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