Class Update: 5/26-5/29:
Math: We continued to practice subtraction this week and the children are becoming quite adept at solving these problems! Working with a partner, each child had an apple tree with 10 apples. One child rolled the dice and they had to cross off that number of apples to find out how many were left. The children then had to write a subtraction number sentence to match.
UFLI:The digraphs wh and ph were introduced this week. We learned that wh can only be at the beginning of a word and makes the consonsant sound /w/. Ph can be at both the beginning and end of a word and makes the consonant /f/ sound.
Literacy Groups: This week the children practiced reading words with digraphs, reading decodable texts, building a scene based on sentences and reading CVC words.
Wit and Wisdom: We concluded our world tour this week, finishing up in North America. The children now have 7 stamps in their passports and a completed passport journal. They earned their wings once they completed their last journal page. They are SO excited to show you all their hard work during our sharing day on June 10!
Looking Ahead/Reminders:
The children go to gym class on Tuesday and Friday; please make sure they wear sneakers to school.
Our kindergarten sharing day is Wednesday, June 10th from 9:00-10:15 am. We kindly ask that only parents/guardians (no siblings) attend due to space limitations in our classroom.
Class Update (2 weeks): 5/4-5/15:
Math: We began Module 5 last week. This module focuses on addition and subtraction and number sentences. We continued to practice creating math drawings to tell a story, writing number sentences and filling in number bonds. We also practiced matching number sentences to a math story. If I showed a number sentence that did not match, they had to explain why it didn't go with the picture. The children then had to identify the parts of the number sentence and the whole. We also began working on taking away, or subtraction, this week. The children acted out Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, as an introduction to taking away.
UFLI: Digraphs were introduced last week. The children learned that when 2 consonant letters are paired together, they work together to make one sound. We have learned the following digraphs: th (voiced and unvoiced), sh, ck, and ch. We practiced building words with these digraphs using our magnetic letters, writing sentences and and reviewed our irregular words (heart words). We began learning the proper formation for the following lowercase letters: c,o, s, v, w and t.
Literacy Groups: The children have been working on reading decodable texts and drawing pictures to match, roll and reads, reading fluency sentences and "building a scene" activities (the children read a sentence and then have to glue a picture on the scene that matches what they read.
Wit and Wisdom: Last week we traveled down under to the continent of Australia! We took a virtual field trip to the Great Barrier Reef where we snorkeled with stingrays, all different types of fish and even sharks! We also learned about Uluru Rock, which is the largest rock in the world! This week we headed to South America, our 2nd to last continent. We learned about people who live there, various animals and some of the places that make South America really special. We took a virtual field trip through the Amazon Rainforest where we saw monkeys, red eyed tree frogs, tarantulas and so many more exotic animals. Later in the week we went to Machu Pichu and Rainbow Mountain, both in Peru, and visited the salt flats in Bolivia. To end the week the children completed their passport page for South America. Next week we will learn about our own continent of North America.
Looking Ahead/Reminders:
The children will be going to the Book Fair on Monday. Please refer to the separate email I sent for more details.
Please make sure your child wears shoes to school that are appropriate for running around on the playground. Flip flops and sandals, although cute and comfortable, are not the best for running and climbing. Also, the children go to gym class on Tuesday and Friday; please make sure they wear sneakers to school.
Our kindergarten sharing day is Wednesday, June 10th from 9:00-10:15 am. We kindly ask that only parents/guardians (no siblings) attend due to space limitations in our classroom.
Class Update: 4/13-4/17
Math: We continued to practice creating math drawings to tell a story, writing number sentences and filling in number bonds. We also practiced matching number sentences to a math story. If I showed a number sentence that did not match, they had to explain why it didn't go with the picture. The children then had to identify the parts of the number sentence and the whole. Following April break, we will begin Module 5.
UFLI:This week the children learned about the "FLSZ" rule. If any of those sounds are at the end of a word, following a short vowel, that letter gets doubled up. They did a wonderful job with this!
Literacy Groups: Literacy Groups this week including reading and illustrating decodable texts, short vowel review, sentence writing, Lexia and Handwriting Without Tears.
Wit and Wisdom: We traveled to the continent of Antarctica this week. We watched a short video about the sights and sounds of Antarctica, as well as the animals of Antarctica. The children really loved the rockhopper penguins! We were surprised to learn that Antarctica is technically a desert due to the lack of precipitation! We learned about the research scientists that work on the continent to study climate change and took a boat ride across the Drake's Passage where waves can go up to 40 feet high! The children earned another stamp in their passport and are excited to head to South America when we return from break.
Looking Ahead:
Looking Ahead: The kindergarten children DO NOT have school on the Monday and Tuesday (April 27th and April 28th) following April vacation. These are screening days for the incoming kindergarten students.
Our Kindergarten Sharing Day will take place on Thursday, June 11th from 9:00-10:15 am. More information to follow when we return from break.
Class Update: 4/6-4/10
Math: The children are becoming number bond experts and are doing a wonderful job with writing number sentences. The children have been creating visual representations of a math story, creating a number bond and then composing a number sentence. Additionally, the children have been orally telling number stories about a picture. The highlight of the week was playing a bean bag toss game to work on part-whole. Each child had a turn to toss a certain number of bean bags into a box. They grouped the parts by the number of bags that landed in the box and those that didn't. The whole ranged from 5-10. They LOVED this!
UFLI: We completed our vowel review this week. We also began learning lowercase letter formation. Lowercase c and o were introduced and practiced.
Literacy Groups: Groups this week practiced reading decodable passages, reading decodable books, manipulating CVC words by changing the beginning, middle or ending sound and sentence writing.
Wit and Wisdom: We continued Module 4 this week and traveled to the continent of Africa. We learned that Africa is the second largest continent. Throughout the week we gathered information about Africa and complied it into our Africa Evidence Chart. The children shared things they can do in Africa, the natural features of Africa and all the different animals that live there! Our virtual field trips included visiting Giraffe Manor, which is a hotel in Nairobi, Kenya and went on an African safari where we saw elephants, zebras, cheetahs and rhinos! We also explored the Sahara Desert on camelback and went inside the pyramids in Egypt! We learned about the african peguins who call Boulder Beach in Cape Town home and we climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. The children completed their Africa passport journal page and received another stamp in their passport! Next stop on our world tour is Antarctica!
Updates and Reminders:
This Friday, April 17th is an early release day. Dismissal is at 11:55 am.
Kindergarten students DO NOT have school on Monday, April 27th and Tuesday, April 28th.
If your child will be dismissed during the day, please send me an email to let me know.
Please make sure your child brings a water bottle to school every day.
Class Update: 3/23-3/27:
Math: We continue to practice number bonds and the children are loving adding numbers together! Towards the end of the week we began working on math stories and using number bonds to help tell that story. An example of a math story is as follows: 1. There are 8 ducks playing outside. 4 ducks are swimming in the pond and 4 ducks are playing in the grass. 2. Draw the story. 3. Circle the two groups. 4. Fill in the number bond. The whole is 8 and the parts are 4 and 4. 5. Lastly, write a number sentence. 4+4=8.
UFLI: We reviewed the vowel o this week. We practiced reading and writing CVC words that had the vowel o. We also practiced writing sentences using an uppercase letter to start, spaces between words and punctuation at the end.
Literacy Groups: Activities this week were focused on vowel sorts, reading sentence pyramids, reading decodable texts, unscrambling words to make a sentence, and working on Lexia.
Wit and Wisdom: This week we traveled to the continent of Europe and the children received another stamp in their passport. We went on a virtual gondola ride in Venice, Italy, traveled up the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, and learned about the royal family in England. We also went to Switzerland where we rode a mountain coaster, learned about the Collosseum in Rome and explored the Tower Bridge in London. We worked on our evidence organizer chart for Europe organizing information about things to do, natural features and animals found in Europe. We are off to Africa next week!
Social-Emotional Learning: We had our school-wide community assembly this week. The topic was our school value of Responsibility. School council students presented what being responsible looks like and sounds like throughout the school building during various parts of our day. Responsibility caps off the last of our 4 school values: We are Safe, Kind, Inclusive and Responsible.
Updates and Reminders:
School pictures will be on Tuesday, March 31st. Please send in either the original picture form OR a print out with your confirmation number.
Kindergarten students DO NOT have school on Monday, April 27th and Tuesday, April 28th.
Please make sure your child brings a water bottle to school every day.
Students no longer need to bring their snow gear to school. If your child wears snow boots or rain boots, please make sure they have a change of shoes for the classroom.
Class Update: 3/9-3/20:
Math: We continued to practice number bonds this week. The children worked with a partner to make different variations of the numbers five and six using 2 sided chips. They then had to transfer the number combinations onto a number bond. They did such a great job with this!
UFLI: We began our vowel review lessons and have revisited the vowels a and i. The children are doing an incredible job reading CVC words with these vowels and words with blends. During the "Write With Me" portion of the UFLI lessons, the children are now independently writing words and sentences! Additionally, all uppercase letter formation has been taught and we will begin lowercase instruction next week.
Literacy Groups: Groups this week focused on reading, writing and matching CVC words to pictures, sentence scrambles, reading decodables and answering comprehension questions. We also continued to practice short vowel sounds.
Wit and Wisdom: We kicked off Module 4 at the end of the last week with a virtual flight! The children had so much fun and are really excited for this module! This module is centered around the essential question, ”What makes the world so fascinating?” The children received their first passport stamp and completed the Asia page with one thing they learned about that continent in their passport journal. Throughout the week we collected facts about Asia and added them to our Evidence Organizer chart. The children learned that Asia is the largest continent, most of the worlds rice is grown there and the Burj Khalifa is the worlds tallest building! We also went on virtual walks through the Bamboo Forest in Japan, visited the Panda Sanctuary in China and walked the Great Wall of China!
I've linked our "Continents Song" below!
youtu.be/K6DSMZ8b3LE?si=PK_mQULLICaGbkNu
Updates and Reminders:
Our specialist schedule will change next week. Our new schedule is as follows: Monday - Art, Tuesday - Gym, Wednesday - Music; Thursday - Art, and Friday - Gym. Please make sure your child has sneakers for gym class every Tuesday and Friday!
School pictures will be on Tuesday, March 31st. Forms were sent home yesterday.
Kindergarten students DO NOT have school on Monday, April 27th and Tuesday, April 28th.
Please make sure your child brings a water bottle to school every day.
Class Update: 2/23-2/27:
I hope everyone had a wonderful (extended) winter break. Mrs. Raimondi and I were so happy to see the children on Wednesday. They are all getting so tall and are beginning to look like 1st graders! Here is a peek at our very short week!
Math: We began Module 4 this week which explores part and whole and how it relates to the composition and decomposition of numbers. Ask your child about the part-whole rhyme that we have learned!
UFLI: The letter Qq was introduced this week. We learned that the letter Qq never works without his best friend, the letter Uu. The children learned how to form the upper and lowercase Qq and practiced decoding and encoding words with qu.
Literacy Groups: Activities this week focused on identifying middle/vowel sounds, reading short decodable texts and answering comprehension questions, as well as practicing segmenting and blending CVC words. On Friday, we played a fun CVC game called, "Guess and Groove." Ask your child to tell you about it!
Wit and Wisdom: We finished up Module 2 prior to winter break and will begin Module 4 next week (we swap Modules 3 & 4). Module 4 is about the 7 continents and, as an avid traveler, my favorite to teach. We will be going on an adventure around the world, learning about what makes each continent fascinating. The adventure begins next Wednesday with a virtual flight, complete with boarding passes, snack service, and Mrs. Raimondi and I as the flight attendants (we go ALL out for this!!!). More info to come on Monday!
Social-Emotional Learning: The children have done a nice job getting back into the routine following the break. They have been very helpful with one another and I have observed many simple of kindness between the children.
Reminders/Dates to Remember:
Please make sure your child has water bottle every day.
Please make sure to pack gloves/mittens for recess.
Friday, March 13th is an early release. Children will be dismissed at 11:55. Optional spring conferences will be held during the afternoon. Due to time constraints of the afternoon, teachers are unable to meet with every parent. I will be reaching out with more information next week.
Class Update: 1/26-1/30:
Math: The highlight of math this week was a partner game the children played. Each child was given 6 unifix cubes and a dice. Both children rolled their dice and built a tower of cubes to match the number rolled. The partners then compared their towers using the math terms, taller than, shorter than or equal.
UFLI: Due to the short week, only the letter w was introduced. We practiced building CVC words with w as the beginning letter and moved onto building words with w as the second consonant (twin, swim). We continue to write sentences together using capitalization, pinky spaces between words and ending punctuation. After reading the word twin, the children requested we write a sentence about the twins in our class! We came up with, "Tucker and Carter are twins!"
Wit and Wisdom: We continued to learn about story elements this week using the text, The Little Red Hen. The children identified the characters and setting and went on to learn about the problem and solution in the story. The children acted out The Little Red Hen at the end of the week and did a terrific job! We also compared the class version of The Little Red Hen to a modern version called, The Little Red Hen (Makes a Pizza).
Social-Emotional Learning: We continue to work on being space savers and staying in our own personal space bubble. Our school wide community meeting this week was focused on our school value of Safety.
Gingerbread Man Update: Our Gingerbread Man was spotted in Spain! This comes after his trip to Colorado. The children are LOVING the post cards and ask every day if there is "Ginger Mail."
Reminders:
Please make sure your child brings a water bottle to school every day.
If your child wears boots to school, please pack a change of shoes for the classroom.
Valentine's Day information will be going home at the beginning of next week.
Class Update (2 weeks): 1/12-16 & 1/19-1/23:
Math: We compared objects using the mathematical language taller than, shorter than, longer than and same as. We used pieces of strings to measure If objects were longer or shorter than our string. A new math tool was introduced this week: the balance scale! We discussed using language such as heavier and lighter. We also learned a rhyme to help us remember heavier and lighter: “See saw up and down, the heavy one goes to the ground.” We compared items and made predictions about which one would be heavier/lighter. The children really enjoyed this!
UFLI: Consonant /r/ and consonant /l/ were introduced. We learned that /r/ can be the second letter of a word following a consonant like in the word, grab or grip. We also learned that sometimes the letter l comes at the end of a word following a vowel. The children are doing a wonderful job sounding out words! We also learned the following heart words: he, be, me, look, book.
Literacy Groups: Our literacy groups focused on building and reading CVC words, using pictures to write lists and sentences, sentence scrambles and using the Handwriting Without Tears app.
Wit and Wisdom: We finished up the book, The Year at Maple Tree Farm. We listened to the following song about the seasons, which the children enjoy singing along to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZjpI6fgYSY . The children completed their drawings of each season on the farm. The children did an amazing job of differentiating the seasons with details such as snow and bare branches for winter; Mama ducks teaching their ducklings how to swim on the pond during the summer, etc. They are doing a wonderful job labeling their pictures with phonetic spelling!
Social-Emotional Learning: We are still working on getting back into the grove following our holiday break. Following the group plan, listening to teachers and safe bodies in the classroom and hallway are just some of the expectations we are continuing to work on.
Other Fun Stuff:
The children made All About Me papers for their Pen Pals at Newbury Elementary School. They are LOVING this!
Our Gingerbread Man is still on the loose! He went out to Colorado to ski and have hot cocoa, stopped at the National Aquarium in Baltimore and went to the top of the Empire State Building in NYC!
Reminders:
If your child wears snow boots or rainboots to school, please make sure they a pair of shoes to change into.
Please make sure your child has sneakers for gym class every Tuesday.
Report cards will be available in Infinite Campus at 3:00 pm today.
Class Update: 1/5-1/9:
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and was able to relax a little and enjoy some family time!
Math: Prior to break we completed Module 2 and started Module 3 which focuses on comparison. We compared objects using the mathematical language taller than, shorter than, longer than and same as.
UFLI: The letters k and h were introduced this week. A big question when spelling is, "How do we know if it's a k or a c? and we learned that is all depends on the vowel! "K takes i and e. C takes the other three (a, o, u)!" The children are doing an amazing job with decoding and encoding CVC words and reading decoadable texts. We are also writing sentences collaboratively using capitalization, spaces, and punctuation. The "heart/irregular" words introduced this week were: he, me, be.
Literacy Groups: Our groups this week focused on initial sounds sorts, sentence scrambles, writing sentences about a picture and practicing reading CVC words. The children also worked on the Lexia app and Handwriting Without Tears app.
Wit and Wisdom: We are continuing Module 2 Once Upon a Farm. We read a new story called The Year at Maple Hill Farm. We talked about how the seasons change with animals and plants throughout the year at a farm. The children are working on drawing what the farm looks like throughout each season. We listened to the following song about the seasons, which the children enjoy singing along to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZjpI6fgYSY .
Social-Emotional Learning: To help us transition back into “school mode”, we are working on a January Bingo Board (click the link below). Once we have completed all the squares on the board, we will have a celebration (TBD)!
drive.google.com/file/d/1g-RLwSgZ0AWQ9hto9KoW6N7RLSNkarsF/view?usp=sharing
Other Exciting News:
We have been receiving lots of "Ginger Mail" as the children are calling it! We have now received 26 letters/cards/notes either from or about the Gingerbread Man!
My friend is a kindergarten teacher at Newbury Elementary and we are pen pals with her class! So far we have received 2 letters from her class and we have written 2 letters. Next week the children will be writing individual notes to tell about themselves and their day in kindergarten.
Derby, our school therapy dog, will now be coming to our classroom once per week. He came into today for math, but promptly fell asleep!
Reminders:
Children should bring their snow gear to school every day.
Please make sure your child has a change of shoes to wear in the classroom. Wet boots ruin our classroom rug!
Next Friday, January 16th is an early release day. Dismissal is at 11:55 am.
Report cards will be available on Infinite Campus on Friday, January 23rd at 3 pm.
Class Update: 12/8-12/12:
Math: We began learning about 3D shapes this week. The 3D shapes we learned were sphere, cube, cone, pyramid, and rectangular prism. We played a game called, Roll, Slide or Stack with the 3D shapes this week. The children had to predict if the shape would roll, slide down a ramp, or if it was a shape that could be stacked. They really enjoyed this game! The highlight of the week was building 3D shapes using play doh and toothpicks.
UFLI: This week we learned about suffix s and how it represents the plural of a word. The children practiced adding the suffix s to the end of CVC words. They also learned that suffix s makes the /z/ sound sometimes! This is tricky stuff but they are excited to learn about it!
Literacy Groups: Our groups this week focused on sentence scrambles, initial sound sorting, Lexia, Handwriting Without Tears, letter identification and building and reading CVC words.
Wit and Wisdom: We are discussing what makes a good story. We read, "The Three Little Pigs" and talked about different things that make a good story. We also began discussing the characters and setting in stories. The children were able to share their favorite story and why they like it so much.
Social-Emotional Learning: Our discussions around being a "space saver" and not a "space invader" continue as this is a need in our classroom. Please talk with your child at home about the importance of keep their hands (and bodies) to themselves, especially while at school.
The highlights of the week were Shopper's Corner on Monday and receiving postcards/letters from and about our gingerbread man. He has been spotted on the roof of the Groveland Police Department doing yoga ("downward dough" is his favorite move we were told), sitting on Santa's lap at the PTA event last weekend and even all the way out in California! The children are LOVING this and are so excited every time we get a new letter or note!
Reminders:
The winter concert is Wednesday, December 17th at 9:00 am. Parents are invited to attend. The kindergarten children can wear pajamas on this day. Please have your child wear regular shoes.
Please make sure to send in a water bottle (pre-filled at home) with your child every day.
Class Update: 12/1-12/5
Math: We finished up learning about 2D shapes last week and are now working on 3D shapes. We started by comparing flat shapes (Ex: circle) to their 3D counterparts ( Ex: sphere). The children are excited to learn about 3D shapes!
UFLI: The letter /e/ was introduced this week and the children have now learned all 5 vowels. The children love our vowel song (sung to the tune of "BINGO")
"There are some special letters and vowels are their name-o. A-E-I-O-U, A-E-I-O-U, A-E-I-O-U and sometimes letter y too."
As a class we have been practicing building and reading VC and CVC words and the children are doing such a wonderful job! They are also very proud when they correctly read a word. We have also been writing sentences, complete with punctuation.
Literacy Groups: Our groups this week focused on practicing vowel sounds, reading connected text and then illustrating it, completing CVC search and finds, working with a partner on Roll and Reads and using the Lexia App.
Wit and Wisdom: We started our Module 2 which is, Once Upon a Farm. We began the week reading, Farm Animals, which is a non-fiction text. The children are learning that non-fiction texts give us information and facts, rather than telling us a story. After reading Farm Animals throughout the week, they had to draw an animal from the book as well as one thing they learned about that animal. Some examples the children came up with were dogs helping to herd sheep, barn cats helping to catch mice and chickens laying eggs!
Social-Emotional Learning: We are discussing what it means to follow the "group plan" and have expected listening.
Reminders/Dates to Remember:
Shopper's Corner is Monday, December 8th. If your child is participating, please make sure to return the completed envelope in your child's folder.
Children need the "High Five" in order to play outside in the snow. Your children DO NOT need to wear their snow pants to school. Please also make sure they have a change of shoes for the classroom.
PE class in now on Tuesdays. Please make sure your child has sneakers.
All toys and stuffed animals need to stay at home and should not be coming to school in your child's backpack.
Class Update: 11/17-11/21:
Math: We began Module 2 which is all about 2 and 3 dimensional shapes. This module begins with having the children describe the shapes they see using attributes such as corners, straight lines, and curves. Ask your child to show you corners, sides and curves with their body!
UFLI: The letter g was introduced and the children have learned how to form the uppercase version of these letter. The following heart/irregular words have been introduced so far: the, I, and, a, is, as, said, to, do. We are continuing to practice segmenting and blending vc and cvc words and the children are really making some great progress with this!
Literacy Groups: Groups this week focused on first sound fluency, letter identification, decoding CVC words, encoding CVC words, reading sentence pyramids, and completing sentence scrambles.
Wit and Wisdom: Rap A Tap Tap by Leo and Diane Dillon was our new book this week. This story is about the famous tap dancer, Bo Jangles. We learned about tap dancing and watched a few videos of Bo Jangles dancing! The children loved to emulate Bojangles!
Social-Emotional Learning: We continue to practice using our "thinking bubbles" while on the rug. The children are learning that every single thought inside their brains don't have to come out as they think them. We also continue to practice keeping our hands and feet to ourselves, being respectful listeners, as well as using kind words when speaking to peers.
The highlight of the week was meeting our 3rd Grade Buddies! The children were paired with a 3rd grade student from Miss Tiller's class and worked on a project with them on Wednesday. The children LOVED this and are excited to have more time with their buddies next month!
Reminders/Dates to Remember:
Wednesday, November 26th is an early release day. Children will be dismissed at 11:55 am. There is NO After School Program on this day.
Class Update: 11/3-11/14:
So much learning has been happening here in Room 28!
Math: We are nearing the end of Module 1. We continue to practice using various counting strategies (move objects into a line, make an array, mark off, etc) and writing numbers to 10. We have been practicing sequencing numbers from 0-10 as well. We also practiced sequencing numbers when presented out of order. Lastly, the children were number detectives and had to determine which number(s) were missing from a number sequence. The fan favorite of the week was a bear baseball game where the children had to keep track of home runs and practice counting on from a previous number.
UFLI: The letters, d, c and u have been introduced and the children have learned how to form the uppercase version of these letters. The following heart/irregular words have been introduced: said, as, do, to. We are continuing to practice segmenting and blending vc and cvc words and the children are really making some great progress with this!
Literacy Groups: The chidlren are really enjoying their small literacy group time. This week we groups were focused on letter identification, phoneme-grapheme matching, reading CVC words, encoding CVC words and working on sentence scrambles!
Wit and Wisdom: Our new text this week was, “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!” We reviewed the jobs of author and illustrator, used the pictures to gather more information from the text and acted out the story! The children also illustrated two pages from the text in their Drawing and Writing Books after I read them aloud.
Social-Emotional Learning: We have been discussing how to be problem solvers by using our words. We have also continued our conversations about boundaries and personal space as the children are having a lot of difficulty staying in their own personal space bubbles. Please talk with your children at home about the importance of personal space.
We ended the week learning about electrical safety. Ask your children about Mr. Ouch!
Class Update: 10/20-10/31:
We have been busy in Room 28 kindergarten. Here is a peek at the last 2 weeks:
Math: The highlight of the week in math was playing the birthday cake game. Each partnership had a birthday cake (playdough), 6 birthday candle and a dice. The first partner rolls the dice, counts the dot and then places that same number of candles on the cake. Keeping the candles in the cake, the next partner rolls the dice and has to determine if they need to add more candles to the cake or take some away to match the number rolled on the dice. We also practiced writing numbers to match a set number of objects or movements such as claps.
UFLI: These last two weeks we learned the following letters, N, O and nasal a. The children learned that when the letter a is followed by an n or m, it gets whiny and makes a different sound. We practiced reading words that have nasal a: an, and, fan, tan, am, Sam, Pam. We also learned how to write the uppercase version of N and O.
Literacy Groups: The children are enjoying their small group time during literacy groups. This week's focus was first sound fluency, rhyming, letter identification, CVC words, and using the Lexia app. Some groups also worked on playing a CVC Chutes and Ladders game and solving mystery words.
Wit and Wisdom: Our text this week was, “Last Stop on Market Street” by Matt de la Pena. We talked about what an author and illustrator are and their roles. We discussed how details are very important when drawing pictures and reading a story. We learned the vocabulary words “freckled” and “ducked” and learned that there are some words that are the same, but have two different meanings. The children eneded the week working in groups creating their own "graffiti wall." They came out great!
Social-Emotional Learning: We continue to practice being "space savers" instead of "space invaders." We listened to the story, Harrison P. Spader, Personal Space Invader, which I've linked below. Mrs. Barreto, our principal, came in to talk with the class about how important it is to stay in our own personal space. If you can follow up with your children about this at home, it would be greatly appreciated!
youtu.be/G5PXOQV3erk?si=oIGz7PGUHvZ11BHe
The highlight of the week was the Costume Parade. The children all looked fantastic in their costumes! Happy Halloween!
Reminders/Dates to Remember:
There is NO school for the students on Tuesday, November 4th.
There is NO School for the students on Tuesday, November 11th.
Wednesday, November 26th is an early release day. There is NO after school program on this day.
Class Update: 10/14-10/17:
Math: This week students engaged in counting numbers above 5, namely 6, 7, and 8, in varied configurations. The students used their growing skill and knowledge of counting up to five to reason about larger numbers in the more difficult linear, array, circular, and scattered configurations. As in previous topics the students counted objects and matched their count with a digit card to reinforce that the last number said when counting tells the number of objects.
UFLI: We continued to practice segmenting and blending VC and CVC words (at, sip, etc). We also learned how to form the uppercase F and I. During literacy groups the children practiced identifying letters, matching letters to their sounds, reading CVC words and matching to a picture, matching rhyming pictures and building VC and CVC words.
Wit and Wisdom: We continued our study of Our Five Senses The children completed their 5 Senses Book are were so excited to become authors! We also discussed the painting, Le Gourmet by Picasso and the children were able to share what they noticed and wondered about the painting.
Science: We learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin.
The highlight of the week was the field trip to the pumpkin patch! They LOVED riding the bus and thought it was so funny that I rode the bus with them!
Social-Emotional Learning: We continue to discuss ways to be kind in the classroom, playground, cafeteria and other areas of the school building. We continued to talk a lot about personal space this week and how everyone needs their own space bubble.
Reminders/Dates to Remember:
Tuesday, October 21st is an early release. Dismissal is at 11:55 am.
Thursday, October 23rd is an early release. Dismissal is at 11:55 am.
Friday, October 31st is our annual Costume Parade for grades K-2. This will be from 9:30-10:00 in the front circle. More information to come.
Class Update: 10/6-10/10:
Math: This week the students continued to count to find the total number of objects in a set and then sort the set into groups. They then expressed the relationship between the total and the groups (or parts) by using a number sentence, such as 5 is 4 and 1. Students had to sort their objects more than once by using a different attribute each time. The children continued to practice counting the math way, practiced writing numbers 0-5 and began drawing number stories.
UFLI: This week we learned the letters t and p. We practiced phoneme-grapheme matching, building and reading
CVC words and reading connected text. We also learned how to form uppercase and lowercase T and P.
Wit and Wisdom: We began to investigate the essential questions of “How do our senses help us learn?” by reading the book The Five Senses by Margaret Mitchell. We talked about our 5 senses and how we use them everyday to help us learn. The children also shared what they noticed and wondered about the book. Our vocabulary words were senses, city, piano and shadow. The children completed the first two pages of their 5 Senses Book!
Social-Emotional Learning: We continue to discuss how to be a good friend/classmate and are working on staying in our own personal space bubbles. Our daily check-ins with the zones have been going great as well!
Reminders/Dates to Remember:
There is no school on Monday, October 13th
Our class will be having their popsicle and dance party on Wednesday, October 15th. This is from the Fun Run Fundraiser.
Wednesday, October 15th is the LAST day to submit a CORI form if you are interested in volunteering for any classroom or school activities.
Our field trip is Friday, October 17th.
If your child wears rain boots to school, please pack a change of shoes for the classroom.
Please make sure your child wears sneakers to school on Mondays and Thursdays as we have PE those days.
Class Update: 9/29-10/3:
Math: This week we continued practicing counting out a group of objects to match a numeral and learned how to write the numbers 1-5. The children also began writing numbers 1-5 to answer how many questions. Ask your child to show you how to count The Math Way. An activity that proved to be a fan favorite of the children was a counting bear game. The children had to spill a cup of double sided beans (red on one side and white on the other), sort them by color and then move their bear the number of spots equivalent to the red beans they had. This was their first time working with a partner and they did a wonderful job taking turns and staying focused on the task. They LOVED this! We continued to practice sorting and counting on with a magic number game.
UFLI: This week in UFLI we learned about the letters s and t. The children learned how to form the uppercase version of these and we practiced matching the letters to the sounds they make. We practiced the "heart words" the, I and said this week.
SEL: We continue to reinforce how important it is to stay in our own personal space bubbles.
We ended the week spending time in the garden. The children planted crocus bulbs and enjoyed exploring the various plants and vegetation that is growing.
Dates to Remember:
Friday, October 10th is an early release day. Dismissal is at 11:55 am.
There is no school on Monday, October 13th.
Our field trip to the pumpkin patch is on Friday, October 17th.
Parent-Teacher Conferences are scheduled for Tuesday, October 21st from 5-8 and Thursday, October 23rd from 1-4. Both of these days will be an 11:55 am dismissal. More information about scheduling a conference will be coming soon.
Class Update: 9/22-9/26:
Math: We began Module 1 of our math program and the children are really engaged with the learning activities so far! The start of this unit focuses on classification activities that allow the students to analyze and explore their world and share their observations. Another big focus is solidifying counting up and back to and from 5 and showing visual representations of numbers 1-5. We also worked on sorting items by color, shape, size and other attributes.
UFLI: We officially started the pilot of the UFLI program this week. The children learned about the letters, a and m, and practiced segmenting and blending VC (vowel-consonant) and CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. They learned that words can have these letters in the beginning, middle or end. We also practiced writing uppercase A and uppercase M, using language from Handwriting Without Tears. Ask your child to tell you where they need to start their letters! Lastly, the children completed their Lexia placement assessment and enjoyed using that program this week.
SEL: We learned how to De-Bug this week! The children LOVED this! They made their own De-Bug mini-posters and were very excited to show all of you! Additionally, we continue to practice a daily zone "check-in" to understand how we are feeling and the children look forward to our daily Brain Breaks after lunch. The children really seem to enjoy this time where they can relax, breath and follow a guided yoga or meditation. I've linked a favorite activity below.
youtu.be/fV1aMrpAFvk?si=oezmG93ou4oLMtLJ
Of course, the highlight of the week was the Fun Run! The children were thrilled to run in front of all of you and it made for a mellow afternoon for me!! Thank you for all the fundraising support!
Additional Information: Kindergarten is a time for fostering independence. Children should be able to open their own snacks, put on their coats and put lunch boxes back inside their backpacks. Please encourage your child to “try it yourself first” before helping. Encouraging independence in these areas will help us greatly in the classroom, especially come winter when they need to put their snow gear on.
Class Update: 9/15-9/19:
The past two weeks have been busy, busy, busy here in kindergarten! Here's a peek at what we have been up to in Room 28!
The children are doing really well with our classroom routines, using our daily schedule independently (mostly to find out when lunch is lol!) and are very much enjoying having a classroom job. We have added in a Daily Message to our Morning Meeting and the Teacher Helper gets to bring it home!
Social-Emotional Learning: We continued learning about the Zones of Regulation using the characters from the movie, Inside Out. Ask your child to tell you about the various zones (blue, green, yellow and red). We also read the book, "A Little Calm Spot" and we learned that everyone has their own calm spot and there are different ways to get there if we are having big feelings. The children also learned about classroom Zen Zone and had the opportunity to go there and explore our calm down tools.
Centers: This week the children made their names out of tissue paper, practiced matching letters of the alphabet, created an apple with paper they had to tear (lots of fine motor strengthening this week), made their names using Play-Doh and worked on Lexia for the first time! The children also began working in their "Shape Stories Workbook" as this will lead into our future drawing and writing lessons.
Looking Ahead and Reminders:
Next week we will begin our formal math and phonics programs: Eureka Squared and UFLI.
Picture Day is next Tuesday, September 23rd. Please send back either the original picture form OR a copy of the order confirmation if you ordered online.
The school Fun Run is next Friday, September 26th from 9:00-9:45 am. Families are invited to watch. Please make sure your child has breakfast AT HOME that morning.
Permission slips for our October field trip are going home in folders today. Please make sure to complete the form and send back, along with payment, by Wednesday, September 24th.
The district deadline for submitting a CORI is Wednesday, October 15th.
Class Update: 9/2-9/12
We are off to a great start in Room 28! The children have been working so hard these last 9 days learning the various classroom routines and expectations. We have spent a lot of time building our classroom community and getting to know one another. Some of our community building lessons include the following: Whole Body Listening, Voice Volume Control, Expected v. Unexpected Behaviors and classroom/school expectations. We read the "On Strike" books and the children practiced using the following tools: crayons, scissors, Elmer the glue stick and pencils. They are being very responsible to make sure the tools don't go on strike!
The children are loving having a daily job and take them very seriously! The children also drew their self portraits, graphed their favorite color, learned about the Zones of Regulation and completed their Scribble Scrabble Book.
Dates to Remember:
Next Friday, September 19th is an early release. The children will be dismissed at 11:55 am.
Picture Day is Tuesday, September 23rd.