27 | October | 2013 | Ms. Yankee's Blog

Color of the Week: Orange

Popcorn words: we and will

Reading Workshop: This week we continued working on our retell! We had fun reading The Lady Old Lady who Swallowed a Bat and the The Little Old Lady who Swallowed some Leaves . We worked on orally retelling the story by recalling all the things the lady swallowed. On Friday, we used our skills to sequence all the things she swallowed in order. Hopefully they share a retell with you at home!

Writing Workshop: I am so proud of my young writers!!! We turn on our classical thinking music and get right to work on our stories! We get out our writing folders. This week the students added a red dot to one side when their story is completely finished and a green dot to their other pocket that needed to still be worked on. This week we were introduced to three page writing booklets. We worked on telling a story in order- first, next last, to stretch it over several pages. Along with the booklets we really focused in on “How do I write a story? “ First, think about a small moment story idea that has happened to you. Next, picture the story in your mind. After that, say the story- either to a partner or to your paper. Then sketch your story over your booklet. Finally, write, working to add labels and a sentence to match your picture. The students did fantastic following all these steps! I can’t wait to share their writing progress with you at our conference.

Math: This week in Math we continued working on using our” fast five fingers” and making number partners to make numbers 6-10. We also made family math stories. For example, there are 3 boys and 1 girl at our kitchen table. How many children are there in all?

Split Lit: Assessments have begun in preparation for parent teacher conferences. The kinders are being assessed on skills that they have been working on in small groups for the past weeks…letter identification and letter sounds, rhyming words, phonemic skills and sight words. I can’t wait to share their progress with you.

Mystery Reader: Our mystery reader was Mrs. deWilde (Lexi’s mom). She read a fun book, Worray for Wodney Wat, a book about a rat that was teased for not being able to produce his “r’s”. This book had a great message! Thanks for coming to share it with us!

Highlights: Marco’s Pizza Lunch– We had so much fun dining together for pizza Friday! See our fun pictures below! Special thanks to Mrs. Dirkse, Mrs. Burgess, Mrs. Bromley, and, Mrs. Clockman for donating some great sides to our special lunch together!!!!

5th Grade Buddies: It was our week with our buddies on Friday! We had tons of fun reading and coloring our, Five Little Pumpkins books together. Then our buddies read a book to us. We had so much fun we weren’t ready to say goodbye when the time was up!

Class Meeting: We continued to meet this week to discuss the parts of the brain and how each part effects our learning. Ask us about these parts, were getting really good at naming them! We also started a great discussion of being a mindful (ready to learn, respectful, responsible, etc.) vs. unmindful learner this week. We will continue to meet as a class to discuss how we can be mindful learners all year long!

Upcoming Dates:

Monday, Oct. 28…Turkey Trot. They’re welcome to wear their shirts to school on Monday! I will be there to cheer my runners on!
Thursday, Oct. 31...9:45-10:00 Kindergarten parade…10:00-11:00 Kindergarten Fall Party. Kindergarteners may come to school in their costumes and stay in their costumes all day on Thursday, Oct. 31. If you would like your child to change out of their costume please send a change of clothes with them. Please also keep in mind that we have gym Thursday and they need to be able to participate, props and parts of their costume may need to be removed. As a reminder there are no costumes allowed that are gory (blood, etc.) or any weapons of any kind. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Friday, Nov. 1...No School for Students.
Monday, Nov. 4-Wednesday, Nov. 6.….Conferences. Your students brought home Conference slips, please let me know asap if you have any complications with the time or if you have any questions. Can’t wait to share the progress of your Kindergartener!!