Weekly News May 30-June 2

I hope you all enjoyed the (mostly) beautiful weather this holiday weekend!  It is so crazy that summer is upon us!   In Kindergarten we will be spending our last days looking back on all we have learned and looking to 1st grade with excitement and pride!

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

End of Year Dress Up Days

G 5/30 Go Team! Wear your favorite sports gear

O 5/31 Odd/crazy sock day

O 6/1 Orange Colors

D 6/2 Dads and moms (dress like your parents)

B 6/5 Backwards clothes day

Y 6/6 You’re so bright (wear sunglasses) Field Day in the afternoon

E 6/7 Extra bright clothes

Here is a peek at our week:

Reading:  This week we will enter the last bend of our character unit and will be getting ready to act out one of our favorite book club books!  We will learn that actors don't always just read the words, but also add feelings and sometimes extra thoughts and actions to help others really understand the story.  This will be such a fun way for the boys and girls to put all they have learned about reading together!

Writing: The boys and girls will be so excited to have some "free choice" writing this week!  This means we will review all of the types of writing we have done so far this year and they will get to choose their favorite and write some pieces to travel to 1st grade with them.  We will also use the checklists and charts from previous units to make our writing the best it can be.   We will also use the checklist to do some goal setting for 1st grade as we will write to our 1st grade teachers and tell them what our favorite type of writing is, what we know we do well and what we want to get better at in writing!

Math:  This week math will be all about comparing.  We will compare quantities and measurement in fun and hands on ways.  Some of the things we will be doing will be: testing capacity of various containers using dry noodles, taking "inventory" of different bags of math objects and writing our own books of measurement comparisons. 

Science:This week we will conduct official "trials" to measure the effectiveness of ramps and balls.  We will work in three different centers:

• One to observe and compare how ramp height affects the distance a ball rolls
• One to observe and compare how the size of a ball impacts the distance it can roll
• One to observe and compare how the weight of a ball impacts the distance it can roll

Weekly News May 22-26

It was a fun last FULL week together!  This week in writing we acted as coaches for the 4K writers and shared some important Kindergarten writing tips with them.  Listening to them share their tips made so me proud!

Important Dates and Reminders:
Upcoming Dates and Reminders:
May 22: Family Night
May 26: NO SCHOOL
May: 29: NO SCHOOL
May 30: Sportswear Day
May 31: Crazy/Odd Sock Day
June 1: Wear Orange
June 2: Dress Like Your Parents Day
June 5: Backwards Clothes Day
June 6: Sunglasses Day and Field Day (info coming soon)
June 7: Wear Bright Clothes/Last Day of School-11:30 Dismissal

Here is a peek at our week;

Reading: This week in reading we will work in character book clubs.  That means we will choose a book character we know well and read MANY books about that character and then meet with other students who are studying that character and share our thinking.  We will work on rereading to learn more about the character each time and will even role play with our group to act like that character.  Also we will have a chance to write a new ending for one of our character books.

Writing:  This week we will use checklist to revise and edit our writing.  We will put all of the things we have learned about composing stories, spelling and punctuation to publish our final story of our Kindergarten career.  Working with a peer editor will help us to be honest and reflective when we rereading and fixing up our writing!

Math: We will have fun reviewing ALL of the concepts we have learned across the units in math this year to prepare us to take our End of the Year Assessment in math.  The boys and girls did take this in the fall so we will be able to see how much they have grown and deepened their understand of the math concepts taught this year.  A copy will placed in their portfolio to show this growth!  We will also take time to play some of our most beloved math games that will help with our fluency!

Science: This week we will continue working in our ramp centers.  Our goal will be to collaborate with others working in the same center and to use our science vocabulary when speaking and writing  about what we are learning at each center.

Word Work:  We tried co-writing a book as a class this week.  We planned a story together and then each day we wrote a page in our own books, but worked on the spelling and editing together.  This has helped us to think more about tricky things in our writing like vowels, blend and punctuation.  Practicing all of these things will help us to be strong writers as we head to first grade.

Weekly New May 15-19

I hope you all enjoyed the  beautiful weekend!  I want to wish all of the mothers out there a very happy and blessed Mother's Day.  You are raising some pretty terrific kids that I am lucky enough to spend my days with!  You are their first and best teachers!

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:
May 22: Family Night
May 26: NO SCHOOL
May: 29: NO SCHOOL
May 30: Sportswear Day
May 31: Crazy/Odd Sock Day
June 1: Wear Orange
June 2: Dress Like Your Parents Day
June 5: Backwards Clothes Day
June 6: Sunglasses Day and Field Day (info coming soon)
June 7: Wear Bright Clothes/Last Day of School-11:30 Dismissal

Here's a peek at the week:

Reading: This week in reading we will focus on sharing the information we learn about characters with our partners.  Working to retell our stories and include character feelings will be a big portionof of our work this week. We will also learn that sometimes stories don't always come right out and say how a character is feeling and why, so we need to use what we have read to infer how a character is feeling.  This is such an important skill for young readers. 

Writing:  This week we will continue to use our mentor author, Mo Willems, to learn new writing techniques from.  Just like in reading, we will be adding in character feelings to make our story come to life.  We will also work to add dialogue by using speech bubbles. 

Math: This week we will review important concepts from Unit 5 and will take our last unit test.  We will also discuss and explore length, width, height, weight and capacity and use some hands on learning to practice these measurementy concepts.

Science: We will be exploring and observing ramps this week in science centers.  Students will work their way through a series of centers where they: watch videos of ramps and look closely at pictures of ramps and take notes on their observations, use marble works to observe a working ramp and use various materials to create their own ramps. 

Weekly News May 8-12

Welcome to another beautiful week!  This time of the year is always so bittersweet...it is a time to reflect on how much the students have learned, keeping in mind our days together are also numbered.  It makes me proud and sad at the same time!  I hope the students skip those sad feelings and only feel proud of their hard work.

Just an FYI...I will be out on Wednesday and Mrs. Flanagan will be with the boys and girls.  I will be visiting another  school to observe a possible phonics program NDLC may be interested in using in the future.  Mrs. Flanagan is so happy she will get to see the boys and girls before they move on to 1st grade!

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:
May 22: Family Night
May 26: NO SCHOOL
May: 29: NO SCHOOL
May 30: Sportswear Day
May 31: Crazy/Odd Sock Day
June 1: Wear Orange
June 2: Dress Like Your Parents Day
June 5: Backwards Clothes Day
June 6: Sunglasses Day
June 7: Wear Bright Clothes/Last Day of School-11:30 Dismissal

Here is a peek at our week:

Reading:  This week we will kick off our final reading unit of the year!   It is called "Readers Get to Know Characters By Performing Their Books." This unit will focus on reading to understand story structure and character actions. much like the emergent story book unit we did at the beginning of the year.  The big difference will now be that we can conventionally read stories and then study the characters.  This week we will use the cover, title and sequence of the story to learn more about characters and their feelings.  We will also learn to put ourselves in the character's shoes to help us better understand character feelings and how they change.

Writing:  Our true story unit is up and running and I am so happy that many of the things we worked on in Writing Bootcamp are habits the students are carrying over to their writing.  This week we will review the all of the spelling strategies we have worked on this past year:  stretching words out sound by sound, using vowels and using blends.  We will use the beloved story Knuffle Bunny to study as a mentor text.  We will look to see how the author, Mo Willems, using a beginning, setting an ending when writing a story. 

Math: Fact fluency and skill  maintenance will again be our focus in math this week.  The boys and girls have been using flashcards in the classroom to become more automatic with their +/- facts up to 5 and are challenging themselves to move away from using fingers when solving these equations.
 We will also be reviewing shapes and working on sorting equations according to whether their total is less than, equal to or greater than 10.  We will also be reviewing the concept of comparing groups of objects using those terms. 

Science:  This week we will design and make our own balls using what we have learned in this science unit so far.  Students will use a variety of materials to do this and will definitely have to do some predicting and testing to explore and discover the attributes of their creations.  We will also begin exploring ramps.  We will build background knowledge on this by searching for places around school ramps are used and also by watching videos of some common ramps.

Weekly News May 1-5

Happy May!  Did I just say that?!  I cannot believe we are entering that last full month of school!  We are sure in for lots of fun and excitement as we do all we can to get ready to become 1st graders next year!!

Just a reminder all Fang reading slips need to be turned in ASAP,  Tickets for the game will be ordered this week.

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

May 4: Action Figures/Sci Fi Day
May 22: Family Night
May 26: No School

Reading: We took a step back this week and focused on some strong partnership skills to make sure we are not only reading to our partner but talking about our books and asking for help to solve tricky words.   This week we will jump into rereading.  Readers will learn that we reread to fix up tricky parts, make their voices sound more smooth, study characters and to even jot their thoughts about what they are reading. 

Writing:  Writing bootcamp was a success!  Each day students felt empowered to do all they could to make their writing easy to read and to make sure they were writing enough!  They also thought it was pretty funny to salute me and call me ma'am after I  gave a direction or writing tip!  This week we will begin our last unit on true story writing.  We will review the planning process for story writing be sure to tell our story first as we touch the pages of our book and then to draw and write.  We will also make the connection between our reading and writing and ask ourselves if our writing "sounds right" when we first tell the story and again when we reread it.

Math: by the end of  the year, Kindergarten students need to be fluent in solving addition and subtraction problems up to 5.  Ideally this means that are able to solve these problems without using tools, fingers or drawings.  This week we will work to ensure fluency by using and sorting flashcards and playing addition and subtraction games.   Here is a picture of an Addition Cross Out game board.  We will simply roll 2 dice and then cross out the sum.  This would be a great way to practice facts at home too!

Science: The boys and girls are SO excited about the work we are doing in science.  This week we learned the vocab words: force, gravity, compare and contrast and are working to use them as we conduct our explorations and experiments.  We will continue to compare balls this week and experiment with their bounciness by testing how various balls bounce on different surfaces and how many times they bounce.  We will also use straws to test how easy it is to move different types of balls using our own wind.
Check out these partners working hard together!

Word Work: Here is a link with helpful information about sight words. It also contains a list of 100 frequently encountered sight words. If you feel like your child has a firm grasp on our sight word list, use words from this list! Many of these words will be focused on in 1st grade.  Our goal is to make sure students are able to not only read, but write the sight words we have learned with automaticity. 

Weekly News April 24-28

Hello and welcome to a beautiful week!  It will be nice to have a full 5 days to learn and have fun with the boys and girls!

Important Dates and Reminders:
April 28: Funky Friday (dress as silly as you want)

A note from PSC:

Teacher Appreciation Week - May 1-5

Help thank our teachers for their hard work. Provide an item for lunch or snacks during Teacher Appreciation Week.  Click on this link to sign up.  Thank you for your support!

Here is a peek at our week:

Reading: This week we will continue to focus on cross checking what we read by asking: "what sounds right, looks right and makes sense."  We will learn that readers are flexible and try out many different strategies when trying to answer these questions.  We will also learn about the importance and reasons for rereading.  The big reasons we want students to reread is to make sure they are understanding what is read and to make sure their reading sounds smooth and fluent (not like a robot :)).  In the classroom we are now working on "scooping up" words in sentences and phrases rather than reading word by word.  Students may likely still read in a choppy way when decoding new words, but we can encourage them to go back and make it sound smooth.

Writing: We have now wrapped up our persuasive writing unit, which was the third and final genre of writing we will focus on this year.  We will end the year writing true stories, but before that we will have some fun with a "Writing Bootcamp."  This week students will learn that two of the things writers ALWAYS do (and make a habit of) are writing in a way others can read and write as much as they can.  Each day we will practice ways to make both of these things happen for us in a more automatic way!  We will work to hold one another accountable for doing our best work and we even set goals for ourselves by joining a "platoon" with one of these goals in mind! I am hopeful this will bring some of the important things we have learned about writing together in a fun and motivating way they will revive and strengthen our writing from now until the end of the school year!

Math: Our focus in math this week will again be on partners of number form 6-10 and reviewing partners of 5.  we will be playing a game called "Pigs in a Pen"  to help us become more automatic in recognizing partners of 10.  To play this game you need ten small objects.  One partner closes his/her eyes and the other partners takes some of the objects away and then says "Oink, oink pigs in a pen.  Tell me what is the partner of 10."   The students need to figure out how many objects are still there and then how many are missing to make a total of 10.  This can really be played with any number and is a quick and easy way to practice math at home.  We will also be working on recognizing the value of teen numbers and how they increase as they grow and we will create and compare values 1-20 to look for patterns.

Science: This week we will be doing some hands on exploration of different types of balls and how they react to human force when we bounce, push and roll them.  We will review the scientific method before conducting these movement experiments and will capture our observations through words and pictures in our science notebooks.  The boys and girls are very excited about this!

Word Work: Our focus on readable writing will flow into our word work time this week.  If you child is writing at home encourage them to make their writing readable by writing neat letters on the lines of paper and making sure the letters they are making are Add to distinguishable as upper case or lower case. 

Weekly News April 18-21

I hope you have all been enjoying this beautiful spring weather!  I know it meant lots of time for yard work and wagon rides over here!  I was reflecting over break about how little time I have left with the boys and girls and am excited to get back into the school groove and make the most of it!!

Important Dates and Reminders:

April 20: Social Studies and Subs Family Night
April 21: Wear Blue and Green for Earth Day
                Earth Day Clean up from 2:15-2:45
April 28: Funky Friday (dress as silly as you want)

A note from PSC:

Teacher Appreciation Week - May 1-5

Help thank our teachers for their hard work. Provide an item for lunch or snacks during Teacher Appreciation Week.  Click on this link to sign up.  Thank you for your support!

Here is a peek at our week:

Reading:  This week in reading we will be doing some important work of really thinking about the steps we take and places we check when solving an unknown word.  We will take a deeper look at the questions "Does it make sense?"  Does it sound right?" and "Does it look right?"  We will learn the clues we use to answer all of these questions and to even assess ourselves on which clues (picture, book/story topic or letter sounds) we use most often and which we need to rely on more.  We really want readers to be able to rely on these clues equally as they develop as readers so they have a balanced and effective approach to word solving.

Writing: This is the perfect week for us to wrap up our persuasive writing unit as Earth Day is almost here.  We will work to edit and publish a few pieces of our work on environmental issues and will be presenting them to our second grade buddies at the end of the week.  We will focus on speaking about the topics we wrote about in a persuasive way by standing tall, using a loud voice and using body gestures to really get to really get our listeners engaged.  Here is a link to a video we watched of a boy who is doing these things.  Although he is not speaking on the topics we are; the boys and girls were able to see how he used his voices and words to communicate well with others!

Math:  We are just beginning our LAST math unit of the year...holy cow!!  This unit is called Consolidation of Concepts and will focus on all of the important skills students need to attain in Kindergarten in order to have a solid grasp of mathematical concepts to build on in 1st grade.  All of these topics are repetitive and you might find me to a be a broken record when keeping you in the loop!  Please know that this is by design...our curriculum Math Expressions, is a spiral curriculum, meaning concepts are taught over and over across the year in various ways, taking students' development into consideration and giving them ample opportunity to master and deeply understand concepts! 

Science:  This week we will begin one of our most beloved science units called Balls and Ramps.  This week we will build some background knowledge and vocabulary about how and why balls move and bounce the way they do.

Word Work: Please continue to reinforce sight word automaticity in both reading and writing.  One way to practice writing is to say short sentences with multiple sight words in them and have your child write them.  When they finish have them check that their words are spelled correctly and fix up the ones that are not.  Also, challenge them to write them with all lower case letters. 

Our FUN Friday

Friday was THE best day!  We did our absolute best at the Knowledge-a-thon,  celebrated our reading with a poetry extravaganza, ate lunch in our classroom and saw a fabulous performance at the PAC!

Check out some photos of our poetry centers!

We used watercolor to illustrate poems, wrote our own copy cat poems and practiced reading and performing poems.

Some us took the stage and performed a poem we had written or practiced reading over and over!

Weekly News April 3-7

Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me this past week at conferences.  I enjoy time spent filling you in on the wonderful things your children are doing.

We are heading into a fun and exciting week preparing for our knowledge-a-thon!  There will be dress up days each day this week to help us grow our excitement for this big event!  We have practiced questions in the classroom and the kids are rockin' them!  Please keep up the practice at  home too!

Here are the April lunch menu and school newsletter. 
Please stay tuned for an updated homework calendar!

Important Dates and Reminders:
April 3: Brewers or Sports Day
April 4: Dress as a KAT question or answer
April 5: Pajama Day
April 6: Super Hero Day
April 7: Knowledge-a-thon in the the AM
             PAC field  trip in the PM- Dress Fancy Day
April 11: Egg Crack Off and Class Color Day
April 12-17: NO SCHOOL
April 21: Wear Green and Blue for Earth Day
April 20: Social Studies and Subs Family Night
April 28: Funky Friday (dress as silly as you want)

Here is a peek into our learning for the next week:

Reading: This week we will become avid readers of poetry.  We will work to add expression and feeling to the poems we read and will use the rhythm of poems to help us read smoothly.  Reading familiar and new poems will be a great way for us to work on sight words, word ending and so much more!  We will also be writing copycat poems using familiar rhythms and beats.  We will share and perform these poems on reading playdates.

Writing:  Our persuasive writing unit has turned a corner!  We have all rallied around a common cause "Keeping the Earth Clean" and will use all we have learned as persuasive writers so far to create books, songs. letters and signs to persuade others to do their part to keep our planet clean.  This is the perfect time to do this work as Earth Day is approaching.

Math:  This week we will review (one last time) using pictures to show partners of a number, classifying 3D shapes and solving teen number equations before taking our test on Thursday.

Social Studies: This week we will finish up our All About Me centers and will learn about a new technology tool called See Saw that we will use to share what we have learned about ourselves during this unit.  Stay tuned for more information on how you will be able to utilize See Saw at home!

Word Work:  We are continuing to work hard to transfer the work we are doing with sight words into our writing.  We have also been working hard on identifying short and long vowel sounds and then using them correctly in our writing.

Weekly News Mar 27-31

Check out our "What I Am" display  we did this week!  We listened to this song and then brainstormed words about ourselves and wrote them all around our self portrait creations.
These kiddos are so many important things!!

 

I look forward to seeing all of you this week and to share the wonderful things your sons and daughters are doing!

Important Dates and Reminders:

March 28 and 30: Conferences 4-7:30pm

March 29: Wacky hair or hat day 

April 3: Brewers or Sports Day

April 4: Dress as a KAT question or answer

April 5: Pajama Day

APril 6: Super Hero Day

April 7: Knowledge-a-thon in the the AM

             PAC field  trip in the PM- Dress Fancy Day

April 11: Egg Crack Off and Class Color Day

April 12-17: NO SCHOOL

April 21: Wear Green and Blue for Earth Day

April 20: Social Studies and Subs Family Night

April 28: Funky Friday (dress as silly as you want)

**Running Club begins this week (Monday and Wednesday) I do have a list of kids who are signed up so I will plan to keep them after school and get them to the gym on these days unless I hear from you!

Here is a peek at our week:

Reading: We had so much fun reading closely and doing book based pretending in story books this week that we added in an extra day of this fun important work!  That means that this week we will switch our avid reading focus to non-fiction books.  We will learn how to read closely and learn more from the words and pictures each time we read a book.  We will also try our best to use the expert words from our books when we are on reading playdates or when talking with our partners.  We will end our week by shopping for several different books on the same topic and then comparing and contrasting them.  

Writing: As writers we will continue to use our words to voice our concerns and solve problems we see in the world.  This week we will work to include "fix-it" ideas in our writing and as we create longer pieces we will work to make sure our writing is readable to others and has appropriate punctuation and that words we know how to spell are consistently spelled correctly.

We will work to choose precise and convincing words and will include please and thank you in our writing as a way to be really convincing.

Math:  We are nearing the end of Unit 4...I cannot believe how fast that went!  This week we will focus on ways to see and find partners of ten and work to become fluent in knowing these as this is an end of Kindergarten goal.  We will also continue to work on solving story problems and to be aware of which strategies are most efficient for us and how we can explain them to others.  Being able to share our math thinking with others helps us to deepen our understanding.

Social Studies: This week we will continue to through our self study centers.  We will be excited to share this work with you at our upcoming Social Studies Family Night.

Word Work:  We are coming to that time in the school year when we will slow down with introducing new sight words and will work to be sure we not only know them automatically when we see them in isolation, but also can read them automatically when we see them in books and can write them correctly consistently in our writing.  

Weekly News Mar 20-24

Yikes!  We have had a lot of sickness running through the classroom.  We are sending well wishes and a speedy recovery to those who have missed school in the past week.  Let's cross our fingers that these are the last of our winter germs to be shared.

Important Dates and Reminders:

March 29: Wacky Hair or Hat day
March 28 & 30: Parent Teacher Conferences
April 3: Sports Day
April 7: Knowledge-a-thon in the the AM
             PAC field  trip in the PM
April 11: Egg Crack Off and Class Color Day
April 12-17: NO SCHOOL
April 21: Wear Green and Blue for Earth Day
April 28: Funky Friday (dress as silly as you want)

Don't forget it you are looking for ways to help with PSC activities, there are many chances to do so!

Book Fair
http://signup.com/go/zkKGHy

Conference Meals
http://signup.com/go/bEgipo

Knowledge-A-Thon
http://signup.com/go/TNwaqh

Here's a peek at our week:

Reading:  It has been an amazing week of avid reading in here!  The boys and girls are so motivated to be like the grown up avid readers that they know and are getting so much important work done during reader's workshop!  This week we will work to set reading goals for ourselves during private reading and also during partner reading.  We will make individual charts to include tips and strategies we need to remember most when we read and will set up reading playdates in the classroom to plan for how we will interact and react with the books we are reading.  Things we will do on our reading playdates are: play school, read alouds, play pretend, play word finding games.  A big part of making sure we have successful playdates will be avidly reading at independent reading and coming to our playdates with a plan!

Writing:  I hope your child has shared with your some of the important topics they are writing about to persuade others.  Please know you may receive some books or letters regarding "problems" your child might want to persuade others to fix at home or in your neighborhood.  We are really working on using our words as a way to let people know about a problems see and ways we think it can be fixed.  This week we will work on keeping our writing stamina up by thinking of lots of causes to write about and will work on revision and spelling strategies.

Math:  Our main focus in math this week will be working on ways to become fluent at solving addition and subtraction problems within 5.  Right now it is very common (and perfectly fine) for 5 and 6 year olds to use fingers when solving problems, but as we approach 1st grade we want to become more automatic in knowing these facts.  We will review and practice finding patterns (Ex. all +1 equations are just like counting forward, -1 is just like counting backward) in both addition and subtraction and using partners of numbers to help us solve problems quickly.  We will also focus on making sure we are looking closely at equations to see the + or - sign to be sure we are performing the right operation.

Social Studies:  Students will learn about and begin work in variety of All About Me centers this week.  Some of this work includes creating a self time-line, writing all about themselves on an app (similar to this website), creating a collage, and exploring many books.

Word Work: We will continue work on transferring our knowledge of sight words, vowels and spelling patterns using poems and shared reading books this week.

Weekly News Mar 13-17

There is so much going on at school in the coming weeks!  What a way to cure spring fever!
 Check out all of the announcements and ways to help below!  If you have questions on any of these things, please feel free to contact me!

There are so many exciting offerings for summer school this year. Have you seen them? If not, here is the course description packet. Registration opens on Sunday, March 19th at 2:00 pm. There are a few New Directions Teachers teaching summer school this year. Check out this list to see what classes are being taught by New Directions teachers. I am sure you will agree that there are many great options for enrichment this year!

If you can help at either of the following, here are the sign-ups:

Book Fair 

http://signup.com/go/zkKGHy

Conference Meals

http://signup.com/go/bEgipo

Knowledge-A-Thon

http://signup.com/go/TNwaqh

If you child is participating in the FANG Reading program. Please have them turn in their slips weekly. They will receive prizes as they go. If you child starts now, and meets the requirements, you can sent them all in at once! :) 

Check out this months newsletter to learn more about birthday boxes and the other important happenings in our school! 

HOORAY! Our 3D printer was fully funded! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

As you begin your spring cleaning, please look for magnets, old electronics, toy cars, Knex, and legos. We will also take household items like measuring cups, paper products and utensils. Basic office supplies would also be helpful when building our makerspace. As always, you can send monetary donations with your child to contribute toward makerspace supplies. 

Important Dates and Reminders:

March 15: NO SCHOOL 

March 17: Wear Green

March 29: Wacky Hair or Hat day

March 28 & 30: Parent Teacher Conferences

April 3: Sports Day

April 7: Knowledge-a-thon in the the AM

             PAC field  trip in the PM

Here is a peek at our week:

Reading: This week we will begin a new unit called Avid Readers.  This unit will focus on building habits that will keep us reading and learning from our reading for life!  During this unit we will read fiction, non-fiction and poetry.  The first part of this unit will focus on behaviors of avid readers we see at both home and school.  We will also work on ways readers interact with fiction books as they read by thinking about character feelings and sharing important parts and strong feelings with our reading partner. 

Writing:  We will also be kicking off a new writing unit.  It is called Persuasive Writing of All Kinds.  This will be a new type of writing for us in which the boys and girls will use writing to voice their opinion as well as help to solve problems they see in the world (at school or in the community).  This week we will practice sharing our opinions (on a variety of topics) verbally and giving reasons for why we feel that way as a way to get ready to write.  We will also study persuasive writing of other authors to see the types of language they use to really convince their readers.  One book we will study will be:

Math: In math this week we will work on solving bare number equations (5+2=___) by telling story problems about the parts in order to arrive at the total.  We will also work to become more automatic in recognizing partners of 10 as we arrange them in ten frames and work to visualize how many boxes and filled and how many are empty and know they work together to make 10.   
For example: 7 are filled, 3 are empty; 7 and 3 are partners of 10. 
Additionally, we will be reviewing positional words (over, under, beside, below..).

Social Studies:  We were sad to see our wood and paper unit come to an end in science, but I am so proud of the learning and inquiring students did throughout the unit.  This week we will switch gears and begin a 'self study' in social studies.  We will be reading books and listening to a song and poem to help us to begin thinking about what makes us unique and special.  This is such a fun time of year to do this unit because students are really coming into their own and are so self aware. 

Word Work:  Our new words this week are: red, yellow, blue, then, was. 

Weekly News Mar 6-10

Hello and welcome to another week of crazy weather!  Will it really hit 50 this week?!

Tuesday will be our Paper Discovery field trip!  The boys and girls are excited to have some hands on science learning take place outside the classroom.  Also, as we near the end of our wood and paper unit we are in need of some wood and paper scraps to do some "constructing."
 If you have any wood and/or paper scraps that you are able to donate, please send them to school with your child.  The only stipulation for these donations is that they are a size the students will be able to carry independently.  Paper scraps might include boxes, cardboard, paper towel/toilet paper rolls, etc.  Thanks in advance!

Student Council sent out a letter introducing their next project: a Makerspace. You can see that letter here. 

In addition to supplies, they are hoping to add a 3D printer to the Makerspace. Please go here to donate. If you donate before March 10th, Donors Choose will match your donation if you use the code LIFTOFF.

Important Dates and Reminders:
March 7: Paper Discovery Field Trip
March 10: Author's Breakfast 7:15-7:45am in classrooms
March 15: NO SCHOOL
March 28 & 30: Conferences
March 29:  Crazy Hair/Hat Day

Here is a peek at our week:

Reading:  This week we will wrap up our non-fiction reading unit by really working hard to compare and contrast informational texts and understand what they have taught us.  We will be working in small groups to examine different text features (glossary, headings, table of contents, definitions, bold words) and to discuss why the author may or may not have chosen to use them.  At the of end of the week we will each pick a book on a favorite topic and create a poster that includes a drawing of the cover as well as a sentence that tells the main topic of the book and a sentence that tells key details.  We will display this work around the school for everyone to see!

Writing: We will excitedly be preparing for the author's breakfast this week in writing.  We will work to include as much information as we can in our All About books and will also work to edit our books so they are easy for others to read.  We will use a checklist to remind ourselves of what is expected of Kindergarten writers and will work to create a cover for our books as well. 
We are excited to showcase our writing on Friday!  We hope you can join us!

Math: This week in math we will continue to focus on partners of 10 and ways to remember them in in a snap.  We will work on finding different ways to visualize a group of ten to help us see the different partners that work together to make 10.  We will also work on matching teen numbers to the equations that correspond with them and will recognize them in more than one way (Ex. 18=10+8 or 10+8= 18).  We will also revisit concepts of comparing groups of numbers and numerals as well as naming and classifying 3D shapes. 

Science: This week we will create and paint paper bowls and will begin to make plans for the "construction" portion of this unit. 

Word Work: Please continue practicing both reading and writing sight words to help reinforce transfer of this knowledge at school!  Let me know if you'd like a copy of our sight word list for the year to practice with at home!

Weekly News Feb 27-Mar 3

Winter is back!  I hope everyone enjoyed the little taste of spring last week!  Just a reminder that students will need boots and snowpants this week for recess.  They were spoiled last week with only having to wear light jackets. 

Important Dates and Reminders:

February 27: Family Night 5:30-7:00
March 2: Dr. Suess Character Dress Up Day
March 7: Paper Discovery Field Trip
March 10: Author's Breakfast 7:15-7:45 am
March 28 and 30: Parent Teacher Conferences

Here is a peek at our week:

Reading: As readers this week we will be using ALL parts of our books to really understand what the author is teaching us.  We will look at what and how the information is taught on each page and will work to see how the pages go together to help us learn part by part about a topic.  We will also use what we read and see in pictures to help us have powerful conversations with our partners.

Writing: This week in writing will be all about revision!  We will be adding introductions and conclusions to our all about books to make sure we draw our reader in and then "close it down" by restating important information or giving our opinion in a conclusion.  We will also be rereading our writing and making changes we need to make sure we are using lower case letters, spelling sight words correctly and including punctuation. 

Math: This week in math we will focus on creating and solving story problems.  We will be using pictures to help us tell story problems and will the process: Think, say, draw, write the equation and solve it to work through these problems.  We will also do some comparing of groups of objects and will use the terms greater and less than to describe groups of objects when we compare them.  We will also be introduced to 3D shapes and will learn about 'math mountains' as a way to show partners of 10.

Science: We will continue exploring paper this week.  We will investigate how paper reacts with water and look for similarities and differences between paper and wood.  We will also learn more about recycling paper, which will turn into making paper mache at the end of the week.

Word Work: Our new words this week will be:  on, up, this are, an.  Check out how we practiced sight words this week...we wrote words with white crayon and then switched papers with a friends and used markers to 'uncover' the sight words and read them quickly!

Weekly News Feb 20-24

We had a visitor Friday to help us learn about ANOTHER important thing going on in February...Dental Health month!  Maysen's mom came to talk to us about her job as a dental hygienist and what we can do to keep our teeth and gums healthy!

Important Dates and Reminders:
February 22:Career Dress up Day
February 23:  1/2 day 11:30 Dismissal
February 24: NO SCHOOL
February 27: Family Night 5:30-7:00
March 2: Dr. Suess Character Dress Up Day
March 7: Paper Discovery Field Trip

Here is a peek at our week:

Reading: This week as a readers we will be teaching our partner about the expert (vocabulary) words that are important to our books. We will also learn a strategy to figure out the meaning of new words that we come across as we read and will work to put together the expert words, pictures and facts from our books to tell about it.  We will also learn how non-fiction readers can act out books to help us deepen our understanding of them.

Writing:  As writers we will continue to add more to our all about books by adding diagrams and definitions and will also begin to make sure we not only give information on each page, but say WHY that information is important.  We will also learn that adding our opinion on a topic is another way to say more!

Math: We will begin unit 4 this week.  The big ideas of this unit are:  continued work with story problems. decomposing numbers to find partners of 10 and naming and classifying three-dimensional shapes.  This week we will focus on: solving story problems by using what we know about partners of a number, using new tools to show ten groups in teens and looking for patterns as we discover the partners of 10.

Science:  This week in science we will take a closer look at paper.   We will explore different types of paper and notice how the react when we write on them with different writing utensils.  We have been using a this chart to help us ask and answer questions about our science topics.

Word Work:We will continue to practice the sight words: jump, funny, go, find, not.  One easy way to practice spelling sight words is to have your child write them small, medium, and large.  First they write the word as teeny as possible, then write it again normal, and then a third time jumbo!  This would also be great spelling practicing for any CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words using a variety of vowels

100 Day FUN!

Check out some action photos from our day of celebration!!

Counting and sorting snack!!

Stringing Froot Loops by groups of 10!

How many blocks can you stack in 100 seconds?

How many times can you write your name in 100 seconds?

How many sight words can you read in 100 seconds?

It was a BUSY and FUN day!