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!