February 20-24
Popcorn words: had, bad, and, get. We talked about the short a vowel sound and short e sound by reading some easy reader books that the Kindergarteners got to bring home. We have been HUGE jumps with learning our sight words!
President’s Day: We started our week by celebrating President’s Day on Monday. We learned about President Lincoln and President Washington and why we celebrate them. The students received their own easy readers and also got write with a quill/feather (what the presidents used to write) and sort coins.
Math: In math this week we focused on groups that were greater than or less than. We were also introduced to math mountains and tiny tumblers, using them as another way to show partners. We brought out the number tiles and bears this week to play the unknown partner game, working on number partners for 7- we would hide some of the tools from our partner so they could determine the missing partner! Such as 1 and 6, 3 and 4, etc. Friday was a fun math game day!!! We reviewed our math concepts of the week together! We do more exploring in Chapter 4 next week.
Writer’s Workshop: This week we created our first how-to booklet together as we wrote the steps to make a sight word bottle shaker! The water bottles worked out perfectly this week, thanks for sending them in! First we took our word list words and wrote them on colored paper, next we put them inside our bottles, last we added colorful beads, confetti and pom poms to finally shake it up and read! They brought these home this week! We then got to start a booklet all by ourselves of something we know how to do and can teach others! The kinders did a great job of independently planning and writing the steps to their book! We used transitional words, first, then, last to tell our steps in order. We used capital letters to begin our step and a period to end our sentences. We also checked for spaces in between our words. I was so proud of my how-to book writers! We will take Monday and Tuesday next week to wrap up and celebrate how-to’s! Then we will begin non-fiction writing on Wednesday! This is a popular genre of writing in kindergarten!
Reader’s Workshop: This week we learned about a new reading strategy buddy, Picturing Penguin. Picturing Penguin teaches us to picture the words that we are reading in our mind. We practiced this all week by listening to a read-aloud where I wouldn’t show the pictures right away. We had to make a picture in our mind of what we thought it might look like and the compared it to what the illustrator drew. They are becoming amazing readers!! I am so proud of them!!!
New Play Station: For free choice time we have a new station set up where we can use our imaginations to play post office…we can mail letters, write letters, sell stamps, etc. It has been a BIG hit this week!
Mystery Reader: On Friday, Kaitlyn lit up when her Nana, Grandpa and Mom walked into the classroom! Her Nana and Grandpa traveled from across the state to surprise her!!! It was a BIG surprise! She read us a sweet story and then stayed around to get to know our classroom a little better! Thanks!!
Handwriting: The kinders have completed all their letters upper and lowercase in their Handwriting without Tears books with proper formation! These books will come home this week for your reference! Feel free to finish any pages your child may have missed when they were gone or ones we skipped over! We will be reviewing and practicing writing all our letters without looking this week to prepare for a letter writing assessment of upper and lowercase letters! They’re doing great! Look for our practice sheets to come home to look over!
Birthday Celebration: We celebrated Brinley on Friday!!! She turned 6 officially on Saturday! I hope she had a special day! We loved celebrating with her Friday by enjoying these delicious bakery sprinkle cupcakes with gumballs on top!! What a special treat! Thanks Brinley!! Yum!!!
Upcoming Dates:
- Monday, Feb. 27…Steam, BRING TAKE HOME BOOK,
- Tuesday, Feb. 28…PE, Library, BRING LIBRARY BOOK. Literacy Homework Due- Hot Cocco Mugs!!!! Turn in for a treat!!!
- Wednesday, March 1…Music, BRING TAKE HOME BOOK and WORD LIST and Math Homework and New Literacy Homework to come home this Wed.
- Thursday, March 2…Art, BRING TAKE HOME BOOK. Dress Dr. Seuss-ish!!! – Wear Red, white and black or dress like your favorite character!!! Dr. Seuss’ B-Day!!
- Friday, March 3…Steam.
- Friday, March 10…Early Release Day – 12:15 p.m.
- Monday, March 13 – Wednesday, March 15…PT Conferences.
- Friday, March 17…Wear Green, St. Patrick’s Day.
- Thursday, March 30…All K P.J. Day!! Wear your P.J.’s or comfies!!
More pics of the week…
