Weekly Update - 3/11-3/14

Language Arts

Our new sight word for the week is "be." There was a bit of trouble with the computer and printer Friday morning, so please look for the sight word in your student's folder on Tuesday afternoon.

In Fundations, students have begun to use their knowledge of letter sounds to continue to develop their reading skills. We have been tapping out trickier words this week like yes, wet, quiz and wig. We've also been listening to beginning, middle and ending sounds and spelling the words together as a class. We continue to work on our lowercase letter formations. When working with your student at home, it's helpful to remind them to use their best Fundations handwriting and to focus on using lowercase letters when writing words, unless it's the word I, the first word in a sentence or their name.

In writing, we'll begin to turn our focus to opinion writing. We have completed a pre-assessment and will begin building on what we already know of giving our opinion in writing.

Math

We continue to work on understanding groups of 10 and ones left over. Our focus this week were on the numbers 70-100. We've made progress in understanding this very difficult concept and even if it's still feeling difficult for your student, they're working really hard! Next week, we'll be finishing up chapter 8 and completing the chapter assessment!

Science

In science this week, we discussed our last type of matter - air or gasses. We observed how air moves water, how paper moves through air (balled up or flat), and how blowing through straws helps to move water around different types of materials.

Important Reminders

*Sight word books will be coming home this week. We have been keeping them in our reading bags to be sure we had enough to read during our read to someone activities. We have plenty to go around now, so many will be coming home for your student to keep and work on reading to family and friends!

Weekly Update - 3/4-3/7

Language Arts

Our new sight word this week is "one." This word is one that they must memorize and cannot tap or sound out. For the first few times they practice this word with you, it's OK for you to tell them what it says as it's a true trick word.

We're really getting the hang of guided reading! I'm so impressed with the growth that each of your students have shown since January - you should all be so proud of them! Remember when reading at home to have your student look at the pictures to help solve tricky words and use the first sound they see in a tricky word to be sure that solve the word using the skills they know. For example, if the word is "hen" and the picture is of a chicken, make sure they look at the "h" at the beginning to decode the word and to tap out smaller words using their Fundations skills. If you have any questions about strategies to try with your student, we can talk more at conferences on Friday.

In writer's workshop, we're beginning to work towards using only capital letters at the start of a new sentence or the word I, using punctuation, and writing our sight words with the proper spelling. We have also moved from only having a sentence about what they did and how they felt about it to having a beginning, middle and end to a story. As we move into the spring, it's important that students begin to practice writing like first graders and using all of the skills they've learned this year each time they write.

Math

We continue to work on place value to the tens place and have practice with numbers up to 79. We have been practicing sequencing numbers and filling in the missing numbers. For example, yesterday we put four random numbers in order, 54, 63, 67 and 73 and then we counted by ones from 54 to 73. This helps us get used to beginning to count at any given number between 1 and 100 and automatically know what the next number will be.

Important Reminders

*Early release on Friday, March 14 at noon - no lunch will be served.

Please check the classroom calendar for the share schedule.

Dr. Seuss's Birthday and Read Across America

On Friday, we celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday with an assembly and a guest reader, Mrs. Mitchell. The class was very excited for the day's activities and learned about Mrs. Mitchell's work in the medical field by seeing equipment to make casts and give stitches.

There was information sent home on Friday in your student's folder about the Read Across America activities over the month of March. We'll be working towards "winning" Olymipic medals of bronze, silver, and gold for the number of minutes they read each week. Please read through the packet that was sent home and let me know if you have any questions.

Weekly Update 2/25-2/28

Language Arts

It's been another successful and hard working week for our kindergarteners. This week, we learned a new sight word, "have." In the coming week, please watch your student's folder and backpack for the white paper sight word books that we've been working on for the last few months. These books can be kept at home and used as their practice reading books in addition to our reading bag books.

In Fundations we've moved into Unit 3 and we'll begin to really work on segmenting words into individual beginning, middle and end sounds. We've also begun to learn about our "silent e" words by listening to the middle sound of words to see if the vowel makes a short sound or says it's name like in hop and hope. This is the next step for their reading and writing development.

We will begin working in our reading groups again next week. Over the past two weeks, we've been reading different levels of texts individually and have found our new reading levels. I am so impressed with what each and everyone of your students have been able to achieve! Your student will begin bringing home their reading bag next week to practice reading their books with family and friends at home.

IMPORTANT REMINDER - Please, please, please remember that each and every school reading book that comes home in your student's reading bag NEEDS to be returned to the class each Tuesday. If they loose a book or their entire bag, I am no longer able to send home any school books for them to practice with you at home.

Math

Before vacation we began Chapter 8 in our Math In Focus program. Since returning to school we've been focusing on numbers between 20 and 100. This chapter has students look at numbers as sets of 10 and ones left over. For example, the number 37 is 3 sets of 10 and 7 ones left over. We've also been looking at numbers that come before and after a specific number. For example 28 comes BEFORE 29 and 30 comes AFTER.

You may notice some confusion and/or frustration with the homework pages that come home over the next few weeks. If this is the case, please leave the homework blank or write a note if they were confused. This will help me to see where they're becoming stuck and I can work further with them during our What I Need Time in small groups on specific strategies and skills that will help them moving forward with these types of math problems.

Science

We're continuing to learn about matter in science. This week we looked at different types of liquids by mixing water with oil, food coloring, and ice cubes colored with food coloring. We made a few predictions about what might happen when we mixed the different liquids together and observed what happened when we did mix them together.

The students made some fun predictions including the oil would fizz over the sides of the container when mixed with water, the food coloring would mix with water immediately, and the ice cube was staying the same size and shape, but the food coloring was leaving the ice cube and going into the water. They were very excited to see what really DID happen when we mixed the liquids together. Ask them about what they saw and learned during math this week!

Language Arts

*Again, please remember that reading bags NEED to be returned with all books each Tuesday in order for a new book to be sent home.
*Conference reminder slips were sent home on Wednesday. Please sign and return next week with confirmation of your scheduled time.
*Parent Conferences are scheduled for Friday, March 14. Students will leave school at noon and no lunch will be served.
*Report cards will be sent home on Tuesday, March 11th.

Two Week Update 2/4-2/14

Update 2/19 - It seems that this post wouldn't post! I've republished it in hopes that it shows up this time! Sorry for the delay parents and families!

Language Arts

Over the past two weeks we've learned two new sight words, "with" and "you." These are two words that are very important for students to learn as they are both words they use often in their writing. Both words have been sent home for their sight word key rings to be sure you continue to practice reading, spelling and writing these words during vacation.

The students have been working very hard on being able to retell familiar stories we've read a few times in class. Story retelling is an important part to their reading skills and have been doing a wonderful job so far with this new skill. We've focused on retelling folk tales which we've been learning about during our reading times. This skill will also be used in their work during reading groups and can be used at home after rereading a familiar story with families. Students are often very excited to tell you what they remember about a story and love to retell that favorite story in their own words.

Math

A new unit in math has begun and we've moved into learning about numbers to 100! Students have begun to learn how to skip count by 2's, 5's and 10's to begin getting familiar with how groups of numbers work. It's important that students understand how to skip count and you can practice at home before bed, in the car on a trip somewhere or during any other time during your day where your student will have fun showing off their new math skills.

You will notice that much of the work your student will practice at home will focus on groups of 10 and some left over. We've been trying to see a group of 10 as 1 group instead of 10 groups. This concept can be tricky and frustrating for students, so it's important to keep this concept as visual for them as possible (think about how we counted 10 groups of 10 to create or 100's Day Collections). If your student gets stuck at home figuring out their homework, use toothpicks, Legos, hair elastics, crayons, anything that will help them to visualize the quantity and help to skip count in groups to the higher number. We've begun to move away from counting all (counting each individual object each time we count the group) to skip counting, so it's important that they continue this practice at home.

Science

The students have continued to enjoy learning more about solids and we explored objects that sink and float. We used clay and aluminum foil to create different object that would be able to float in water. Most of the students figured out that creating a boat-like structure that didn't take on water would float in the water and hold glass beads even if that object, like clay, sunk if it was a ball before and now it's a boat, you can still make it float. The students loved being able to figure out how to make the solids into something that would float in the water and had great success with it.

Important Updates

*Please remember to continue to read with your student over vacation. Also, practice skip counting by 2's, 5's and 10's throughout the week to keep their new math skills fresh for them.
*The week we return from vacation, students will bring home more paper books from their browsing bags to practice reading at home instead of their reading bags.
*There were two sets of Valentine's that were lost in the shuffle of the party on Friday afternoon that will be sent home when we return to school - sorry for any confusion!
*Parent Conferences are coming up! If you know that there may be a conflict with your conference time, please be in touch as soon as possible to see if we can accommodate a new time for you and I to meet.

Exploring Our Classroom With Magnets!

Over the past few weeks we have been learning about the three types of matter in our world - solids, liquids and gases. Today we were able to explore our classroom using magnetic wands. Before we explored, we brainstormed, or predicted, a hypothesis about the types of things would be attracted to the magnet. Then we had the opportunity to test our hypothesi. Here's what we found out!

Weekly Update 1/28-1/31

Language Arts

It's been another eventful week in kindergarten! We've learned another sight word, "was," this week. Please remember to continue practicing all sight words and reading the paper books already at home so that your student continues to get practice reading both the sight words and using their reading skills.

We have been discussing the important traits of a new fiction genre, folk tales, throughout the month. Last week we read many versions of The Mitten and discussed that folk tales are stories that were passed down from generation to generation by mouth, there are many different versions of the same story, and they are repetitive. This week, we continued our reading groups by reading a different version of The Mitten that includes new characters we've not seen before. Also, we noticed that in this version, a little girl looses her mitten where all of the other versions the character has been a boy.

Math

We've successfully finished our work in Chapter 6! We have completed a few assessments this week and will begin work in Chapter 8 next week. We've also been continuing our discussion of 3-D shapes in our Daily Calendar work.

Science

This week we continued our exploration of matter. Last week we focused on liquids and gas during our Bubble Workshop and this week we're back to exploring solids. We took a tour around the classroom using magnetic wands to find out what types of metal is attracted to magnets. We discovered that some of the things found in our classroom this week - cans, pennies - aren't magnetic and figured out that only some metals are magnetic.

Important Reminders

*February Vacation is coming up - February 17-21.
*We're still running low on baby wipes - any sized package is appreciated!