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!