| Heart Month We have had a great week celebrating the arrival of February for heart month! The kids worked on play-doh heart mats in practicing their numbers 11-20, they played “Fill The Heart,” with a variation of subtracting the smaller number from the larger number on two dice. We learned about heart month and getting our hearts pumping to stay healthy. A fun video on Go Noodle called “My Racing Heart” was the definite highlight! The Kindergarten kids learned to listen comfortably to a longer chapter book called “Saving Winslow,” an endearing story about a donkey, for our Pinney Reads celebration. We loved learning about donkeys as Louie, the main character learned to take care of his new friend. I skimmed many parts to make the book Kindergarten ready and we will not be reading more from it, but if you are really interested in finishing the story at home, you are welcome to borrow my copy. PM kids had a chance to meet “Maria,” a local donkey on a school visit! My am kids will have a chance to watch the video of Maria on Monday. Our Valentine Parties will be at 10:15 and 2:15 on Thursday, Feb 14th. Kids love to pass out valentines to their friends on this day. We have 24 kids in the AM and 25 in the PM. PLEASE do not have your child write the names of peers on their valentines. Simply leave the “to” column blank or write “to: my friend.” You may have them write who it is from. There is no need to make a valentine box or anything, as our amazing party planners will be writing student names on special bags for each child prior to the party! We will be working on solving addition story problems next week by “walking” a story path and acting out problems. Kids will work in groups to solve rich problems. We will also “walk,” the mat to do a five-finger retelling of stories. Our focus will continue to be on kindness and spreading love for heart month! Thank you! |
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**Binders did not come home today. Just folders, 100 bags, and Friday Notes Home (Kids drew themselves as a 100-year-old). This short week packed tons of fun! We practiced counting 100 items by tens, shared items aloud, compared weights, and enjoyed seeing creativity in choices of what students brought in! Thank you for your help in getting in the 100 item bags! Today, we had stations and challenged the kids to create a 100-cup tower, build with 100 legos, draw themselves as a 100-year-old, make a 100 crown, create 100 “bubble gums” in a machine, and to do a 100 rep workout! We have had a blast! The costumes have been amazing as well! I’ve compiled and printed all Snow Fun pictures so far and we are ready to write our class SNOW book next week! Thank you for sending in pictures of your rosy-cheeked kiddos enjoying the outdoors. In our independent writing, I have noticed that our kids are sometimes hesitating to take a risk on trying out new words. To help facilitate their independence in using their “stretchy snake” strategy, I have purchased TONS of stickers, and we will take time next week to make and label sticker books, to label our classroom, and to explore the labels on book bins to make good book choices around the room. My goal will be to phase out table book bins and allow the kids to really choose based on interest as they are learning to take care of our classroom library. We will also read books about Groundhogs Day, learn about the animal, and decide whether or not we believe his choice to be true! In math, we will create a set of game cards together and will use the cards to play various composing and decomposing numbers games. Think about asking your child: What number is one more than ...? What would I get if I added 10 to...? We will notice patterns and will organize these problems to help students in their quick math thinking. Have a great weekend! =) This week was a week filled with excitement as we watched the snow fall from the sky! I can’t believe my “Snow” themed lesson plans matched up so perfectly for once! Haha! We learned the science behind snow and created a fun experiment called a “Snowstorm in a jar.” Kids learned why we say a “blanket of snow” covered the ground—ask them why! Next week, we will celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy AND the 100th Day of school! Remember, there is no school on Monday, so enjoy being snowed in :). With the four day week, we will play many games that reinforce our counting sequence, writing numbers neatly, and counting by 5’s/10’s to get to 100. On Friday, kids have the option to dress like they are 100 years old (Mrs. Thompson and I will be doing this), to dress with a 100-item clothing piece, or to just be themselves! We will focus on our reading strategy called "STRETCHY SNAKE," by having the kids stretch and say each sound within a tricky word to solve through. This strategy pairs perfectly with writing new words, so we will try to merge the two! Have a wonderful weekend and stay warm! I would love if anyone would like to send in a picture of their kids enjoying the snow (email or already printed). We could make a nice class book next week. =) I love that we started the year 2019 with a full 5day week! We have been able to really get into our routine and to catch up with friends. We cycled back in math to thinking about measurement, and using what we know to compare shorter and longer items. We used new vocabulary to write length comparisons for different objects. In writing, we thought about the new year and ways in which words can help guide our focus. Each child chose a word to write in a bubble and we've placed them all on a large "2019" poster for display in the hallway! The kids also started their new check-in sheets. These include their first and last name. On the back, we will have a dictation sentence every day. For now (and next week), this will be done as a whole group together on the carpet, and all words are on the word wall. After two weeks, kids will hit a button as they arrive to hear the dictation sentence and will become more independent in this practice. You should be able to see a difference in their writing over time as well! The 5 sentences this week: 1. the (just learning where to write) 2. I can see., 3. I like me. 4. I am here. 5. We see the cat. This week was also special, as we started out with a full school Pinney Town Hall. Student ambassadors, along with our principals and Mrs. Saridakis, led the students in a kindness initiative called "It Starts with Hello." It was a refreshing start to the year 2019! Next week, the kids will learn two new math games, called Bump and Knockout! These games will help to build fluency and quick addition facts. We are building up to composing and decomposing numbers. We will have the theme of "Snow," which will be appropriate given the forecast for Saturday! We're going to do a snow experiment, read the story Snowmen at Night, and tell stories about snowpeople we create! It should be a great week in K! Conferences are coming up on February 13th and 21st. I will send a signup genius out before Sunday night! The 100th day of school will be celebrated on January 25th. More details to follow. Have a super snowy weekend =). This past week, our kids spent time with big buddies, shared opinions on various Gingerbread stories through their writing, wrote adjectives to describe candy canes, and were treated to a performance from the Pinney choir! The firefighters from Concord Township came to our school to educate kids on fire safety. We’ve opened up our classroom gingerbread houses and will decorate them with handmade ornaments next week. Speaking of ornaments, the kids are bringing home a special holiday ornament in their backpacks today!! Next week, we will wrap up our gingerbread unit with the kids making themselves into gingerbread people. We will use our new “rekenreks” to solve math problems, and will review all of our math tools (that they know this far). We will play a holiday themed math jeopardy game, dreidel game, and a math workout game to get all of the wiggles out. Mrs. Thompson and I have created a math scavenger hunt as well. THURSDAY WILL BE A PAJAMA DAY. Lastly, we will have our holiday parties on Friday, December 21, 2018! AM will be at 10:15 and PM at 2:15! This week was filled with Gingerbread fun and stories! Our kids have read and watched The Gingerbread Baby, The Gingerbread Man, and The Ninjabread Man! We worked on Gingerbread Glyphs, puzzles that showed interesting facts about each child. Kids showed their shape knowledge in construction of large houses, and worked on numbers matching ten frames. Kids in AM had the chance to attend The Nutty Nutcracker, a fun dance performance. Next week, PM will have the chance to attend a holiday Choir Concert. Continuing with our gingerbread theme next week, the kids will write themselves as a gingerbread character and practice writing some of their sight words. They will design candy canes with adjectives written on the stripes. On Monday, we will have firefighters visit for a fire safety presentation. Thursday marks the arrival of our 80th day of school and the arrival of the Gingerbread houses! Every year, my dad (Grandpa Dude) makes large houses for the kids to play in. Two kids can fit comfortably in each house, with two houses coming into our classroom. This means that students will be assigned a certain time slot to play or read inside of the house. Please talk to your child about being patient with others as they wait for their special turn! We will also work on beginning addition problems together, as well as making a special holiday craft! Whew! It will be another busy week! Please check inside of binders for new sight word practice cards. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and maybe you will even make some "Ninjabread!" This week has helped us begin to get into a routine together. We worked to update binders a bit, to work on sight words, to meet with small reading groups, and to collaborate in building and exploring 3-D shapes. In addition to welcoming me back into the classroom, the students in PM class welcomed a new student this past Monday, and will be adding yet another on Monday (12/3)! As we work on our community, we will be adding a “commitment board,” a space in which the children will individually choose their “commitment” for the day by placing a clip near a visual aide that represents either: watching eyes, hands to self, kind words, walking feet, helping hands, or listening ears. It would be wonderful if you would discuss these choices at home with your child to help them decide which area they want to work on! We will put our board in action on Wednesday. Next week is filled with excitement! December brings about our Kindergarten Kindness Calendar! Each day, the kids will remove a post-it to reveal a kindness challenge and a daily movement! I will attach a copy, but please do not let your child look ahead, as we really love the element of surprising them each day with something fun! We will read many books with the theme of Gingerbread, and will write our opinions on which we like best. We will really focus on learning Kindergarten sight words, as they will be the foundation for reading. Please see your child’s sight word list in their binder to find out how many sight words they were able to read for me this week. I will send home sight word cards for practice on Friday, December 7th. REMINDERS: Send in book fair orders with your child’s name on an envelope. Please email me if you haven’t gotten a Book Fair form! Hello Kindergarten Families! I am excited to be be back in the classroom with your amazing kiddos! This week, the kids had a blast with Miss Gardiner as they celebrated “60’s Day!” On Tuesday, we were able to team teach, as the kids showed me all of their thinking routines. I loved seeing their morning song and their news share. Wed-Fri we spent time learning new systems and learning about each other. The kids learned a little about Thanksgiving and we shared some of our traditions. The kids have been hearing different versions of The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, and today they will be bringing home their own old lady to help them retell the story to family members. We wrote special books about the Star Students and the kids took time on Friday to write special notes home! Next week, we will get together with buddies to share our library books. We will work on Thanksgiving patterns and finish an opinion writing piece. It will be a nice short week before they get to spend special time with family and friends away from school. Another week has come and gone in kindergarten! This was my last full week with students, Mrs. Sinder will be back on Tuesday! Monday is our 60thday of school. We’ve been practicing many different ways to count to 60 over the past few weeks. To celebrate, we are going to wear 60’s themed clothing on Monday. Student’s don’t have to dress like the 60’s if they don’t want to. J
In math this week, students worked on a rich math problem and learned two new games! On Monday, students worked on a rich math problem similar to the panther problem and 5 pumpkins problem we did a few weeks ago. Students had to figure out how many ways 6 or 8 pigs could be in a barn or in an open space. The two games we learned this week were “Heads and Tails” and “Counters in the Cup.” Both games required students to use math manipulatives and figure out how many were heads/tails or how many counters were hidden under a cup. Next week, students will learn two new games and continue working on counting. Students worked on their adjective flip book this week! On Monday students learned what an adjective is, and we made a list of adjectives as a class. Students also learned what an antonym is and we began brainstorming some antonyms that went along with the adjectives we brainstormed as a class. On Wednesday and Thursday, students chose adjective/antonym pairs and made a flip book, they turned out really well! I also began meeting with students this week in guided reading groups. Today is the first Friday where students will be bringing “Just Right” books home. In the next few weeks, students will be bringing home a variety of “Just Right” books that they can read at home over the weekend and in class throughout the week! The books will come home in students’ “I Can Read” binders every Friday and come back to school in the binder on the following Monday. Have a great weekend! Important dates to remember: 11/12: Dress like the 60’s! 11/13: Welcome Back Mrs. Snider! 11/21-23: Thanksgiving Break No School! This past week was a very exciting one in Kindergarten. In math, we read “Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons.” We discussed the color of Pete’s buttons, then we graphed our favorite color buttons. We used the graph to figure out which color button we liked the most, which color we liked the least, and how each one of us was represented on the graph. Continuing on with measurement, students played “Ribbon War” on Thursday. Students worked with a partner for this game. Each group had their own bag of multi length ribbon. Students randomly pulled a ribbon from their bag, compared the lengths of each ribbon (i.e. which was longer which was shorter) and when they were finished they ordered the ribbon from shortest to longest. Today, we began discussing voting. Students participated in our own class vote. Their favorite part of Halloween: carving pumpkins or trick-or-treating. We also voted for their favorite Fall holiday, Thanksgiving or Halloween. We met with Mrs. Thompson’s class to see what the winners were in each category and learn more about voting!
Students made another class book this week. They wrote about what they were going to be for Halloween. We added two more words to the word wall this week, “me” and “my.” Learning these words helped when creating the class book. Students wrote “I can see me. I am a_________.” They also drew a picture of their costume to go along with their writing. They did a great job with these, they turned out so well! Students continued writing their narratives on Thursday, and they wrote Friday Notes Home today! The most exciting part of our week was, of course, Halloween! Students made Pumpkin Playdough on Tuesday, watched a few fun Halloween videos, and read many Halloween themed books. Thank you to all of the parents who sent things in, planned, and helped with the parties! Both parties were so wonderfully planned. Students had a blast!! Next Monday (11/12) is our 60thday of school (time is flying!!) In honor of our 60thday, we are going to dress like we are from the 60s! We’ve been practicing different ways to count to 60 and this will be a fun way to celebrate! I haven’t told the students this yet, just wanted to give you all a heads up. Next week will be another exciting week in kindergarten, it will also be my last full week here. Mrs. Snider will be back on Tuesday, November 13th! Important dates to remember: 11/6: No school 11/12: Dress like the 60’s day! 11/13 Welcome Back Mrs. Snider! |