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.