I am looking forward to conferencing with all of you over the next few weeks. There are so many things to celebrate with these kindergarten children. Until then, here is a snapshot of what we have been doing these past two weeks.
Writers' Workshop: We have been empowering your young writers to write even when it is hard. Taking risks and persevering are two major habits we want to instill in your authors. We made the jump to booklets as a choice when the children select paper to work with. Up until now, the children have been using single sheets of paper. They learned how to plan their writing piece across the pages before beginning. Partnerships are important during this time. When you tell your partner your story first, you are organizing your thoughts and are ready to get to the drawing part. We continue to work on making sure all the pages in a book go together (are about the same topic.)
Readers' Workshop: We have been doing lots of work with our "old favorites" or familiar stories. Children love re-reading stories they have heard many times. The fish are doing a great job using the pictures to read a familiar text. They are working hard to make sure the words they read match the pictures on the page. They use the language of the story and are even using exact character words!
Math Workshop: We continue to work with 10 frames, subitizing, writing numbers 0-10, making and analyzing graphs. This week the children worked on building numbers. They used cubes in two different colors to represent towers of 6. They recorded the many combinations of 6. We are almost done our first math unit, Counting and Cardinality 0-10. I will be doing some informal assessment next week. Letters will be sent home letting you know how your mathematician is doing once we are done with the unit and assessments.
Science/Social Studies: We continue with our safety unit and learning about community helpers who help keep us safe. We also spent some time in the garden today planting daffodil bulbs. The children dug individual holes, planted their bulbs roots down and filled the holes back in. It was a beautiful day to work outside!
Visual Arts: We made black cats, witches, candy corn people and patterned place mats this week. There will be lots of art to check out when you are in for conferences.
Up-Coming Events:
- Handwriting- V and W
- Phonics- a (our first vowel/superstar)
- Word of the Week- an
- Class Halloween Celebration- 10/31 in the afternoon
- Early Release for Parent/Teacher Conferences- Wednesday, 11/1 and Wednesday 11/8
- No School for Teacher Workshop day- Thursday, 11/9
- No School for Veterans' Day- Friday, 11/10
- Thanksgiving Break- 11/22-11/24
Fondly,
Kristen
