Wow! What a wintery four-day weekend we are having! Here is the SNOW DAY CHALLENGE from Mrs. Reagan for Monday, January 28, 2019:

 

POPCORN WORDS: he, she

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY: On Monday, we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. day. We learned that Martin Luther King, Jr. often spoke about wanting people to get along and worked hard to change laws (rules) that were not fair. We learned about him by reading a book and a Scholastic News and we made a necklace. We also learned about his famous I Have A Dream speech.

READING: This week in reading, we learned about noticing punctuation when reading. We practiced reading the poem Where Is Thumbkin? noticing all of the different types of punctuation in the poem. We also learned about reading books with patterns. We read Brown Bear, Brown Bear (one our favorites) and noticed the pattern on each page. We also read a new book Super Mouse, noticing the pattern on each page. We will continue to learn more about patterns in books this next week at school. We added another power to all of our Super Reader Powers…Book Talk Power! We learned that talking about the books you read helps you to be a better reader. 

WRITING: This week during writing, we continued our small moment writing unit. We wrote another “seed story” about eating a gummy bear! First, one day I gave all of the kids a gummy bear. Next, they smelled the gummy bear. Last, they ate it. We practiced telling the steps of the story, drawing the pictures and adding details, then adding the words. Of course…they loved the gummy bears!!

MATH: This week in math, we practiced drawing circles to represent numbers 1-10. We drew them neatly, noticing and circling the 5-groups in each number that had a 5-group. We also looked at objects and compared them with each other, then had to decide if the objects were equal or not equal. We also continue to practice adding and subtracting numbers. The Kinders are getting really good at adding and subtracting all by themselves…it’s so exciting to see them do this! 

LITERACY: During our literacy time this week, we practiced our popcorn words he and she. We also practiced reading a new book that we kept in our blue book boxes, practiced the middle sounds we hear in words, read books while wearing sunglasses, practiced writing our first and last names and chose objects out of a box and had to decide the beginning word sound. Then we highlighted the sound. It was fun that we all got to choose an object!

MYSTERY READER: Kylee was so excited when she saw her mom walk through the door, surprising her by being our mystery reader! Kylee knew the book Sneezy the Snowman very well and even helped her mom read some of it! 

MEET MERCY WATSON…We have begun reading our first chapter book read aloud. It is a series of books called Mercy Watson. The Kinders LOVE listening to the books!! It has been fun reading our first chapter book and getting to know the characters in the book that will continue in the next 5 books in the series! 

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

100’S DAY CELEBRATION: On February 7 we will be celebrating our 100th day of kindergarten! I have a note that is coming home on Monday about the 100’s day project! It will be a fun project to work on with your Kinder! 

VALENTINE’S DAY PARTY: On Thursday, February 14 we will be having our Valentine’s Day party! The party will be from 1:50-3:00. We have many volunteers. If you signed up to help, you will be contacted soon about the details. I have a note that will be coming home on Monday about Valentine Cards for our class.

UPCOMING DATES:

Monday, January 28: STEAM; Take Home Books

Tuesday, January 29: Music; Library

Wednesday, January 30: Gym; Take Home Books

Thursday, January 31: Art

Friday, February 1: Early Release Day (dismissal at 12:15). Email me if your Kinder needs a lunch please. 

Monday, February 4: Winter Break…no school.

Tuesday, February 5: Winter Break…no school.

Thursday, February 7: 100’s Day Celebration!

Thursday, February 14: Valentine’s Day Party!

Have a wonderful weekend! Stay warm…brrrr it’s cold outside! Enjoy these few cute photos from this week in Kindergarten…

POPCORN WORDS: make, said

READING: This week in reading, we reviewed all of our SUPER READING POWERS that we’ve learned so far! Wow…we are SUPER READERS!! We added a new super reading power to our powers. We added PERSISTENCE POWER! When something gets hard, we keep working hard at it, we don’t give up! We practiced this using different books. We also practiced reading smoothly (fluently) and not sounding like a robot when we read. Wow…we have learned a lot this week in reading!

MATH: This week in math, we practiced making new shapes when we put shapes together. We also learned about sorting and classifying pictures. We practiced sorting animals and shapes. We sorted by the types of animals, how many legs the animals have, big shapes and little shapes as well as the color of shapes. We learned about using a 5 group when counting objects. It is easier to put objects in a group of 5 (a straight line of 5) to count objects. It keeps our work more organized and easier to count the total number or objects. 

WRITING: This week during writing, we continued to practice writing a small moment story. We wrote about being the super star. We told the story across our fingers, to a friend, in pictures and added words to our stories. The story we told was about bringing the mystery box as the super star. This is the story we wrote: First we give three clues. Next we tell what it is. Last we pick a new stick. Next week we will continue to write another small moment story!

SPLIT LIT: This week during split lit, we practiced a lot of different literacy skills. We… had fun reading big books , practiced listening and looking for the middle sounds we heard in words, practiced our snap words, writing our first and last names, practiced our popcorn words and matched pictures to words that we read. 

, practiced listening for the middle sounds we hear in words, practiced our snap words, writing our first and last names

MYSTERY READERS: This week we were lucky enough to have two mystery readers! Kennedy was so excited when her mom surprised her and walked through the door! She read us a fun book called Olivia Saves the Circus! Kennedy had a lot of fun having her mom as a mystery reader! 

Adreian was super excited when his mom and little brother came through the door too! We had fun learning how to spell Adreian’s whole name by listening to a favorite story of his! Adreian had a lot of fun having his mom and brother come to our class!

UPCOMING DATES:

Monday, January 21: STEAM; Take Home Books today (bring back your book)

Tuesday, January 22: Music; Library…bring back your book

Wednesday, January 23: PE; Take Home Books today (bring back your book)

Thursday, January 24: Art

Friday, January 25: STEAM; Take Home Books today (bring back your book)

Enjoy these fun playground pictures from today…Have a wonderful weekend!!

Dear Kinder families,

Today your kinder took home their very first TAKE HOME book. They were SO EXCITED to find out they were taking books home to read!  You will find inside their book bag a yellow note with more details about this exciting learning adventure.  You will also find inside their folder a big zip-lock bag, labeled with their name, a step by step home directions sheet, a white parent comment sheet, a Super Powers reading bookmark and a book just right for them to read.  

Remember that TAKE HOME books are not meant to be challenging for your kinder to read.  They should feel successful to be able to read these books.  We will save the challenging books for school learning. 🙂 Our goal is to read at a B level by February and a D level by the end of the school year.

Please encourage and support your kinder as needed when they read their book to you.  It is good to read the book more than one time and on different occasions.  

PLEASE READ AND RETURN YOUR KINDER’S BOOK BAG ON MONDAY, JANUARY 21.

Monday will be the first day that your kinder will read their book with a parent volunteer at school. Parent volunteers will read with the Kinders on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Please make sure you help your Kinder remember to return their books to school every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Happy Reading!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! We had fun on Monday with learning through New Year’s activities! We practiced New Year’s subtraction, New Year’s writing (resolutions) and made 2019 headband and craft! We are enjoying them hanging up in our classroom!

POPCORN WORDS: at, that, was

This week when learning about our new words, many of the Kinders noticed right away that “at” is hiding in “that” and that they rhyme. We also talked about how some letters make different sounds like in “was”. We read 2 books using these words and added the books to our blue book bins. 

READING: This week in reading, we continued working on using our SUPER POWERS during reading!! The Kinders are becoming super readers!! We learned that we have SOUND POWER…this is when we need to make the beginning letter sound when trying to figure out an unknown word.  Readers can’t always rely on using just PICTURE POWER, sometimes we need to use our SOUND POWER too! For example: Did the author use “horse” or “pony” in the writing.  By seeing a “h” and sounding it out, a reader can understand that the word is “horse”. We also learned that we have SNAP WORD POWER…this is when we learn words and practice them so that we can read them in a snap! We practiced writing many SNAP words in our journals! It was really fun!  

MATH: This week in math, we practiced drawing the correct number of circles for the number shown. We also practiced writing teen numbers and showing teen numbers. We always enjoy getting our math trays out and getting to make numbers. The Kinders did a great job showing teen numbers by showing 10 + extra ones. 

WRITING: During writing this week, we started writing small moment stories. We learned about the difference between writing a WATERMELON story and a SEED story. A watermelon story is a really big topic, like our holiday break. That would be too big of a story to write. A SEED story is a smaller topic, like opening presents, skiing, watching a movie. That would be a smaller story and easier to write. This week we wrote a story about opening presents. It’s exciting to see the Kinders write a story about something they did! 

LITERACY: During our literacy time this week we continued to practice many literacy skills. On Friday, we had fun playing literacy games! 

HANDWRITING: This week in handwriting, we finished a handwriting book and started practicing writing our first and last names. We will continue to practice writing our names. The Kinders got new name tags on their pencil boxes showing their first and last names. 

MYSTERY READER: Vivia was thrilled when she saw her mom walk through the door! The Kinders loved listening to the book, Tickle Monster! You could tell it was a favorite of Vivia’s, she helped read along with her mom! 

UPCOMING DATES:

Monday, January 14: Art

Tuesday, January 15: STEAM; Library…remember to bring your books back! 

Wednesday, January 16: Music

Thursday, January 17: Gym

Friday, January 18: Art; Take Home Books sent home.

Monday, January 21: STEAM; Return Take Home Books.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!  ~Mrs. Baker

Tonight is a Jet’s pizza night! Plan an easy dinner night and order some pizza! Tell Jet’s who your child’s teacher is when you order! Jet’s will donate a portion back to our school and also the class with the highest amount of orders wins a pizza party! Have a good night!