Whew! These past two weeks have been a whirlwind. Your kindergarteners did an AMAZING job trying their best at school while Miss Hutchison was home sick. I cannot wait to get back to the classroom tomorrow to see their smiling faces! With that in mind, our schedule this past week was a bit off – we’ll be getting back into our learning routine again this week. Thank you so much for your flexibility and understanding!
OUR LEARNING:
Popcorn Words – Our popcorn words this week were “him,” “jump,” “they,” and “these.” Because we are becoming such experts at our popcorn words, we traded in our big Word Wall for a Sound Wall. We’ve been learning that the same sound can be spelled many different ways! Our sound wall chart will help us try out different spelling patterns when we write words.
Math – We finished up Unit 4 last week and took our math test on Monday. We also began Unit 5 by looking for groups of ten inside of teen numbers. We’ll keep exploring teen numbers as we move through our last math unit!
Writing – Last week we learned about another animal for our writing unit: “ALL ABOUT” books. We spent the week researching FROGS, then we sorted our facts into things that horses “can / have / are.” After that, we wrote our own nonfiction books with facts and realistic illustrations about frogs.
Then, this week, we started our writing assessment (the book where we write all by ourselves to show what we know!) We began learning about PIGS for our assessment, and we will finish up our pig books at the beginning of next week.
Reading – We learned about how to be avid NONFICTION readers this week! Since we are writing nonfiction books about animals, we need to read lots of nonfiction books to help us learn more about what we are writing. We also learned that each person may have different topics that they want to be avid readers about…for example, one person may want to learn about DOGS while another person may want to learn about SOCCER. We’ve also been using our playdates to share interesting facts with our reading buddies.
Living & Nonliving Things – In preparation for our field trip to Hemlock Crossings in a few weeks, we began learning a new science unit: Living and Nonliving things. We learned about the difference between the words “living” and “nonliving,” then we sorted different things into their proper categories. We will keep learning more about living and nonliving things throughout this month!
CELEBRATIONS:
Top Frog – Every kinder will get the chance to be the Top Frog for one more day when they bring home our ESTIMATION JAR! This fun math practice will help us with our number sense skills, and will be a fun game for our class to play each morning with the top frog.
This week, Kendrick brought 62 chocolate eggs in the estimation jar! I wonder what other kindergarteners will bring in next week???
Mystery Reader – Kayla’s mom surprised the class as our mystery reader on Friday! I’m bummed I wasn’t there to capture any pictures, but thank you so much for reading to our class!
Notes for Parents:
- Take-Home Books are in full swing. Please be sure to read these books with your child and return them to school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays!
- Summer Tutoring Option – If you are interested in signing up for a tutoring block this summer, please sign up on this spreadsheet. Two of my other days are already fully booked, so these Thursday slots will likely fill up quickly!
- Spring Sports – If your kindergartener is participating in any spring sports (baseball, softball, soccer, lacrosse, dance recitals, etc.) PLEASE send me some dates when I could come cheer them on! I love getting to watch our little ones do what they love, since they watch me do what I love every day (teaching them!)
Upcoming Dates:
- Monday, April 22 – Art., Take-Home Books, GES Art Show Reception @ 5:30
- Tuesday, April 23 – STEAM, Library
- Wednesday, April 24 – Music., Take-Home Books
- Thursday, April 25 – P,E,, Take-Home Books
- Friday, April 26 : Art
- Monday, April 29: Rock Collections due