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!