Kindergarten Show Week

This week we continue our performance momentum with rehearsals for our kindergarten show. The dress rehearsal will be on Thursday morning at 8:30 and the show on Friday at 8:30 for our families and friends. The children are doing a great job practicing and are looking forward to our performances.

Math: We are moving on from coins, but will continue our lessons with spatial patterns, addition, and subtraction. In the upcoming weeks will explore dividing shapes into fractions. Most of our emphasis will be on halves. We will also review the months of the year, talking about the common holidays and activities for each month.

Word Work: We will build words for the “ub” and “ug” families and add these to our Word Family books. We will look through dictionaries for words that use the letter “x” and include these in our personal dictionaries.

Using dictionaries to find words that contain the letter "x".

Reading: Reading “just right” books will continue daily, as will our new book clubs. The clubs have a mascot who represents one of the characters in each club’s books.

 

Clifford and his club of readers.

The busy Worm books.

Biscuit in the basket.

Noodles is a nice dog.

Froggy and friends.

Writing:  Our new writing unit will begin next week with a return to writing about events in our lives. We will look at the writing in our “just right” books to find out how the authors told their stories and what details they have included to make their books interesting to read.

Social Studies: From talking about our own houses and others the children are familiar with, our study of houses will turn to houses found in other parts of the world. We will talk about how these houses are alike and how they are different from ours and why they are not like our houses. We will be moving on to talk about other buildings you would find in cities.

Science:  We have begun the second part of our physical science unit with our investigation of liquids. The first two liquids that we studied were water and glue. Last week we added oil and shampoo to our investigations of liquids. The study of insects will begin by revisiting their symmetrical bodies and interesting shapes.

Responsive Classroom: The children are learning to greet each other by name and ask about their weekends or if they have any news to share. Sometimes we shake hands or high five greetings. The class enjoys playing “Toe to Toe” with partners. This team building activity helps encourage cooperation and following directions in a fun way. We are continuing to talk about the difference between a peacemaker and a peace breaker.

Events to Calendar:

Friday, May 3rd - Kindergarten Show 8:30 am

Monday, May 27^th – No School, Memorial Day

Friday, May 31^st – Last day of school, noon dismissal

The Week of April 23rd - 26th

Last week’s Celebrate the Arts fully immersed us in the visual and performing arts.  We had a turn telling a story in a drum circle, tapped along to the beats of a rock band, creative dance movement, a visit with a photographer, sewing our quilts, and a song dedicated to Mark Twain. This week we continue our performance momentum with rehearsals for our kindergarten show.

Duran and Lili show off their quilts.

Ava's all wrapped up in her quilt.

 

The Wit and the Wisdom

Math: Math lessons continue with addition and subtraction, spatial patterns, and coins. We are reviewing reading and writing tally marks up to 30. This requires the children to “count on” from 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 be read/create numbers such as 7, which would be 5 and 2 more. “Counting on” in an important skill with both addition and money.

Kai F. trades in 5 pennies for a nickel at weekly banking.

Word Work: We are building words using the short sound of “u,” such as in the word tub. We are also practicing spelling the words from our Word Wall. The class is enjoying learning more compound words and looking for little words inside big words.

Reading: We will continue to read our “just right” books independently, with partners and with the teachers. In addition, we are starting book clubs. Three students are grouped together. They will be reading from baskets of books with the same characters. They will be encouraged to discuss together about what the characters are doing, where is the setting, and how are the characters feeling.

Writing:  Our new writing unit will begin next week with a return to writing about events in our lives. We will look at the writing in our “just right” books to find out how the authors told their stories and what details they have included to make their books interesting to read.

Social Studies: From talking about our own houses and others the children are familiar with, our study of houses will turn to houses found in other parts of the world. We will talk about how these houses are alike and how they are different from ours and why they are not like our houses.

Science:  We will begin the second part of our physical science unit and begin our investigation of liquids. The first two liquids that we will study will be water and glue. The garden is in full bloom and that has brought us to the bugs that live there too.  The study of insects will begin by revisiting their symmetrical bodies and interesting shapes.

Responsive Classroom: The children are learning to greet each other by name and ask about their weekends or if they have any news to share. Sometimes we shake hands or high five greetings. The class enjoys playing “Toe to Toe” with partners. This team building activity helps encourage cooperation and following directions in a fun way. We are continuing to talk about the difference between a peacemaker and a peace breaker.

Events to Calendar:

Friday, April 26^th – Pirate and Princess Almost Sleepover 5:30 – 9:00pm

Friday, May 3rd - Kindergarten Show 8:30 am

Monday, May 27^th – No School, Memorial Day

Friday, May 31^st – Last day of school, noon dismissal

The Week of April 15 - 19

Our Zoo Project Displays were amazing. They truly reflected all the great work, cooperation, and learning each animal team had accomplished. The children proudly and with confidence, talked about the animals that they had chosen to study. It was rewarding to have so many parents attend Our Kindergarten Zoo. The children loved dressing up as zookeepers, veterinarians, and zoo animals.

 

The tiger table:  show boards, clay models, and stuffed animals.

Kai shares his All About Penguin book.

Sofia the veteranarian.

Sasa the bengal tiger.

Three generations learn about rhinos.

Math: We are continuing to build two-dimensional patterns with a striped design. We are working on addition and subtraction and are making up story problems to match the number each child has selected for that day. We have a little “Toy Store” set up with prices for each toy. The children are counting out the nickels, dimes, and pennies to “buy” each toy. This is fun way to practicing naming the coins and to count out money. We are practicing building the numbers to 99 using sticks in groups of tens and ones and soon will be building the sets to represent the numbers over 100.

 

Briana and Ava shop with exact change.

Word Work: We are continuing with our study of compound words and will practice using them to write sentences. Each week we are adding five new words to our word wall. We will review reading, building, writing, and spelling these words during the week. We will learn many other words that have the middle sound of “u” as in the word “sun.”

Reading: We will continue to read our “just right” books independently, with partners and with the teachers. All the children are excited to have moved up to a higher reading level. We plan to have the reading envelopes go home each night for the children to read their new books to their families.

Writing:  Our new writing unit will begin next week with a return to writing about event in our lives. We will look at the writing in our “just right” books to find out how the authors told their stories and what details they have included to make their books interesting to read.

Social Studies: From talking about our own houses and others the children are familiar with, our study of houses will turn to houses found in other parts of the world. We will talk about how these houses are alike and how they are different from ours and why they are not like our houses.

Science:  We will begin the second part of our physical science unit and begin our investigation of liquids. The first two liquids that we will study will be water and glue.

Responsive Classroom: The children are learning to greet each other by name and ask about their weekends or if they have any news to share. Sometimes we shake hands or high five greetings. The class enjoys playing “Toe to Toe” with partners. This team building activity helps encourage cooperation and following directions in a fun way. We are continuing to talk about the difference between a peacemaker and a peace breaker.

Events to Calendar:

Friday, April 19 - Celebrate the Arts Picnic

Monday, April, 22 - No school

Friday, May 3 - Kindergarten Show

The Week of April 8th

What a busy time of the year! Projects to complete! Quilts to finish! A program to practice! Curriculum lessons to complete! The teacher appreciation lunches were delicious and a wonderful treat.  We thank you all.

Friday's trip to the Morean Arts Clay center was an fascinating
demonstration of turning a lump of clay into a beautiful vase.

Mariana and Jaiden explore making spatial patterns.

Math: We are introducing a new way to make patterns that are two dimensional as compared to the linear patterns we made earlier in the year. These are called spatial patterns and relate to our lives in the patterns in clothing, household items like towels, and in nature.  The first spatial pattern we will study is called stripes. Next we will learn the checks pattern as found on checkerboards. We are continuing to work on addition and subtraction.  

Word Work: We have been analyzing the words in our “just right” books and are looking for compound words. The children have learned that compound words are made up of two words that can stand alone, but when combined with another word, they make a new word.

Reading: We will continue to read our “just right” books independently, with partners and with the teachers. The children are using their decoding skills to figure out tricky words and to practice reading with fluency. We will continue to look for compound words and contractions in the books we are reading, also.

Writing:  We are studying the informational books that have been written by Gail Gibbons to help us gather ideas for our own non-fiction writing. Many of the children have checked out one of her books to read at home. These books will be available for book check out for the next few weeks.

Social Studies: From talking about our own houses and others the children are familiar with, our study of houses will turn to houses found in other parts of the world. We will talk about how these houses are alike and how they are different from ours and why they are not like our houses.

Science:  We will begin the second part of our physical science unit and begin our investigation of liquids. The first two liquids that we will study will be water and glue.

Technology: We are recording four important facts about our zoo animals on the computer. These will be added to the individual zoo animal reports each child is making.

We will be continuing our research of our zoo animals this week and are putting together our presentation projects to share with the other students on Friday morning and with our families on Friday afternoon on April 12. Monday our second grade buddy class helped our kindergartners make the Table of Content pages for their “All About” zoo animal book. Most of the children have between 12-13 pages completed with several enrichment pages to go for those who have extra time.

 

Briana and Nicholas take a little walk around the circle.

Back to back and elbow to elbow.

Responsive Classroom: The children are learning to greet each other by name and ask about their weekends or if they have any news to share. Sometimes we shake hands or high five greetings. The class enjoys playing “Toe to Toe” with partners. This team building activity helps encourage cooperation and following directions in a fun way.

Events to Calendar:

Friday, April 12, 2:00 - Zoo animal presentations for parents

Monday, April 15 - Quilting Day

Friday, April 19 - Celebrate the Arts Picnic

Monday, April, 22 - No school

Friday, May 3 - Kindergarten Show

April's Here

Spring smiles, smells, and sweet treats.

Spring time recipes in the kitchen.

Now that spring is here, we will be spending time in the garden outside our classroom reading, writing, and taking care of our beautiful plants.

Math: After reviewing coin recognition for the past several weeks, most of the children recognize most of the coins and know their values. We will talk about which coin is their favorite one and why they like it the best. The half dollar is sure to be very popular. We are continuing to work on addition and subtraction.  

Word Work: We have added ten new words to our Word Wall, making a total of 82 words. Copies of our current Word Wall words were sent home last week for March. We are practicing not only reading these words but also spelling them. Daily we create sentences and make lists using these words. We will also be practicing putting the lower case alphabet letters in sequence.

Reading: We will continue to read our “just right” books independently, with partners and with the teachers. The children are using their decoding skills to figure out tricky words and to practice reading with fluency. We will be looking for compound words in the books we are reading, also.

Writing:  We are studying the informational books that have been written by Gail Gibbons to help us gather ideas for our own non-fiction writing. Many of the children have checked out one of her books to read at home. These books will be available for book check out for the next few weeks.

Social Studies: From talking about our own houses and others the children are familiar with, our study of houses will turn to houses found in other parts of the world. We will talk about how these houses are alike and how they are different from ours and why they are not like our houses.

Science:  We will begin the second part of our physical science unit and begin our investigation of liquids. The first two liquids that we will study will be water and glue.

Technology:  We are using World Book on Line for Kids to learn about animals, as we prepare for our project-based learning activities about zoo animals. We will be continuing our research of our zoo animals this week and begin to put together our presentation projects to share with the other students on Friday morning and with our families on Friday afternoon on April 12.

Guidance:  Ms. Fierce is continuing the guidance lessons with productive ways to handle conflict in our daily lives. She has been talking with the children about peacemakers and peacebreakers.

Events to Calendar:

Monday, April 1 – 1 yard of flannel or fleece is due to be used as backing for our kindergarten quilts.

April 1- April 5. Wear purple shirts with uniform bottoms all week for Relay for Life.

Friday, April 5. Relay for Life

Friday, April. Field trip to the Morean Clay Studio

Monday, April 15. Quilting Day

Friday, April 19. Celebrate the Arts

The Week of March 25th

Planting an array of bloom.

Helping Dr. Bianco with finishing touches.

The Memorial Service dedicating the playground and flower garden in memory of Mrs. Weinman was lovely. Thank you for all the beautiful flowers that the children donated. The class worked hard to help plant many flowers to in her garden. It looks wonderful. Because so many flowers were so generously donated by all the students in the Lower Division, the over-flow were given to our classroom for us to plant in our own garden next to our classroom.

Math: We will focus on learning about the nickel this week. We will learn that nickels are counted by fives, so that four nickels are worth twenty cents, etc. We will combine a nickel with pennies to make change for up to ten cents. We are continuing to work on addition and our introduction to subtraction.  

Word Work: Last week we learned about the “ch” sound. We will learn about the sound t and h make when they work together. Ask your child to tell you the stories about “ch” and “th.” We have added twelve color words to our Word Wall so we now have a total of 72 words. We will be adding fives new words each week from now on.

Reading: We will focus on reading non-fiction books. Last week the children sorted all the “just right” books, pulling out all the information books. We talked about that many non-fiction books have photographs instead of pictures that have been illustrated.

Writing:  We have completed our writing unit on “How To” books and began our next non-fiction writing unit on “All About” by writing an informational book about kindergarten on Monday. Tuesday we will write about our garden. After that, the children will select their own topics that are of interest to them.

Social Studies: Thank you all for sending in snapshots of your homes.  Our discussion of homes will include house around the world and attributes such as the number of windows, front or back porches, garages or carports, cellars, attics, and the many more unique things the children will come up with to add to their descriptions. We will be writing about our dream houses and will be comparing them with our own homes.

Science:  We will sort our 20 solid objects into many categories, including color, shape, size, hardness, ability to float, attraction to a magnet, and many other ways.

Technology:  We are using World Book on Line for Kids to learn about animals, as we prepare for our project-based learning activities about zoo animals.

Guidance:  Ms. Fierce is continuing the guidance lessons with productive ways to handle conflict in our daily lives.

Events to Calendar:

Monday, April 1 – 1 yard of flannel or fleece is due to be used as backing for our kindergarten quilts.

April 1- April 5. Wear purple shirts with uniform bottoms all week for Relay for Life.

Friday, April 5. Relay for Life

Friday, April 5. Field trip to the Morean Clay Studio

Monday, April 15. Quilting Day

Friday, April 19. Celebrate the Arts

Reading Week 2013

Our spring party the afternoon before spring break was a huge success! Many thanks to Mrs. Fratello for all her hard work, planning and implementing all the fun activities for our kindergartners. The children rotated between the four K classes. Each room featured a different activity with a spring theme.

Mariana and Sophia share a spring snack.

Math: We will continue to work on learning to identify all the coins and stating their values.  We will be counting pennies by ones and pretending to go shopping with some pennies. We are continuing to work on addition and will be introducing the concept of subtraction.  

Word Work: The focus vowel will continue to be the letter “o.”  We will build words with “o” such as jog and hot. We will learn about the sound t and h make when they work together. Ask your child to tell you the story about “th.”

Reading: This is Reading Week! We will focus on doing lots of reading every day all week. Monday is Favorite Book Character Day. Tuesday is Drop Everything and Read Day where we will be reading for 30 minutes outside with the rest of the lower division. On Wednesday we will listen to a reading of Hello Pizza Man. This was Mrs. Weinman’s favorite title.  Thursday we will read with partners and have a guest reader visit us, and Friday is the Oldie Goldie Book sale. There will be something for everyone. Be sure to send in a dollar or two and your child will bring home a number of gently used books.

Mrs. Minke and all the characters at Town Meeting.

Writing:  As Reading Week progresses, the children will write reflection pieces about the week’s events.  We will also continue with our unit of “How To” books, which we will finish up on Friday.

Social Studies: Thank you all for sending in snapshots of your homes.  Our discussion of homes will include house around the world and attributes such as the number of windows, front or back porches, garages or carports, cellars, attics, and the many more unique things the children will come up with to add to their descriptions. We will be writing about our dream houses and will be comparing them with our own homes.

Science:  The sink and float exploration was a fun learning experience.  Predictions were made and results were recorded. This week we will be checking the 20 solid objects to find out which ones are attracted to magnets. First we will predict, then we will test, and finally we will record our results for our science journals.

Fiona, Lili, Jake, and Nicholas work as partners with sink and float inquiries.

Noah, Sophia, Sasa, and Franco take turns predicting and observing results.

Technology:  We are using World Book on Line for Kids to learn about animals, as we prepare for our project-based learning activities about zoo animals.

Guidance:  Ms. Fierce is continuing the guidance lessons with productive ways to handle conflict in our daily lives.

Events to Calendar:

March 4-March 21. Bring in extra or old children’s books to donate for the Oldie Goldie Book Sale.

Friday, March 22. Bring in a small amount of money and buy lots of books at the Oldie Goldie Book Sale.

Monday, March 25. Dedication for Mrs. Weinman. Bring in a small potted flower to donate for her garden.

Monday, April 1 – 1 yard of flannel or fleece is due to be used as backing for our kindergarten quilts.

April 1- April 5. Wear purple shirts with uniform bottoms all week for Relay for Life.

Friday, April 5. Relay for Life

Monday, April 15. Quilting Day

Friday, April 19. Celebrate the Arts