A big week of learning!

Welcome back!  I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving!  We jumped right into our routines and started our time back to school with some exciting new learning!

This week in Reader's Workshop we started a new unit called "We Are Super Readers". In this unit, the children will be learning strategies for beginning readers.  We are learning we all have reading super powers that will help us to become the best readers we can be.  This week we were introduced to Pointer Power and Re-read Power.  All the children were given a special pointer to use to point to each word as they read which helps them match their reading voices to the print on the page.  Developing one-to-one matching is on the early reading behaviors that will help the children move into more conventional reading.  We also learned about Re-read Power:  the power to go back and read words again to understand and to practice 1:1 matching.  Can your child demonstrate his or her powers to you at home? Go Super Readers!

In Writer's Workshop, we moved from just labeling our illustrations in our stories with words to writing a sentence to describe what is happening in the story!  We practiced counting our the number of words in the sentence and then stretching out the words to write down the letters that make those sounds.  I was very impressed with our Kindergarten Writers!  They are working so hard on stretching out words and listening for sounds.  Everyone wrote at least one or two sentences!  Great work!  In Fundations, we learned the letters L and J this week and a new sight word: like.  Can your child tell you the sounds of these words and can he or she find the word like in a book at home?

Lastly in math, we began talking about addition!  We practiced counting the number of red and blue dots on a five frame and flashed those numbers on our fingers and then learned how to write an addition equation to represent and describe the dots (ex. 2+3=5).  We also used unifix cubes and ten frame mats to show adding one and subtracting one when given a story problem about pizzas (I ordered 7 pizzas and then I ordered one more.  How many in all? 7+1=8).  We will continue to discuss and practice addition during the next few math lessons.  Ask your child to do some addition with you at home too!


We have spent this week getting ready for the PTO Holiday Craft Fair on Saturday, December 8th.  Our class has created water color and collage greeting/note cards! They worked really hard and the cards look beautiful!  If you have the chance to come to the craft fair, be sure to stop by our table!  I am looking for one more volunteer to help run the table from 11:00-12:00 on that. If you are interested and have the time, please let me know.  This is always a great event at SCS!

  Have a great weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that you all have a wonderful and relaxing time with family and friends next week!  Please note there is no school the entire week.  School resumes on Monday, November 26th.

This week in our Scholastic News we learned about the First Thanksgiving and learned about what it means to be thankful.  We read a book called I Am Thankful also practiced reading our emergent reader book called What are you Thankful for?  We even made a fun turkey craft to share our thankfulness!  Be sure to check your child's folder for their turkey collage!

In Reader's Workshop, we finished our first "We Are Readers" unit.  During this unit the children learned how to partner read and to read "old favorites" by looking at the pictures and remembering how the story goes.  We celebrated all our accomplishments by reading our stories to Miss Deb's third graders.  Our Kindergarten readers did a wonderful job!   Also during our literacy time this week, we learned two new letters "r" and "p" and we learned a new sight word "for".  We have learned ten sight words so far this year.  See if your child can find them in books when you are reading aloud to them.  The words we have learned are...
a, am, can, for, is, I, my, see, the, you.

We also had Nearby Nature on Wednesday.  This month's theme was conifer trees (fir, spruce, pine, cedar, etc.) and cones.  Thanks to Jess for pulling off a one-person puppet show in which the children learned about different types of conifer trees and what their branches, cones, and needles look like!  The children had a chance to observe pine cones and dissect them, noticing their seed patterns and noticing they had a some sap on them!

Lastly, we had two special activities this week!  On Monday, we had Mix-It-Up with Mr. Badillo's middle schoolers.  They visited our classroom during choice time and we had the chance to play and learn together.  Be sure to ask your child what he or she did during Mix-It-Up.  Also, Kelly, one of our school nurses, visited to talk about the importance of hand washing and staying healthy.  She read us a story and then gave a us a special glow orange liquid to put on our hands to represent germs.  Then we had to go wash our hands and see if we could get all the germs off by washing and drying our hands well.  Then she took a black light to see if we got all the "germs" off!  How did your child do washing his or her hands?  She reminded us to scrub well while singing the ABC song and dry our hands completely!

I hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving!  Stay healthy!

A Walk Through Shelburne!

We had two great walking field trips this week!  On Monday, we visited the Shelburne Supermarket and the People's United Bank.  At the bank, we learned about the importance of a bank in the community; what it means to save money;  the different kinds of coins, and even got to see the vault where the money is kept!  We then had a tour at the supermarket and saw the different sections: produce, dairy, meat, etc.  We even got to go in the cooler and see how the grocers fill the shelves in the dairy case!  It was chilly in the cooler!  On Wednesday, we walked to The Flying Pig and the Shelburne Craft School.  At the Craft School, we had a tour and go to see where they hold all their art classes.  We even saw some clay students at work, firing their clay vases!  At the Flying Pig, we heard a few stories from the owner, Elizabeth.  We loved looking for all the flying pigs in the bookstore! Back at school we finished our community unit by creating a map of Shelburne with some of our favorite locations.  Each child chose a place that is a part of our community and added it to our map.  It looks great!

This week in writing , we started something BIG!  We have been drawing all of our stories thus far and making our pictures with many details. This week we learned how to add words or labels to our stories to help the reader better understand what is happening.  We learned how to stretch a word out and listen for the sounds and write down the letters that make those sounds.  I was so impressed with these Kindergarten writers!  Everyone wrote labels for their illustrations in their stories!

During our literacy time, we learned the letters "s" and "e" this week.  We learned how to form the letters, make the sounds of the letters, and identify words that begin with those sounds.  Can your child tell you the sounds those letters make?  We also read a Scholastic News about Veteran's Day and learned a new sight word that we found in the newspaper: my.

Lastly in math, we have been exploring shapes in our calendar.  The pattern on our calendar has been flat shapes and three-dimensional shapes.  We have learned about spheres, cylinders, cones, and cubes.  We continued our work with shapes during a new Work Place: Pattern Block Puzzles.  The children had to fill in larger shapes with the pattern blocks and in a variety of ways.  Also in math, we been exploring the idea of pairs and counting by twos.  The children each colored in a pair of mittens for a growing pattern chart and we used that chart to help us find the numbers we say when counting by twos.  Can your child count from 2-10 by twos for you?

Have a wonderful weekend!

Community!

Next week, we will be taking two walking Field Trips!  On Monday, November 5th, we will be walking to the Shelburne Supermarket and People's United Bank and on Wednesday, November 7th, we will be walking to the Shelburne Craft School and The Flying Pig Bookstore.  We are visiting these places to learn more about our Shelburne Community.  If you are fingerprinted and have filled out the volunteer forms at our district office, you are more than welcome to join us for either trip!  We continued to learn more about communities by discussing communities helpers.  We read a book called Career Day and talked about all the important people in our community who help us or our families and neighbors.  The children all created a Community Helper Flip Book.  This book is in their book boxes to practice reading it!  It had two or our new sight words..."am" and "a".  We also continued learning about maps. We first made maps our bedrooms and then made maps of our classroom! What did your child include in his or her map?

At Reader's Workshop, we continue to read "Old Favorite" books.  Old Favorites are books we have heard over and over again and know how the story goes without even reading the words.  Examples of "Old Favorites" for us are Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Three Billy Goats Gruff, Bear Snores On,
Caps for Sale, and The Carrot Seed.  We have been reading and re-reading these books:  looking at the pictures, remembering how the story goes, and telling what happens on the pages.  We've also learned how to say more on each page and using transition words, such as "then", "next", and "also" as we move from page to page.  If you have any of these books at home, ask your child to read it to you!

Also, this week the children got their own "Brown Owl, Brown Owl" book for their book boxes!  It is based on Brown Bear, Brown Bear, but with a Halloween twist!  This book had many of our sight words which made it easy to read!  We practiced pointing and touching each word as we read.  This is a great skill for your child to use when reading at home with you too!  In Fundations, we have been introduced to the letters g, o, d, and a.  We practiced handwriting and brainstormed words that have those letters as initial sounds. We are almost halfway through the alphabet!

In Writer's Workshop, we continue to tell stories in our Talking, Drawing, Writing notebooks.  Prior to getting to work, we talked about adding details to our stories, focusing particularly on the people in the stories and adding clothing, hairstyles, and physical traits, such as skin color that match the character in the story.  Be sure to ask your child about his or her stories this week!

Lastly in math, we learned about using tally marks as a way to count.  We practiced counting and making tally marks using popsicle sticks first and then played a game of Tally Mark Bingo to practice counting and recognizing tally marks. We also did some work with shapes and patterns and made a  paper Butterfly Quilt.  Each child was responsible for making two paper quilt blocks.  We attached them all together in a pattern and then made observations and noticings about the shapes and patterns in our quilt. Be sure to ask your child what he or she noticed!

Shelburne Farms

We had a wonderful visit to Shelburne Farms last week, despite the cold and rainy weather!  We went to Shelburne Farms as a part of our community because it is a part of our community, but also it allowed us to work together as a community to make a vegetable soup!  As a class, we were in charge of chopping the onions and the garlic for the soup.  Everyone did such a great job even though they had "onion tears" streaming down their faces!  We also had a visit to the farmyard, fed kale to the goats, saw how cheese was made, and took a tractor ride!  Enjoy some pictures from the day!