Season's Greeting and all that Jazz!

What a busy month!  I can't believe that we only have 1 week left until winter break.  Students have been busy with the following concepts along with a little fun!
Math:  We have been practicing addition and subtraction stories.  We got to use a great app on the IPads called "Educreations" to make our own addition or subtraction stories.  Each student got to record them and share with the class.  Click on the links below to see a few of the math superstars in our room.

Colton's subtraction story

               

Emma's subtraction story

                  

Cullen's addition story

                  
This week we have also been talking about teen numbers.  For example, 11 is really 10+1.  12 is 10+2 and so on.  Our focus has also been focusing on five groups for numbers less than 10.  For example 6 is 5+1, 7 is 5+2 and so on.  Students sometimes have a difficult time with switching their thinking so practicing these skills at home is crucial.  Students have a homework page for math this weekend that is working with 5-groups.  Please complete it and return!

Reading:  Students are really taking off with their take home reading.  If you have not been reading, please try to incorporate this into your evening routine.  We have now introduced the following new star words-he, she, we, me, on.  We talked a little about the "Power of E" went it stands alone at the end of a word.  We also focused on gingerbread stories and story elements.  We discussed the beginning, middle, and end of these stories.  Ask your child to tell you about one of them.

 

 

Writing-We have been sound spelling like crazy!  Our journals are now looking more complete with an attempt at sentences.  These will be sent home next week so you can see the progression.  Students are also busy making cards for friends and family in the "Holiday Hallmark House".  Maybe you will be lucky enough to receive one.

 

Next week we will enjoy more gingerbread stories, Winter Wonderland in gym (hopefully), and BINGO.

Weekly News

This week was "DYNAMITE"!  We accomplished quite a bit.  In math, we learned about numbers to 5, graphing, and sorting.  Students will need to know how to sort objects two different ways.  We have talked about sorting by color, shape, and size.  We had new math stations this week.  Check out the pictures below.

Practicing counting numbers to 10.

Forming numbers with pattern blocks.

Playing a game called "Color a Number".  Spin and color to see
which number gets to the top first.

Sorting-Here students sorted by shape.

Practicing numbers to 10.



ABC Patterns





In reading we have been practicing the letters in our name and focusing on the first letter.  We read a fun book called A My Name is Alice.  We made an art project and did some writing with our name and first letter.

We have also talked about ways to read a book and learned that even in kindergarten we can read!  We can read the pictures first.  We are practicing "Read to Self" and are learning to build our stamina.  This means that we are learning to read for longer amounts of time each day.  Right now we are up to 5 minutes.  Take a look at some of our superstar readers!

This week we had a special guest talk to us about how to hold a pencil correctly.  It was fun!  We got to do some warm-up exercises for our arms and fingers.  She taught us to use the first three fingers (Go fingers) and the last two fingers should be tucked in toward our hand (Stop fingers).

Warm-ups for our arms

Warm-ups for our fingers

Go and Stop fingers

Practicing our pencil grip and copying shapes

Next week is Homecoming Week.  Students will participate in spirit activities each day.  Please remember to get your pledges for our upcoming "Homecoming Walk" on Friday, September 28th.

Math Stations

In my last post I talked about math stations.  Here are a few pictures of students participating in them.

Station #1-Number mats with playdough

Station #2-Shapes BINGO

Station #3-Counting/More & Less

Station #4-Shapes book

Station #5-ABAB Patterns

Station #6-Sorting

 

We also learned about our new classroom pet, the monarch caterpillar.  We will be watching it change and grow.  We have 6 new friends! 



Clouds are Floating

This week we continued our weather unit by focusing on clouds.  We read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and made a class book.  We learned about the different kinds of clouds and made a flip book.  We read Little Cloud by Eric Carle and used shaving cream mixed with glue to make puffy cloud pictures.  See a few pictures below.

In math this week we worked on place value.  We practiced it all week using base ten blocks, gameboards, and number cards.  See if your child remembers the two important questions the banker should ask!  (If the number is 63 they ask, "Why do you need a 6?  Because there are 6 tens.  Why do you need a 3?  Because there are 3 ones.")  The game that came home has instructions and is a bit different than how we played at school.  Enjoy!

 Tune in next week!  There will be information on our rainy weather and our April Visitor Day.

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Good afternoon everyone!  What a fun-filled day in kindergarten.  Students were invited to make an Irish hat this morning and put their "new" Irish name.  Ask your child to tell you their Irish name.  We read a book about a Field of Buttercups.  We had special St. Patrick's Day centers.  Students rotated through ALL of them. 


Write the Room





Math-Numbers to 100



Reading

Work on Words

Comparing two leprechaun stories



 A special thank you to Lil Country Kindergarten  for the great literacy and math activities for St. Patrick's Day.  Also, a great BIG thank you to Penny Leen for spending an extra hour volunteering so we could have special centers.  We topped off the day with extra recess so we could enjoy the wonderful, warm weather.  Hope you have an opportunity to spend time outdoors this weekend as well.