Updates

I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend.  It was wonderful to meet my new A.M. kindergarten families.  I am truly looking forward to a magical year. 

Math:

In math we are learning attributes of different shapes, how to sort, how to write numbers correctly, and the relationship between numbers and quantities.

Everyday we sing and dance to the song “I Can Count to 100”.  It gets us moving and reinforces counting.  In addition, we continue to play math games for students to apply their understanding of math skills.

Language Arts:

In Language Arts, I have introduced 6 letter sounds from our Lively Letters Program.  The sounds are /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /f/, and /v/. We will review these sounds this week and move on the /f/ and /v/.  Here are some questions you can ask your kindergartener at home:

Who is the character that makes the quiet tongue dancing sound?

(Answer: /t/ is the Quiet Tongue Dancer)

Who is the character that makes the noisy tongue dancing sound?

(Answer: /d/ is the Noisy Tongue Dancer)

What do you do with your head when you make the /f/ sound?

What do you do with your teeth when you make the noisy lip biting sound?

What words begin with the /f/ and /v/?

Writing:

In writing, we are beginning to use writing supplies independently.  We will continue to write very short stories using words and/or illustrations.  One way to get students sounding out words and labeling their illustrations is to read stories and have students illustrate different characters.  We did just that using the book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat.

Sight Words:

We have learned the words I, A, and see.  Please encourage your kindergartener to look for these words in texts at home.

Handwriting:

In handwriting we are learning how to correctly form capital letters “E”, “D”, and “P”.

Mentor Text:

The mentor text I read this week was Spookley The Square Pumpkin. The story’s message is “you can never judge a pumpkin or a book by its cover”.  We discussed how being different makes us special and unique. Our classes created different geometric pumpkins for the bulletin boards outside of the classroom. When I return on Wednesday, I will take a picture and post it on my site.

In science, we are recording daily temperatures and making comparisons. We continue to explore our five senses. We will learn about the seasons through various texts and activities.

Concepts for the Car Ride:

(Concepts for the Car Ride is a section of my blog that gives you tips on what to practice with your kindergartener in the car, before bed, in the bath, or at the dinner table.

•   Rhyming words and Nursery Rhymes
• Words that begin with /t/,/d/, and /f/
• Counting from 0-20 (or higher without any errors)
• Counting backwards from 10-0 (or begin higher if your child can)
• How can you use the words (I, A, and see) in a sentence?
• Look out of the window and count 10 trees. (5 red houses)     (11 trucks) etc.
• 
  
• ****Challenge: Start having your kindergartener try to decompose numbers.  For example: how can you break apart 3? A 2 and a 1.  How can we break apart 5? 2 and a 3 or 4 and 1.  (Please note that this may be very tricky without concrete objects like cheerios, Legos, or other manipulatives).  My son loves to stack Legos and break them down.  I tell him to stack 8 Legos.  Then he has to break them apart any way he chooses into 2 piles.  Finally, he tells me how many Legos he has in each pile.  Eventually, we break the stack of Legos into 3 different piles.  In our house Legos = fun, so he doesn’t really even know we are working on math!!! Sneaky mom.

FYI:

Homework reminder. Students must complete 2 of the homework choices by Friday.  There are 6 homework choices on the menu.  When your child completes 2 out of the 6 activities, he/she can color in those squares, and return the menu and all work back to school on Friday.  The same menu will come back for the next week. Students should choose 2 more assignments.  In addition, there will be new worksheets attached to the menu for students to complete. (Students always have a week to complete the work).

You may also receive work that was not completed in school.  It doesn’t necessarily mean your child doesn’t finish his/her work on time.  Our day is so short and students work at very different rates.  I thought it would be helpful if some unfinished work went home with students to complete for practice.  Unless noted on the work, students do not need to return it.