Snow, Superbowl, and Groundhog Day! Oh My!

Are you ready for some more snow? I know I am ready for some football tomorrow night, but NOT more snow!

Math:

In math we are having so much fun learning about attributes.  We have been working specifically with attribute blocks.  Students are learning four ways to sort these attribute blocks (color, thickness, size, and shape).  At the end of last week, we played an attribute spinner game.  Students spun three spinners (color spinner, size spinner, and thickness spinner) to see if they could find that block in the pile.

This coming week, we will continue to work on writing numbers correctly.  The most important message we send to our kids is “always start your letters and numbers at the top!”

Decomposing numbers is another math concept for this week.  Below is one activity we will do. 

Language Arts:

The new Lively Letters we are working on are /w/, /wh/, /h/, and /i/.

We are really working hard on making CVC words with the letters we’ve learned.  I am teaching word families to help students sound out and find patterns in words.  Word families are groups of words that are sufficiently closely related to each other to form a 'family'.  This week we are focusing on the –op family. We will be reading books and poems with words that end in –op, we will make –op words with magnetic letters, we will practice writing words that end in –op on white boards, and we will make –op headbands at the end of the week.

Writing:

In writing, we are working on writing longer stories.  Instead of writing one sentence, we are stretching our ideas to include a beginning and end.  Last week we read the story Peter’s Chair by Ezra Jack Keats. We paid close attention to how the main character changed from the beginning of the book to end.  In the beginning, Peter was jealous of his new baby sister, and he did not want his parents to paint his chair pink for her.  By the end, Peter had a change of heart and helped his father paint the chair.  I was so proud of our kindergartners’ writing.  They wrote about what happened in the beginning of the book and what happened in the end.  They truly exhibited a clear understanding of how Peter’s feelings changed.  That means our reading comprehension is getting stronger.

Sight Words:

This week, we will review the words “an” and “so”.  We will make the words with magnetic letters, practice writing the words, and playing our fun new sight word game called “BAM”.   I will introduce a new sight word this week that is NOT on our Kindergarten Sight Word list.  The word is “said”.  This word is in many guided reading books, and it allows me to introduce dialogue in reading.

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 end with –op

Counting from 0-100 (with no errors)

Counting by 10s and 5s

Guess my number.  Think of a number between 1 and 10.  Use words like greater than and less than. 

When you are driving, look for people who are considered community helpers and/or buildings where community helpers work.

       Focusing on subtraction using numbers up to 10.

Write simple sentences including mostly sight words and relatively easy CVC words.  Cut up the sentence and have your kindergartener put it back together.  When they are done, they can draw a picture to go with it!  Example sentence (I see a dog on the rug). 

Read with your kindergartener and have him/her look for sight words.

FYI:

Guided Reading books will be coming home at the end of this week with your kindergartner.  They will be due back the following Monday.

FYI:

We will be doing lots of fun activities for Groundhog Day and the 100^th Day of School.  There is nothing special to note for Groundhog Day, but for the 100^th Day, I am allowing students to dress up like they are 100 years old!  I will be sending home a letter all about it.  Please don’t feel obligated to, the kids just thought it would be fun.

**I am also wondering if 2 parents from each class would volunteer on the 100th Day.  We will be celebrating it on Monday, February 9th.  

AM Class- 9:30-10:30

PM Class-1:30-2:30

Engaging Online Resources

Pan balance game to reinforce weight measurement:

http://pbskids.org/sid/fablab_panbalance.html

Word Family Games and a great reading website:

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/learn-to-read/load.htm?f

Fun website for students to read and listen to stories read by celebrities

http://www.storylineonline.net

Happy New Year!

Brrr!  It is very windy and cold out there this evening. I asked Cooper if he wanted to go outside, but he just looked up at me from his warm and cozy spot as if to say
“Are you crazy?”

I do not think we will be going outside for recess this week based on the 5-day weather forecast. 

Math:

In math over the next few weeks, we will be learning more about the subtraction symbol and what it means to take away.  We will finish our attribute block books, continue solving number stories, and we will learn about sorting rules.  Of course will be play math games in the classroom to review previously learned concepts and practice new ones.  One fun game we will play this week and will be added to our math center is Yahtzee.  This game is so funny to see how excited the kids get. All they have to do is roll 2 dice and cross out the sum. They keep going until they have crossed out all of the numbers. They learn the hard way how hard it is to roll a 2 or a 12! After we play in school, I will send home a black card for you to play with your family at home.

Language Arts:

To make it easier for you to review Lively Letters with your child, I will be sending home the poems that go with each letter.  You will know how to make each sound and the character that goes with each letter sound.

This week we will be working on /z/, /sh/ and /ch/ and /j/. 

We are really working hard on making CVC words with the letters we’ve learned.  I am teaching word families to help students sound out and find patterns in words.  Word families are groups of words that are sufficiently closely related to each other to form a 'family'.  This week we are focusing on the –at family.  This week we looked for all of the words that end with –at in the poem

below.

Writing:

In writing, we are working on stretching our ideas.  After we draw a detailed picture, label the picture with beginning sounds or sounding out, we will tell our readers what our stories are about through simple sentences.  Students who are independently sounding out are working on adding more details or information to their sentences.

Sight Words:

This week, we are focusing on the words “at” and “no”.  The kiddos were so excited that the “at” is also called a Word Family.  They just couldn’t get over the fact that “at” can be used alone or can help make up words. We are becoming more observant readers every day!

Mentor Text:

In January, we learn about community helpers.  Many of our read-alouds will be about different jobs people have that help our community.  Richard Scarry books and Curious George books are always fun for students to read to gather information about community helpers.

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 end with -at

-Counting from 0-100 (with no errors)

-Counting by 10s and 5s

-Guess my number.  Think of a number between 1 and 10.  Use words like greater than and less than. 

-When you are driving, look for people who are considered community helpers and/or buildings where community helpers work.

-Sing the song “If You’re Happy and You Know It”.  Instead of saying “clap your hands” say, “say my name”.  Then break apart a word like “r-at” or “c-up”.  By the end of the song, your kindergartener should put the word together.  We sing this in school, so your kindergartener should be able to help.

FYI:

This week I will be putting more interactive games on my sight for your children to play.  Stay tuned!

I have already put together a schedule for January classroom volunteers.  I will be contacting parents this week who expressed interest in helping out in our classroom.  Tuesdays and Thursdays are the best days for parent volunteers to come in.  These are big writing days, and it is helpful to have parents come in to conference with students.