Updates

Happy Mother’s Day!  I hope this blog post finds you feeling loved and well rested.

Math:

In math, we are working on many concepts.  One important concept for kindergarteners this year is to identify 3 Dimensional shapes and describe attributes

Another concept we will be working on is (and have been for the past few months) is fluently adding and subtracting within 5 using various strategies.  In addition we will be learning how to make 10.  For any number 1-9, represent the number that makes 10 when added to the given number. 

Students will love working with graphs and tally charts. We will be spending some time recording and analyzing data.  For example, we will be completing a class survey.  Students will go around and ask their peers different questions.  After the survey, we will sit down and analyze the data to draw conclusions.

Language Arts:

We have learned all of the kindergarten Lively Letters.  We moved from the picture cards to the regular letters. In writing, however, students can use the lively letters picture cards or another alphabet chart to help them sound out words and form letters.

Eric Carle Author Study:

We have just begun our author study of Eric Carle.  Students watched a video about this famous author and illustrator.  They were so excited to learn that he wrote and illustrated many books that they know and that we’ve read this year. We will spend a lot of time reading his books this month.  Many of our math, science and ELA activities will be connected to these stories. Last week, we read the book A House for Hermit.  Students retold the story, completed a writing piece about the book, and then created Hermit Crab, the main character.  Ask your kindergartener about this precious story. Wednesday is our Eric Carle Painting Day. See below for details!

Sight Words:

We have learned all 25 Kindergarten sight words, so we have moved on.  Please continue to review ALL sight words learned this year with your kindergartner!

Writing:

We have been having a lot of fun writing ‘How To’ books.  Our classes read books about how to make a pizza, and then wrote our own.  When we were finished with our books, we actually used the ‘How to Make a Pizza’ book to make our own pizzas.  It was so much fun to put the pizzas in the oven!

This week we are beginning to write our end of the year personal narratives.  We will be sharing them at our June 17^th Author’s Share.  It is going to be great!

We are not finished with word families.  We will finish the year learning as many new words families as possible.

FYI:

Wednesday, May 13th is Painting Day in Kindergarten!  Please have your child wear clothing that you don’t mind getting paint on.  You may also send in an old button down shirt for a smock as well for extra protection. Thank you!!


May 19^th~ Miller Kindergarten Field Day

More information to follow

Online Practice:

Addition practice~

http://www.iboard.co.uk/iwb/Adding-Two-Dice-716

Subtraction practice~

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks1/maths/two_less/index.htm

Sight Word Review~

http://www.starfall.com/n/matching/sight-words/play.htm?f

Updates

I love kindergarteners.  They come to school with a spring in their step every day, even though it certainly doesn’t feel like spring outside.

Last Monday, we welcomed in spring with our Spring Hat Parade.  We enjoyed decorating our paper hats with tissue paper flowers, jewels, stickers, paint, pom-poms, and streamers.  We paraded through the whole school playing loud instruments and chanting “Happy spring!”  The faces of joy on the kindergartners was truly priceless.

Math:

In math, we are working on various concepts.  We will continue to work on subtraction.  We will begin a subtraction word problem book next week.  We will be learning about 3 dimensional shapes over the next few weeks.  Another important concept in the area of mathematical practice is using check in thinking. It is important for students to stop and ask “Does this make sense?” and “What other strategy can I use?”

Language Arts:

The new Lively Letter we are working on is the long e sound.  His name, in the Lively Letters program is King Ed.  The story goes like this.  He is very mean.  When there is a vowel standing before him, he does not like it.  He makes the vowel say its name.  When the vowel says its name, he is silent.  Examples of words with King Ed in them are (make, like, bone, rude)

In reading, we focusing on retelling.  After we read a fictional story, we go through the retell rope.  Each child will come home with a retell rope to use at home.  Here is

a picture of the rope and the chart that explains each picture.  I used Goldilocks and the Three Bears as the mentor text to teach retelling.

Sight Words:

This week we will continue to review all of our kindergarten sight words.  We will also learn some new words from the Grade 1 High Frequency Words list. “Where” is the most recent sight word we learned.

Science:

Ask your kindergarten meteorologist what he/she learned about wind last week and the wind experiment we conducted with a straw, cotton ball, paper, pattern block, and a spoon.  How fun!

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)

Words that end in “e”. For example:

-bike

-ride

-made

-bone

-came

Counting from 0-100 (with no errors)

      

Focusing on subtraction using numbers up to 10.

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

Begin talking about 3 dimensional shapes with your kindergartener.  We have not learned about them yet, but it would be a great preview.

Sounding out words without writing them:

FYI:

Thank you for replacing your child’s “Take Home” Folder. 

       Bingo for Books was a blast yesterday.  We played

       sight word bingo with the entire kindergarten.  Mrs.       

Pobuk called out and wrote sight words on an overhead projector while students colored in their squares.  Every kindergartner won a new book to take home.  What a motivating way to practice our sight words!

 Mrs. McCarthy did it again!  Here is her latest masterpiece!  This is based on the book The Wide-Mouthed Frog

Math Websites:

http://www.mathplayground.com/games.html

The best games are:

Number Bonds 10

Jet Ski Addition

Another great math game is on the site below:

http://www.softschools.com/math/games/subtraction_games/

Language Arts Websites:

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

**Your child received a Ziploc bag with a monkey on it a few weeks ago. If you have not returned it, please do so that way I can send home a new book this week.

Updates

See you next year, February!  March, I want to remind you that spring starts this month. That is all. Thank you!

Do you think my pep talk will help bring on spring weather?

 Math:

In math, we are working on subtraction.  We did a fun activity called “Subtraction Smash”.  Students made 10 small balls with Play-Doh.  Next, they looked at a subtraction number sentence like 6-2.  They took 6 balls of Play-Doh, lined them up, and then smashed 2 balls.  The kiddos determined how many balls out of the 6 were not smashed.  That number was the difference. This was a concrete way for students to learn take-away.

We will also continue working on finding compliments of 10.  For example, if I have 8 of something, how many more do I need to make 10? 

In addition, we will solve missing number problems.  For example, 

8 + ___ = 10

7 + ___ = 11

6 - ___ = 3

Language Arts:

The new Lively Letters we are working on are /x/, /y/, /e/, and the long e sound.

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 –og, and –ob families. We will be reading books and poems with words that end in –og and -ob, we will make –og and -ob words with magnetic letters, we will practice writing words that end in –og and -ob on white boards, and we will take part in word family activities.

Writing:

In writing, we are working on writing longer stories.  Instead of writing one sentence, we are stretching our ideas to include a beginning, middle, and end. Last week, we read the book Froggy Gets Dressed.   We filled in a graphic organizer to sequence the events of the story.  Then, we wrote about our mornings and how we get ready for school from getting out of bed to arriving at school.

Sight Words:

This week we will focus on the sight words “so” and “look”.  “Look” is not on our kindergarten sight word list, but it is a common sight word in our grade level texts.

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 –og and -ob

Counting from 0-100 (with no errors)

Counting by 2s, and 5s

Use words like greater than and less than. 

Focus on subtraction using numbers up to 10.

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

Focus on ending sounds in words.   Play “I Spy” in the car.  Once your kindergartener guesses (for example “truck”) ask your kindergartner what the ending sound it.  Not the letter name, but the sound.

Play “Subtraction Smash” with your kindergartner (you need Play-Doh).

Mental math word problems:  If there are 3 buses in the parking lot, and 7 more drive in, how many buses are there altogether?

Backwards mental math: If the answer is 9, what could be the problem?  This is where you encourage your kindergartener to be creative and think of one way to break apart or decompose 9.  8 and 1 make 9, so the problem could be 8 + 1 =9.

Skip counting by 2s and 5s

Sounding out words out loud without writing them. For example parent says sound out "cat".  Student should say c-a-t. Sound out "so".  Student should say s-o. Sound out "look".  Student should say l-oo-k. Sound out "dog".  Student should say d-o-g.  Sound out "ship".  Student should say sh-i-p.

FYI:

If you haven’t noticed, our “Take Home Folder” are falling apart.  I kindly ask that you send in a sturdier folder with your child’s name on it.  I am trying my best to replace them, but I am running out fast.

RAZ-Kids

I know by now I seem like a broken record, but if you do not have accurately leveled books for your kindergartner at home to read independently, the books on RAZ-Kids are a great resource.  In addition, there are quizzes to take after reading the books.  It is a fun and effective resource if you give it a try.  As I’ve stated all year, it is critical for students to read on their independent levels.  If your computer has a microphone, your child can record his/her oral reading.  Then before the quiz, he/she can listen to their reading.  This helps to improve oral reading fluency.   

FYI: If you want your kindergartner to participate. 

Monday~ Wear red and white to celebrate Read Across America Day.

Wednesday~ Wear wacky clothing for Dr. Seuss’s book Wacky Wednesday.

Friday~ Wear Crazy Socks for Dr. Seuss’s book Fox  in Socks.

Lucky Family Project: Optional project due on Friday.  Here are some examples, but not limited to.

  

100th Day Party is Wednesday, February 11th!!!!!

Come to school dressed like you are 100 if you wish!!!

2 New Interactive Sight Word Games

http://www.fun4thebrain.com/English/popcornFinal.swf


http://www.k5learning.com/sites/all/files/sample_lessons/Basic%20Sight%20Words_Lk_V8_t1a/Basic%20Sight%20Words_Lk_V8_t1a.swf

If you find yourself bored...

It is official, we do not have school again tomorrow.  I thought I would link a video for those of you who would like to know what we are going to work on this week (if we actually get to go to school).  This video is all about decomposing numbers.  After you watch the video, you can make your own number bonds with paper plates.  In the main circle is the total number. In each of the arms are the numbers, that when put together, equal the total.  You can do this with Legos, cheerios, pennies, or whatever you have lying around your house.  Let me know what you think!  Email me pictures of it if you try it at home!  I'll post pictures of my son trying it tomorrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CZwy6hIBQg 

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.  

Updates

Burr!  It is bitterly cold outside. We couldn't go outside for recess today because the temperature was too cold.  The weather forecast for tomorrow isn't looking so good either.  I predict the kids will be playing indoors.  Below are some winter theme bulletin boards to get you in the spirit.  Thank you Mrs. McCarthy and your talented brother for creating the cutest Olaf bulletin board!

We read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  Afterwards, we graphed our favorite winter activities.  Finally, we wrote about our favorite winter activities using the sight words "I", "like" and "in".  Look closely, and you might be able to see your kindergartener's adorable face in the snowsuit!

We did want to build a snowman.  We took black & white pictures of ourselves and put them on snowman bodies.  Everyone walks by our room and giggles  at our boards.  So much fun!

________________________________________________________________________

This week in reading, we will delve deeper into characters.  Students will learn how to describe what characters look like and act like.  The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett is a great story to teach students about main character.  It is really important for students reading comprehension to describe characters during and after reading.

The sight words for the week are "on" and "can".  We will have fun rainbow writing the words, clapping the words, searching for the words in texts, and reading the words in a poem.  At home to help learn these words, kindergartners can look for sight words in books, on labels, and in store flyers. Here are some other fun ways to practice sight words at home.

Our new Lively Letters for the week are /l/, /r/ and /u/.  Every day we use the letter sounds we've learned to read CVC words (or consonant-vowel-consonant words).  Here are some words we read (these are actually "word families, or CVC words that end with the same two letters):

cat          hot
mat         pot
fat           not
pat          lot
bat          got
rat           dot



Just an FYI about RAZ-Kids:  I am waiting for the teacher login information for the AM class.  I should be sending the information home this week.  


In writing this week, we will focus on labeling our stories with beginning sounds and/or sounding out words.  Many kids are already doing this, but I thought we could use a more direct lesson on it so they begin labeling on their own without prompting.  We will label our Writer's Workshop stories and the gingerbread baby.  


Many fun activities are happening in math this week.  We will be playing subtraction games, working in our addition word problem books, playing math games, and matching numbers to sets.


This link will take you to a sight where you can watch how to play "Disappearing Train" at home.  We will not play until later on in the week, but you are welcome to try it with your kindergartner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2wse2QzhBc


Concepts for the Car ride:

• Practice same 2 ending sounds in words (-at, -it, -ot, -en)
• Oral addition stories
• Looking for objects that have similar shapes (this helps with sorting or categorizing)
• Take family members' names (for example "John").  Think of words that begin with each letter in the name.  J~ jelly, o~octopus, h~ hello, n~nose
• Discuss family holiday traditions (we share these in school)

FYI: We will visit the holiday shop on Friday.  If you are interested in your kindergartner purchasing gifts, please send in money.  You can also check prices online.

One More Tens Frame Game

This is similar to the tens frame game we play with cards in school.  Love this!
http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=75

Five Frame

Below is an interactive five frame game.  When you get to the sight, you may have to give it a minute.  I didn't think it was working at first, but then it appeared.  Make sure you have your volume up.  Your child can put the cursor over words so the text is read to them. Also, the activities vary in difficulty.  Make sure your child goes through all activities first.  Have fun!


Five Frame

DRA Correlation Chart

Here is a correlation chart to help you select books at your child's "just right" reading level.  We use the DRA, but you may find it easier to find books leveled alphabetically.

Thanks for Helping with the Thanksgiving Centers!

I want to thank Mrs. Gilmore, Mrs. Panesse, Mrs. Holmes, and Mrs. Wilhelm for helping out with our Thanksgiving centers. The kids seemed to enjoy the day, and it is always fun to have parents in the classroom.  We had fun making crafts and playing games.  Before we knew it, the day was over and it was time for dismissal.  

We are looking forward to more celebrations this year!

AM Kindergarten Volunteer

I am looking for one more parent volunteer to help with our Thanksgiving centers this Friday, November 21st.  The centers will go from 10:15-11:20.  Email me asap if you are interested!

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

STAR STUDENTS

Congratulations to 

Rosalie~ AM
Arjun~ PM