Week 20- Desert Habitat

This week, we kick off our Desert Animal and Habitat Project! Yippee! Students will be choosing their focus animals and forming small groups on Tuesday.  It is difficult to predict the exact pace a project will progress at, but it is possible that we may begin building our dioramas as early as next week. At last count, we had 12 shoe boxes, so we still need quite a few more. If you do not think you will be able to supply one for your child please let me know ASAP so I can reach out to other community members for assistance. Two families have sent in additional materials (Huge thank you!), but we could still really use more sandpaper, blue and green felt, and rocks. Thank you for your help with our project! As a Project Based Learning school, it is very important that we introduce our little ones to this concept.  It will expand each year and is an important part of how we learn at Oasis Academy. 

Our theme this week will be desert. Since we are moving into our research project, writing will look a bit different for the duration of this unit. We will be reading, writing, and building their dioramas with different focuses related to the animal they chose to study. This project will last for several weeks. As we get further into this project, and can make some timelines for finishing, please watch for an email about project presentations. This will be several weeks away.

We will be reading A Desert Habitat and will practice pulling facts out of the text to share with others. This book is rich with information and will help us learn about common desert weather, plants, and animals. This information will add to what students learn about their focus animal during our project.

We will also be reading The Three Javelinas, which is a southwestern retelling of the three little pigs. This allows us another great opportunity for comparing and contrasting fiction and nonfiction texts, as well as contrasting between two similar fiction texts.

We will be starting our shape unit in math this week. Our unit will begin with an exploration of 3D, solid shapes. We will be learning the names of these shapes that can be found all around us. Kindergartners love finding these shapes as everyday objects and using the new terms (a party hat is a cone, a tissue box is a rectangular prism, a can of soup is a cylinder). We will also be exploring some of their characteristics- like if they can roll, slide, and stack. We will also be learning about 2D, flat shapes as well. 

Valentine's Day is right around the corner. Please plan to purchase or make valentines cards for your child to share.  There is no need to address the Valentine to any child, just have your child sign the from section and they can pass them out without trying to match names. If they want to write something in the "To:" spot, please have them write friend, pal, or buddy. Thank you for your help. I am looking for volunteers to join us to run party stations. I could also use some help with a few supplies and prep. If you would like to volunteer to run a station, you would be responsible for overseeing a center activity with 4 kiddos at a time. We will be cycling through the stations at 15 minute intervals. All materials would be provided for you. Our party will be Wednesday, February 14th from 8:15-9:45.  

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

Math:
Remember, math should be done for 10 minutes each night. Time spent with the activities you got from Math Night is a great idea, too!
 

Monday- W.3 Spheres

Tuesday- W.4 Cubes

Wednesday- W.5 Cones

Thursday- W.6 Cylinders