Reading Superpowers!

We had a wonderful time at the Pete the Cat show at the Flynn Theatre on Tuesday!  The show was funny and filled with lots of singing and energetic songs!  When we got back, Ms. Polly had made Pete the Cat chocolate colored pretzels for us!  What was your child's favorite part of the field trip?

Our Kindergarten readers have been using their reading superpowers every day and it is helping them to become great beginning readers!  I hope they have shown you pointer power and re-read power when reading with you at home.  This week we learned about three new powers we need to activate when reading:  picture power, snap word power, and sound power.  When we use picture power, we are using the illustrations in the story to help us figure out the words on the page.  This is one of our strongest powers right now!  When reading with your child, it is great to do a picture walk first (looking through the book and just talking about the pictures).  This gets the picture power activated and ready to use when trying to figure out tricky words.  We also learned about "snap word" power.  We use this power when we find and read our sight words in books...in a snap!  Lastly, we learned about sound power.  We use sound power by looking at the first letter (and the ones after)  in an unknown word and saying the sound of the first letter(s).  This can help us to sound out and figure out the word.  Ask your child to show you some of his or her reading superpowers this weekend!

During Fundations, we learned about the letters V and W.  We practiced our letter formation and brainstormed words that begin with that letter.  We also learned two new sight words this week: on and go. We have compiled quite a list of sight words so far!  Can your child find any of these words in the stories you read at home?

• a
• am
• can
• for
• go
• is
• I
• it
• like
• my
• on
• see
• the
• you

During Writer's Workshop, we are continuing to write and tell personal narratives (stories about ourselves and our families).  However, we are now working on telling our stories over several pages, with a beginning, middle, and end.  The children had the choice to continue working in their writing notebooks or to move to using booklets (three pages stapled together).  It was amazing to see their first stories.  Many wrote about our trip to the Flynn!  Ask your child to tell you about the story he or she wrote in the booklet.  It should have three parts!

We have enjoyed hearing about everyone's holiday traditions this week!  We heard from Eloise, Holden, Graham, Skyler, Charlie, and Lyvia.  Ask your child to tell you about their traditions!  We have also been enjoying reading many versions of the The Gingerbread Man. We read about The Gingerbread Baby, The Gingerbread Girl, The Gingerbread Pirate, The Ninjabread Man, The Gingerbread Friends, and the Gingerbread Bear.  Which was your child's favorite?

Lastly, in math we are working on ordering numbers from 1-20.  We learned about the number line as a math tool and have been practicing talking about numbers that come before other numbers and numbers that come after.  We have also been working on positional words in math using our December calendar.  Can your child demonstrate the positions, in front of, behind, inside, outside, to the left, and to the right?

Have a great weekend!