March 31, 2016

Greetings! 

Here is a glimpse into our week. (I have a sick kiddo at home, so I'll be out tomorrow.)

Readers' Workshop:  As our books become more difficult, the children are learning new strategies to help them. Since I last filled you in on our reading work, the children are practicing reading through to the end of a word. Cat, can, car, & cantaloupe all look alike at the beginning, but differ lots at the end. This week we tried looking for known words before beginning a book. When a reader sees many familiar sight words, the book seems less intimidating. We are noticing that the patterns we are used to in books are slowly going away. Readers need extra strength picture power and sight (snap) word power to help us. 

Writers' Workshop:  We have finished our "How To" unit! The children selected their favorite book to edit/make the best it can be. We will be celebrating our hard work next week by reading our books to another class. I am going to spend the next few weeks on poetry before beginning our last writing unit in May. 

Math Workshop:  We had a 2 day problem solving math project this week where the children had to figure out if they are tall enough to ride an (imaginary) roller coaster. The children first need to measure themselves, then see how many post-it notes tall they were. The ride required them to be 12 notes tall to ride. I've included some pictures of our work at the end of this blog. We revisited attributes, playing a game where the children needed to find a block with 4 attributes (color, shape, size and thickness).

Visual Arts: We made pink pigs, sun catcher umbrellas, and spring flowers this week.

Some Books We Read: Mud!, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick!, The Treasure Bath, Where Once There Was a Wood,  Something From Nothing, The Terrible Tiger

Wish List: bags of flour for our texture table and props for our "restaurant" in dramatic play

Up-coming Events:

• Word of the Week- she
• Handwriting- reinforcing the use of lowercase letters in our names after the initial capital letter
• Grades close- 4/1
• Progress Reports- 4/15 *only to report attendance. We have parent/teacher conferences this marking period
• April Conferences- 4/6 & 4/13 *These are Early Release Days
• Jump Rope for Heart- 4/22
• April Vacation- 4/25-4/29
• The fish, otters, and pandas go to the See Science Center- 5/13
• Makers' Fest- 5/19
• May Celebration- 5/24
• Field Day- Thursday, June 9th (Theme- The Color Games)
• Tentative Last Day of Kindergarten- 6/14 *This allows us time to screen the in-coming students for next year

Fondly,

Kristen

Friday, March 25th

Hello! 

This week's blog is a short one. I wanted to give you all of the important dates coming up at SMS. The details will come soon. 

Some Books We Read: Wake Up, It's Spring!, The Dumb Bunnies, Creak! Said the Bed, Yes Day!. Duck! Rabbit!, Pigs

Up-coming Events:

• Word of the Week- you
• April Conferences- 4/6 & 4/13 *These are Early Release Days
• Jump Rope for Heart- 4/22
• April Vacation- 4/25-4/29
• The fish, otters, and pandas go to the See Science Center- 5/13
• Makers' Fest- 5/19
• May Celebration- 5/24
• Field Day- Thursday, June 9th (Theme- The Color Games)
• Tentative Last Day of Kindergarten- 6/14 *This allows us time to screen the in-coming students for next year

Happy Easter!

Kristen

Hello Fish Families!

Hello Fish Families! 

We saw a wonderful performance on Tuesday. Thank you to all of our parent helpers!

Here is a glimpse into our week:

Readers' Workshop: We are zooming in on letters and sounds during Readers' Workshop. The children are using their letter-sound knowledge to read the words on the page. The children are encountering consonant clusters or blends in their reading now, so we spent some time brainstorming words that begin with fr, br, bl, sk, fl, etc. They found additional words during independent reading time to add to the list.

Writers' Workshop: This week our writers worked on adding labelled diagrams to their How-To books. These diagrams teach even more information.

Math Workshop: This week we graphed the types of pets we all have. The children did a great job interpreting the graph. Be sure to ask them about our pets.  We introduced solid shapes and found some cylinders, cones, cubes spheres, and rectangular prisms in our classroom. 

Some Books We Read: Today I Will Fly!, Happy Pig Day!, Jamie O'Rourke and the Pooka

Up-coming Events:

• Word of the Week- on
• Handwriting- x & z
• Teacher Workshop Day (No School)-3/18
• April Conferences- 4/6 & 4/13 *These are Early Release Days

Have a great  long weekend.

Kristen

March 11, 2016

Greetings!

Reminder- Our Music Hall field trip is on Tuesday. We will be eating snack at school before heading to Portsmouth. Please pack a hearty snack since lunch will be a little later than usual. We will eat lunch in our classroom when we return to SMS, so please remember to pack a lunch from home. 

Here is a glimpse into our week:

Readers' Workshop: This week we learned that readers check that their reading makes sense and sounds like a book. The children are learning to ask, Does it make sense? Does it sound right? If it doesn't, they need to go back and fix it. We used Cat and Mouse by Phyllis Root while working on this skill. We are checking student understanding by having them retell a story. 

Writers' Workshop: Lots of time was spent this week on peer editing. The children read their "How To" books to their writing partner. The partner was responsible for acting it out to make sure it makes sense/works. If there were any confusing parts, the author was then able to go back and revise. It is nice to see our writers decrease their dependency on adults and work with peers to grow as authors. 

Math Workshop: The children played Growing Train this week. It provided additional practice with representing addition with numbers and symbols (CCSS K.OA.1). The children are working on completing number scrolls to 100. They are picking up on the various patterns found on a 100 chart! We reviewed basic 2D shapes in preparation for our work with 3D shapes in unit 6. They also measured their body heights with string and found items in our classroom taller than, shorter than, and almost equal to their heights.

Some Books We Read: Can I Play Too?, Listen to My Trumpet!, My New Friend is So Fun!, Let's Go for a Drive!, Should I Share My Ice Cream?, I'm a Frog (all by Mo Willems) & Bear Wants More by Karma Wilson

Visual Arts:  We made shamrock sun catchers and are working on some cute leprechauns.

Up-coming Events:

• Word of the Week- my
• Handwriting- f & q
• Music Hall- 3/15
• Early Release-3/17
• Teacher Workshop Day (No School)-3/18
• April Conferences- 4/6 & 4/13 *These are Early Release Days

Fondly,

Kristen

3/9/16

Here is how your readers celebrate beautiful weather!
:) Kristen

March 4, 2016

Hello Families.

Here is a glimpse into our week:

Readers' Workshop: This week we figured out the changing words in the pattern while reading our "just right" books. We also are beginning to use all of our super powers to read the pattern break in books. They children often require prompts to use the pictures, put the first sound in their mouth to get ready to read the word, or to read all the way through the word. I used Pizza and Picnic by Phyllis Root to teach these reading skills. We wrote a class book with pattern changes. It will be coming home in the next Fish of the Day rotation.

Writers' Workshop: We spent the first half of the week reading MANY "How To" books. We wrote a class book teaching others how to do a fire drill. The children brainstormed/ acted out things they could teach someone else and by Thursday, they were ready to write their own teaching book. We talked about some elements to use in this type of non-fiction writing. The children are numbering their pages and beginning to use the words first, next, then and last.

Math Workshop: We finished up Unit 5 in math and are in the process of completing the end-of-unit assessment. They will be sent home next week.  

Some Books We Read: I Love My New Toy, My New Friend is So Fun, We Are in a Book, There is a Bird on Your Head, I Am Going (all by Mo Willems) & The Luckiest Leprechaun by Justine Korman

Visual Arts:  We made shamrocks and rainbows this week. Our classroom is beginning to look spring-like...We just need Mother Nature to cooperate. :)

Up-coming Events:

• Word of the Week- go
• Handwriting- h & b
• Music Hall- 3/15
• Early Release-3/17
• Teacher Workshop Day (No School)-3/18

Think Spring!

Kristen