OUR LEARNING:
Popcorn Words: This week, the words to, do, you, and the color word purple popped into our classroom. We practiced spelling these words, using these words in sentences and finding these words in books that we read. The Kindergarteners LOVED hearing the song One Eyed, One Horned Flying Purple People Eater, too! They really enjoyed making their own one eyed, one horned flying purple people eater monsters.
Math: We continued to explore Unit 1 in Math. The Kindergartners practiced their number recognition, number writing, adding numbers, and telling math stories this week. On Tuesday, we looked for shapes in different snack foods and sorted these shapes before enjoying our math-tastic afternoon snack! On Friday, we reviewed our math skills by playing 4 math games with our friends.
Reading: This week we started the process of learning about “Powerful Partnerships” while reading. Each kindergartener has been paired with a partner that they get to build a reading partnership with. We started by learning how to read back to back with a partner during read-to-self time. Then we learned how to read with our partner by sitting EEKK (elbow to elbow and knee to knee). We learned how to both read the same book together, how to take turns reading the same book and then how to share our favorite parts from the books we read.
Writing: In writing this week, we have practiced shared writing. As a class, we draw a picture together, label the picture and come up with a sentence about the picture. On their own, the kindergarteners have also practiced drawing pictures, labeling them, and tracing words (that make a sentence) on a page about their picture. This week we wrote about our snack, the firefighters, and the color purple.
Handwriting: We have started to work on writing our letters this week using our “Handwriting Without Tears” books. In handwriting, we start with what we call “Frog Jump” letters. These are letters that we have to pick up (frog jump) our pencil to make (the letter is not one continuous stroke). We begin with learning how to write these letters in uppercase form. After we learn all of the letters in uppercase form, we will then learn them in lowercase form. So far, we have written F and E.
CELEBRATIONS:
We celebrated Nora’s 6th birthday on Friday. Thank you for the awesome gifts, Nora! Happy birthday!
We loved having Karsten as our Top Frog this week! Colten will be our upcoming week’s Top Frog.
Our class was lucky to have three mystery readers this week! On Wednesday, Brianna’s grandma came with her blue fun bag full of books to read. Then, on Friday, we were surprised by Annie’s grandma and her brother James, who is a first grader at Georgetown. Thank you to our wonderful readers!
NOTES FOR PARENTS:
Headphones: In STEAM class, your child gets the chance to use a computer. As part of this time it is very helpful if the students have a pair of headphones to use. I would love for each of our students to bring a pair of headphones to use in Mrs. Totten’s STEAM classroom by Monday, October 23. The style of headphone is up to you, as long as your child will wear them comfortably. A wired headphone is best, one that can be plugged into our computers. No need to spend a lot on these – I know I have seen them at Five Below before. Please mark your child’s name on these headphones with a permanent marker before sending them in to school. Thank you in advance!
Fall Party: Our Fall Party will be on Friday, October 27. Thank you so much for all of the volunteers who have contacted me about volunteering or donating to our party. (I will be contacting you with more logistics this week.) Our kindergarteners will be walking with other Kindergarten classes in an indoor parade before the party at 2:00 p.m. ish. Our party will be in our classroom after the parade and end at 3:15 p.m. This is such a fun time for our Kindergarteners! Your child is welcome to wear their costume to school and wear it the whole day or bring it in a bag if they would prefer to wear it only for the parade or party. If you have any questions please email me at ahutchi@hpseagles.net .
UPCOMING DATES:
- Monday, October 9 – STEAM, Pajama Day!
- Tuesday, October 10 – Library, P.E.
- Wednesday, October 11 – Music, homework due
- Thursday, October 12- Art
- Friday, October 13 – Art, Early Release @ 12:15, Wear Black and White
- Tuesday, October 24 – Turkey Trot
- Friday, October 27 – Fall Party @ 2:00 pm