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.