Updates for the Week of January 28, 2013

Last Friday it was nice to meet all of the grandparents on Grandparents' Day. The children were so excited to share their classroom and school with their grandparents and special friends. This week we are updating you on our kindergarten learning and explorations.

Math: We will continue our introduction of addition with adding sets and numbers together to total  five. We will further explore making patterns with three colors.

Word Work: We will be making words using the letter e, such as in met and fed. We will add words to our dictionaries for the letters z and and q.

Using our white boards to practice Word Wall words.

Reading: Monday the children will book shop for eight "just right" books to practice reading this week.  Ms. Deegan's second grade class will be in to visit Monday and help the children to practice reading their new books. Flexible reading groups will meet with Mrs. Minke to practice reading books on the children instructional levels. The children will be assessed on reading the 25 core vocabulary words emphasized up until now and also on the 50 sight words that will be our focus for the up coming months. Ten new sight words were added to our word wall for January. Copies of the total list of 50 words from our word wall along with class names will be sent home this week. The children will also have a copy of the 50 words from our word wall in their seat pockets for easy access to use for their writing.

Shopping for "Just Right Books"

Writing: We will write one final three page story about a small moment from our lives as an assessment of each child's growth in writing. We are focusing on doing quality writing, sketching pictures, and being able to write a complete story in 20 to 25 minutes using periods at the end of each sentence. By the end of the week we will be ready to start our new writing unit on revising our stories to make our good writing even better.

Science: Our study of living organisms is drawing to a close with a final discussion on plant parts, uses, and life cycles. We will be starting a unit on Solids and Liquids on Monday afternoon. This unit is extensive and will continue through the end of May.

Recording observations about solids.

Social Studies: We will continue our discussion this week about our families and our homes.

The neighborhood grows with every new home.

Events to Calendar:

Tuesday, January 29th, the Used Uniform Sale will be held in the Student Center from 8:00am - 1:00pm. We also have a special Spirit Day with a whole school photo and quick Pep Rally.  Go Charger Girls Varsity Soccer!

Friday, February 1st, the kindergarten classes will take our trip to Heritage Village.  The buses will depart at 9:30 and return to campus by 1:30.  Parents are invited to come.  Please jot us a note if you will be chaperoning.

Thursday, February 7th, is Parent Teacher Conference Day.  Unless you have made adjustments, your scheduled time is the same as the fall conference. We will be sending our reminder notices to all.

Updates for the Week of January 22

Sofia shares her addition work on the document camera.

Jake, Briana, and Duran play in the puppet theater with family characters.

Welcome back to our classroom.  This week we are updating you on our kindergarten learning and explorations.

Math: We will continue our introduction of addition with adding sets and numbers together to total  four. We will introduce making patterns with three colors.

Word Work: We will assess the children on reading and spelling words using the letters a and i, such as in ham and him. We will be making words using the letter e, such as in met and fed. We will add words to our dictionaries for the letters y and z.

Reading: Tuesday the children will book shop for seven "just right" books to practice reading this week. Flexible reading groups will meet with Mrs. Minke to practice reading books on the children instructional levels. The children will be assessed on reading the 25 core vocabulary words emphasized up until now and also on the 50 sight words that will be our focus for the up coming months. Ten new sight words will be added to our word wall this week for January. Copies of the total list of 50 words from our word wall will be sent home this week.

Writing: We are continuing to write three page stories about small moments from our lives. We are focusing on doing quality writing, sketching pictures, and being able to write a complete story in 20 to 25 minutes using periods at the end of each sentence.

Science: Our study of living organisms continues with a focus on plant parts, uses, and life cycles. This week we will begin a project based learning study of insects and other creepy crawlies.

Social Studies: The class has enjoyed learning about Marin Luther King, Jr, and why he is important in American history. We will be talking this week about our families and our homes.

Grandparents Day: Friday, January 25, noon dismissal
Field trip to Heritage Village, Friday, February 1, 8:30-1:30, parents invited to attend
Conference Day, Thursday, February 7, no school

Celebrating the Completion of Our Farm Animal Projects

Friday afternoon was amazing! The children proudly shared with their parents the information they had learned about the farm animals they had chosen to study. Did you know:

The father cow is called a bull.
The wool sheared off the sheep is made into sweaters.
Farm cats can run fast so they can catch mice.
Farm dogs help protect the other farm animals.
The rooster crows in the morning and wakes up the farmer.
When a horse runs fast, it is called a gallop.

Some children made teaching posters to demonstrate information about their farm animals. Others decided to make a puppet or a mobile. All the props were colorful and well done.

It was exciting to have our second grade buddy class join us for our celebration, too. They arrived with questionnaires on clipboards to interview the kindergarten children regarding their farm animal reports. What a full house we had! Our group of visitors also included Dr. Bianco, lower division head, and Ms. Feierce, our guidance counselor. The class was thrilled to be able to share their reports with so many people. Many thanks to all of our visitors who had so many compliments to the children about their great efforts on their farm animal reports.

Celebrating Our Farm Animal Projects

Fiona and her second-grade buddy, Taylor,  record important facts about sheep.

Noah is dictating information for James to record.

For the last weeks of 2012 we had been learning about farm animals. The children selected an animal of interest to study. Working with teams of two or three, the students researched important facts about their chosen animals. We encouraged the children to find out what their animals ate, what the names of the adults and babies are, and what their body coverings are. The most important fact, our driving question was, "Why do the farmers have these animals on their farms and how did the animals help the farmer to earn a living?"

The children have made information booklets about their animals and have created a teaching prop to illustrate the farm animal they had chosen. Our second grade buddy class helped the children to decide on four important facts to teach others about their animals.

On Friday at 2:00 the second grade class will return to hear our reports. We have also invited our families and friends to join us for this celebration. The class is eager to share some of the important information that they have learned.

Our next projected-based learning activity will continue our study of living organisms and will be around the topic of bugs, insects, and other creepy crawlies. The children will again select an organism  they are interested in studying and will work with teams to learn all they can about their animals.