Kindergarteners continued to have fun distinguishing between real and nonsense CVC words, and finding words that have long and short vowel sounds. Also this week, the students learned some strategies to figure out if a word begins with a ‘c’ or a ‘k’ when they hear the /k/ sound at the beginning of a word. The trick is, once the students hear that /k/ sound at the beginning of a word, they are to then listen for the second sound (which is the vowel). If the vowel sound is letters a, o, and u then the first letter in the word is a ‘c’. If the vowel letter is i or e, then the first letter in the word is a ‘k’. The students have been doing a really great job with this concept and they are trying to listen for that vowel sound. The last thing we have introduced this week is 2 new trick words (‘as’ and ‘has’). We created some sentences and were able to find the tricks words in those sentences. We ask that the children continue to practice letter sounds as we are consistently building new words each week, and to please practice blending and building many common CVC words like we do in school.

Next week Kindergarten mathematicians will start chapter 8 of Go Math! This fun chapter focuses on numbers beyond 20! Now is a great time to listen to your child count up to 100! During the next few weeks we will practice sequencing higher numbers, counting by tens and identifying missing numbers through 100. Try this at home: have your clever mathematician close their eyes, point to a number on a hundreds chart, open their eyes and then count on from that number to 100! Here's another challenge: Ask, "What number comes after 65? What number comes in between 43 and 45? What number comes BEFORE 32? Offer items such as puzzle pieces, a bunch of Legos, cotton balls, spoons and encourage counting beyond 20!

During Writer's Workshop we started a new unit as well, "How-To Books." Writers think of something they know how to do and teach others by writing the steps in a book. During Reader's Workshop we learned about prepositions such as in, on, under, here, there, above and over---just to name a few!

Did you know that Tuesday, March 8th was International Women's Day? GO GIRLS!!!! YOU are amazing, strong, smart, capable and loved. YOU CAN DO ANYTHING you put your mind to----the sky's the limit! This weekend why not ask your mom, aunt, or grandma to tell you about a woman who inspires them?

This week the first graders have been exploring the world in Reading, Writing, and Social Studies. In Reading, students practiced all that they knew about nonfiction books and ways to read like an expert. They enjoyed learning about a plethora of nonfiction topics and having book talks with their reading partners. In Writing, students transferred their knowledge about their nonfiction topics by working on their informational chapter books. We have learned from our classmates about sharks, dancing, penguins, the universe, dinosaurs, and so much more! In Fundations, their spelling skills have really sharpened as they continue to read and write words with blends and digraph blends. In Math, students practiced their addition and subtraction strategies, analyzed relationships between numbers, and practiced their math facts to 20.