February 12, 2016

Greetings!

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

Readers' Workshop: This week we learned about quotation marks and practiced using character voices when re-reading a familiar book. The students are using their book talk power when in partnerships. They practiced introducing their books to their partner before reading it together. We are also working on retelling a story to help with developing comprehension skills. 

Writers' Workshop: We did a lot of work with writing partnerships this week. We are encouraging increased independence. The children used their new writing partners to help them hear even more sounds in words. Partners also told each other what to do to make a story even easier to read. (Adding details to pictures was a popular editing suggestion!)

Literacy Centers: This week we did some work with our sight/snap word up. The children created some class books and practiced writing k and y in their handwriting journals. 

Math Workshop: This week has been all about the number 100! The children counted (while exercising) to 100, stamped to 100, completed a 100 piece puzzle, and sang a 100 Day song. We played a roll and record math game where the children find, record and analyze sums of dice rolls (K.OA.2 solves number storied and problems involving addition and subtraction.) We found shapes in a picture of a playground as a review of the basic shapes and continue to work on teen numbers. This week we emphasized the concept of teens being "ten and some more ones."

YouTube video to practice counting to 100:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=estMnWVEjrk&noredirect=1

Visual Arts: It has been a week of hearts, glitter, glue and paint! Our halls and bulletin boards look amazing!

Some Stories We Read: I Love You, Good Night, Cat's Party, Secret Valentine, Happy Valentine's Day, Mouse!, Up, Up, Down, 100th Day Worries, There Was A Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow!

Donation Request: soft tissues 

Up- coming Events:

• Read Across America Week is next week! *Monday is wear crazy socks and show them off. *Tuesday- wear your favorite hat. *Wednesday-wear mismatched clothes. *Thursday- dress up as your favorite book character *Friday- bring a stuffed animal for Curl Up and Read day
• February Vacation- 2/22-2/26

• Word of the Week-we

• Phonics-king ed (silent e at end of cvc word)

• Handwriting-j & p

Happy Valentine's Weekend.

Kristen

January 29, 2016

Hello!

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

Readers' Workshop: Our focus this week was on ending punctuation. The children practiced reading the same sentence with a . ? and ! It was a lot of fun and I am already seeing the children applying this new skill to their reading. We have also been talking about how important it is for readers to think about what they are reading.

Writers' Workshop: The children celebrated the 'true stories' they've written so far by having a class museum where we walked around and read all of the great stories. We brainstormed a checklist we can use as writers to make our stories even stronger. So far, our list includes a beginning, an end, and pictures/word that tell who, where, & what.

Science: We are beginning a ramps and balls exploration in science. We began the unit with a science talk and will begin our investigations next week. The children will be recording their science drawings/findings in notebooks. (Up until now, our science recording has been done as a class.)

Visual Arts: We made Model Magic snowpeople this week and have begun decorating the hall with Valentine art projects.  

Some Stories We Read: Do You Want to Be My Friend, The Hat, A Hat For Minerva Louise, Ten on the Sled, The Rainbow Fish, Annie and the Wild Animals

Up- coming Events:

• Progress Reports sent home- 2/5
• Early Release- Wednesday, 2/10 (12:50 dismissal)
• February Vacation- 2/22-2/26

• Word of the Week-do

• Phonics- e

• Handwriting-k & y

Fondly,

Kristen

January 22, 2016

Hi Fish Families.

Day 100 of kindergarten is quickly approaching! (Tentatively projected for 2/8.)

As a community service project, we are asking each child to bring in 1 or 2 canned goods to reach a grand total of 100 as a  kindergarten grade level.  We plan to gather all of the children together to count the cans before donating them.

We are also thinking ahead to Valentines Day. The class list will be coming home on Monday. We have a new student starting next Thursday, so her name is included on this list.

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

Readers' Workshop: This week we practiced reading with smooth voices to help bring books to life. They are working on using the pattern in books to help them figure out new words. The children are consistently maintaining independent reading for 10 minutes each day. That is great reading endurance for this point in the school year!

Writers' Workshop: Your writer practiced saying a sentence in his or her mind, then writing it, word after word. We are reminding them to use uppercase letters at the beginning of a sentence, spaces between words, and ending punctuation.We are continuously re-reading our writing throughout our workshop time.

Math Workshop: We are almost done our mid-year assessment. The children have made tremendous growth as math thinkers. This week they showed different ways to make 8 using unifix cubes and recorded their thinking. They continue to skip count and tell daily addition or subtraction sentences. 

Visual Arts: The children created crayon resist heart valentines to send to our military via the Pease Greeters. We are also in the process of making melting snowmen.  

Some Stories We Read: Ira Sleeps Over, When Itchy Witchy Sneezes, North Country Night, Mmm, Cookies, One Winter's Night

Up- coming Events:

• Early Release- Wednesday, 2/10

• Word of the Week-can

• Phonics- x & y

• Handwriting-i, e, & l

Go Patriots!

Kristen

January 15, 2016

Hi Fish Families.

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

Readers' Workshop: I hope you enjoyed the first week of book bags. They will be coming home again Tuesday. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. The children were excited to tell me who they read to last week. Thanks for your support! This week we focused on putting the first sound in our mouths while using the picture to help us read. The children are learning to use all of their super powers, but most of all to NOT GIVE UP. We had a great discussion about all the times the children and/or family members had to persevere. Persistence is a very important reading skill!

Writers' Workshop: As our writers begin to hear and write more sounds in words, they can forget what they were saying in their increasingly longer sentences. This week we talked about using the pictures to help remember the story. 

Math Workshop: Playing math games, revisiting some favorite apps and assessing has kept us busy this week.

Literacy Centers: We are slowly learning correct lowercase letter formation. This week, our focus was on a and d. As these letters are introduced, we are beginning the transition to using them to write names conventionally.  We read another version of The Mitten this week. The children did an amazing job comparing and contrasting the two versions. We drew animals for our "mitten" bulletin board, outlining the pictures in Sharpie markers and writing all the sounds heard in the animal label. 

Visual Arts: We have been busy making snow children. They should be hanging in our hallway this week!

Song of the Week:  Macarena Math (focus on skip counting by 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s)

Stories We Read: Bear Snores On, The Mitten, A Silly Snowy Day, The Story of Ruby Bridges, Martin's Big Words
Up- coming Events:

• No School- Monday, 1/18
• Early Release- Wednesday, 2/10

• Word of the Week-like

• Phonics- w & h

• Handwriting-g & u

Enjoy the long weekend,

Kristen

January 10, 2016

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2015

Hi Fish Families.

I hope you all had a wonderful December break. It was great to see the children and get back into our routine this week. I want to thank all of you for fostering independence with your children getting into their snow gear. I have been teaching young children for a long time and this class is amazing! They are all getting into their snow clothes with minimal help. It is such a nice treat. Thank you!!!
Here is a glimpse into our week in the fish class:

Readers' Workshop: Your readers are working on putting all of their strategies (super powers) together to read. They have been studying the pictures to make predictions before they read. They are working on those kindergarten sight words (words they read in a snap) and reading them in just right books. They are ready to celebrate their hard work at home. We will be sending home book bags each week for the children to read to you. These will be books we have worked on all week. They will be very familiar texts. When we re-read known books, we can practice fluency (reading in a storytellers voice). Please let me know if this isn't the case for your child.

Writers' Workshop: Our authors celebrated their list books by reading them to our second grade buddies just before vacation and we began our new unit this week. We are working on narratives again. We are writing true stories about something that we have done. In partnerships, the children are telling their stories and asking questions of each other to make the stories the best they can be. We are making sure our stories answer Who? Where? and What? Adding speech bubbles make stories even better. The phonics growth these kids have made since the start of school is amazing and evident in their writing! They should be proud of their hard work.

Math Workshop: This month we will be playing lots of math games to review and reinforce the concepts we have been working on. I will be doing mid- year assessments as well. This week we played addition bingo, Yatzee, Top It and we used Quicklooks on the iPads. The children are telling a daily addition or subtraction story that we are solving as part of our daily calendar time. 

Words Their Way: I assessed where the fish children are with their writing this week and restructured their grouping for word work. They were all ready for more challenging sorts. This week's sort should be coming home by the middle of next week.

Visual Arts: We made snowy trees and sparkling snowmen this week.

Stories We Read: The Mitten, A Bed For Winter,So Much!, The Snowy Day, The Book With No Pictures

Up- coming Events:

• No School- Monday, 1/18
• Early Release- Wednesday, 2/10

• Word of the Week-it

• Phonics- i

• Handwriting- a & d

Happy New Year,

Kristen

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2015

December 11, 2015

Dear Fish Families:

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

Readers' Workshop: We have continued our work with reading superpowers this week. The children are working on checking that the first letter of a word matches the letter of the word they are reading. They also learned about picture power (using the picture to help figure out a word). The last power we learned about this week was 'sight word power' where we see our kindergarten sight words in a book and read them in a snap. 

Writers' Workshop: The children are having lots of success with list books again this week! We began talking about fancier list books. I read many examples of list books with a twist (I like..... I like.... I like.... But I don't like.....) and modeled some books of my own. The children are beginning to stretch themselves as writers and attempt this type of book. We also learned about see saw list books which follow an ABAB type of pattern. (I go to the park. I play on the slide. I go to the pool. I swim. I go to gymnastics. I do the balance beam). 

Math Workshop: This week we practiced ten frame quick looks using the QuickImages app on the iPads. We began working with teen numbers. The children sequences numeral cards and played Monster Squeeze using "tricky teens" and built teen numbers using ten rods & extras. Ask your fish why we call them tricky teen numbers. We also built hexagons using other shapes (K.G.6 Compose shapes using other shapes). 
 

Visual Arts: The children are making gingerbread "cookie" using playdough and art supplies. Our classroom smells yummy! We also have been painting and decorating gingerbread kids and houses to go along with our gingerbread theme. 

Song of the Week: The Gingerbread Man by Jack Hartman


Stories We Read: Snowman, Eating Out, Gingerbread Friends, The Gingerbread Boy,
The Gingerbread Cowboy
Donation Requests: hand sanitizer, soft tissues, foam hand soap

Up- coming Events:

• Gingerbread decorating party- Tuesday, December 22nd at 2:00 *more info to follow
• Fish class wears pjs to school- 12/23
• December Break- 12/24-1/3

• Word of the Week-the

• Phonics- ch

Thanks,

Kristen

December 4, 2015

Hello Fish Families:

We read with our buddies this week! I put some pictures on FLICKR.

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

Readers' Workshop: Your readers have begun using SUPERPOWERS to read predictable books with strong picture support. The first superpower they learned to use is pointer power. Children tap under each word as they are reading. We spent a few days practicing this skill, especially words that have lots of letters in them or more than one syllable. Our readers aren't tricked by longer words! They still only tap once. 

Writers' Workshop: This week we began writing list books. The children are experiencing lots of success with this type of writing. Many of them are completing one or more books a writing block. Some of the list books written include;  I See..., I Like...., I Love..., I Play...

Math Workshop: During our math time we have been working with attribute blocks. We sorted blocks by many different attributes, describing and explaining the sorting rule. The children also matched the attribute blocks by feel. This made them focus in on the number of sides and corners, as well as the thickness when matching. Ask your fish if this activity was tricky for them. We revisited graphing by making a Favorite Color Graph. 

Visual Arts: The children made beautiful winter trees and snow people for our bulletin board. The loved using clear glitter as snow!

Stories We Read: Many versions of The Gingerbread Man, and The Gingerbread Baby

Up- coming Events:

• Gingerbread decorating party- Tuesday, December 22nd at 2:00 *more info to follow
• Fish class wears pjs to school- 12/23
• December Break- 12/24-1/3

• Word of the Week-am

• Phonics- sh

Have a great weekend.

Kristen