Friday, October 31, 2014

October 31

Happy Halloween,  Fish Families:

Thank you for all the donations and help this week! The children told us that the Halloween celebration yesterday was AWESOME. I couldn't have done it without you! There are photos on our FLICKR page.  The link has a tab at the top of our home page


Here are some highlights of our week together:

Literacy Centers: We practiced writing V and W. The children found "I" in our shared reading book, Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle. We made bats for our bulletin board and have begun to practice saying our names in chunks, or syllables. We played tic- tack-toe and other fun Halloween games.


Writers' Workshop:  This week we learned that writers can go back and add sentences to their stories. We worked in partnerships to talk about our stories before writing. We also know that writers re-read their stories and add details.


Readers' Workshop:  This week, we reviewed that readers point under the words as they read. We know that readers use the pictures to help them read the stories. We also began to put the first sound in our mouth to get ready to read a word.  The children are getting better at selecting interest books independently. 


Math:  We have been working with 10 frames this week. The children did a bean spill activity where they record the different combinations of 10. 

Social Stories:   Various fire fighters from Stratham and neighboring towns came to teach us all about fire safety. Be sure to check out the pictures on our FLICKR link and ask your child what s/he learned. 


Book of the Week:   Various Halloween stories


Song of the Week:  Wizard's Brew by Joanne Hammil 


Donation Requests:


  • small white paper plates
  • large white paper plates


Up Coming Events:
  • Handwriting- X, Y & Z
  • Phonics- m & n 
  • Word of the Week- so
  • Early Release for Parent Conference- 11/7
  • Family Breakfast- 11/25 from 8-8:30 *more info to follow

Happy turn-the-clocks-back weekend.
Kristen

Friday, October 24, 2014

October 24, 2014

Dear Fish Families:

Here are some highlights of our week together:

Literacy Centers: We practiced writing L and U on the Letterschool app and on our easels. The children found "an" in a word search after reading Huggles Can Juggle by Joy Cowley. They have also been working on labeling all the sounds they hear in words.  We continue to work on fine motor art projects to strengthen our writing muscles.


Writers' Workshop:  Kindergarten writers continue to write small moment stories. This week we learned that authors/illustrators add details to character faces to show feelings and emotions. Many of the students applied this skill to their own pieces. We continue to talk about what small moments are and plan our stories.


Readers' Workshop:  This week, we spent a lot of time reading in partnerships. The children are learning how to; take turns, work together, solve problems while the teachers are conferencing with other readers, and talk about stories.  They were introduced to Post-It notes as a reading tool. During independent reading the children are marking pages that they want to talk about with their partners when they get together. 


Math:  We have been counting by 1s and 10s this week. The children have been acting out addition and subtraction stories and representing the stories using manipulatives and pictures. We have been doing this math work in groups. I also completed the assessment for unit #2 and will be sending the letters home on Monday along with the unit #3 introduction letter.

Social Stories:  Mrs. Griffith showed a video and taught the children about personal body safety. Some key points made were:


  • You own your body
  • If someone tries to touch you in a spot that would be covered by your bathing suit you should yell no, get away, and tell an adult
  • Secrets that make you feel uncomfortable aren't good secrets and you should tell an adult right away
Officer Mike came in to talk to us about trick-or-treat safety. We also got to sit in his police vehicle.
I have put the pictures on FLICKR.

Book of the Week:  Pumpkin, Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington


Song of the Week:  Shapes by Hap Palmer 


Up Coming Events:

  • Handwriting- V & W
  • Phonics- o (another "superstar")
  • Word of the Week- I
  • Picture re-takes- 10/28
  • Halloween celebration- 10/30
  • Early Release for Parent Conference- 10/29 and 11/7 *Please email me to schedule if you haven't already.

Fondly,
Kristen

Friday, October 17, 2014

October 17, 2014

Dear Fish Families:

Your amazing children have been making great choices and have filled our fish jar! They brainstormed a list of celebrations and voted to be allowed to chew gum in class on Monday. If you don't want your child participating in this, please send me an email. I will provide sugarless bubblegum for this reward! 


School pictures have arrived! They were sent home today. Re-takes are scheduled for Tuesday,10/28. If you would like a re-take, just send the pictures back to school on that day and we will bring the students down.

We will be having Mrs. Griffith, our school guidance counselor, in on Thursday, 10/23 to talk to the children about personal body safety at 12:30. We will be joining the Panda class for this talk. You are welcome to join us.


Here are some highlights of our week together:

Literacy Centers: The children have been working on properly forming the letters H and "karate kick" K. We have been building our sight words, finding the word see hidden in our rice table and in cinnamon sugar.  


Writers' Workshop:  Our writers are beginning to grasp the idea of a small moment and are writing great stories with 3 parts. Before writing, the children tell their story to a friend and tap out their plan on 3 fingers or on the 3 pages of the booklets. They were very excited to have books to write in instead of single sheets of paper. We continue to remind them to label pictures or attempt to write words. (Beginning sounds are our starting point with this.)  Some small moment mentor texts from this week include; When Sophie Gets Angry...Really, Really Angry and Kittens First Full Moon.  I have been doing lots of modeling with small moments from my life as well. 


Readers' Workshop:  The fish children practiced reading in self-selected spots this week. They continue to read independently and with partners. One day, they had alphabet books and found items that were the same and different in their books. We read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr./Eric Carle focusing on our word of the week. We also used Silly Sally by Audrey Wood to review rhyming and to look at details in the pictures to give us hints about characters. 


Math:  We continue to represent numbers 0-10 using ten frames. We have been counting to tell the number of objects and learned that lined up objects are easier to count than scattered ones or ones arranged in a circle.  We learned about the rectangle and how it has 4 straight sides where the ones across from each other are the same length. The children noticed that a rectangle is a rectangle no matter which way it is rotated or how wide/thin it is.


Science:  We have begun science talks. The children sit in a circle and don't have to raise their hands. We established norms (rules) to help us be successful. We will be doing lots of practice with this.

Book of the Week:  Silly Sally by Audrey Wood


Song of the Week:  Nursery Rhyme Rap by Dr. Jean 


Up Coming Events:

  • Handwriting- L & U
  • Phonics- a (Our first vowel! Now we can start to sound out words!)
  • Word of the Week- an
  • Field Trip to the Portsmouth Music Hall- 10/21
  • Personal Body Awareness- 10/23 at 12:30
  • Halloween celebration- 10/30
  • Early Release for Parent Conference- 10/29 and 11/7 *Please email me to schedule if you haven't already.

Happy weekend!
Kristen

Friday, October 10, 2014

Dear Fish Families:

Directory update- Please change James Halepis' address to 7 Lamington Hill Road


Here are some highlights of our week together:

Literacy Centers: The children have been working on properly forming the letters N and M. These are our last 2 "frog jump" letters. Our Shared Reading book of the week was Yuck Soup by Joy Cowley. The children found the word in, learned about how readers read top to bottom, left to right, and take a breath when they see a period at the end of a sentence.  We made a class version of Yuck Soup and wrote another version of the story, Yum Soup


Writers' Workshop:  We chose our favorite writing piece from our first unit and did some revising. At this age, the children might add more color, label a picture, or add a detail to their picture. We made picture frames and hung the stories in the hall. We have begun our "Small Moments" unit by reading some mentor texts demonstrating when an author zooms in on a part of a day. A Moment in Time by Jennifer Butenas was one of the texts we used to learn how to do this.


Readers' Workshop:  Your readers have begun "shopping" from our classroom library for their interest books. Instead of reading from baskets that I have filled, they are choosing books on their own to have in their independent reading boxes. Mr. Fosher was in to observe me this week and enjoyed the conversations he had with your children about books.


Math:  We have been doing lots of sorting this week! We sorted by different attributes and noticed how things are the same and different. The children have moved from using 5 frames to ten frames during math. They are representing numbers with objects and looking at dot arrangements and naming the numeral.


Visual Arts:  The fish class made awesome (and creepy) spiders this week. They are on display (climbing a web) in our classroom.

Book of the Week:  The Itsy Bitsy Spider (book version)


Song of the Week:  Itsy Bitsy Spider by Dr. Jean (Be sure to have your child sing the funny lyrics) 


Donation Requests: AA batteries for our camera and foam soap


Up Coming Events:

  • No School Monday
  • Handwriting- H & K
  • Phonics- th (voiced and un-voiced)
  • Word of the Week- see
  • Field Trip to the Portsmouth Music Hall- 10/21
  • Halloween celebration- 10/30
  • Early Release for Parent Conference- 10/29 and 11/7 *Please email me to schedule if you haven't already.
Enjoy your holiday weekend!
Kristen