October 28, 2016

Thanks for all your support and all of the donations today. The children had a great time celebrating Halloween! I put some pictures on FLICKR.

Up-Coming Events:

• Handwriting- V and W
• Word of the Week- so
• Phonics- Superstar o
• Early Release for Conferences-  Wednesday, 11/2
• No School (Teacher Workshop)- 11/8
• No School- 11/11
• Thanksgiving Break- 11/23-11/25
• Family Breakfast- Tuesday, 11/22 8:00-8:25 am *more info to follow

Have a SpOoKy Weekend!

Kristen

October 21, 2016

Hello Fish Families.

Here is a snippet of what we did in kindergarten this week:

Visual Arts: The children painted witches and finished up their spiders for our spooky spider web.

Readers' Workshop:  We used the exact words of characters when acting out/retelling familiar stories. The children selected their own books today for reading next week. I introduced "just right" and "interest" books for them to choose from. This process/routine will be a focus for a few weeks as the children get used to caring for the class library.

Writers' Workshop: Our big focus this week was that writers can use word wall words in their writing. We used our word of the week, see to make I see... books. The children did a great job making these predictable pieces that follow a concrete pattern.

Math Workshop: Counting collections was a big focus during math this week. The children counted sets of objects arranged in lines and scattered. We discussed how counting scattered objects in trickier and I demonstrated how to organize scattered sets to count accurately. We also did some Halloween patterns, and began to work with number stories. I will be assessing our Unit 2 math skills next week. 

Literacy:  We sorted objects by beginning sound, worked on handwriting, and did activities to help us learn the word see. 

Some Books We Read: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?, Pumpkin Circle, Ten Red Apples, Ten Little Fish, The Roly-Poly Spider

Up-Coming Events:

• Handwriting- U and L
• Word of the Week- an
• Phonics- a (we refer to vowels as superstars)
• Halloween Celebration- 10/28
• Early Release for Conferences- 10/26 & 11/2
• No School (Teacher Workshop)- 11/8
• No School- 11/11
• Thanksgiving Break- 11/23-11/25

Have a great weekend.

Kristen

October 20, 2016

We enjoyed this beautiful fall day by spending some time in the SMS garden. We planted crocus bulbs, sampled some cherry tomatoes, carrots and green beans and had our readers workshop on the picnic tables in the sun. 

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

Kristen

October 14, 2016

Hi Fish Families!

Here is a glimpse into our week in the fish class:

Readers' Workshop:  Our work this week has been around storybooks. We are using familiar stories to look at the pictures, remember, and read! (The children are using their own words to tell the stories using the pictures as guides.) We are working hard to make sure the words we "read" match the page we are on. 

Writers' Workshop: This week each student kept a piece of writing or 2 to continue working on and I added the rest of them to a writing file. The folders were getting so full of writing that we needed to clean them out! We are using writing partners to make our pieces even better! We are beginning to teach the children how to ask and answer questions to add more to our writing. Revision is an important part of the writing process and we are beginning to attempt it in kindergarten! Many of the "edits" this week were around adding more color and details to the writing pieces. Some children even labeled their pictures to help a reader understand the piece more. 

Literacy Centers:  We have been working on our "spelling" sorts. This word work is the beginning stage that will lead to word study work. All of the children have been doing concept sorts (shapes, animal/not an animal). Beginning next week, the children will be matched to sorts that meet them where they are as writers. Some children will continue with concept sorts, some will be sorting pictures by their initial sound, and others will begin sorts with short vowel sounds (word families). We continue to play rhyming games, sort objects by beginning sounds, read books with our sight word in it and do other fun activities reinforcing our phonics, handwriting, and sight word work. 

Math Workshop:  This week we worked on sorting. The children learned the math vocabulary attributes, same, different, group and sort. I will get some pictures into FLICKR next week! 

We also continue to work with ten frames and forming sets of object within 10.

Visual Arts: We finished our monster sun catchers this week and have been creating Halloween themed things with playdough. The children also finished up a Sparky the Fire Dog art project. 

Some Books We Read: Kitten's First Full Moon, There Was an Old Monster!, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Pumpkin Pumpkin, 

Apps We Used:  Number Sense (HD)

Donation Requests: Rice for our texture table 

Up-Coming Events:

• Word of the Week- see
• Handwriting- H & K
• Lively Letters-th
• Halloween Celebration-10/28 
• Early Release Days- 10/26 & 11/2 *Parent/Teacher Conference Days
• No School (Teacher In-Service Day)-11/8
• No School-11/11 

Fondly,

Kristen

October 7, 2016

Hi Fish Families!

Today was fire safety day for the kindergarten and first grade students. I put lots of pictures of our day on FLICKR. Be sure to check them out. I'm hoping your children can tell you something they liked and something they learned today from one of the fire safety centers we visited.

Readers' Workshop:  This week the children learned that they can read both the pictures and words in books. We used a familiar text and letters that we are familiar with to begin searching for a few words on a page. The children also practiced sounding like a "teacher" when reading non-fiction (learn about the world) books. 

Writers' Workshop: Our focus this week was on writers planning out books before beginning to draw/write. They are beginning to go back to past writing pieces and are adding labels. We will be doing a few labeling activities next week to further reinforce this skill. 

Math Workshop:  We have been busy playing "Top-It" (formerly know as war) with dot cards. I can tell these fish are used to playing dice games. Thank you! They are seeing dot cards and can identify how many dots there are, often without counting. We represented the numbers 0-10 using counters on a number board. As the numbers increased, the children began to notice the pattern of one more counter in each row. Lastly, we spent some time getting to know the circle. The children searched for circle in magazines and made a class circle collage.

Visual Arts: We painted pumpkins & ghosts, drew monsters and began to make our spooky sun catchers to hang in the windows. 

Some Books We Read: Alphabet Rescue, Pattern Fish, No Dragons for Tea, Fresh Fall Leaves, The Carrot Seed, Little School of Fish, Stop, Drop and Roll, Fall Mix Up, Go Away Big Green Monster

Apps We Used:  Alphabet Monster and Number Monster

Donation Requests: Rice for our texture table and Dixie cups(small bathroom size)

Up-Coming Events:

• Word of the Week- at
• Handwriting- N & M
• Lively Letters-qu
• No School Monday, 10/10
• Halloween Celebration-10/28 *more info to follow
• Early Release Days- 10/26 & 11/2 *Parent/Teacher Conference Days
• No School (Teacher In-Service Day)-11/8
• No School-11/11 

Wishing you a fabulous 3 day weekend!

Kristen