Popcorn Words:  had, bad, and.  We noticed how had and bad both have the same endings, ad.  And is a popcorn word that we already knew because we see it so often.

Theme of the week:  Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  This theme helped us explore more about bears in our informational writing and non-fiction reading about bears.

Math:  We have been continuing on our work in Unit 4.  We explored partners of 10.  Also, we became math magicians and were able to find unknown partners of 5, 6 and 7.  The Kindergarteners worked with partners to play this game and did a great job!  We also got to know the Tiny Tumblers who live at the top of math mountains.  We explored different math mountains using yummy smarties.  We had fun telling stories about the math mountains and how some of them tumbled down one side and the rest tumbled down the other side.  These math mountains help us explore addition and find partners that make up numbers.  We ended the week with exploring 3-D and 2-D shapes. 3-D shapes that will continue to explore are cylinders, cubes, cones and spheres.

Reader’s Workshop:  This week we started our Non-fiction reading.  We are exploring what Non-fiction authors write about and the details they use to tell about the topics.  We have found table of contents, important facts and have discovered that authors teach us new information about topics.  We explored Grizzly Bears this week.  All of the Kindergarteners have added to their book boxes now having non-fiction books to read during our Reader’s Workshop time.

Writer’s Workshop:  We are focusing on Informational Writing.  The Kindergarteners have explored our facts that we found on Grizzly Bears and put the information together into a chart.  We put these facts into a can, have and are chart.  Then we took this information and put it into pages on what bears can, have and are.  We will continue to explore these facts more next week and continue being informational writers.

Split Lit. Groups:  We are continuing to build on our pre-reading and reading skills.  Additional sight words have started to be sent home with each student.  Some of these words are the same as our popcorn words.  These words are what your child practices during our split lit. group time and with extra practice will help them master more sight words.  As your child masters these words at school they will bring home new sight words to practice.  We also started to explore retelling a story.  We retold the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  The Kindergarteners retold the story across their fingers and completed a worksheet using pictures.

5th Grade Buddies:  We got together with our 5th grade buddies on Friday.  We enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and got to play with them on their playground! We were all smiles as we got to slide down snow mountains together!

Spring Book Fair:  This week we will get a chance to preview the books at the book fair.  We will have a chance to buy books on Thursday, March 13 from 12:30-1:00.  If you are interested in having your child buy books please send in money on Thursday or before.

Conferences:  Thank you so much for attending conferences!  It was great to get a chance to share your child’s progress with you.

Mystery Reader and Landon’s Birthday: Happy 6th Birthday on Friday to Landon! He brought us very special, fun treat bags and we loved making the day extra special for him! Mrs. Jones came to surprise Landon as the mystery reader! It was a fun celebratory Friday, hope your enjoying your birthday weekend!

Upcoming Dates:

• Saturday, March 8….Daylight Savings…turn your clocks forward one hour.
• Monday, March 10…All School Pajama Day!  Wear your P.J.’s to school!
• Tuesday, March 11…Spring Book Fair Preview Day
• Thursday, March 13…Spring Book Fair BUY Day
• Friday, April 4 – 11…Spring Break…NO SCHOOL
• Thursday, May 15…Outdoor Discovery Field Trip (More information later)