Week 12: Goats

This week we are continuing to work on our retelling skills. We will continue to use these skills as we retell via acting out The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We will also be stretching this skill to use it to retell what we read about in nonfiction books. This requires us to really think about what an author wants us to be learning about. We will be using the informative book Goats are Great.

We will continue our work with syllables- the kiddos are becoming great at listening for and feeling these important word chunks. If you place your fist below your chin, you can feel your jaw bump your fist for each syllable in a word.

This week's featured Secret Story will be: Mama e. This is when Mama e hangs out at the end of a word and encourages a vowel to proudly speak up with their name, such as in words like "game", "home", and "fine".

We will be writing our own story about a troll. We will be focusing on including information about our characters, setting, problem, and solution. Students will get to share their stories with a student from Ms. Vaughn's class on Thursday!

In math, we will be extending our work with numbers 0-10 to include a focus on comparing amounts. This work is crucial to developing a strong foundational number sense.


Conferences are approaching. If you haven't yet signed up for a time slot, please do so at your earliest convenience.
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0c4babab23a4f94-fall 
To prepare for this important, but fast paced meeting, please begin to make a list of any questions, concerns, or even just things you want to comment on. We have so little time to talk about your child specifically I really want us to be able to maximize our time together. 

The winter holidays are also approaching. I am thinking that we will do activity centers for our celebration, much like we did for Halloween. These would take place on our last day before Winter Break, Thursday the 21st of December, 8:15 to 9:45. I could use some parents to run stations. I could also use some help gathering the following supplies:
* multicolored craft sticks (small)
* green SOLO style plastic cups
* glitter glue
* spangles/sequins
* pompoms
* shaving cream
I could also use a parent or two to whip up some Christmas/Winter themed sensory bins. 

HOMEWORK

Reading:
10 minutes each night. Reading can include reading stories, the poems in the binder, sight words, and working on alphabet sounds and letter names.

Math:
Remember, math should be done for 10 minutes.
 

Monday- G.1 Are there enough?

Tuesday - G.2 Fewer and more - compare by matching

Wednesday- G.3 Fewer and more - compare by counting

Thursday- G.4 Fewer and more - compare in a mixed group

Skills can be revisited and repeated to increase your child's automaticity.  

Week 11- Gratitude (and turkeys)

This is a week that we focus on being thankful for the amazing lives that we all live.  Fostering an attitude of thankfulness on a daily basis can make incredible benefits in each of our lives. Creating this attitude in our children can give them years of increased joy.  

In our read aloud, we will meet a fun pair of turkey brothers names Turk and Runt.  We will be adding another comprehension skill to our repertoire- retelling. This is a very important skill for students to develop.  We have some traffic light cues that help us remember to talk about the three parts of a story.

     Green: Beginning- This is where we meet our character and get to know them a little bit. We also take note of the setting.

     Yellow: Middle- This is where we often discover the character's problem. We slow down to think about the different ways the character tries to solve the problem and/or note how things may get worse before they get better. We are really thinking about the events that take place. (This is the meatiest part of the retell.)

     Red: Ending- This usually involves how the character's problem gets solved. Sometimes, there may be a cliffhanger left to leave the characters open to another adventure (story).

     We note character's feelings and actions throughout the story.

Last week, we learned the Secret Stories of th, sh, and ch. This week, we learn about the tricky sounds that er-ir-ur, ar, and ormake and the stories behind them.

In phonemic awareness, we will be introducing syllables.  Our children will listen for the syllables and be able to divide spoken words into syllables.  Additionally, they will be able to listen to words given in syllable form and blend the syllables to tell what the word is.  To introduce this concept we will use their names.

Our Kindergartners have been doing wonderful work on our very first PBL (Project Based Learning) project. This project has focused on getting to know our classmates, asking and answering questions, and sharing details that support their opinions. This week, they will be creating the posters that they will share with their classmates on Wednesday through a Community Share and the other Kindergarten class through a Gallery Walk on Thursday. I will be posting a slideshow of their finished products.

This week in math, students will be continuing their work with numbers 0-10. The concepts of one-more and especially one-less can be a bit difficult for our Kindergartners to become automatic with so spending a little extra time on them may be a good idea during homework.

As the end of our trimester nears, we will be conducting several assessments. 

Important Upcoming Dates: Fall Break- N0 school the week of November 20th  Conferences- December 8th (Friday)

HOMEWORK 
Please send in your decorated turkey.

Reading:
10 minutes each night. Reading can include reading stories, the poems in the binder, sight words, and working on alphabet sounds and letter names.

Math:
Remember, math should be done for 10 minutes.
Monday-C.12 Count one less - up to 10

Tuesday - C.13 One more and one less - up to 10

Wednesday- C.14 Count one more and one less - up to 10

Thursday- C.15 Count up - with numbers

Skills can be revisited and repeated to increase your child's automaticity. 

Week 10 - Veterans Day

This week our theme will be Veterans Day.  If you have a veteran in your family, please send in aphotocopied picture.  The kids love to see all of the men and women who are celebrated on this important patriotic holiday.  We will be using nonfiction books about Veterans Day to learn about the topic and the key details that informational books use to help us learn. We will also be reading about families who have members serving and the feelings they experience.

A couple of the comprehension skills we have been working on are Making Connections and Making Predictions. 
     Making Connections includes connecting what we are currently reading to:
* other texts we've read
* ourselves (feelings, experiences, opinions)
* the world around us (friends, family members, people of other cultures) 

     Making Predictions involves using the pictures we see and the words we hear to think about what a book is going to be about. We think about what might happen next in the story or the kinds of things I may learn from a nonfiction book. An important part of making a quality prediction is being able to tell other people why we are thinking what we are thinking.

 
While we have been writing and reading we have found that there are times our letters are not making the sounds we expect them to make. When this happens it is because there is a “grown up reading and writing secret” in action in that word. We are becoming such strong thinkers that we are ready to start learning some more of these “secret stories”! We have a special wall in our room that displays visual reminders of these tricky letters and what they sometimes do.

In writing, we will be continuing our work on answering questions about our opinions. last week, we wrote about our favorite holiday. This week we will be writing about sports and activities that we enjoy. 

In math, we are continuing our work on understanding and using numbers up to 10. This work includes thinking about quantities and using counting patterns. Counting in a descending order (10-0) is trickier than counting in an ascending order (0-10). This would be a great skill to reinforce with your child while cruising along in the car or waiting in checkout lines. Using fingers (or small objects) to match the number as it is being said reinforces understanding of changing quantities. There are many fun poems, songs, and books that reinforce these concepts in fun ways. We will be using the 10 in a Bed song this week, including acting it out and making our own set of stuffed animal pictures to use to model the corresponding amounts. 

Your child will be bringing home a card stock turkey. This is intended to be a family activity. Parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins, whoever is around and would enjoy joining in on the decorating- please do! It can be a valuable opportunity to exercise creativity as well as fine motor and cooperation skills. It is also just a fun time creating together. In addition to displaying them on our bulletin board, we will be sharing them with our classmates during one of our community circles.  Please send the completed turkey in by the 13th. I hope you enjoy this activity! It tends to be a favorite!

 

HOMEWORK

Reading:
10 minutes each night. Reading can include reading stories, the poems in the binder, sight words, and working on alphabet sounds and letter names.

Math:
Remember, math should be done for 10 minutes.
Monday- C.8 Represent numbers - up to 10

Tuesday - C.9 One more - up to 10

Wednesday- C.10 Count one more - up to 10

Thursday- C.11 One less - up to 10

Skills can be revisited and repeated to increase your child's automaticity.