Sea Creatures

We had a great short week!  We are fully immersed in our study of sea creatures!  Thanks for all the work you did to help your child research his or her sea creature and create a poster.  They are so proud of their posters and know so much about their sea creatures! This week, four children shared their posters.  After the share, each child created an illustrated page with a fact about the creature for their Sea Creature Book.







We have also been immersed in nonfiction books! We began the week by looking through the books in our library determining which books are fiction and which are nonfiction.  We figured out that non-fiction books are about real things and are used to teach us facts and often have photographs.  Fiction books are stories that are made up and often have drawn illustrations.  We read a non-fiction book called Wish for a Fish which taught us all about the different zones in the ocean and what creatures live in those zones.  As we read, we listened for important information and ask questions and thought of "wonderings" about the zones.  Although, we did read a lot of non-fiction this week, we also had fun reading one of the Red Clover Book nominees: a fiction book, called The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet!. After reading the story, we drew our own roosters.  They are amazing!

In Writer's Workshop, we have moved from writing personal narratives to writing non-fiction teaching books.  We began by talking about how non-fiction authors are specialists.  They write about topics that they know a lot about and are topics they care about or are passionate about.  Each child then made a specialist list:  three topics in which they are specialists and could teach about.  Then the children chose one of their topics and began writing and illustrating their teaching book.  Be sure to ask your child about his or her specialist book!

During Fundations, we continued practicing our uppercase letter formation with the letters E, F, G, and H.  We also continued to build words and tap out the sounds in words using our magnetic letter boards.

Lastly in math, we have moved in to a Geometry unit.  This week, we explored shapes by using pattern blocks.  We made observations about circles, spheres, squares, triangles, trapezoids, hexagons, and the rhombus.  The children were able to notice a variety of attributes of these shapes: sides, corners, and even parallel lines!  I was impressed!  You could ask your child to find some of these shapes in your home!

Please make sure to check your child's Friday Folder this weekend.  In his or her folder, is a progress report for the first trimester of Kindergarten.  There is also a note about some upcoming February Events at SCS:  Valentine's Day, 100th Day of School, and the Scholastic Book Fair.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Snowflakes!

On Wednesday, we had Nearby Nature.  This month's theme was snow!  It was a perfect day to study snow with a bit on the ground and a few flakes flying through the air.   We learned about the trip a snowflake takes from the sky to where it rests on the ground and we learned that a snowflake starts just as a speck of dust!  We watched a puppet show that taught us about the different kinds of snowflakes and then we sorted pictures of snowflakes by their characteristics.  We learned that every snowflake is unique, but they all have six sides.  Lastly, we got to make our own snowflakes...so much fun! Thanks to Jane and Jess for coming in to explore snow with us!

We read our third Red Clover book this week: The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors.  This was a funny story about the fun game of rock, paper, scissors.  After reading the story, we practiced playing and then we had a class tournament!  It was a lot of fun!  We have found that this game is a good way to decide who goes first to take turns in other games.







During Fundations, we are beginning to build small words and are tapping out the sounds of those words and then blending them together. This week we used a new tool to help us practice building words: a magnetic board and letter tiles.  We used the Fundations boards to find letters when I gave a sound and then I tapped out three sounds and the children built the word.  They did a great job listening for the sounds and identifying what letters are needed to make a word. Way to go!

In math, our focus has been on money this week!  We learned the names and worth of three coins: penny, nickel, and dime. We spent a bit of time making observations about the coins and then used them to play three games:  Which Coin Will Win?, Money March, and Beat You to 15 cents.  In these games, the children practiced recognized coins, adding up coins, and trading pennies in for nickels.  See if your child can identify coins at home and tell you how much they are worth!





This week in our Scholastic Let's Find Out magazine we learned about Martin Luther King, Jr.  We watched a short video and learned about how he worked very hard to get unfair laws changed and to bring more kindness and peace to the world.  We then read several books about kindness and one about peace. After reading The Peace Book, the children each brainstormed what peace means to them and created peace sign sun catchers for our classroom window!  Stop by our windows to check them out!

Just a reminder that we are starting our Sea Creature non-fiction unit next week.  Please try to have your child bring in his or her sea creature poster by Wednesday, January 23rd.  We are planning to start sharing and learning about sea creatures from our "experts" that day! Thank you.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about this project.

Enjoy this snowy and cold three-day weekend! We'll see the children on Tuesday!

Red Clover Books!

This month we will be reading the Red Clover Book nominees. These ten books are chosen by a group of Vermont teachers and librarians across the state.  All children in grades K-3 read the books throughout the year and then vote for their favorite book in April.  We read two of the books this week: The Bad Seed and Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix.  After reading each story, we discussed the book and then completed a project.  In The Bad Seed, the main character is a sunflower seed and he considers himself a "bad seed", never doing anything kind or nice.  However, by the end he turns into a good seed.  Each child made their own seed and shared something they do to be a good seed!  We have good seeds who help friends, say kind words, and clean up. Our good seeds are displayed outside the classroom!  They are pretty cute!  Our second book was about a chef named Roy Choi who started his own line of food trucks in Los Angeles.  He mixed his Korean food heritage with a taco truck...a street food remix!  After reading this story and talking about the food he made for his food truck, the children made their own food truck menus!  We are putting these menus in our classroom kitchen to use during Choice Time.  What was on your child's menu?

During Reader's Workshop, we continued to strengthen are reading powers!  We talked about how readers re-read books to become more fluent in their reading.  We looked for patterns in the words of our emergent reader books and practiced reading those smoothly.  We also began to notice punctuation in our books and noticed how that helps us read the book.  We found exclamation points and question marks and changed the tone of our voices to match the punctuation.

In math this week, we turned our attention to measurement and comparing numbers (greater than and less than).  We spent much of our math time using popsicle sticks and unifix cubes to measure the length of items in the classroom. Then we compared those numbers and talked about which were greater and which were less.  We also learned about the  <, >, and = signs that mathematicians use to compare numbers! Ask your child to tell you about the "shark mouth"!  Next week, we will work with coins: nickels, dimes, and pennies.

During Writer's Workshop, we continued to write our personal narratives with a beginning, middle, and end.  The children are continuing to tell their stories with detailed illustrations, but also adding more sentences.  I am so impressed with their work!  Our big focus for the week was putting spaces between our words.  This helps the reader better understand our stories! 

We finished learning all of our lowercase letters and sounds last week in Fundations.  Now we are moving on to spelling and tapping out C-V-C words, such as map, cat, sit, etc.  For each letter in a word we tap a finger on our thumb and then "zip" the sounds together to say the word.  See if your child can tap out a word for you!  This knowledge will help with their reading and also their "best guess" spelling in Writer's Workshop.

Have a great weekend! Stay warm!

Happy New Year!

Welcome Back!  It was great to see all the children back to school this week!  They were certainly excited to see one another!

As we continue to plow through winter, please make sure to send your child with boots, snow pants, jacket, mittens/gloves, and a hat each day. The children go outside every day, unless the temperature is below zero. Thank you!

We welcomed in the new year in Kindergarten by reading Squirrel's New Year Resolution.  We talked about what the word resolution means and then the children brainstormed a resolution for themselves for the year.  Our resolutions focused on getting better at something for ourselves or helping others.  We have Kindergartners who want to become better readers, to become better at basketball and soccer, to help the Earth, and to help their friends to be happy!  Be sure to ask your child about his or her resolution.  We also did a self-portrait project to go along with our resolutions.  The children made themselves, wearing new year's party hats!  They are hanging in our classroom and look very cute!  Here are a few pictures...

In math, we are focusing on numbers 1-20, with an emphasis on the teen numbers.  We have been playing games and activities to work on recognizing teen numbers and to put them in order.  We also learned two new games: The Forest Game and Beat You to 20.  In The Forest Game we are working on adding and subtracting 1, 2, and 3 and understanding what those terms mean.  In Beat You to 20, we are working on adding and identifying numbers in the teens.

We are wrapping up our lowercase letter sound and identification aspect of Fundations with the letters Z and Q.  Next week, we will begin working on tapping out, reading and spelling short C-V-C words (consonant-vowel-consonant): map, hat, dog, etc.

Have a great weekend!