October 23, 2015

Hi Fish Families!

I put our fire safety pictures on our blog. They can be found under the FLICKR tab at the top of our home page. 

Readers' Workshop:  The children have been practicing using familiar books to do a quick retell using linking phrases like 'and then' to put all the pages together.  They used small Post It notes to put "pinches of themselves" into their books. This fosters making connections and thinking about what a reader is reading. The fish children are marking pages they like and telling their reading partner why they like it. They are also making connections to other books, songs, and life in general. I am proud of the thinking and talking they are doing with books.

Writers' Workshop:  Our big focus this week was how writers ask and answer questions to add more to their writing. Most of this work was done in partnerships. The children asked each other 'who,when, what, why, where and how' questions to help make our pieces the best they can be. We are also stretching out words to write the sounds we hear. 

Literacy Centers: We wrote a class book inspired by the book Yuck Soup. We worked on the sight word see this week. The children loved searching for the letters s,e,e in our texture table and building the word. We used the app LetterSchool and various other activities to practice the correct formation of the letters H and K.
Math Workshop: We finished Unit #2! I am in the middle of assessing the children and will be sending home the information next week. This week, we spent a lot of time acting out and representing number stories using drawings, manipulatives and our fingers. We are solving oral equations using addition and subtraction (K.OA.2). We had a chance to play lots of games reviewing 1-1 correspondence when counting, showing '1 more' and representing numbers with dots on a ten frame.

Visual Arts: We made sparkling bats and did a monster draw along. The children made Sparky the fire dog, too. 

Social Studies:  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

Some Books We Read: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?, Silly Sally, and Go Away, Big Green Monster!

Up-Coming Events:

• Halloween Celebration- 10/30
• Early Releases- 11/5 & 11/18 *Parent Teacher Conferences 
• No School- 11/6 *Teacher Workshop
• No School- 11/11 *Veterans' Day
• Thanksgiving Break- 11/25-11/27
• Word of the Week-an
• Phonics- o
• Handwriting- L and U

Fondly,

Kristen

October 16, 2015

Dear Fish Families:

We had a wonderful time at the Music Hall earlier this week. A huge "THANK YOU" to our parent chaperones. We couldn't have done it without you. 

Today was fire safety day for the kindergarten and first grade students! We visited many stations learning about fire equipment and safety. Please ask your "fish" to tell you one thing they liked and one thing they learned today. A big thank you to our Stratham and neighboring volunteer firefighters!

Next week, Mr. Fosher will be reviewing bus safety with the children and Mrs. Griffith, our school guidance counselor, will do personal (body) safety with them. She will be sharing a video and talking with the children at 9:00 on Thursday, 10/22. Anyone who wishes to join us for Mrs. Griffith's lesson is more than welcome to. 

I was out of school for the first time this week. The children were GREAT for their "guest teacher". They were well behaved and helpful. They should be proud of themselves!

Here is a glimpse into our week:

Readers' Workshop:  This week we continued to practice individual and partnership reading. The children are working on carefully reading books cover to cover, not rushing to be done. I modeled how when we carefully re-read a book we notice/learn new things we may have missed the first time. 

Literacy Centers:  We began Words Their Way(spelling) this week. We did a whole class rhyming concept sort. We did this to introduce sorts and to establish routines with a concept most children are familiar with. Beginning next week, the students will be in small groups based on their individual assessments. Some of the sorting cards will be coming home each week for extra practice and to give you an idea of what spelling skill your child is working on. 

Writers' Workshop:  This week we focused on encouraging your writers to add to their work. One way students added to their pieces was by adding more color to their drawings. Others labeled their drawings with initial sounds. I taught them that adding a cover to their books was another way to add on to their work. We are beginning to make sure all of the pages in a book go together (are about one topic). This is a tough concept for young writers and will be revisited often this year.

Math:   Your mathematicians worked with ten frames this week. They used counters to represent numbers in at least 2 different ways (K.OA.3 Decomposes numbers in more than one way). We have been working on counting groups of objects that are lined up and scattered. There was a class discussion about how it is harder to count when objects are scattered. The children showed some useful ways to re-count the objects in an organized way.

Visual Arts:  The children used basic shapes to paint witches this week. They used cray pas to add details. They also "took a line for a walk" and colored in all the geometric shapes that resulted. Both of these creations are on display in our hallway.

App of the Week:  Can You Make 10?

Song of the Week:  Countdown from 20 song

Some books we read:  Yuck Soup, Ten Little Fish, Dishy Washy, Ms. Bindergarten Stays Home From Kindergarten 

Up-Coming Events:

• Personal Safety- 10/22 at 9:00
• Halloween Celebration- 10/30
• Early Releases- 11/5 & 11/18 *Parent Teacher Conferences
• No School- 11/6 *Teacher Workshop
• No School- 11/11 *Veterans' Day
• Thanksgiving Break- 11/25-11/27
• Word of the Week-see
• Phonics- a
• Handwriting- H and K 

Wish List:

• wax paper

Enjoy the beautiful foliage this weekend.
Kristen

October 9, 2015

Hi Fish Families!

WE FILLED THE FISH JAR! The children voted to have a "chew bubble gum in school" day on Tuesday. I will provide the sugarless bubblegum. Please let me know, via email, if you DON'T want your child participating.

October is safety month. We are practicing safety drills and learning about our community helpers through various non-fiction books. Our first school-wide lock down drill was success. I was amazed at how quiet our class was. 

Here is a glimpse into our week:

Readers' Workshop: Our current unit is entitled We Are Readers.  The children have practiced reading the world (environmental print in our school) and books that help us learn about the world. This week we have practiced reading independently (privately) and with a partner. Please ask your child about how they sit when reading with a partner and where the book should be. Today, our lesson focused on reading a book from cover to cover, without skipping any pages. We used post-it notes to mark a "Wow" page and shared with the class what made it a special page in the book. 

Writers' Workshop: This fish class loves to write! This week the children learned how to add onto a piece of writing. They can either tape on another page to make it a scroll, or they can turn one page into a booklet by stapling on additional pages. The children love to use our staplers to create booklets! We are focusing on labeling our pictures by stretching out words and writing the sounds we hear.

Math Workshop: The children made a class circle collage today. They are circle experts! We played a pocket problem math game this week where items were placed in a pocket and more were added or removed. The children then counted the items. (Common Core standard K.OA.1 Represent addition concretely or verbally. Represent subtraction concretely or verbally.)  The concepts of of "one more" and "one less" were introduced during math this week. This is the successor function (K.CC.4).  Introduction to sorting was our final math focus this week. We learned the fancy math word, attributes, and practiced sorting various ways. 

Book of the Week:  The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone

Song of the Week:  The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Dr. Jean

Up-Coming Events:

• No School- 10/12
• Music Hall Field Trip- 10/14
• Picture Retake Day- 10/29
• Word of the Week- in
• Lively Letters- th & qu
• Handwriting- N & M

Wish List:

• Wax paper
• Rice for texture table

Have a great 3 day weekend!

Kristen

October 4, 2015

Dear Fish Families:

I wanted to let you know that the children tried IXL this week, but got frustrated using the iPad minis we have. I sent home the login information for you to use at home. This isn't required! 

Here is a glimpse into our week:

Literacy:  We worked on our third sight word this week. We used David Shannon's book  No, David! to do a lot of our work. We also wrote a class book inspired by his writing. The children learned the correct way to write D & P. We are focusing on starting our letters at the top when writing. The children sorted objects beginning with the letters f and v for a phonics activity.

Writers' Workshop:  We are writers in the fish class! We call our "club" THE FISH WRITING CLUB. Your authors have been busy teaching about things they know lots of about. We are seeing stories about families, vacations, recess, etc. Most children are drawing pictures and telling their stories, but we are encouraging them to label their pictures. You may have heard that "when a writer is done, s/he has just begun".  We can always revise or start a new piece. 

Math:  It's hard to believe we are already working on our 2nd math unit. This week we matched dot cards showing equal numbers of dots in different arrangements. This focuses on Common Core Standard K.CC.4B (understanding conservation of number). The children also played "Top It" (aka "war") with dot cards. We spent some time learning about the triangle. Some of the children were tricked when I turned a triangle upside down and asked if it was still a triangle. They now know that it is!  We searched for triangles in magazines and cut them out for a triangle collage. 

Visual Arts:  We painted pumpkins this week and began decorating our room for fall.

Song of the Week:  No, No, No, No (Literacy in Motion song to go along with No, David!)

Book of the Week:  Various David Shannon stories

Up-Coming Events:

• No School-10/12
• Music Hall Field Trip- 10/14
• Word of the Week-at
• Phonics- k & g
• Handwriting- B and R 

Wish List:

• Ziploc type sandwich bags
• Rice (an inexpensive kind for our texture table)

Fondly,
Kristen