom this week.  We wrote a few more pieces where students tried to persuade me to go to certain restaurants and vacation destinations.  Those are so much fun to read.  Last, we wrote goodbye letters to Mrs. Valenzano who is retiring this year.

We strengthened our addition skills this week, exploring various equations that make 5.  Then we did equations with sums to 10.  We worked on horizontal and vertical equations, and even a bit of algebra (2 + ? = 5)!

We went on a nature walk, searching for animals, noticing what they were doing and wondering why they were doing it.  Then we recorded our findings in our science journal.  We also studied animals' survival strategies.  We watched a video of animals using their "survival super powers", acted it out, and then recorded our ideas.

We launched our Leadership Campaign in our classroom this week.  We had a class discussion about what leaders do/say/look like and we made a list (see attached).  We're all trying to be leaders in our room.  At the end of each day, we reflect on who was a leader and why.  We count how many leaders we've had that day and we hope for more tomorrow!

We also discussed Memorial Day and why we don't have school on Monday.

News and Notes:

• No School 5/28  Enjoy the long weekend!
• Field Day 6/4  10-11:30 am   Families are invited to attend to watch some or all of the games.  Please send your child to school with a water bottle (with ice) and wearing sunscreen and sneakers.
• 6/19  Class Celebration  2-3 pm.  Join us for snack, a project and free choice time

Aylssa Capucilli

What her books look like after they're printed

This sparrow flew out of this bird box, but is staying close by while we observe.  Why?

Sharing our persuasive pieces with friends in Mrs. G's room

Equation games

Scientific findings

Moving like praying mantises

Reading play date fun

Newsletter 5/18/18

We continued our Reading Workshop play date fun this week, extending our Avid Readers unit in a new way.  Our reading "clubs" are getting much better at taking turns and listening to one another.  This week we learned various ways to play pretend on a reading play date and also different games we can all play with our books.  Each reader gets a turn being in charge of the play date.  S/he decides which play date activity fits his/her book best, then leads the group in the fun.

We published our persuasive writing pieces this week!  We used our writing checklist to make sure it was as persuasive as possible, then edited it alone and with a partner to double check.  Last, we added color. 

We began a unit on addition this week.  We told number stories and transformed them into equations.  Everyone got a lot of practice writing equations and trying to understand what the + and = symbols stand for. 

In science, we are studying what animals need to survive and how they get it.  We watched videos of animals eating, and studied them in books.  We found that some have "super powers" to help them get the food they need!

Thank you to all the parents who helped out with games this week!

News and Notes:

• Book sleeves are due on Monday.
• Author Alyssa Capucilli visits Ox Ridge next Thursday!
• SAVE THE DATE :  June 19, 2-3 pm,  Class Celebration.  Parents welcome for a craft, snack and choice fun from 2-3 pm.

We're off on our field trip!

Sleeping Beauty

Recording our scientific findings

Research

Acting out a book on a reading play date

Playing teacher on a reading play date

Building equations

Comparing similar books on a reading play date

Newsletter 5/11

Avid Readers have reading play dates!  This week we learned how we can have a play date with the peers in our "book club".  There is so much more we can do with books together, than just read them.  We can play school, too!  One reader can be the teacher and the others are the students.  Everyone was excited to play school while reading together.  We had to work on it, though!  Being the "teacher" isn't easy!

The Darien librarians visited this week to tell us all about their summer reading program.  We can't wait to sign up!  See the flyer below.

Our Persuasive Writing Toolbox is full!  This week we learned how to write an appropriate ending to our pieces.  We wrote new pieces and edited our older ones to reflect the new skills we've learned.

We did an Exemplar in math this week (see below) and continued working with numbers 1-100.  We built the numbers with cubes and practiced counting forward from any given number within 1-100.

We are learning a lot about living things in science!  We observed living things outside: a bee, a squirrel, and MOST EXCITING, the swallows caring for their young in the bird box near the garden (see below)!  So cool!  We watched the parents protect the nest and deliver food.  Then we discussed our findings.  What do animals need to live?  What do plants need to live?  Are they the same things?  Ask your kindergartner!

We're working with digraphs in our phonics lessons (th, sh, wh, ch, and ck), so you can expect your child to know those sounds.

We continue to work on using punctuation in all of our writing and remember to use capital letters only as needed.  This work is on-going...

News and Notes:

• Book Sleeves due Monday
• Field Trip on Tuesday!  Please refer to the email or note sent home for important information
• SAVE THE DATE :  June 19, 2-3 pm,  Class Celebration.  
• Parents welcome for a craft, snack and choice fun from 2-3 pm.

Mr. and Mrs. Swallow caring for their young

Possible solutions to our Exemplar

Newsletter 5/4/18

In Reading Workshop this week we learned new activities and games that we can play with our partner.  We made a list of words that we can use to describe a character's emotions other than "happy" and "sad".  Then we played "Guess the Feeling" with our partners.  We also compared our books during partner time.  Students had conversations like:
"In my book Marshmellow the Horse eats apples." 
"He does in mine, too!"
 "Is his owner in your book?"
 "No."

In math, we put numbers in order from least to greatest and played a teen BINGO game with Mrs. Coyne.

In science, we began our unit on living and nonliving things.  We tried to sort photos of items and put them in the correct category.  We wondered, "What do living things need?".  We observed living things and recorded what we noticed in our science notebooks.

We are adding even more tools to our Persuasive Writing Toolbox!  We read I Wanna Iguana as a mentor text, because in that book the child convinces his mom to get him an iguana!  We are trying to write like him.

We had a wonderful field trip.  We studied map keys and symbols, and then we went out and used the map to find our way to various destinations at the nature center.

News and Notes:

• Book sleeves are due on Monday.
• Scholastic book orders are due on Tuesday.
• Please let me know if your child will not be in school next Friday.  We have treats for our moms to bring home!  

Organizing numbers from least to greatest

Teen BINGO

Our persuasive writing anchor chart

Frogs!

Turtles!

Living vs. Nonliving

Beginning to sort out our scientific ideas